Universe Today

March 23, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Former Astronaut To Take Social Media to New Heights

Scott Parazynski during his attempt to climb Mt. Everest. Credit: OnOrbit.com

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In 2008, astronaut Scott Parazynski came within 24 hours of reaching the summit of Mt. Everest when a painful back injury forced him to abandon his climb. Now, Parazynski is on his way back for another attempt at summitting the world’s highest mountain peak. But this time, he wants to take the rest of the world with him. If everything works as planned, Parazynski will blog, podcast, vodcast and more during the climb, and he even wants to Twitter from the summit. “I want to tell the story of exploration here on Earth and the corollaries it has with space exploration,” Parazynski told Universe Today before he left for Kathmandu, Nepal. “They are both very hostile, unforgiving environments that require a lot of training, a lot of gear, and a lot of thought. The intent is to share the story with as many people as we can, particularly young people.” Parazynski and his team have even agreed to take questions from readers of Universe Today and answer them during their climb.

Parazynski has teamed up with the Challenger Centers for Space Science Education and the Boy Scouts of America to offer educational activities in association with his trek, and is working with various scientists to do field science along the way.

“We’ll be collecting data for astrobiologists, looking for extremophile life,” Parazynski said. “If you understand how extremophiles live, you might be able to understand how life may have once evolved on Mars, or may still exist on Mars.”

As an astronaut, Parazynski was part of 5 space shuttle missions; his last mission to the International Space Station included a daring repair of the ISS’s solar panels.

Parazynski will also be testing some NASA-derived hardware, taking along a prototype lunar geology camera and other hardware for extreme environments. “Up high on the mountain there are limestone formations, which are wonderful places to look for fossilized life,” he said,” and we’ll also look for melt water and primitive forms of life there; algae lichens, etc. If liquid water exists even for brief periods on Mars it may be in similar conditions to what we’ll find on Mt. Everest. We hope to bring samples back for scientists to look at.”

To help Parazynski, he has enlisted the help of a couple of “media sherpas;” Keith Cowing from NASAWatch and Miles O’Brien, former CNN correspondent. Cowing will definitely be at the base camp, coordinating the media blitz, while O’Brien is still working out his schedule, but hopes to be there as well.

“Scott has the chance to something interesting and wants to share it with as many people as possible,” said Cowing. “This is participatory exploration, where we’ll bring as many people as possible to where we’re going. This is enabled by high end internet connection capable of streaming video. The idea is to open up a vista of participation to a very large audience.”

Cowing said they will have access to email to answer as many questions as possible, and Universe Today will be one of the venues supplying questions from readers. “We’ll be Twittering, videocasting, podcasting, Skyping, emailing, SMSing, blogging , you name it. We’re using every gizmo we’ve got and every avenue of interaction with people, giving them the opportunity to see what it’s like to live in a tent at 17,600 feet.”

The entire expedition will take between 6 -10 weeks, depending on the weather and health of the climbers. Parazyski said it will take several weeks just for the climbers’ bodies to acclimate to the decreased amount of oxygen at those heights. The peak of Mount Everest is 8,848 meters (29,028 feet) above sea level. “We’ll be going up and down to get body used to the conditions,” he said. “Essentially what happens, you need to increase your body’s oxygen carrying capacity, and grow more red blood cells. Your blood chemistry changes to enable you to exchange oxygen more efficiently and that just takes time.” Parazynski, an MD, will be the official physician for the group.

The Discovery Channel will also be part of the climb, with hopes of creating a documentary of the expedition for their “Everest: Beyond the Limits” series. Cameras will be mounted on the climbers to take video of the experience.

Parazynski is part of a team of 23 climbers. Another team will also be part of the climb, and there will be an additional 20 or 30 climbers to help create the documentary.

The climb officially starts in early May. You can follow the climb via OnOrbit.com/Everest. Parazynski’s whereabouts can also be followed on Google Earth, via his SPOT, a GPS location and message device, which is a commercial sponsor of the climb. The expedition is completely privately funded.

