This handout photo, released Tuesday, shows a healthy adult pale grass blue butterfly (top) and a mutated variety (bottom). Severe mutations were found in butterflies collected near Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
By Arata Yamamoto, NBC News
TOKYO -- Researchers in Japan have found signs of mutation in butterflies, signaling one of the first indications of change to the local ecosystem as a result of last year's nuclear accident in Fukushima, according to one of the first studies on the genetic effects of the incident.
Joji Otaki from the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, who led the research, collected 144 commonly-found pale grass blue butterflies two months after the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
Initial results indicated that roughly 12 percent of the butterflies showed signs of abnormalities, such as disfigurement in their antennas, smaller-sized wings, change in color patterns and indented eyes, Otaki said.
Even more alarming, when he collected another 238 samples six months later he found that those abnormalities had increased to 28 percent and the mutations had doubled to 52 percent in their offspring.
To see the effects of internal exposure to radiation, unaffected clean butterflies were also fed cesium-coated leaves collected from Fukushima. The result was a reduction in the size of those butterflies, as well as a lower survival rate.
The Fukushima disaster occurred after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake knocked out a power line at the plant and generated a tsunami that flooded the facility's emergency generators, destroying the plant's cooling system. Catastrophic meltdowns occurred in three reactors, releasing radiation that has tainted the surrounding environment.
Five nuclear plants in total suffered some level of damage from the earthquake and tsunami; all but Fukushima Dai-ichi were shut down safely.
'Something has gone wrong' Otaki, who has been studying these butterflies for 10 years to analyze the effects of global warming, said that butterflies are the best environmental indicators because they are widely found in almost any environment.
"But since we've seen these effects on butterflies, it’s easy to imagine that it would also have affected other species as well. It’s pretty clear that something has gone wrong with the ecosystem,” he said.
However, at the same time, he also warns that because each species’ sensitivity to radiation varies, it was too early to immediately apply these finding to humans.
But what is clear, said Otaki, is that the genetic changes found in these butterflies indicate a disruption in Fukushima's ecosystem and that more study is needed to learn the full scope of the effects of the radiation released into the environment.
"Effects of low level radiation is genetically transferred through generation, which suggests genetic damage. I think it’s clear that we see the effects passed on through generations," Otaki added.
The California-based company reported that the 14.4-foot-high (4.4-meter-high) spacecraft and its more than 1,300 pounds (620 kilograms) of cargo were in good shape, despite its plunge from the International Space Station. On the way down, the Dragon weathered re-entry temperatures in excess of 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 degrees Celsius). At a height of 40,000 feet, the Dragon started deploying its parachutes and drifted into the Pacific, about 560 miles west of Baja California. A recovery team got to the craft, towed it to the ship and used a crane to hoist it aboard, as planned.
SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham told me that a few items will be delivered to NASA officials with a 48-hour turnaround, as a demonstration of the procedure for returning time-sensitive cargo from orbit. But the Dragon itself and most of its payload will be taking a slower ride to the port of Los Angeles. Arrival is expected around June 6, depending on weather.
From California, the craft and cargo will be trucked to SpaceX's rocket test facility in MacGregor, Texas, for postflight processing. Then the cargo will be turned over to NASA.
The handover of the Dragon's contents will be the last item to check off on NASA's list of requirements. That should clear the way for a $1.6 billion series of 12 Dragon cargo flights, with the first launch probably scheduled sometime in September.
NASA and SpaceX released a slew of awesome pictures and video documenting the Dragon's return, via SpaceX's Zenfolio gallery as well as NASA's Flickr and YouTube accounts. Here's a selection:
NASA
SpaceX's Dragon cargo craft begins its descent on Thursday after its release by the International Space Station's Canadarm2 robotic arm, visible at top center.
During the re-entry of SpaceX's Dragon capsule, NASA and the United States Navy flew a P-3 Orion Cast Glance aircraft to capture airborne views of the spacecraft's descent. The aircraft, based at the Navy's VX-30 squadron at the Naval Air Station Point Mugu, Calif., was able to record Dragon's re-entry, parachute chute deployment and the capsule in the water.
