When the ESO cleans and reconditions a mirror, they don’t fool around.

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UPDATE:  SOLVED at 1221 CDT by Curt!

Today is the last chance to solve a riddle and be eligible to compete in the bonus riddle, Monday the 15th.  Today’s riddle is pretty tame, so get your guesses in quick.

Image: Frank Kulasek

Today’s riddle subject is an event.

It occurred in recent history.

While the event was occurring, it was not known what was happening.

What actually did happen is still debated in some circles.

Image: slemkeatpb on PhotoBucket

This event has happened before.

It will happen again.

This event is well-represented in modern literature, TV shows, and songs.

Although there is significant scientific interest in modern times, at the time it occurred there was very little.

Okay, that should get it.  Today’s winner will be the last one eligible for the bonus riddle, so give it a SWAG even if you’re not sure of the answer.  Today’s winner will still pick the subject of my next post, but it will be up Tuesday instead of Monday.

Good luck!

Lurking... lurking

A radar survey finds glacial ice (shown in blue) at mid-latitudes on Mars. The colors are explained below. Image: MRO

The MRO radar spots what is apparently  glacial ice on Mars at the mid-latitudes.   The site doesn’t give the timeline for the radar survey, I’d like to know if the ice persists during the Martian summer, since they call it glacial I can only assume it does. Yeah, I know where assuming gets me.  Pretty interesting none-the-less.

From the MRO site:

A radar on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has detected widespread deposits of glacial ice in the mid-latitudes of Mars.

This map of a region known as Deuteronilus Mensae, in the northern hemisphere, shows locations of the detected ice deposits in blue. The yellow lines indicate ground tracks of the radar observations from multiple orbits of the spacecraft.

The ice, up to 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) thick, is found adjacent to steep cliffs and hillsides, where rocky debris from slopes covers and protects the ice from sublimation into the atmosphere.

The base map of this image is shaded relief topography obtained by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter on NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor. The image is centered at 42.2 degrees north latitude and 24.7 degrees east longitude. It covers an area 1050 kilometers by 775 kilometers (650 miles by 481 miles).

The Shallow Radar instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was provided by the Italian Space Agency. Its operations are led by the University of Rome and its data are analyzed by a joint U.S.-Italian science team. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the spacecraft development and integration contractor for the project and built the spacecraft.

Little Helene. Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Here’s one of the small moons of Saturn we don’t get to see too much of, named Helene.   Helene is pretty small as moons go, only 20 miles across.   Cassini did a pass at just a bit more than 1,300 miles and that is about as close as the spacecraft has come to the little moon.  The moon is a little off center,  it’s not easy getting these shots sometimes.  The moon appears very bright because it is bathed in reflected light from Saturn.  There are other images, but they need to be processed by the Cassini team before they can be used, you can see them in the raw images section of the Cassini site (linked below), and you will understand what I am talking about.  I included an image from 2007 which you can see by clicking the image above AND there is going to be another flyby in April so hopefully the angles will be better. Still a good picture though.

Anyways, Helene is notable because it is what is known as a Trojan moon, meaning it is gravitationally tied to a larger moon, in this case, Dione, and Helene stays 60 degrees (400,000km/250,000 miles) ahead of the larger moon.

One of the big questions is:  how did this moon come to be gravitationally tied to Dione, maybe it blown off another in an impact.  Another is: is the moon’s leading edge coated with material from the “E” ring.

Have a look at the press release here.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

The Cosmic Bat in Orion. Click for a larger version. Image credit: ESO

From ESO:

The Cosmic Bat The delicate nebula NGC 1788, located in a dark and often neglected corner of the Orion constellation, is revealed in a new and finely nuanced image that ESO is releasing today. Although this ghostly cloud is rather isolated from Orion’s bright stars, the latter’s powerful winds and light have had a strong impact on the nebula, forging its shape and making it home to a multitude of infant suns.

As the caption says NGC 1788 is in the constellation or Orion. If you were to neglect the Great Orion Nebula, Orion is still a fabulous place to poke around with a telescope.

I’ve spent many hours cruising around. The number of double and triple star systems is pretty amazing. I will admit to never seeing this particular feature, it’s rather small and not actually “inside” the figure of Orion, besides the brightest star in nebula is a magnitude 10, not exactly dim for a telescope but it doesn’t stand out like a triple hot blue star system either.

I may try and find it though and it’s really pretty easy to find. Just go from Rigel not quite half way to the lowest star in the shield, and to the right of 28-Eta Orionis.  Yeah, that’s right, just above the Witchhead nebula (another reflection nebula).

Want a desktop of this? Head on over to the ESO site.

Don’t forget to participate in the GAN project (click the GAN banner to the right).

Coming up on the 15th, we have the bonus riddle.  Tom and I are working on that now, but we have the prize ready to ship out to the winner.

The Universe, Season 4 DVD collector’s set will be sure to keep you glued to your seat.  The episodes are interesting, with appeal to a wide range of educational backgrounds and age groups.  The graphics are well done; I didn’t once roll my eyes and mutter, “Yeah, right.”  The 12 episodes are divided 3 per disc, with extra’s on the 4th disc.

The episodes deal with a good mix of subjects, some close to home (“10 Ways To Destroy The Earth”), and some not (“Death Stars”).  They are easy to follow, even when dealing with some complex topics (Pulsars & Quasars”).

I can see these DVDs working equally well in the home or classroom.  The 4 DVDs are in individual cases, so it’s easy to find a specific episode and go right to it.  I think you’ll find it hard not to sit and watch all 12 episodes at once.  I did.

So, get ready to rumble on March 15th, and solve the bonus riddle.  We have one more “regular” riddle to go (on the 13th); one last chance to be eligible for the bonus riddle and a shot at winning The Universe Season 4 DVD set.

By the way, the set I reviewed is NOT the set we’ll be mailing out as a prize!