Parazynski is now a “former” NASA astronaut. He announced two weeks ago that he left NASA to work in private industry, at Wyle Labs in Houston. “I had a wonderful experience in the role of astronaut, but now it’s time to pursue other opportunities.”

One other hope for this expedition is to have people participating both on this Earth and off. “If the stars align and everything works just right, we hope to have a satellite phone call between our group and the Hubble repair space shuttle mission,” Parazynski said. Of course, that would depend on if the Hubble mission launches during Parazynski’s climb.

Despite Parazynski’s wish to share his experience with the world, he admits there’s also a strong personal element to this climb. “I went almost the entire way last year and came within 24 hours of summitting,” he said. “It is something I’ve thought of and dreamt about every day since I left the mountain last May, wondering what that last 24 hours will be like, and what it will be like to complete one of the great aspirationa of my entire life.”

Follow OnOrbit.com/Everest for complete coverage. You can follow Parazynski’s Twitter feed, too, SPOTScott, and the OnOrbit Everest Twitter feed. We’ll post regular updates here on Universe Today, along with reminders to submit questions for Parazynski, Cowing and O’Brien by posting your questions in the comments section.

March 23, 2009December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

What Are Volcanoes?

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Volcanoes are mountains. But unlike most mountains in the world, formed from folding continental plates, uplift and erosion, volcanoes are created when material from inside the Earth escapes to the surface. Let’s answer the question, “what are volcanoes”.

As you probably know, the ground you’re standing on is the Earth’s crust. It varies in depth between 10 km under the oceans and 30 km beneath the continental plates. Beneath the crust is a vast region called the Earth’s mantle. The mantle is made up of molten rock called magma. At the boundaries between continental plates, volcanic vents can open up, where magma and gasses from inside the Earth can escape.

When it’s still underground, the molten rock is called magma. Although most of the Earth’s mantle is solid, it can create pockets of liquid which escape from underneath through weaknesses in the Earth’s crust. After it escapes to the surface, it’s called lava. Lava has different levels of viscosity – how easily it flows downhill. The least viscous (easy flowing) lava creates shield volcanoes. The lava can flow for great distances in huge rivers, and creates wide volcanoes with gently sloping sides. The most viscous (thickest) lava piles up around the volcanic vent created the familiar cone-shaped volcanoes.

The simplest volcanoes where a single vent breaks through a weakness in the crust, releasing lava, ash and rocks. After being blasted out of the vent, it piles up around on the surface, allowing the volcano to grow up quickly. Some of the largest, most familiar volcanoes are composite, or stratovolcanoes. These are built up of multiple layers of ash and lava, and can have vast networks of vents.

The word volcano comes from the island of Vulcano in the Mediterranean Sea off Sicily. Ancient people thought that this island was the chimney of the forge of Vulcan, the Roman god of blacksmithing.

We have written many articles about volcanoes for Universe Today. Here’s an article about the biggest volcano on Earth, and here’s one about the tallest volcano.

Want more resources on the Earth? Here’s a link to NASA’s Human Spaceflight page, and here’s NASA’s Visible Earth.

We have also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast about Earth, as part of our tour through the Solar System – Episode 51: Earth.

March 23, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Colbert Wins ISS Naming Contest

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NASA obviously underestimated the awesome power of the Colbert. In an online contest to name a new module for the International Space Station, NASA suggested a few names, but then provided the possibility for write-in suggestions. Comedian Stephen Colbert won in a landslide, beating out NASA’s obvious top suggestion, Serenity by over 40,000 votes. But NASA has not said if they will heed the public’s wishes. Nearly 1.2 million votes were cast when the voting ended last Friday. Colbert has been in the lead for some time, and a few weeks ago NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space Operations Bill Gerstenmaier joined Colbert on his Comedy Central show to address the possibility of actually naming the module. “Will you now commit to naming that module Colbert if I win your online vote?” Colbert asked Gerstenmaier.