NASA / U.S. Navy
A wind-filled parachute pulls the SpaceX Dragon capsule through the water after Thursday's Pacific splashdown.
SpaceX / U.S. Navy
A dive team secures the Dragon spacecraft for towing to its recovery barge.
NASA / U.S. Navy
The Dragon capsule nears American Marine's recovery ship, which is equipped with a crane to take the spacecraft on board.
Eventually, SpaceX is aiming for extensive reusability of its spaceship components, including a first stage that can fly itself back to the launch pad and a "Dragon 2.0" spacecraft that can do propulsive soft landings.
"That's how spaceships land in sci-fi movies," SpaceX's billionaire founder, Elon Musk, told me during a post-splashdown news conference. "And that's what also enables landing in other parts of the solar system. ... It's the way spacecraft ought to land."
But NASA won't be using this particular Dragon again. The space agency is buying a fresh spaceship for each of the 12 cargo supply missions. Musk speculated that SpaceX might send the scarred spacecraft on "a little tour of the country and show it to people around the country, [to] get students excited about space." In the future, Dragons could be refurbished for return trips to space.
Meanwhile, SpaceX is working to make the Dragon suitable for carrying astronauts as well as cargo. The development of the SuperDraco thruster system is a key part of that plan, because it fits into the propulsive-landing strategy as well as the launch escape system that NASA will require for safe human spaceflight. Musk said the system could go into operation in three years if the development effort goes well, "maybe four or five if we encounter some challenges along the way."
Other spaceship companies are making strides as well, with advice and financial support from NASA. Here's a quick progress report:
Orbital Sciences Corp., like SpaceX, has been receiving hundreds of millions of dollars to support the development of an unmanned cargo resupply system. Orbital is developing a new rocket called the Antares as well as its Cygnus cargo capsule to do the job. Last month, Orbital, Aerojet and NASA oversaw a full-duration hot-fire test of the AJ26 engine that will be used on the Antares. The first test launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia is planned sometime in the next few months, and if all goes according to plan, cargo flights to the space station could begin by early next year under the terms of a $1.9 billion contract.
Blue Origin, the company founded by Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos, is working on a spacecraft that could carry astronauts to the space station, with United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket to be used as the launch vehicle. On Thursday, Blue Origin reported that it successfully completed a systems requirement review of its orbital Space Vehicle. Blue Origin's president and program manager, Rob Meyerson, said in a statement that the review "paves the way to finalize our Space Vehicle design." Representatives from NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration took part in the review.
The Boeing Co. is developing its CST-100 capsule for NASA's potential use as a taxi for space station astronauts, to be launched by the Atlas 5. The company carried out drop tests in April and May to check the workability of its parachute-plus-airbag landing system. The most recent test involved dropping a CST-100 test vehicle from a helicopter, 14,000 feet above Nevada's Delamar Dry Lake Bed. Boeing's John Mulholland said the test validated the landing system design. Further ground tests of CST-100 components lie ahead, and test flights could begin in 2015-2016, Boeing says.
Video traces a parachute drop test of Boeing's CST-100 space taxi in the Nevada desert.
Sierra Nevada Corp. is developing a mini-shuttle known as the Dream Chaser, to be launched atop an Atlas 5 as a taxi for space station astronauts. This week, Sierra Nevada put the Dream Chaser through its first full-scale, captive-carry flight test. For this test, the space plane was suspended by cables beneath a heavy-lift helicopter. The first free-gliding drop tests are planned for later this year, and Sierra Nevada says the Dream Chaser could be operational by 2016.
SpaceX, Blue Origin, Boeing and Sierra Nevada, along with other aerospace players such as ATK, Lockheed Martin and Astrium, are expected to compete for further funding from NASA later this year. Which means it's not likely to be a slow summer in the aerospace business. Has the successful Dragon mission made SpaceX the far-and-away frontrunner, or is the commercial space race up in the air? When will U.S. astronauts be flying once again on U.S.-made spaceships? Watch a panel of space commentators, including yours truly, discuss these and other questions — and feel free to weigh in with your comments below.
