MESSENGER 3rd flyby – Twitter Archive – julietaylorca
Posted by Drew Roman
Copyright 2009 | About this blog
Below is the Twitter Stream for Julie Taylor (@julietaylorca) for MESSENGER’s 3rd flyby of Mercury.
Tweets are in reverse order, dates covered in this archive: 9/28-10/1 2009
October 1st |
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Not to worry. There will be Messenger Fellows monitoring their Twitter pages for the next few days in case you all have any questions left! [julietaylorca]
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Mesgr: The cores do not determine the spin:orbit. The resonance are developed over time. We really do not know very much about both cores. [julietaylorca]
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Messenger Mission 1:1 spin:orbit is the ideal situation. It’s like the energy states in chemistry. [julietaylorca]
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Messenger Mission My orbit will vary. http://bit.ly/1Wvr4X [julietaylorca]
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Iron and Titanium in rocks causes light to be absorbed. Dark areas on the Moon and Mercury probably have more of these elements in them. [julietaylorca]
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When Messenger arrives at Mercury its orbit period will be 12 hours, and it will return data every other orbit. [julietaylorca]
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Light to Earth takes 8 seconds to reach us from the Sun. It only takes light 2.54 seconds to get to Mercury from the Sun. [julietaylorca]
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MESSENGER2011 In the liquid core, electric currents are created by moving conductors creating a magnetic field, the same as on the Earth. [julietaylorca]
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Why do we have multi-ringed basins? 2.The outer ring of a large impact collapses inward causing the second ring. [julietaylorca]
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Why do we have multi ringed basins? 1. Large impacts striking a rocky surface set up fractures much like a rock thrown into water… [julietaylorca]
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Msgr is a window into solar processes that we have not had before. We may actually view neutron that would have decayed befre reaching us [julietaylorca]
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Why is it harder to determine ice on Mercury than on the Moon? David Lawrence: Because of we have a higher altitude, it is harder to see. [julietaylorca]
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MESSENGER2011 I’m using radio waves to determine how Mer spins like a solid or something w/ a partial liquid core. My laser altimeter helps. [julietaylorca]
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David Lawrence: When the color is stretched on Mercury what is the blue color? It maybe more Titanium rich. A muted version of the Moon. [julietaylorca]
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Answer: Caloris Basin because it is a crater about the size of Texas. Before, Caloris was only seen on the limb by Mariner 10 in 1975. [julietaylorca]
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David Lawrence: What is the most exciting feature you have found on Mercury? [julietaylorca]
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We’re back at the IM3 Building at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab twittering and facebooking about Messenger. Send questions [julietaylorca]
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When the signal loss happened the room was full of excited, happy conversation. Immediately there was quiet and people down to business. [julietaylorca]
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This was an exciting time to watch scientist and engineers go to work to figure out what was wrong and fix it! [julietaylorca]
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At 12:30 EST, all system have now reported nominal operations. That means Messenger is once again operating normally. [julietaylorca]
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When Messsenger cleared Mercury, it sent the data it had collected. There was no data collected after 4 minutes to closest approach. [julietaylorca]
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When Messenger switched to another panel, that triggered the spacecraft to be put in safe mode until it could talk to Earth. [julietaylorca]
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Messenger science goals were achieved with great success until it went to battery power. The spacecraft didn’t like the power readings. [julietaylorca]
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Next time Messenger approaches Mercury, it will be traveling slow enough to be captured by the planet’s gravity. [julietaylorca]
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The final flyby of Mercury was Messenger’s last opportunity to use the planet’s gravity to help slow the craft down so it can be captured. [julietaylorca]
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September 30th |
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We just left a science update. Messenger should be operating again on Saturday. Head for home for the day. I’ll be back, 9 AM EST 10/1 [julietaylorca]
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Images from the 5% of Mercury’s surface we have never seen are safely back on Earth. We may have missed only a tiny bit of info! [julietaylorca]
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Boy, this has been an exciting day. We have been processing images just like real scientists! Messenger will not do new readings until Sat. [julietaylorca]
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We just selected our first never before seen image from Mercury and wrote captions and facts for it. Stay tuned! [julietaylorca]
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After our conference about Messenger going into safe mode, Ralph McNutt stated, “We are doing things that have never done before.” [julietaylorca]
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Even though there was some loss of communication, MESSENGER was able to take photos of Mercury. So now we have 95% of Mercury photographed! [julietaylorca]
