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Gabrielle, George F. (KSC-ISC-4011)[URS Federal Technical Services, Inc.] george.f.gabrielle at nasa.gov
Fri Jul 31 12:51:38 CDT 2015


Good morning all,
I hope you have had a wonderful week and are enjoying the rest of your “summer vacation”. Some of the teachers are going back on Monday, which seems so unreal, then the kids return on the 10th....I often think what it must be like to start with a new group of kids each year, the process of figuring out who really wants to learn, their abilities, personalities, how to mold them into a group who you have to teach equally and at the same pace....certainly so challenging with so many variables....you do it year after year so I guess you have it kinda down but still think the kids are never the same so each year must present different challenges... Tonight is a “blue moon” which means it is the second full moon in the same month...I saw it last night, it was so beautiful...I hope you can catch it tonight as it should be even more spectacular....wishing you all a wonderful weekend, of course one day at a time...we have to remember to always do our best, enjoy everything we do, live in the present, make each day special, let those we care about most know, keep things in perspective.....smile & have fun....gabe
Nation’s first operational satellite in deep space reaches final orbit
More than 100 days after it launched, NOAA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite has reached its orbit position about one million miles from Earth. Once final instrument checks are completed, DSCOVR, which will provide improved measurements of solar wind conditions to enhance NOAA’s ability to warn of potentially harmful solar activity, will be the nation’s first operational space weather satellite in deep space. Its orbit between Earth and the sun is at a location called the Lagrange point 1, or L1, which gives DSCOVR a unique vantage point to see the Earth and sun.
Africa is front and center in this image of Earth taken by a NASA camera on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite. The image, taken July 6 from a vantage point one million miles from Earth, was one of the first taken by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC).Central Europe is toward the top of the image with the Sahara Desert to the south, showing the Nile River flowing to the Mediterranean Sea through Egypt. The photographic-quality color image was generated by combining three separate images of the entire Earth taken a few minutes apart. The camera takes a series of 10 images using different narrowband filters -- from ultraviolet to near infrared -- to produce a variety of science products. The red, green and blue channel images are used in these Earth images. The DSCOVR mission is a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Air Force, with the primary objective to maintain the nation’s real-time solar wind monitoring capabilities, which are critical to the accuracy and lead time of space weather alerts and forecasts from NOAA.DSCOVR was launched in February to its planned orbit at the first Lagrange point or L1, about one million miles from Earth toward the sun. It’s from that unique vantage point that the EPIC instrument is acquiring images of the entire sunlit face of Earth. Data from EPIC will be used to measure ozone and aerosol levels in Earth’s atmosphere, cloud height, vegetation properties and a variety of other features.

[cid:image003.jpg at 01D0CB98.04F07780]



NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth
To give you an idea of how far away this is....it is 1,400 light years away.....one light year equals 6 trillion (6,000,000,000,000 miles) or 10 trillion (10,000,000,000,000 kilometers). Pluto is 3 billion miles (3,000,000,000) 5 billion kilometers (5,000,000,000) away with the fastest ship we have ever launched, it took 10 years to get to Pluto....doing the math it comes out to roughly 28,000,000 (million) years to get there.....travelling at 30,000 MPH; 50,000 KPH...


July 23, 2015
RELEASE 15-156
NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth
[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/side_image/public/thumbnails/image/452b_artistconcept_comparisonwithearth.jpg]

This artist's concept compares Earth (left) to the new planet, called Kepler-452b, which is about 60 percent larger in diameter.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle
Read more...<http://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/earths-bigger-older-cousin-artistic-concept>


[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/side_image/public/thumbnails/image/452b_system_comparison.jpg]

This size and scale of the Kepler-452 system compared alongside the Kepler-186 system and the solar system. Kepler-186 is a miniature solar system that would fit entirely inside the orbit of Mercury.

Credits: NASA/JPL-CalTech/R. Hurt
Read more...<http://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/kepler-452-and-the-solar-system>


[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/side_image/public/thumbnails/image/fig10-new_kepler_planet_cand.jpg]

There are 4,696 planet candidates now known with the release of the seventh Kepler planet candidate catalog - an increase of 521 since the release of the previous catalog in January 2015.

