Carnival of Space #432

The Carnival has come to town! The Everyday Spacer blog town anyway. We help you find out about the healing rocks (Fog on Mars), what lies beyond Pluto, and a meteor shower on Mercury(?).

Sounds like an interesting Carnival this week!

What are you waiting for? It’s right here…

Data From Spirit Rover Provides Evidence for Acid Fog on Ancient Mars
Paul Scott Anderson | Planetaria

The various rover and lander missions on Mars have provided unprecedented glimpses into the planet’s past, including geological history and environmental conditions. In many ways, ancient Mars was similar to Earth, with abundant water and volcanic activity. Now, new research has revealed that there was also another related Earth-like phenomenon: acid fog.

The new findings come from studies of data from the Spirit rover, which ceased operating in 2010 but sent back an enormous amount of information which will keep scientists busy for many years to come. The findings were presented yesterday, Nov. 2, in…

New Horizons Conducts Final Course Correction for New Year’s Day Flyby of Next KBO in 2019
Paul Scott Anderson | Planetaria

After having completed a wildly successful flyby of Pluto and its moons, the New Horizons spacecraft was given a new target, much farther out in the Kuiper Belt, a smaller space rock called 2014 MU69. Starting on Oct. 22, New Horizons was instructed to perform the first of four targeting maneuvers, which would be needed to guide the spacecraft toward its destination. Now, the fourth maneuver has been successfully completed, putting New Horizons firmly on the path for a January 2019 rendezvous with 2014 MU69.

“This is another milestone in the life of an already successful mission that’s returning exciting new data every day,” said Curt Niebur, New Horizons program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “These course adjustments preserve the option of…”

MESSENGER Spies a Meteor Shower… on Mercury
David Dickson | Universe Today

Leonid meteor storms. Taurid meteor swarms. Earth is no stranger to meteor showers, that’s for sure. Now, it turns out that the planet Mercury may experience periodic meteor showers as well.

The news of extraterrestrial meteor showers on Mercury came out of the annual Meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society currently underway this week in National Harbor, Maryland. The study was carried out by Rosemary Killen of NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center, working with Matthew Burger of Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland and Apostolos Christou from the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland. The study looked at…

Possible Ice Volcanoes Discovered on Pluto
Ken Kremer | Universe Today

The possible discovery of a pair of recently erupting ice volcanoes on Pluto are among the unexpected “astounding” findings just unveiled by perplexed scientists with NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, barely four months after the historic first flyby of the last unexplored planet in our solar system.

“Nothing like this has been seen in the deep outer solar system,” said Jeffrey Moore, New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team leader from NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, as the results so far were announced at…

Mars’ Moon Phobos Undergoing ‘Structural Failure’
Nancy Atkinson | Universe Today

We’ve said it before: Mars’ moon Phobos is doomed. But a new study indicates it might be worse than we thought.

One of the most striking features we see on images of Phobos is the parallel sets of grooves on the moon’s surface. They were originally thought to be…

More Than Meets the Eye: Delta Orionis in Orion’s Belt
Megan Watzke, CXC | Chandra X-Ray Observatory Blog

One of the most recognizable constellations in the sky is Orion, the Hunter. Among Orion’s best-known features is the “belt,” consisting of three bright stars in a line, each of which can be seen without a telescope.

The westernmost star in Orion’s belt is known officially as Delta Orionis. (Since it has been observed for centuries by sky-watchers around the world, it also goes by many other names in various cultures, like “Mintaka”.) Modern astronomers know that Delta Orionis is not simply one single star, but rather it is…

ASU 2015-10
Lunar and Planetary Institute

Ten NASA press release images, selected by ASU, have been added to the Lunar and Planetary Insitute’s Flickr page. Images and captions of Mars, Pluto, Charon, Titan, and Enceladus.

So far, so good. If we get another submission or two, we’ll update this post.

Watch for the Carnival of Space #433 appearing on the Photos to Space blog by Joe Latrell in the very near future!

Photo Credit: Coachella