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There is a Messenger Blog that you can follow at http://dragonphysics.wordpress.com [julietaylorca]
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September 29th |
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By the way Messenger is communicating with about 12 watts, the power of two car tail lights. [julietaylorca]
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By 7:30 PM EST, I will have to close down and go home until 9:00 AM EST. Everything looks ok. Images on home page by 9:00 AM [julietaylorca]
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It’s back. Messenger is communicating. We may have lost a bit of data about Mercury’s gravity at closest approach. We’ll know more at 9:30 [julietaylorca]
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The loss of signal may be due to the antenna being in the wrong position. We will know in about 30 minutes! [julietaylorca]
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Messenger will look for a moon by comparing images at different times. [julietaylorca]
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Did you know that at 24 and 60 hours Messenger will look for a possible moon of Mercury? [julietaylorca]
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We are all holding our breath. Messenger’s signal dropped unexpectedly. Before the scientists could check it out it went behind Mercury! [julietaylorca]
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Just lost contact with Earth! No worries! I’m just on the other side of Mercury from Earth, so my radio signals cannot come through! [julietaylorca]
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Messenger Mission That’s it – the closest approach at a distance of only 228 kilometers (142 miles) That’s mighty close! [julietaylorca]
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Messenger is now heading away from Mercury. In March of 2011 Messenger will go in orbit around the 1st planet in our solar system. [julietaylorca]
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Want to see a visualization of the flyby? Go to http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/encountersm3/index.php [julietaylorca]
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Laser altimeter will start firing at the planet! [julietaylorca]
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In 1 minute closest approach! [julietaylorca]
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Oh, boy! About 20 minutes to go! [julietaylorca]
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porchdragon MESSENGER will go behind Mercury and will be eclipsed from Earth for a while. After that it will continue talking to NASA [julietaylorca]
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Dr. Jeff, Crossing continental US in 1 min 20 sec. totally fast. [julietaylorca]
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http://blogontheuniverse.org/ has information about lessons to use with Messenger’s flyby [julietaylorca]
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doctorjeff From MESSENGER, at the current time, Mercury appears 96 full Moons across. [julietaylorca]
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The room is a buzz with excited conversation. ESA and NASA scientists are waiting anxiously for the flyby about 40 minutes away. [julietaylorca]
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Doctor Jeff: We’re 7,400 miles above the Mercurian surface, heading to an altitude of 142 miles (228 km) at close approach. [julietaylorca]
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WE ARE NOW LESS THAN AN EARTH DIAMETER ABOVE SURFACE OF MERCURY, screaming toward it @ 2 miles per SECOND.U getting this? [julietaylorca]
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Right in front of me are scientist from the European Space Agency. I’m watching them bring data up on their computers! [julietaylorca]
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We are about an hour away from Messenger’s closest approach to Mercury. [julietaylorca]
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http://twitpic.com/jmcph – MESSENGER Fellows at SOC [julietaylorca]
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http://twitpic.com/jmcwa – MESSENGER Fellows at work! [julietaylorca]
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We just left APL (JHU’s Applied Physics Lab) where we set up to go to an hour pre-flyby briefing. All around me are scientists from US & ESA [julietaylorca]
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I’m here at the SOC for Messenger. Send questions to my email about the mission! Hurray! The adventure begins! [julietaylorca]
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7 hours 30 minutes to go. I’m shutting the computer off and headed to JHUAPL. So excited!!!! [julietaylorca]
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9 hours and 11 minutes to Messengers closest approach to Mercury. Check it out at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/ [julietaylorca]
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MESSENGER reminder-directions 4 how 2 participate- even if you have Twitter&Facebook blocked, can B found at http://bit.ly/4Ms65 #edtech [julietaylorca]
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September 28th |
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MESSENGER Update: A reminder – directions 4 how 2 participate- even if you have Twitter&Facebook blocked, can B found at http://bit.ly/4Ms65 [julietaylorca]
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MESSENGER Flyby Update: WITNESS HISTORY- U can C MERCURY before sunrise NOW: http://bit.ly/i6zlM RT 2 Tchers. #edtech #education #homeschool [julietaylorca]
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Here are some Messenger teacher resources http://bit.ly/1f08Zi [julietaylorca]
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Check out the newest Mercury image at http://bit.ly/yHgL0 [julietaylorca]
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One day, 8 hours and 38 minutes to Messenger’s 3rd flyby of Mercury. The excitement continues! http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/ [julietaylorca]
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