“Well, we’re going to have to go think about that as we get all the votes and we see where we are,” Gerstenmaier responded. See the video below:

The Colbert Report

Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Space Module: Colbert – William Gerstenmaier

comedycentral.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Mark Sanford

NASA said it reserves the right to choose an appropriate name. Agency spokesman John Yembrick said NASA will decide in April, but will give top vote-getters “the most consideration.”

Colbert urged viewers of his Comedy Central show, “The Colbert Report” to write in his name. Colbert received 230,539 votes.

He said “Serenity” is not a name for a space station module, but for an air freshener.

Serenity took 70% of votes for NASA’s suggested names, with Legacy, Earthrise and Venture getting just a small percentage of the votes. NASA has said contests like this one are a way to get the public involved with space exploration.

Anyone want to place bets on what the module’s name will actually be?

For more information about the Node 3 module, read our original post about the naming contest.

Source: MSNBC, NASA

March 23, 2009December 24, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Most Active Volcanoes

Most volcanoes are dormant. They erupted millions of years ago, but then the Earth’s plate tectonics closed the vent or caused it to drift away. But some volcanoes are still active and erupt on a regular basis. Here are a list of the most active volcanoes in the world.

The most active volcano on Earth is Kilauea volcano on Hawaii. It’s the most recent of a series of volcanoes that created the Hawaiian archipelago of islands. They formed as a string of islands because the Pacific plate is slowly moving over the Hawaii hotspot. That’s why the islands of Kauai and Oahu are no longer active, but Kilauea is. This volcano only rises 1,247 meters above sea level, but it’s still growing. 90% of the surface of Kilauea is less than 1,100 years old, and there were 45 eruptions of the volcano in the 20th century alone. Even in 2008, there were explosive eruptions from Kilauea.

The second most active volcano in the world is Mount Etna, a composite volcano on the east coast of Sicily. It’s the largest active volcano in Europe, with an altitude of 3,329 meters. It’s in an almost constant state of eruption, but despite this, its flanks support extensive vineyards and orchards. Over the last few thousand years, it has experienced many eruptions. Ash from its eruptions have been found as far away as Rome, 800 km away. There are more than 300 volcanic vents across Mount Etna, ranging in size from small holes to massive craters, hundreds of meters across.

The third most active volcano is Piton de la Fournaise, which is French for the “Peak of the Furnace”. This is a shield volcano on the eastern side of Renunion island in the Indian Ocean. It has erupted in 2006, 2007 and in 2008 – with more than 150 eruptions since the 17th century. Piton de la Fournaise is referred locally as “le Volcan”, and stands at a height of 2,631 meters tall. It has many craters and cinder cones inside the volcano’s caldera and around its outer flanks.

We have written many articles about volcanoes for Universe Today. Here’s an article about how the dinosaurs might have been killed by both volcanoes and asteroids, and how they helped slow the ocean warming trend.

Want more resources on the Earth? Here’s a link to NASA’s Human Spaceflight page, and here’s NASA’s Visible Earth.

We have also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast about Earth, as part of our tour through the Solar System – Episode 51: Earth.

References:
USGS Volcanoes Page: Kilauea
NASA Earth Observatory
USGS Volcanoes Page: Piton de la Fournaise

March 23, 2009January 24, 2021 by Fraser Cain

Universe Today Turns 10

Hey everyone, I just wanted to inform you of a little anniversary. I started up Universe Today exactly 10 years ago today, on March 23rd, 1999. Since very few of you know the actual story of Universe Today, I thought I’d regale you with it on this 10-year anniversary.

I was living in Vancouver at the time, working as a project manager in an Internet company. We were helping clients develop websites, but I felt that I didn’t have enough personal experience developing and maintaining a website to really give good advice. I was thinking I should run a website on the side about a topic I was passionate about… but what subject?