Credits: NASA/W. Stenzel
Read more...<http://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/kepler-planet-candidates-july-2015>


[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/side_image/public/thumbnails/image/fig6-surfacetemperaturevsenergy.gif]

Since Kepler launched in 2009, twelve planets less than twice the size of Earth have been discovered in the habitable zones of their stars.

Credits: NASA/N. Batalha and W. Stenzel
Read more...<http://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/twelve-new-small-kepler-habitable-zone-candidates>


[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/side_image/public/thumbnails/image/452b_artistconcept_beautyshot.jpg]

This artist's concept depicts one possible appearance of the planet Kepler-452b, the first near-Earth-size world to be found in the habitable zone of star that is similar to our sun.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle
Read more...<http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/soaking-up-the-rays-of-a-sun-like-star-artistic-concept>


NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another “Earth.”

The newly discovered Kepler-452b is the smallest planet to date discovered orbiting in the habitable zone -- the area around a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet -- of a G2-type star, like our sun. The confirmation of Kepler-452b brings the total number of confirmed planets to 1,030.

"On the 20th anniversary year of the discovery that proved other suns host planets, the Kepler exoplanet explorer has discovered a planet and star which most closely resemble the Earth and our Sun," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “This exciting result brings us one step closer to finding an Earth 2.0."Kepler-452b is 60 percent larger in diameter than Earth and is considered a super-Earth-size planet. While its mass and composition are not yet determined, previous research suggests that planets the size of Kepler-452b have a good chance of being rocky. While Kepler-452b is larger than Earth, its 385-day orbit is only 5 percent longer. The planet is 5 percent farther from its parent star Kepler-452 than Earth is from the Sun. Kepler-452 is 6 billion years old, 1.5 billion years older than our sun, has the same temperature, and is 20 percent brighter and has a diameter 10 percent larger. “We can think of Kepler-452b as an older, bigger cousin<http://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/earths-bigger-older-cousin-briefing-materials> to Earth, providing an opportunity to understand and reflect upon Earth’s evolving environment," said Jon Jenkins, Kepler data analysis lead at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, who led the team that discovered Kepler-452b. "It’s awe-inspiring to consider that this planet has spent 6 billion years in the habitable zone of its star; longer than Earth. That’s substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet. “To help confirm the finding and better determine the properties of the Kepler-452 system, the team conducted ground-based observations at the University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory, the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona, and the W. M. Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. These measurements were key for the researchers to confirm the planetary nature of Kepler-452b, to refine the size and brightness of its host star and to better pin down the size of the planet and its orbit. The Kepler-452 system is located 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. The research paper reporting this finding has been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal. In addition to confirming Kepler-452b, the Kepler team has increased the number of new exoplanet candidates by 521 from their analysis of observations conducted from May 2009 to May 2013, raising the number of planet candidates detected by the Kepler mission to 4,696. Candidates require follow-up observations and analysis to verify they are actual planets. Twelve of the new planet candidates have diameters between one to two times that of Earth, and orbit in their star's habitable zone. Of these, nine orbit stars that are similar to our sun in size and temperature. “We’ve been able to fully automate our process of identifying planet candidates, which means we can finally assess every transit signal in the entire Kepler dataset quickly and uniformly,” said Jeff Coughlin, Kepler scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, who led the analysis of a new candidate catalog. “This gives astronomers a statistically sound population of planet candidates to accurately determine the number of small, possibly rocky planets like Earth in our Milky Way galaxy. “These findings, presented in the seventh Kepler Candidate Catalog, will be submitted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. These findings are derived from data publically available on the NASA Exoplanet Archive<http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/index.html>.Scientists now are producing the last catalog based on the original Kepler mission’s four-year data set. The final analysis will be conducted using sophisticated software that is increasingly sensitive to the tiny telltale signatures of Earth-size planets. Ames manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. For more information about the Kepler mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/kepler






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