Watch space commentators discuss the week's developments, including the return of the Dragon from orbit.
Update for 6:55 p.m. June 2: In a Twitter update, SpaceX confirms that it has delivered some cargo items to NASA in an effort to demonstrate 48-hour rush processing after splashdown. You could call this the first commercial express delivery from outer space.
The galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is pictured in this image, taken with by the Wide Field Imager attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile. With a total exposure time of more than 50 hours, this could be deepest view of Centaurus A ever created.
Astronomers are taking a long, deep look at one of the best-known galaxies beyond our own Milky Way, to learn more about what happened when it gobbled up another agglomeration of stars that got too close.
The entrails of the gobbled galaxy are prominent in this view of Centaurus A, a galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Centaurus. The bright haze of stars is the typical signature of an elliptical galaxy, but the dark, swirling band of dust around the center is a tip-off that the "A" in Centaurus A stands for "atypical."
Scientists believe the band represents the dusty leftovers of the galaxy that has been consumed in a gravitationally driven merger. Flashes of fresh hot stars can be seen along the edges of the band. It's thought that an energetic black hole, 100 million times as massive as our sun, is blasting out strong radio emissions from the center of the haze.
Much of this has been seen before, in previous images of Centaurus A. But today's image, captured by the Wide Field Imager on the European Southern Observatory's MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope in Chile, reveals extra details. That's because the camera exposure lasted for more than 50 hours, making this one of the deepest views of Centaurus A ever produced.
One reddish filament of material is visible above the left edge of the dark band. A fainter filament can be made out near the upper left corner of the picture. These filaments, hotbeds for infant stars, appear to line up with radio-emitting jets that are being spewed out from the central black hole. Such features can help astronomers reconstruct how Centaurus A gobbled a galaxy in the first place, and how the remains are being digested. Further studies, involving ESO's ALMA Observatory, will shed additional light on the scene.
A video from the European Southern Observatory zooms in on telescope views of Centaurus A, a giant cannibal galaxy.
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
Light pollution never looked so good: The World at Night's annual photography contest highlights the beauties of the night sky, but it also highlights the challenges posed by humanity's efforts to light up the night.
This year's winners reveal how artificial lighting can add another dimension to the natural wonders of the stars and planets — or spoil the view forever. Hundreds of pictures were sent in from about 50 countries, including exotic locales such as the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, the national parks of Reunion Island and the savannas of South Africa, said Babak Tafreshi, the founder and leader of The World at Night. "We received a lot of submissions from Asian countries this year, especially China, India, Iran and Indonesia," the Iranian-born astrophotographer said in an email exchange.
He said the message of The World at Night is definitely getting out: "In general, it looks as if TWAN's aim of reclaiming the natural beauty of the night sky and promoting nightscape photography is reaching a growing audience worldwide, while the activities by amateur and professional astronomers and environmentalists to increase awareness on the light pollution issue is truly getting a lot of public attention."
This year's contest is limited to images taken since the beginning of 2011, but that leaves a lot to choose from — including pictures of Comet Lovejoy, the spectacular "Christmas Comet" that wowed skywatchers in the southern hemisphere, as well as the stunning auroral images that have cropped up over the past few months. Both those phenomena are represented in today's top-10 roundup from TWAN.
Tafreshi drew attention to two potential perils facing astrophotographers nowadays: light pollution and photo fakery. He noted that the increasing glare of city lights was "not just an astronomer's problem," but also "a major waste of energy, and like any other form of pollution, it disrupts ecosystems and has adverse health effects."
"Today, most city skies are virtually empty of stars," he said in his email. "About two-thirds of the human population today lives under light-polluted skies, not dark enough to see the Milky Way. Seeing a real dark sky is a must-see experience in the life of each of us, moments that you will not forget in your entire life."
Tafreshi also said there's a fast-rising concern about images that may not be telling the truth about the earth and sky.