On one business trip I stopped at a Barnes and Nobles, browsed through the books section and picked up The Case for Mars by Bob Zubrin, and Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan – I gobbled them up, front to back in a single sitting. I had always been interested in space and astronomy, and was out every clear night as a teenager with my 4″ telescope. I realized that this was the topic that I was most interested in, and I was excited enough about the subject matter that I could keep the website going with my busy job and total lack of spare time.

I started brainstorming domain names; unfortunately space.com was taken. I started mashing together spacey names with other words, and then checked to see what was available. In the end, Universe + Today was open, so I went with that. I hacked together a site with my terrible HTML skills and even worse graphic abilities, but I knew that the purpose of the site would be the articles updated on a daily basis.

Here’s a link to the Wayback Machine to show you what the site used to look like. And here’s a link to the first article, reposted in WordPress.

My goal for Universe Today was to teach myself about space and astronomy… by teaching others. Each day I went though all of the breaking news, wrote a quick summary, and then linked out to the originating sources. And this was how things went for years and years. Over time, I learned more and more about space and astronomy, and was able to put this knowledge back into the website. I covered lunar eclipses live, interviewed astronomers and astronauts, and eventually learned how to write longer and better articles.

The website’s traffic and number of subscribers continued to grow. About 3 years ago, the advertising revenue from Google and other advertisers was enough that I could work on Universe Today full time – thanks to a hardworking wife who understands that we need to do what we love to be truly happy (she works in a toy store). Over the last few years, I brought on a team of writers to help get the news out faster and better than what I was doing alone. I’m indebted to Nancy, Ian, Nick, Tammy, Mark, and our newest team member, Anne.

10 years from when I started Universe Today, we’ve now got almost 45,000 RSS subscribers, and receive close to 2 million page views a month. I’m able to pick the brains of an astrophysicist twice a week with our Astronomy Cast podcast. I’ve met professional astronomers, astronauts, and Nobel laureates. I’m a member of a wonderful community of space bloggers, and call many of them my best friends.

It’s funny how a hobby can turn into so much more.

Who knows where we’ll all be in 10 more years? I know what I’ll be doing, though – working on Universe Today; covering the New Horizons close encounter with Pluto, the launch and first images from the James Webb Space Telescope, and reporting on astronauts returning to the Moon.

I can’t wait to tell you all about it.

March 23, 2009December 24, 2015 by Anne Minard

Moonshadows on Saturn’s Rings Are Harbingers of Spring

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Moonshadows on Saturn’s rings are foretelling the planet’s equinox, when the sun will be exactly aligned with the planet’s equator and rings — and then will shift north from the southern hemisphere, kickstarting northern spring.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has captured, for the first time, the tell-tale moonshadows – sort of like groundhogs on Earth.

moonshadow2 — Click to play the short movie. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

The image above is a still from a movie, from Cassini’s hour-long observation of the shadow of the small moon Epimetheus.

Like Earth and most of the other planets, Saturn’s spin axis is tilted relative to its motion around the sun. So the sun, seen from Saturn, cycles from the southern hemisphere to the north and back again. A full sweep of seasonal changes on Saturn and its rings and moons takes a Saturnian year, equal to 29.5 Earth years. Thus, about every 15 Earth years, or half-Saturn-year, the sun passes through the plane containing the planet’s rings.

During these times, the shadows of the planet’s rings fall in the equatorial region on the planet. And the shadows of Saturn’s moons external to the rings, especially those whose orbits are inclined with respect to the equator, begin to intersect the planet’s rings. When this occurs, the equinox period has essentially begun, and any vertical protuberances within the rings, including small embedded moons and narrow vertical warps in the rings, will also cast shadows on the rings. At exactly the moment of equinox, the shadows of the rings on the planet will be confined to a thin line around Saturn’s equator and the rings themselves will go dark, being illuminated only on their edge. The next equinox on Saturn, when the sun will pass from south to north, is Aug. 11, 2009.

