Help NASA map Mars

Looking for another way to become a citizen scientist? Fascinated with Mars and current missions to explore the Red Planet? If you answered “yes” to both of those questions, NASA and Microsoft Corp. have teamed up to create a new online adventure just for you.

Drawing on observations from NASA’s Mars missions, the Be a Martian web site lets the public help improve martian maps, take part in research tasks, and assist Mars science teams studying data about the Red Planet.

Citizen scientists can participate in the first task, connecting detailed pictures of martian features with wider panoramas. The collaboration of thousands of users could assist astronomers in producing far better maps and smoother zoom-in views, and offer easier interpretation of Martian surface changes.

Next, participants can start counting martian craters, which could help scientists determine the relative ages of small regions on Mars. In the past, counting martian craters has posed a challenge because of the vast numbers involved. But NASA hopes that won’t be the case with citizen scientists’ help.

In addition to completing these tasks, which are pretty easy to follow after viewing the video directions, the Be a Martian site has many cool extras. Users can visit a virtual town hall forum where they can expand their knowledge by proposing Mars questions and voting on which are the most interesting to the community. Online talks by Mars experts will address some of the submitted questions. Other features include interactive tools for viewing Martian regions and movies about people who study Mars in diverse ways.

I’ve had fun participating so far, and it’s a great way for astronomy enthusiasts young and old to help out and learn more about the Red Planet. Will you take part in the research? Or do you feel these citizen scientist projects are overrated?

Who wants to be an astronaut?

Reality shows have been promising to transform people for almost a decade now, whether it's into a millionaire, a married person, a beautiful person, or someone smarter than a fifth grader. But soon a TV show may document a group of people jockeying for what may be the grandest transformation of all: becoming an actual space-faring astronaut.

Well, so they claim. Right now all I've seen so far is a press release and a few sites reposting the announcement of this show, called Starwalker. According to the press release, it’ll begin filming in May, and the space flights will be in 2011 or 2012 aboard a Russian Soyuz vehicle. Anyone the world over can sign up on an as-yet unknown web site starting December 12, and the competition itself will be split in two, one for each hemisphere, with two winners emerging.

While this may end up not happening, I post it because I wonder, is this a good idea? Naturally, Starwalker’s press release is full of idyllic prose on why it’s so great: “Starwalker is the best, and indeed biggest, attempt ever made to create a permanent shift in the consciousness of the public back to the sense of wonder and the majestic human glory of the Apollo era.” But is a reality show the best way to rekindle a sleepy public’s love with space travel?

Personally, it seems like Starwalker can’t possibly achieve its lofty goal. We’ve been trying for years to get folks interested in space again, so I doubt some television show could pull it off. But then again, people nowadays really love them some reality TV; if this takes off (so to speak), maybe it could be the motivation for disaffected fans to “remember” how cool space can be. And at the very least, Starwalker probably won’t do any damage to our space-faring goals, unless I simply didn’t think of them.

That is, of course, all assuming it happens. So, what do you think? Is this the best way to get people back into space? Would you watch Starwalker? Would you sign up for it?

Smoke trail left by brilliant meteor

Last week, I received an e-mail from Michael J. Fraughton of West Jordan, Utah. At 6:45 a.m. (November 18), his wife showed him a cloud formation of loosely formed rings. He took several photographs of the clouds, two of which accompany this blog. He used a Canon EOS Rebel XTi digital SLR with a Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens on the automatic setting.

Well, it turns out that the “clouds” actually were a persistent smoke trail left by a brilliant fireball that lit up Salt Lake City and its surroundings at 12:07 a.m. Wednesday. Observers in Tucson, Las Vegas, Santa Fe, and Los Angeles also observed light from the meteor. At the University of Utah, seismometers picked up a slight vibration during the event.

Meteoriticists define a fireball as any meteor brilliant enough to cast a shadow. This object also seems to have exploded (based on the many reports of a single flash) in Earth’s upper atmosphere. Scientists call an exploding meteor a bolide.

Fraughton was only vaguely familiar with the camera, which is his wife’s. So he set it on “automatic” and placed his hand over the flash in order to keep the landscape dark. “I wanted it to think that it had the flash, so the sky would not get overexposed because of a low shutter speed,” he said. Good thinking.

Look closely at the images, and you’ll spot a white dot within the clouds. That’s Venus. Nice work, Michael. Thanks for sending in these great pictures.

Try these weekend observing targets

Did you ever find yourself out under a clear, dark sky in November wondering what to look at? How about targeting a few objects in the constellation Pegasus, one of my favorite autumn constellations. Here are some suggestions:

Galaxy NGC 7479 is one of the most popular objects for viewing in the constellation, as it shows a distinct, nearly face-on barred spiral structure. Photos of NGC 7479 appear frequently in astronomy magazines and on the web and give this object a familiar form. This galaxy lies at the end of a long string of stars that appear starkly to viewers with a 3-inch scope. In a 6-inch scope, this galaxy appears as a bar with a faint haze surrounding it. Larger scopes show much more detail, however, including the asymmetrical arms arcing away from the central glow.

How about targeting the two most conspicuous members of the Pegasus I galaxy cluster (pictured at right)? NGC 7619 and NGC 7626 are worth viewing even in small scopes. The galaxies lie just 7 arcminutes apart; the former shows a bright starlike nucleus while NGC 7626 has a tiny center.

If novelty’s your game, you could also target the first two objects in the NGC — NGC 1 and NGC 2. These galaxies are just 1.8' apart and are easily visible in a 6-inch scope under a dark sky.

Have you ever seen these galaxies? Do you spend time tracking down deep-sky objects in Pegasus? Let us know what your favorite November sky objects are and what you’re viewing them with.

Additional online observing resources from Astronomy magazine:

• StarDome — Our interactive star chart helps you create an accurate map of your sky. This tool will help you locate these targets.
• Video: Observe easy to find objects in the autumn sky, with Senior Editor Rich Talcott
• Video: Autumn observing targets for small telescopes, with Senior Editor Michael E. Bakich [available to magazine subscribers]
• Video: Autumn observing targets for large telescopes, with Editor David J. Eicher [available to magazine subscribers]
• Podcast: Weekly observing targets, with Senior Editor Michael E. Bakich [available for free to registered members of Astronomy.com]
  

NASA technology in your world

NASA recently released its 2009 edition of Spinoff, an annual publication that chronicles successfully commercialized NASA technology. It’s easy to get lost in the magazine or its Web counterpart.

The 2009 issue features 49 “spinoffs” in the areas of health and medicine; public safety; consumer, home, and recreation; environmental and agricultural resources; and more. I enjoyed many of them, but my favorites are the life rafts that use water to prevent the them from capsizing, the star-mapping tools used to track whale sharks, and the “anti-gravity” treadmill that now helps patients relearn to walk or run.

Also, in honor of the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11’s lunar landing, the creators of the publication have also recapped how Apollo continues to provide tangible benefits to the lives of people in the United States and around the world.

Do you appreciate how NASA has given the technology it develops back to the public? Or do you think these commercialized products aren’t anything to write home about? Which 2009 spinoffs are your favorites?