"Unfortunately, a majority of photographers who are interested in nightscape photography are less familiar with astronomy, and the natural look and color of the night sky," he said. "So many landscape astrophotos today are intensely saturated, unnaturally contrasted, and sometimes with totally wrong colors of the sky. We had stunning compositions and amazing landscapes at night, some made by famous photographers, which were ruled out of the contest simply because they were 'overcooked' in processing."
You can rely on TWAN's prize-winning pictures to show the true glories of the night sky, along with the glow of the world below. Check out our slideshow, and read more of Tafreshi's observations in the comment space below.
Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Logcommunity by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
It's eerie enough to see one whirlwind swirling across the Martian surface, but three? Get out your 3-D glasses and spot the three dust devils rising from Amazonis Planitia, as seen by the high-resolution camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
These mini-twisters are analogous to the dust devils that are whipped up on sunny afternoons on Earth, due to the rise of hot air through a low-pressure pocket of cooler air above it. In February, the Mars orbiter spotted a couple of prominent examples of the phenomenon that rose as high as 12 miles into the Red Planet's thin atmosphere. These three dust devils aren't nearly as big, but seeing them simultaneously in one 3-D picture gives you an idea just how active the wind patterns on Mars can get.
"The active dust devils seem to float above the surface," says Arizona State University's Alfred McEwen, principal investigator for the camera, known as the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment or HiRISE. "There are also some bright lines present ... those are the tracks of dust devils that passed through this region in the prior two weeks."
For more from Mars, check out the HiRISE website — and as long as you have your 3-D glasses out, take a look at HiRISE's 3-D image gallery. What? You don't have your 3-D glasses yet? This NASA webpage lists some online vendors. While you're at it, think about picking up some sun-viewingspectacles for the May 20 annular solar eclipse. On Friday, I'll be giving away a combo pack of 3-D glasses and eclipse glasses as the prize in our weekly "Where in the Cosmos" photo contest; watch for that on the Cosmic Log Facebook page.
Two of Saturn's more than 60 moons join the ringed planet in this scene, captured by the Cassini orbiter on Jan. 19 and released on April 30. Tethys appears as a small white dot above the rings on the far left of the image. Enceladus appears as a smaller bright speck beside the planet. The rings cast wide shadows on the planet's southern latitudes.
Two of Saturn's moons are dwarfed by the giant planet and its rings in this family portrait from the Cassini spacecraft, which will mark its eighth year in Saturnian orbit in July. This image was put out by the Cassini imaging team on Monday, just a little too late to make our Top 20 roundup for the Month in Space Pictures — but it's worth passing along as a bonus prize.
You can see 660-mile-wide Tethys as a white dot toward the left edge of the image, and 313-mile-wide Enceladus as a smaller bright speck beside the planet. Tethys is thought to be composed mostly of water ice with a bit of rock mixed in, while Enceladus is a very special case: Cassini has repeatedly documented geysers of water ice spewing from fissures in that moon's surface — suggesting that liquid water and perhaps even living things may lie beneath. It'll be up to a future probe to plumb the mysteries of Enceladus more deeply.
Saturn's rings are seen nearly edge-on, and in this picture they're casting wide, curved shadows on Saturn's southern hemisphere. Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait says he can't help noticing the thin white ribbon of clouds stretching across the planet's northern hemisphere. Those may be the remnants of a monster storm that wrapped itself around the globe for months, starting in late 2010. "Our gas giants don't screw around," he writes. "When they do something, they do it big."
And when we do the Month in Space Pictures slideshow, we do it big as well. Click on the image below to see some of the best out-of-this-world views from the month of April. You'll find shots from the final flights of the shuttles Discovery and Enterprise, photos of weird phenomena on Mars and Uranus, and even a UFO (Galaxy, that is). If you want to find out more about the stories behind the pictures, leave a comment and I'll try to point you in the right direction.
Can you spot the meteor? Last weekend's Lyrid meteor shower produced lots of memorable pictures, as you can see in SpaceWeather.com's meteor gallery. But in Jeff Berkes' photograph, taken at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, the shooting star is just one little brushstroke in a cosmic masterpiece.