Because of these unique illumination circumstances, Cassini imaging scientists have been eager to observe the planet and its rings around the time of equinox. Cassini’s first extended mission, which began on July 1, 2008, was intended to gather observations during this time. Hence its name: Cassini Equinox Mission.

More than just pretty pictures, the observations could reveal any deviations across the rings from a perfectly flat wafer-like disk. Saturn’s ring system is wide, spanning hundreds of thousands of miles or kilometers. But the main inner rings (called A, B and C) are perhaps only 10 meters (30 feet) thick, and they are sometimes obscured from view inside thicker outer rings.

“We hope that such images will help us measure any vertical warping in the A and B rings,” said John Weiss, an imaging team associate from the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “Because we know how big the moons are, and where they are in their orbits around Saturn when they cast these shadows, we have all the information we need to infer any substantial vertical structure that might be present.”

On Jan. 8, Epimetheus, a small moon 113 kilometers (70 miles) across, was the first moon observed casting a shadow onto the outer edge of the A ring. Next Pan, 30 kilometers (20 miles) across and orbiting within the rings, was caught casting a shadow on the A ring on Feb. 12. Eventually, more moons will cast shadows on the rings and all shadows will grow longer as exact equinox approaches.

Source: Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS)

March 23, 2009December 24, 2015 by Anne Minard

Why Space Hates Our Bones (and what we can do about it)

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Think it might be fun to live in space? Better ask your bones.

Earth’s space agencies have tackled some of the major obstacles to living in space, with pressurized spacesuits that offset the deadly vacuum and deflect incoming solar and cosmic rays. But in the absence of gravity, astronauts aboard the International Space Station are still losing up to 10 times more bone mass than most Earth-bound post-menopausal women.

In an attempt to address this bone loss, University of Washington researchers found 22 volunteers for a study using bed rest as an analog of spaceflight. The current crop of volunteers are halfway through their commitment to remain in bed, in a six-degree, head-down tilt position for 84 days. The study subjects are still sane, and already, results are promising.

subject — Photo courtesy of Peter Cavanagh, University of Washington

Surprisingly, it’s not necessarily students who are answering the call. Volunteers must be at least 22 years old, so the results apply to the age range of people most likely to be astronauts.

The head-down tilt mimics many of the physiological adaptations astronauts experience during spaceflight, such as bodily fluid shifts toward the head. The bed rest confinement mimics the complete “unloading” of the musculoskeletal system that astronauts feel as they float through space due to the lack of gravity, which accelerates bone loss.

Study leader Peter Cavanagh, a University of Washington professor of orthopaedics and sports medicine, said the volunteers have to be raised to a standing position at the end of their terms very slowly, “because they are very likely to faint” until the heart regains its ability to push blood to the brain. Sometimes, he said, volunteers feel pain in the bottoms of their feet when they finally put them down, and have trouble navigating corners while walking.

“They feel sort of generally weak,” Cavanagh said. “We put them through two weeks of rehab, and we buy them a membership at the health club for another month.”

In that respect, the study volunteers’ experience is similar to that of astronauts returning from long bouts in space. But for half the study subjects, there is a key difference — it’s in their stride.

Half of the study participants perform individually prescribed intermittent treadmill exercise similar to workouts by astronauts in space – but with one important difference: they are pulled towards the treadmill surface by a harness applying greater force than what the research team has previously measured during walking and running on the International Space Station treadmill.

The results from the first half of the study are “extremely promising,” Cavanagh said. Of the five study subjects so far who have been assigned to the exercise group, bone loss in four of them has been prevented in important skeletal regions by the treadmill exercise countermeasure, while the six non-exercising control subject participants all lost bone mass.

“We have found that we can, on average, prevent bone loss in an important region of the hip with this intervention,” Cavanagh said. “No bed rest study ever before has accomplished this.”

Cavanagh said the study results will impact bone health in space by improving exercise prescriptions for astronauts on future space missions. Here on Earth, the work could help scientists understand how individualized exercise programs affect age- and gender-related osteoporosis.

