#icy moons

[luna-and-mars]

new sideblog!

where I just edit pictures of elsa onto artists’ concepts of icy moons to make it look like she’s causing the ice formations and geysers! because why not!!!

if you feel so inclined please follow me @elsa-on-icy-moons :)

(note: I’m a complete beginner trying to use these to teach myself how to edit things. you will not find artistic excellence here. that said if anyone has any tips or pointers they would be very welcome!)

[elsa-on-icy-moons]

Neptune’s largest moon Triton is one of the coldest objects in the solar system. Voyager 2 measured surface temperatures of -235 C (-391 F) in its 1989 flyby--so cold that the surface is covered with a frozen solid nitrogen crust. Voyager 2 also discovered active geysers, making Triton one of the few known geologically active bodies in our solar system. 

artist: Ron Miller

(Triton has a thin atmosphere of mostly nitrogen and some methane. Probably not enough to blow Anna’s hair in the wind like that. Not that she would be able to withstand that cold or even breathe, anyway. I’m gonna claim ~handwavy magic~ on this one.)

[startorialist]

This #TBT (because @bobak shared these almost half an Earth orbit ago...) is our first Tartan Thursday!

These tartans were designed & registered about two years ago by Geoffrey (Tailor) Highland Crafts on behalf of Prof. Charles Cockell of Edinburgh University.

Mars exploration:

This tartan is intended to be worn during Mars science, exploration and outreach activities. Colours: the red background depicts the surface of Mars, the Red Planet; blue depicts the water-rich past of Mars and the presence of water, mainly as ice, on the planet today; the four green lines represent Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, the presence of habitable conditions on the planet and the possible future presence of life in the form of human settlement; the thick white line represents the Martian poles, visible from the Earth, a conspicuous and important feature of the planet and its long-term climatic cycles.

Ocean Worlds & Icy Moons Exploration:

It is intended to be worn during science, exploration and outreach activities associated with icy worlds and planetary bodies with interior water bodies or oceans, such as Europa, Enceladus, Titan, Ceres and others. Colours: the ice blue depicts the water bodies and oceans of icy moons and ocean worlds; the white (peroxide) bars depict the crusts of icy worlds; the green lines depict the search for habitability and life in distant ocean worlds; the red line depicts hydrothermal activity and the possibility of core-ocean interactions and the influence of the cores on ocean chemistry and habitability. 

What a wonderful way to combine scientific exploration and outreach with traditional design, production, and dress!

--Emily

[elsa-on-icy-moons]

ice scarp on Europa

source: Ron Miller

[msfizicks]

Ocean Moons, Promising Targets in Search for Alien Life, Could Be Dead Inside

The interiors of Europa and other watery moons in the outer solar system might be too geologically inactive to support life

[spaceflight-insider]

NASA contracts with Astrobotic to develop software for icy moon landings

NASA contracts with Astrobotic to develop software for icy moon landings

Image Credit: astrobotic

NASA has contracted with Astrobotic Technology, Inc., a company that develops space robotics for planetary missions, for the design of navigation software capable of guiding robotic landers on future missions to the solar system’s icy moons, which could harbor microbial life in subsurface oceans. (more…)

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[tncwrapup]

Ocean Moon - Worlds Of Ice

Ocean Moon – Worlds Of Ice

Ocean Moon – Worlds Of Ice By Judith E Braffman-Miller

Most of the moons of our Solar System are intriguing, frigid, and dimly lit ice-worlds in orbit around the quartet of outer, majestic, gaseous giant planets that circle our Star, the Sun, from a great distance. In our quest for the Holy Grail of discovering life beyond our Earth, some of these icy moons are considered to be the most likely…

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[europascience]

The detection of silicon-rich particles originating from Saturn's moon Enceladus suggests that water–rock interactions are currently occurring inside it — the first evidence of ongoing hydrothermal activity beyond Earth.