The Milky Way's spray of stars stretches across the backdrop, and a gnarled tree stands in the spotlight that Berkes created using a technique called "light painting." It's the same technique Berkes used to great effect in last October's picture of the Orionid meteor shower.
Berkes said last weekend's Lyrid shooting session wasn't exactly a walk in the park: "Being out that night, things got a little hairy ... literally! A black bear approached us around 11 p.m. one night, but left without any issues. ... I saw a bunch of Lyrids that night, but only captured a few faint ones with my camera. I used a Nikon D3 DSLR. It was great to view the Lyrids under a new moon and from one of my favorite national parks."
Where in the Cosmos Jeff Berkes' look at the Lyrids served as today's "Where in the Cosmos" picture puzzle on the Cosmic Log Facebook Page. It took only a minute or two for Nanette Broyles to spot the meteor streak and figure out that the picture was taken during the Lyrid meteor shower. To reward her quickness, I'm sending her a pair of Microsoft Research 3-D glasses, plus a 3-D picture of yours truly. Keep an eye on Facebook for the next "Where in the Cosmos" picture in a week. And if you haven't spotted the meteor yet ... look above the tree, just to the right of center.
Skywatchers as far south as Colorado and Kansas witnessed a quick flare-up of the northern lights this week, which called to mind the brilliant, beautiful displays that northerners saw earlier this year. The skies have settled down — for now — but developments on the sun suggest we could be in for another wave of auroral glories.
The greenish glow over Lake Superior, recorded from Michigan's Upper Peninsula at 2 o'clock in the morning by Shawn Malone of LakeSuperiorPhoto.com, was impressive enough to make NBC's "Nightly News" on Tuesday night. In an email, Malone told me that the "intensity caught me off guard."
"Check out the passing freighter for scale," Malone said in his comments on the Vimeo version of the video. "What a view those sailors must have had!"
Mark Riutta had a similar view from Copper Harbor Cabins on the Upper Peninsula, as the time-lapse video below illustrates. Riutta told me over the phone that he and his girlfriend were getting the cabins ready for the summer season and were surprised by how bright Tuesday's display turned out to be. "We were just about to go to sleep, when we looked out and wondered, 'Why is it so light out there?' he said.
SpaceWeather.com provides a roundup of auroral images from a dozen U.S. states, mostly in the Midwest but also including the top state for the northern lights, Alaska. And speaking of Alaska, here's an unconventional view of the aurora that was recorded from a height of 90,000 feet during "Project Aether: Aurora," a scientific experiment that took place this month:
A GoPro HD Hero2 camera captured this view of the northern lights, set against a backdrop of the curving Earth and the glow of sunlight at the horizon. A second Hero2 camera was placed in the frame and illuminated to serve as a reference point for the camera exposure (as well as a plug for GoPro).
Project Aether, led by University of Houston physicist Ben Longmier, sent up almost two dozen weather balloons laden with high-definition cameras and scientific instruments to monitor auroral activity near Fairbanks. Most of the payloads have been recovered, but the student researchers are still on the lookout for a few that haven't yet been located. If you happen to be in the Fairbanks area and find one of them, you could win a prize.
More prizes could be in store for aurora-watchers: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center reports that we're currently in the midst of a minor geomagnetic storm, which could spark another wave of northern lights. What's more, an active region of the sun known as AR1465 has developed the type of magnetic field that's associated with stronger X-class outbursts.
The prototype space shuttle Enterprise is seen mated on top of NASA's modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft at Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Friday. Enterprise was the first orbiter built for the space shuttle program, but never went into orbit. It was used primarily for ground and flight tests within the atmosphere. Enterprise had been on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia, but is now being prepared for its new home at the Intrepid Sea Air and Space Museum in New York.
A day after the space shuttle Discovery took its place at the Smithsonian, the prototype shuttle Enterprise is perched on a modified 747 jet for its journey to New York. Now the timing of the trip depends on East Coast weather.
