日誌 １８７ ８月２９日、土曜日 雨のち曇り

天気予報どうり丁度午前三時にポツポツ来てから暫くして本格的に降り始めた。　乾季の八月終わりの雨は珍しい、約二時間近く本格的に降ってから小降りになった。　５年続く干ばつのカリフォルニアには恵みの雨である。



Rainfall totals for region as of 7 a.m. this morning.
NWS: The cold front that passed through overnight will result in below normal temperatures for inland areas today, but oddly enough, highs are expected to be slightly warmer than normal along the coast. While the bulk of the rain has ended, spotty light showers may persist in places through the afternoon.

From:The Willits News

日誌 １８６ ８月２７日、木曜日 晴れ

ハブル・テレスコープからの新しい映像は、何故か細胞のようでもある。

The shimmering colors visible in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image show off the remarkable complexity of the Twin Jet Nebula. The new image highlights the nebula’s shells and its knots of expanding gas in striking detail. Two iridescent lobes of material stretch outwards from a central star system. Within these lobes two huge jets of gas are streaming from the star system at speeds in excess of one million kilometers per hour. The cosmic butterfly pictured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image goes by many names. It is called the Twin Jet Nebula as well as answering to the slightly less poetic name of PN M2-9.

The M in this name refers to Rudolph Minkowski, a German-American astronomer who discovered the nebula in 1947. The PN, meanwhile, refers to the fact that M2-9 is a planetary nebula. The glowing and expanding shells of gas clearly visible in this image represent the final stages of life for an old star of low to intermediate mass. The star has not only ejected its outer layers, but the exposed remnant core is now illuminating these layers — resulting in a spectacular light show like the one seen here. However, the Twin Jet Nebula is not just any planetary nebula, it is a bipolar nebula.

Ordinary planetary nebulae have one star at their center, bipolar nebulae have two, in a binary star system. Astronomers have found that the two stars in this pair each have around the same mass as the Sun, ranging from 0.6 to 1.0 solar masses for the smaller star, and from 1.0 to 1.4 solar masses for its larger companion. The larger star is approaching the end of its days and has already ejected its outer layers of gas into space, whereas its partner is further evolved, and is a small white dwarf.

The characteristic shape of the wings of the Twin Jet Nebula is most likely caused by the motion of the two central stars around each other. It is believed that a white dwarf orbits its partner star and thus the ejected gas from the dying star is pulled into two lobes rather than expanding as a uniform sphere. However, astronomers are still debating whether all bipolar nebulae are created by binary stars. Meanwhile the nebula’s wings are still growing and, by measuring their expansion, astronomers have calculated that the nebula was created only 1200 years ago.

Within the wings, starting from the star system and extending horizontally outwards like veins are two faint blue patches. Although these may seem subtle in comparison to the nebula’s rainbow colors, these are actually violent twin jets streaming out into space, at speeds in excess of one million kilometers per hour. This is a phenomenon that is another consequence of the binary system at the heart of the nebula. These jets slowly change their orientation, precessing across the lobes as they are pulled by the wayward gravity of the binary system.

The two stars at the heart of the nebula circle one another roughly every 100 years. This rotation not only creates the wings of the butterfly and the two jets, it also allows the white dwarf to strip gas from its larger companion, which then forms a large disc of material around the stars, extending out as far as 15 times the orbit of Pluto! Even though this disc is of incredible size, it is much too small to be seen on the image taken by Hubble.

An earlier image of the Twin Jet Nebula using data gathered by Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 was released in 1997. This newer version incorporates more recent observations from the telescope’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS).

A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition, submitted by contestant Judy Schmidt.

Credit: spacetelescope.org

日誌 １８５ ８月２５日、火曜日 その２

Completing a five-day rendezvous that began with launch last Wednesday, a Japanese cargo ship loaded with 4.5 tons of much-needed supplies and equipment pulled up to the International Space Station (ISS) early Monday and then stood by while Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, operating the lab's robot arm, locked onto a grapple fixture. Flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston then took over remote control of the arm as planned and pulled the HTV-5 "Kounotori," or White Stork, supply ship in for berthing at the Earth-facing port of the forward Harmony module.



Once the HTV was properly positioned, astronaut Scott Kelly commanded motorized bolts in the common berthing mechanism to drive home and at 10:22 a.m. EDT (GMT-4), the attachment process was complete.



The crew opened the hatches today to HTV-5 vehicle and began unloading new supplies and science gear. The station residents also studied human research and reviewed changes to emergency procedures.

The HTV-5 is delivering more than 8,000 pounds of equipment, supplies and experiments in a pressurized cargo compartment. The unpressurized compartment is delivering the 1,400-pound CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) investigation, an astrophysics mission that will search for signatures of dark matter and provide the highest energy direct measurements of the cosmic ray electron spectrum.

Included in the research complement were six samples of alcoholic spirits provided by the Japanese distiller Suntory. But the beverages will not be consumed aboard the station. Instead, the samples will stored and returned to Earth in one to two years to find out how gravity, or the absence thereof, affects the spirits' aging and "mellowness."

Also on board the HTV: equipment that was added in the wake of the June SpaceX failure, including two filtration beds for the station's water recycling system, a control and pump assembly for urine processing, a respiratory medical pack and spacewalk support equipment.

HTV-5 will remain attached to the space station until Sept. 26. Between now and then, the spacecraft will be unloaded and then repacked with trash and no-longer-needed equipment. After unberthing, the spacecraft will plunge back into the atmosphere and burn up.

Japan has previously launched four such vehicles and all of them have successfully accomplished their mission.

