A Banner Conference

 

While twitter is going somewhat crazy over Jake's videos, especially the gravity wave one, this one is my favourite, not only for the patterns in the clouds, but also for the shadow cast on the foothills of Mt Sharp. While this development was the most unexpected success of the group at this year's LPSC, it was far from the only event that made this a conference to remember.

I've just returned from 2017's Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) held this year, as every year, in the Woodlands, Texas. No matter which way you cut it, this year's conference was a tremendous success for PVL. That's not hyperbole, despite the fact that LPSC holds a special place in my own Planetary Science Education (the 2004 edition was where I realized that I wanted to be a planetary scientist) and it's an excuse to spend a week in 25C+ weather in the middle of March and meet up with old friends from graduate school.

There were a few things we knew coming in would make this year a banner year and a few surprises that heightened the experience.

Another Good Omen?

The launch plume from MSL's Atlas-V. The input of water vapor into the normally dry mesosphere (at altitudes of around 80km) causes very high ice-water clouds known as "noctilucent" clouds to form. We contemplate the shapes we see in the sky and like the ancient Romans, trying to read auspices, we hope to glean the relevance to our own future of such ephemeral and changing patterns.

On the morning of November 26, as we were boarding our busses to head to the MSL Launch viewing area near the VAB, the brilliant sunrise lit up the light, misty rain we had passed through on the causeway over towards cape canaveral. The refraction through the particles generated a vivid rainbow which seemed to touch the ground in the general direction of pad 41, where the Atlas-V rocket that MSL would ride on its way to Mars was being prepared for departure. We took it as a good omen, and a few hours later, everything went right with the launch.

Springtime for Mars

It's that time of year again! The days are getting longer, the temperature is getting higher and there's a breeze in the air as the dry ice is evaporating away. Layers of terrain, stable for millenia are beginning to collapse in avalanches:

Hi-Rise catches the start of "Avalanche Season" on Mars.

Fog on Mars

One of the things about Martian Surface Missions that appeals so much to me is how no other place in the solar system is so distant, yet so familiar and comprehensible on a human scale. Other places make your imagination run wild. Underneath the ice of Europa? Skimming the rings of Saturn? Standing on distant Pluto? They make for great art, and we can picture the locations, but their appeal is mostly intellectual, not guttural. But what about Mars? Exotic? Yes. But still it remains within the realm of places that feel familiar, where we could picture ourselves sitting and watching a sunset in person:

The sun setting over the columbia hills in Gusev Crater, Mars. If the sunset weren't blue, we could easily mistake this scene for one shot on Earth, say in Morocco or the Gobi Desert, or perhaps even the badlands of Alberta.

A Year at York

I've just completed my first three days at Western, and it seems like a good time to reflect back on the year of working at York. I should mention first that I will not be disappearing entirely from York. Since I will be continuing to live in Toronto, and will be periodically travelling back and forth to London, the good folks at York have been kind enough to offer me a place to hang my hat while I am in Toronto. As such, my activities with the York University Observatory will continue, though they will be scaled back compared to what they were before my move.

A Night at the RASC

UPDATE: PDF of the Talk Slides are available here!

Last night I had the opportunity to give a guest lecture at the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's Annual General Meeting in Toronto at the Ontario Science Centre. For 45 minutes (and then some with questions!), we talked about the exploration of our solar system by robotic spacecraft over the last 50 years. In my talk I made some comparisons to the earlier era of maritime discovery which lasted from the mid 1400s up until the early 1700s. Later, in lieu of the upcoming Planetary Decadal Survey, to be released in March of 2011, I discussed some of the big questions that we're on the verge of answering and what exploration by spacecraft might look like in the next 50 years.

Planetary Scientist, now at York University

So, I can now confirm that I have joined York University in the department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering. I have now been working for Jim Whiteway for almost two weeks on the water cycle of the Martian Arctic.

I've got to say, it feels good to be back working in Planetary Science. This topic in particular is of great interest to me, as my PhD dissertation subject was also the martian arctic, specifically, how the sun interacts with ice and dust there to provide places where organic molecules or even life could persist, and the larger problem of determining how much water is available. This is a big problem, as water is a key component for life as we know it.

However, the interactions of water vapor and the martian surface are strange from the perspective of the terrestrial climate scientist. Clouds forming close to the surface have many characteristics of cirrus clouds on the earth, as seen by Lidar analysis. But they look for all the world like convective cells:



Animate This Image to see martian clouds forming by condensing onto rising dust!

[Animation created by the author from images taken by the Surface Stereo Imager on sol 112 of the Phoenix Mision. Credit: JPL/NASA/Texas A&M University/University of Arizona. The image contains information from both the blue and red filters and has been enhanced, hence the stretched colour]

The regolith is also so dry that it sops up water like a sponge and inhibits the movement of vapor. This effectively cuts off the interaction between the atmospheric water vapor and the ice table, just a few centimeters below the surface.

Do all these inputs come together to form a habitable environment? And what do the results of the Phoenix mission have to say about the amount of water stored below the surface? This information is critical for any future mission to Mars, especially any manned mission.

I've got a year to find out, as my contract runs until December 2010. We're going to run some numeric simulations, do some lab experiments and maybe even visit a Mars Analogue site. With a little luck I'll have some interesting stuff to share with you all here and next year at DPS or AGU!

It's good to be back!

* Note, if you liked the animation above, drop by my website, http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jmoores/photos.htm for a look at all the animations of the atmosphere taken with the SSI over the course of the Phoenix Mission looking straight up (Zenith) or outwards, just above the horizon (SupraHorizon). You can see the falling snow, along with several different types of cloud, and interesting billows of dust. Happy hunting!