Overnight, Enterprise was towed out to Dulles International Airport and hoisted up into the air with two giant cranes. The jet, known as the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft or SCA, was brought underneath the 75-ton artifact. Then Enterprise was lowered down and "soft-mated" onto the plane at three attach points. The bolts will be tightened down for hard-mating on Saturday, in preparation for the big flight to New York.
This is the same process that Discovery went through in Florida leading up to Tuesday's flight to Dulles for its installation at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, next to the airport. On Thursday, Enterprise was moved out of the space it held since the center's opening in 2003, and Discovery was moved in.
NASA had been planning for Enterprise and the SCA to take off from Dulles as early as Monday morning, but this afternoon the space agency said the flight would be delayed due to a forecast of inclement weather in Washington as well as New York. "Managers will continue to review weather forecasts and announce a new flight date as soon as practical," NASA said in its advisory.
When forecasters give the go-ahead, the shuttle-jet combo will head up the East Coast and do a series of New York flyovers. You can expect to see the double-decker behemoth sailing over the Statue of Liberty as well as the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, the retooled ship where Enterprise will be put on display. After the flyovers, the Enterprise will be set down at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The shuttle-jet flight is old hat for Enterprise: The craft was the first vehicle built for the space shuttle program, and got its name in part thanks to a write-in campaign by "Star Trek" fans. Unlike the fictional starship, NASA's Enterprise never flew in space. Instead, it was used for ground tests as well as aerodynamic test flights atop the 747 carrier plane. Once the shuttle launches ramped up, Enterprise was deemed no longer needed for testing. It was handed over to the Smithsonian in 1985. The Udvar-Hazy Center's James S. McDonnell Space Hangar was specifically designed to show off the Enterprise.
After the 2003 Columbia tragedy, some sections of the Enterprise's wing panels were removed for impact tests, and those tests made a huge contribution to the accident investigation. That demonstrated that the shuttles can continue to benefit the space program long after their retirement.
It will take a few weeks for Enterprise to settle into its retirement home: The cranes will have to be set up for the shuttle's "demating" at JFK. Then Enterprise will have to be lifted onto a barge and brought up the Hudson River by a tugboat. The schedule calls for Enterprise to be hoisted aboard the Intrepid's flight deck sometime in June. It'll be put on display in a temporary climate-controlled pavilion this summer, and eventually housed in a permanent exhibit facility.
After Enterprise, there's one more shuttle-jet flight on tap: the transfer of Endeavour from NASA's Kennedy Space Center to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. That cross-country trip, due to take place in the latter part of this year, is likely to spark a nationwide frenzy of "Spot the Shuttle" sightings.
The last shuttle that flew in space, Atlantis, is going just down the road to Kennedy Space Center's visitor center, so there'll be no need to bring out the plane for that trip.
Click through the best pictures from the University of Miami's 2012 Annual Underwater Photography Contest, hosted by the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
Even a humble sea slug can be stylish, if you find the right slug in the right place. That's what photographer Ximena Olds did when she snapped a picture of an orange headshield sea slug amid the green seagrass in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Her contrasting-color picture took the top prize in this year's Underwater Photography Contest, hosted by the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
More than 700 images were submitted for the 2012 contest, showing scenes from 20 countries. Awards were given in several categories, including Macro, Wide Angle, and Fish or Marine Mammal Portrait. Another category was set aside for University of Miami students. Olds' photo was submitted in the Macro category but was singled out for the "Best Overall" prize.
The judges included University of Miami lecturer Myron Wang, underwater photographer Nicole Wang and Michael Schmale, a professor at the Rosenstiel School.
"The quality of photos keeps getting better each year," Myron Wang, who has been judging the contest since its inception in 2005, said in today's announcement of the winners. "Judging becomes more difficult when you have so many wonderful pictures to choose from. For me, there were excellent entries in every category, but this year’s standout was the great picture of the juvenile sperm whale taken by Douglas Kahle in Dominica — it is spectacular!”
This year, for the first time, a "Fan Favorite" category was created for Internet voting. More than 1,200 ballots were cast in the poll, with Todd Aki's shot of a silhouetted jellyfish taking the prize.