Credit: NASA, cbsnews.com

日誌 １８４ ８月２５日、火曜日

今日は、ノヨ・シアターにリッキーとフラッシュというマティネーを楽しんだ。

NASA's Dawn spacecraft spotted this tall, conical mountain on Ceres from a distance of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). The mountain, located in the southern hemisphere, stands 4 miles (6 kilometers) high. Its perimeter is sharply defined, with almost no accumulated debris at the base of the brightly streaked slope.

The image was taken on August 19, 2015. The resolution of the image is 450 feet (140 meters) per pixel.

Dawn's mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK, Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team. For a complete list of acknowledgments, see http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission.

For more information about the Dawn mission, visit http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov.

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日誌 １８３ ８月１５日、土曜日

昨日あたりから煙かったが、今日はかなりひどい。　カリフォルニア中いたるところで山火事が起きている、今までのオンショァー・フローがなくなって風向きが変わったのだろう気温も上がり煙も濃くなった。

日誌 １８２ ８月６日、木曜日 晴れ

一昨日は夏には珍しく霧の濃い朝であったし、ここ数日一瞬初秋かなと感じる程涼しくて快適な気温であったが、今日は暑くなるとの予報である。　



レーク・カゥンティのロッキィー・ファイアーやトリニティ・カゥンティーのワイルドファイアーなどから煙が漂うって来ているので、レイトンビルでも空気がスモーキーな状態である。

日誌 １８１ ８月５日、水曜日 （晴れ）

A NASA camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite captured a unique view of the moon as it moved in front of the sunlit side of Earth last month. The series of test images shows the fully illuminated “dark side” of the moon that is never visible from Earth.
The images were captured by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a four megapixel CCD camera and telescope on the DSCOVR satellite orbiting 1 million miles from Earth. From its position between the sun and Earth, DSCOVR conducts its primary mission of real-time solar wind monitoring for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

observations of ozone, vegetation, cloud height and aerosols in the atmosphere. Once EPIC begins regular observations next month, the camera will provide a series of Earth images allowing study of daily variations over the entire globe. About twice a year the camera will capture the moon and Earth together as the orbit of DSCOVR crosses the orbital plane of the moon.
These images were taken between 3:50 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. EDT on July 16, showing the moon moving over the Pacific Ocean near North America. The North Pole is in the upper left corner of the image, reflecting the orbital tilt of Earth from the vantage point of the spacecraft.

The far side of the moon was not seen until 1959 when the Soviet Luna 3 spacecraft returned the first images. Since then, several NASA missions have imaged the lunar far side in great detail. The same side of the moon always faces an earthbound observer because the moon is tidally locked to Earth. That means its orbital period is the same as its rotation around its axis.
In May 2008 NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft captured a similar view of Earth and the moon from a distance of 31 million miles away. The series of images showed the moon passing in front of our home planet when it was only partially illuminated by the sun.

EPIC’s “natural color” images of Earth are generated by combining three separate monochrome exposures taken by the camera in quick succession. EPIC takes a series of 10 images using different narrowband spectral filters -- from ultraviolet to near infrared -- to produce a variety of science products. The red, green and blue channel images are used in these color images.

Combining three images taken about 30 seconds apart as the moon moves produces a slight but noticeable camera artifact on the right side of the moon. Because the moon has moved in relation to the Earth between the time the first (red) and last (green) exposures were made, a thin green offset appears on the right side of the moon when the three exposures are combined. This natural lunar movement also produces a slight red and blue offset on the left side of the moon in these unaltered images.
The lunar far side lacks the large, dark, basaltic plains, or maria, that are so prominent on the Earth-facing side. The largest far side features are Mare Moscoviense in the upper left and Tsiolkovskiy crater in the lower left. A thin sliver of shadowed area of moon is visible on its right side.

“It is surprising how much brighter Earth is than the moon," said Adam Szabo, DSCOVR project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Our planet is a truly brilliant object in dark space compared to the lunar surface.”
Once EPIC begins regular observations next month, NASA will post daily color images of Earth to a dedicated public website. These images, showing different views of the planet as it rotates through the day, will be available 12 to 36 hours after they are acquired.

DSCOVR is a partnership between NASA, NOAA and the U.S. Air Force with the primary objective of maintaining 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.
For more information about DSCOVR, visit:
http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/DSCOVR
Rob Gutro

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Last Updated: Aug. 5, 2015

Editor: Karl Hille

日誌 １８０ ８月３日、月曜日 （曇り）

今日も涼しく快適であるが、隣のレーク・カゥンティのワイルドファイアーは６万エーカーまで広がってかなりの数の住民が避難している。　レイトンビルの辺りまでうっすらと煙で覆われている感じがする。

日誌 １７９ ８月２日、日曜日

今朝は珍しく曇っていたが、10時過ぎにはすっかり晴れていた。　今日も昨日に続いて少し涼しくなりそうだ。



納屋の隣にあるマドロンの木の上の方に誰かの巣を見つけた、ブルージェイの巣かもしれないが、まだ出入りしているところを見かけたことがない。

日誌 １７８ ８月１日、土曜日

今日は天気予報の通り少し温度が下がりそれに加えて風があるので涼しく感じる。　今朝は久しぶりに外で日の出を見ることが出来た。



カリフォルニアで24カ所の山火事が現在おきているが、その中で一番大きいのがレーク・カゥンティのワイルド・ファイアーで、ここからそれ程離れていないのでうっすらと煙が感じられる。



本格的なファイアー・シーズンは、まだこれからなのに特に5年続く干ばつの中、今年は早くから山火事が多いのが気になる。