As for the volunteers, the study leaders encourage them to “achieve something special,” Cavanagh said. “Some tried to learn Spanish. We had others who were preparing for exams, and doing things they would have difficulty doing if they led their life with the typical distractions.”

Cavanagh said the study subjects are kept busy with tests during the week, but the weekends can be difficult.

The volunteers make around $8 an hour, but they’re working 24 hours a day.

“One of my most satisfying moments,” Cavanagh said, “is handing them a $12,000 check at the end.”

Source: University of Washington and Peter Cavanagh

Added 3/24: See an interview with study participant Tabitha Garcia at author Anne Minard’s blog.

March 23, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

STS-119 Gallery: The Mission So Far

Astronaut Richard Arnold during the mission's first spacewalk. Credit: NASA

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The STS-119 mission to the International Space Station has provided some spectacular images during the crew’s activities to add the final solar array to the station. The image above shows astronaut Ricky Arnold — one of two Educator Astronauts on this mission– during the first EVA, where he and fellow spacewalker Steve Swanson (a.k.a. “Swanny”) outfitted the new truss to enable it to supply more power to the ISS. But hey, why are there no stars in this image?! The same reason there are no stars in pictures from the Apollo missions to the moon: the brightness of the foreground objects (astronaut, parts of the ISS, and even the bright Earth) doesn’t allow the camera aperture to be open long enough to capture the light from the stars. If the camera was set to record the stars, Ricky Arnold would be washed out white and featureless. (Take that Moon Hoaxers!) Enjoy more wonderful images from the mission below:

The ISS's CanadArm 2 carries the S6 truss segment. Credit: NASA

Here, on the day after the shuttle arrived at the ISS, the S6 truss was moved from shuttle Discovery’s payload bay to its location on the end of the ISS’s truss structure by the station’s Canadarm2. Also visible in the image are the Columbus laboratory, starboard truss and solar array panels.

Steve Swanson during the first EVA. Credit: NASA

Here’s another great EVA image, this time showing Steve Swanson during the second spacewalk of the STS-119 mission. During the EVA, the two spacewalkers plugged in power and data connectors to the newly installed S6 truss, prepared a radiator to cool it, opened boxes containing the new solar arrays and deployed the Beta Gimbal Assemblies containing masts that support the solar arrays.

Astronaut Steve Swanson during the second EVA. Credit: NASA

Hang on Swanny! Astronaut Steve Swanson appears to be dangling from the ISS’s Kibo Laboratory, during the second EVA of the STS-119 mission. During this spacewalk, Swanson and Joe Acaba successfully installed a second Global Positioning Satellite antenna on Kibo that will be used for the planned rendezvous of the Japanese HTV cargo ship in September. But they had trouble with a jammed locking pin that was installed backwards, preventing a stowed space station cargo carrier from fully deploying and locking into place. They also ran into problems re-configuring a wiring panel because of a stuck connector. NASA hopes to continue work on the problematic objects during the third and final spacewalk today (Monday).

Astronauts enjoy a meal on the ISS. Credit: NASA

With all that hard work, eating regularly is important on a space mission. Crewmembers on the International Space Station share a meal in the Zvezda Service Module. Pictured (from the left) are cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov, Expedition 18 flight engineer; NASA astronaut Sandra Magnus, STS-119 mission specialist; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Koichi Wakata, Expedition 18 flight engineer; and NASA astronaut John Phillips, STS-119 mission specialist.

Lee Archambault and Tony Antonelli shake hands after a successful launch. Credit: NASA

The STS-119 crew endured several delays for the launch of their mission, so when they finally reached space it had to be exciting — plus a relief to finally get the mission underway. With their shuttle launch and entry suits still on, astronauts Lee Archambault (left), STS-119 commander; and Tony Antonelli, pilot, shake hands on the middeck of Space Shuttle Discovery during postlaunch activities.