The underwater photography contest is held annually, and is open to all amateur photographers who earn no more than 20 percent of their income from their photography. Click through the slideshow above, or check out the Rosenstiel School's website for more about the winners.
These composite images show Uranian auroras as bright spots on the planet's disk on Nov 16, 2011 (left), and on Nov. 29 (right). The images from the Hubble Space Telescope have been processed to bring out details in Uranus' faint ring system.
Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have caught a rare display of auroras on Uranus, which ranks among the solar system's oddest planets.
Unlike the beautiful, rippling curtains of greenish light we've been seeing in earthly skies over the past few months, the Uranian auroras are short-lived bright spots sitting on top of the ice giant's bluish cloud tops. But they're caused by a similar mechanism, involving the interaction of electrically charged particles with atoms and ions in the planet's upper atmosphere.
NASA's Voyager 2 probe picked up the first evidence of Uranus' auroras in 1986. "Since then, we've had no opportunities to get new observations of this very unusual magnetosphere," Laurent Lamy, an astronomer at the Observatoire de Paris, said today in a news release. There have been a fewhints of auroral observations, but Hubble's views from last November rank as the best views yet. Lamy and his colleagues provide the details in a paper published by Geophysical Research Letters.
The team took advantage of a lucky break and a favorable planetary alignment: Last year, Earth, Jupiter and Uranus were lined up so that energetic solar emissions could flow past each planet in turn. When the sun produced several outbursts in September, the astronomers timed the flow of the particle storm past Earth a couple of days later, and then detected the flow past Jupiter two weeks after that. On the basis of those readings, they calculated that the outburst would reach Uranus in mid-November, and scrambled to schedule observing time on the Hubble Space Telescope.
Uranus is an oddity because it basically rotates on its side as it orbits the sun. The orientation of its magnetosphere is tilted 60 degrees with respect to its rotational axis. As a result, during the current season, each of the planet's magnetic poles turns to face the sun in the course of a Uranian day. "This configuration is unique in the solar system," Lamy said.
Hubble was well-placed to catch the auroral flashes on the sunlit side, near Uranus' north magnetic pole. Each flash appeared to last only a couple of minutes, the astronomers said.
Lights on Earth And then there's Earth. Last October, a solar outburst sparked northern lights that could be seen as far south as the state of Mississippi, and over the past month, higher-latitude residents have been treated to almost as many fireworks displays as Disneyland tourists typically get to see. Although the approach of summer is starting to cut down on the opportunities to see auroras in the Northern Hemisphere, some folks got great views as recently as last night. Here are a few of the highlights:
Shawn Malone of Marquette, Mich., snapped pictures of the aurora from the shores of Lake Superior. "The sky was ablaze in light," Malone told SpaceWeather.com. "Northern lights were so bright they lit up the beach!" For more from Malone, check out LakeSuperiorPhoto.com and his Vimeo video gallery.
This video showing the southern lights was taken by the crew of the International Space Station on March 10, during a pass from the Indian Ocean, southwest of Australia, to southern New Zealand. The video was released this week.
Brian Larmay
Here's a different angle on the aurora and the International Space Station, captured by Brian Larmay of Beecher, Wis. The long streak in this time-lapse photograph is the space station, sailing across the sky. To see more of Larmay's pictures, check out his SmugMug gallery.
'Where in the Cosmos' Today's picture of auroral displays on Uranus served as this week's "Where in the Cosmos" picture puzzle on the Cosmic Log Facebook page. It took only a couple of minutes for Shirley Beningo to blurt out which celestial body was shown in the picture, and what the bright spots were. To reward her for her quick cosmic vision, I'm sending her a pair of cardboard 3-D glasses, wrapped up in a 3-D picture of yours truly. Ashley Nicole and Gerry Marien came in as the runners-up, and are eligible for 3-D glasses as well. Be sure to click the "like" button on the Cosmic Log Facebook page so you're ready for next Friday's "Where in the Cosmos" contest.
