Geeks in Space: The Age of Aquarius
Artist's concept of the Aquarius/SAC-D spacecraft, a collaboration between NASA and Argentina's space agency, with participation from Brazil, Canada, France and Italy. Aquarius, the NASA-built primary instrument on the spacecraft, will take NASA's first space-based measurements of ocean surface salinity, a key missing variable in satellite observations of Earth that links ocean circulation, the global balance of freshwater and climate. The mission is scheduled to launch in June. Image credit: NASA
Today, NASA is preparing to launch the Aquarius/SAC-D spacecraft aboard a Delta II rocket. The Aquarius mission will study the salinity levels of the Earth’s oceans in an effort to predict the effects of climate change. Aquarius will provide critical data on how the massive exchange of freshwater between the ocean, atmosphere and sea ice influences ocean circulation, weather and climate.
In the past, this information was provided by direct sampling during the summer and limited to the shipping lanes. Aquarius will be able to measure the surface salinity for the next three years and provide more data during its first three months of its mission than has been gathered by hand for the past 125 years.
Aquarius/SAC-D is a collaboration between NASA and Argentina’s space agency, Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE), with participation from Brazil, Canada, France and Italy. The Aquarius instrument was jointly built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD.
Voyager Keeps Going Where No One Has Gone Before
Just when it seems that the end of the Solar System has been reached, Voyager is still managing to surprise scientists. And this time, the news is a doozy.
After travelling nine billion miles from Earth, Voyager has encountered a realm of magnetic bubbles at the edge of our Solar System. “The Voyager probes appear to have entered a strange realm of frothy magnetic bubbles,” says astronomer Merav Opher of Boston University. “This is very surprising.” These bubbles are also very large, approximately 100 million miles wide, roughly the distance between the Earth and the sun or one AU.
It took scientists a while to understand what the probes were travelling through simply because they had no idea the Sun’s magnetic field could extend so far out into space. Previous theories regarding the magnetic field predicted that it would curve around in gentle arcs and eventually refold back toward the sun. This new data shows that these bubbles at the edge are self-contained and disconnected from the broader magnetic field. Hence, the fields of bubbles, where the lines of magnetic force criss-cross and reconnect to each other.
The probes are now in the area of the Solar System called the heliosheath, the border between the Solar System and the rest of the Milky Way galaxy. It is also where galactic cosmic rays, subatomic particles rushing through the galaxy at near-light speeds caused by black holes and supernova explosions, enter our Solar System. “The magnetic bubbles could be our first line of defense against cosmic rays,” points out Opher. “We haven’t figured out yet if this is a good thing or not.” If the bubbles are porous they would allow cosmic rays through the gaps or, on the other hand, cosmic rays could get trapped inside the bubbles, which would be a very good thing. “We’ll probably discover which is correct as the Voyagers proceed deeper into the froth and learn more about its organization,” says Opher. “This is just the beginning, and I predict more surprises ahead.”
Have a great week, and if you’re in the right time zone, check out the lunar eclipse on June 15th.
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