A beautiful night-time launch took place at 7:43 p.m. (EDT) on March 15, 2009 from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The great thing about night launches are that they are visible for incredibly long distances. Below are a couple of pictures of the launch taken by amateur photographers:

STS-119 launch. Credit: Arthur M. Stevens

This image was taken by Arthur M. Stevens, who used a digital camera. The picture was taken from Port Richey Florida, which is on the Gulf Coast 15 miles north of St. Petersburg. Check out more of Art’s images at his website, Art’s Astronomy Network.

STS-119 launch. Credit: Maynard Pittendreigh

This STS-119 launch image was taken by Dr. Maynard Pittendreigh, who has been a life-long and very active amateur astronomer. This image was taken from Fort Meyers Beach in Florida.

Thanks to Arthur Stevens and Maynard Pittendreigh for sharing their images!

For more NASA images of the STS-119 flight, check out NASA’s gallery.

March 23, 2009December 24, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Alaska’s Redoubt Volcano Erupts with Several Explosions

Redoubt volcano crater showing rapidly melting glacier and enlarged "ice piston" feature. Picture Date: March 21, 2009 Image Creator: Cyrus Read, Image courtesy of AVO/USGS.

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Overnight, Alaska’s Redoubt volcano erupted with five large explosions. The National Weather Service has issued an Ashfall Advisory, with light ashfall already reported in some regions. Located about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, Redoubt’s last eruption occurred in 1989-1990, causing widespread mudfalls or “lahars” and coated Anchorage and other nearby areas with ash. The ash affected air traffic as far south as Texas. Redoubt’s 3,108-meter (10,197-foot) peak has been belching steam for several weeks, with seismologists anticipating a possible eruption. Visible evidence of increased volcanic activity appeared at the alaska volcano summit from late January through February. Holes appeared in the ice, and streams of melt water cut across the surface of the Drift Glacier on Redoubt’s north flank.

The four explosions were recorded at 10:38 pm and 11:02 pm local time on March 22, and then at 2:14 am, 1:39 am and 4:37 am local time on March 23.

An Ashfall Advisory for the Susitna Valley means that all will likely be deposited there, and residents are advised to seal windows and doors, protect electronics and cover air intakes and open water supplies.

Redoubt on Feb. 10, 2009. Formosat image © 2009 Dr. Cheng-Chien Liu, National Cheng-Kung University, and Dr. An-Ming Wu, National Space Organization, Taiwan

On January 24, 2008, the Alaska Volcano Observatory reported a pronounced increase in the number and intensity of tremors underneath Redoubt Volcano. Scientists at the observatory interpreted the seismic activity as a sign of unrest, and they raised the possibility of an eruption occurring in the near future. Shallow tremors This image, acquired by the Formosat-2 satellite on February 10, 2009, shows some signs of current activity, as well as evidence of past eruptions. Redoubt’s 3,108-meter (10,197-foot) summit is near image center, casting a deep shadow on the volcano’s crater. Buried under ice are two lava domes, formed during eruptions in 1966 and 1990. Dark holes in the northward-flowing Drift Glacier were formed where hot magma heated rocks underlying the ice. Crevasses on the steeply dropping glacier are also visible. The 6,000-foot hole is a pit in the snow caused by volcanic activity. On February 26, 2009, the Alaska Volcano Observatory observed a small lahar—an avalanche of volcanic matter—flowing from the 6,000-foot hole.

Source: Alaska Volcano Observatory, NASA’s Earth Observatory

March 22, 2009December 29, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Carnival of Space #95

This week the Carnival of Space moves to Orbital Hub.

Click here to read the Carnival of Space #95

And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past carnivals of space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry to [email protected], and the next host will link to it. It will help get awareness out there about your writing, help you meet others in the space community – and community is what blogging is all about. And if you really want to help out, let Fraser know if you can be a host, and he’ll schedule you into the calendar.

Finally, if you run a space-related blog, please post a link to the Carnival of Space. Help us get the word out.