In addition to Lamy, the authors of "Earth-Based Detection of Uranus' Aurorae" include R. Prange, K.C. Hansen, J.T. Clarke, P. Zarka, B. Cecconi, J. Aboudarham, N. Andre, G. Branduardi-Raymont, R. Gladstone, M. Barthelemy, N. Achilleos, P. Guio, M.K. Dougherty, H. Melin, S.W.H. Cowley, T.S. Stallard, J.D. Nichols and G. Ballester.
This picture from DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite shows the launch pad at the Tongchang-ri Launch Facility in North Korea, as seen on April 9. Three dark-colored support vehicles are lined up on the launch apron. The rail-mounted mobile launch platform is toward the bottom of the pad, with an exhaust deflector that's designed to deal with the hot blast of launch.
While North Korean officials were showing off their preparations for a controversial satellite launch, DigitalGlobe's Quickbird satellite was snapping high-resolution pictures of the scene from far above. The images reveal how far the North Koreans have come — and how much can be gleaned about their intentions from orbit.
DigitalGlobe is a commercial satellite imagery provider, and QuickBird can provide pictures at a resolution of a half-meter (20 inches) per pixel. But you can bet that U.S. intelligence agencies are getting significantly better views of the Tongchang-ri Launch Center from their satellites.
North Korea is due to launch its Unha-3 ("Milky Way 3") rocket anytime between now and April 16, ostensibly to send an Earth-observing satellite known as Kwangmyongsong-3 ("Bright Shining Star 3") into a pole-to-pole orbit. The United States and its allies worry that the launch is really more of a test of North Korea's capability to launch intercontinental missiles as weapons.
International journalists, including a team from NBC News, were invited to visit the secretive hard-line communist nation this week for an on-the-ground assessment of the space mission. NBC News space analyst James Oberg said that in its current configuration, the booster is "not a military missile ... but it's darn close."
"This rocket is not a weapon, but it's maybe 98 percent of one," Oberg said. "It can be converted all too easily and all too frighteningly into a weapon, and they don't need it."
AmericaSpace's Craig Covault said the Tongchang-ri facility is clearly built to handle rockets much larger than the Unha-3. He quoted U.S. and South Korean intelligence analysts as saying they believe the complex could be used for tests of North Korea's "Satan" long-range ballistic missile, as well as a North Korean-Iranian booster with up to six engines clustered in the first stage.
"Iran and possibly North Korea plan to use the large new space launch booster to send Iranian and North Korean astronauts into space," Covault wrote. He lays out a Korean-Iranian missile development program that sounds positively scary.
North Korea might have been hoping that this week's visit by journalists would put Washington's fears to rest. But based on the feedback so far, it doesn't sound as if that'll be the case.
Here's tonight's report from NBC News' Richard Engel in Pyongyang:
A North Korean satellite is poised to launch to commemorate the 100th birthday of Kim Il-sung, but there are some doubts over whether it will ever go into orbit. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
... Here's a computer-generated animation of the expected launch from Analytical Graphics Inc.:
This animation from AGI shows the launch and possible path of the Unha-3 long-range rocket, aimed at putting the Kwangmongsong-3 satellite into orbit. Video courtesy of Analytical Graphics Inc. (AGI). Visit http://agi.com/northkorea for additional resources.
... And here are more satellite pictures from DigitalGlobe:
An orbital view from DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite shows North Korea's Tongchang-ri Launch Facility from an altitude of 420 miles (680 kilometers).
James Oberg / msnbc.com (left) / DigitalGlobe (right)
The map of the Tongchang-ri Launch Facility that was displayed by the North Koreans during a news briefing (left) is compared with the overhead view from DigitalGlobe (right). The orientation of the satellite picture has been rotated to approximate the orientation of the map.
DigitalGlobe
This satellite view shows the horizontal processing building at the Tongchang-ri Launch Facility in North Korea, with a support vehicle parked in the dark-colored parking lot below the building.
DigitalGlobe
This DigitalGlobe satellite image, taken from orbit on April 9, shows the Tongchang-ri Launch Facility in North Korea. The structure in the lower part of the frame is known as the high-bay processing building, and the structures in the upper pat are housing facilities. VIP housing is at leff.
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