Taxonomy term

harvey leifert

Deep Space Network

Messages from Juno and other spacecraft in the far reaches of the solar system are relayed to scientists via NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), which was created in 1958. DSN consists of three sets of powerful radio antennae spaced about 120 degrees longitude apart around the world near Barstow, Calif., Canberra, Australia, and Madrid, Spain. The complexes are all situated in bowl-shaped terrain in semi-mountainous rural areas to minimize interference from external radio waves. As Earth rotates, at least one of the DSN antennae is pointed toward the spacecraft at all times. Communications via DSN begin and end at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the system.

11 Mar 2019

Citizen science (and art)

Juno carries a visible light camera, JunoCam, which is intended primarily to take photos that, it’s hoped, will provoke public interest in Jupiter. The images sent back are available for anyone to download and manipulate for scientific or artistic purposes. Thousands of images, both raw and manipulated, have been made available for viewing, and hundreds of citizen scientists have been engaged in the project. Scientists say they are delighted at how JunoCam has resonated and increased interest in, and understanding of, the Juno mission. See www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam.

11 Mar 2019

Juno unveils Jupiter's secrets

NASA’s Juno mission launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Aug. 5, 2011, and arrived at Jupiter nearly five years later, having traveled 2.8 billion kilometers. Since then, Juno has made a plethora of new discoveries, upturning much of what we thought we knew about the gas giant. What else could it reveal?

11 Mar 2019

Voyager 2 pierces the heliopause, enters interstellar space

On Nov. 5, 2018, Voyager 2 became the second spacecraft to enter interstellar space, as it passed through the heliosphere’s outer limit, known as the heliopause, NASA announced at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting in Washington, D.C., on Monday. The spacecraft’s twin, Voyager 1, made history as the first man-made object to depart the heliosphere in 2012. Reaching interstellar space is an extraordinary feat for spacecraft that have been traveling for more than 41 years.

11 Dec 2018

Science as a family affair

All five children in the Weiss family of Huntington Beach, Calif., have presented their research at American Geophysical Union (AGU) meetings. AGU’s Bright Students Training as Research Scientists (Bright STaRS) program — as well as the mentorship of their science teacher and the support of their parents — made it possible.
11 Sep 2018

Ceres: A bright spot in the asteroid belt

Orbiting in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Ceres is the nearest dwarf planet to Earth and the only one within the inner solar system. It has been studied closely by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft since March 2015.

28 Mar 2018

Dividing line: The past, present and future of the 100th Meridian

In 1878, John Wesley Powell first advanced the idea that the climatic boundary between the United States’ humid East and arid West lay along the 100th meridian, which
runs from pole to pole and, today, cuts through six U.S. states. But what does it really mean, and what is its future?
22 Jan 2018

Climate change linked to specific weather events for the first time

Three extreme weather events that occurred in 2016 would not have been possible in Earth’s pre-industrial climate, according to the sixth annual report on the attribution of extreme weather events issued Dec. 13 by NOAA and the American Meteorological Society (AMS). This marks the first time that researchers have concluded that a specific weather event would not have been possible without the influence of humans.

14 Dec 2017

An undersea volcano yields its secrets

One of the world’s most active volcanoes has been seen by only a handful of humans, because it lies about 1.5 kilometers below the surface of the Pacific Ocean and 470 kilometers west of the Oregon-Washington border. Nevertheless, the Axial Seamount on the Juan de Fuca Ridge is one of the best studied of all volcanoes, thanks to the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), a global network of seven arrays consisting of more than 800 instruments.

19 Dec 2016