1 00:00:34,367 --> 00:00:35,435 Come on green light. 2 00:01:15,608 --> 00:01:19,212 We are minutes away from the launch of NASA's Lucy mission 3 00:01:19,379 --> 00:01:22,215 to the never before explored Trojan asteroids. 4 00:01:23,683 --> 00:01:26,686 Lucy's long journey to space begins today, 5 00:01:26,753 --> 00:01:29,355 but her story actually started years ago. 6 00:01:29,956 --> 00:01:33,193 It took a team of scientists and engineers many years to plan 7 00:01:33,193 --> 00:01:35,595 where Lucy would go and what she would have to do. 8 00:01:36,463 --> 00:01:39,999 Then Lucy's engineers had to build her out of individual parts 9 00:01:40,366 --> 00:01:43,203 and put her together like a puzzle. 10 00:01:43,203 --> 00:01:47,707 Lucy had to go through tough physical tests to prove she was mission ready. 11 00:01:48,575 --> 00:01:50,910 How are you holding up, Lucy? 12 00:01:51,945 --> 00:01:54,681 These are the vibration and acoustic tests to make sure 13 00:01:54,681 --> 00:01:58,485 that Lucy won't lose any screws during the shaky launch on a rocket. 14 00:01:59,018 --> 00:02:01,121 Lucy wasn't quite ready just yet. 15 00:02:01,754 --> 00:02:03,223 The engineers still had to be sure 16 00:02:03,223 --> 00:02:05,825 that she was prepared for the harsh environment of space. 17 00:02:06,593 --> 00:02:08,962 They chilled Lucy to freezing temperatures, 18 00:02:09,362 --> 00:02:13,700 then warmed her up to scalding hot temperatures in the thermal vacuum test. 19 00:02:13,933 --> 00:02:17,770 Sure, those tests weren't easy, but they prepared Lucy for the long 20 00:02:17,770 --> 00:02:18,571 adventure ahead. 21 00:02:20,773 --> 00:02:23,376 Ignition and liftoff. 22 00:02:47,567 --> 00:02:52,071 We're glad you can join Lucy on her adventure to explore the Trojan asteroids. 23 00:02:52,605 --> 00:02:56,409 Now let's get the journey started. 24 00:02:59,979 --> 00:03:08,221 On May 8, 2021, NOAA satellites observed a von Kármán vortex street over Guadalupe Island. 25 00:03:08,221 --> 00:03:18,364 These cloud formations often occur over the ocean when islands disrupt the flow of the wind. 26 00:03:19,165 --> 00:03:25,805 This disruption creates spiral patterns in the clouds. 27 00:03:26,472 --> 00:03:32,845 The intensity of the wind affects the pattern of swirls that are formed. 28 00:03:36,816 --> 00:03:44,924 NOAA satellites and those from international partners observe this phenomenon all over the world. 29 00:03:54,300 --> 00:04:02,141 When von Kármán vortices form, satellites capture them in stunning detail. 30 00:04:08,915 --> 00:04:11,618 Special thank you to our partners at JMA (Himawari-8) and EUMESAT (Meteosat-11) for additional imagery. 31 00:04:18,191 --> 00:04:22,195 Hi, I'm Noah Petro, The project scientist for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, 32 00:04:22,595 --> 00:04:24,998 a spacecraft that has been orbiting the Moon for over a decade, 33 00:04:25,465 --> 00:04:27,533 paving the way for humans to return to the surface. 34 00:04:28,201 --> 00:04:30,637 As a scientist, I get excited about the amount of data 35 00:04:30,637 --> 00:04:32,538 that we've been able to collect on the Moon. 36 00:04:32,538 --> 00:04:33,806 We now know more about its 37 00:04:33,806 --> 00:04:37,343 geological history, its chemistry and topography than ever before. 38 00:04:37,910 --> 00:04:39,145 But to me, the data also shows 39 00:04:39,145 --> 00:04:42,315 something beyond the science we've investigated: its beauty. 40 00:04:42,315 --> 00:04:45,551 The visualizations you're about to see not only hold important 41 00:04:45,551 --> 00:04:48,087 scientific value, but artistic value as well. 42 00:04:48,688 --> 00:04:51,090 These Moonscapes have a fascinating story to tell, 43 00:04:51,357 --> 00:04:52,659 and I hope it's one that you enjoy. 44 00:04:57,130 --> 00:05:00,867 The Moon is our nearest neighbor, our nightlight. 45 00:05:01,534 --> 00:05:03,069 It's also our memory. 46 00:05:03,069 --> 00:05:07,273 Wind, water and molten rock erase Earth's deep history. 47 00:05:07,707 --> 00:05:10,443 The Moon remembers everything that has happened in the last four 48 00:05:10,443 --> 00:05:12,845 and a half billion years. 49 00:05:14,881 --> 00:05:18,918 The impact that formed the Orientale Basin provides a window to understanding 50 00:05:18,918 --> 00:05:23,323 how similar large events on other planets and moons have shaped their landscapes. 51 00:05:30,897 --> 00:05:34,300 The discovery of water on the sunlit surface of Clavius Crater 52 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:38,104 not only unlocks new possibilities for future lunar exploration, 53 00:05:38,805 --> 00:05:42,175 but also our understanding of where the ingredients of life could exist 54 00:05:42,542 --> 00:05:44,677 in our vast universe. 55 00:05:59,559 --> 00:06:03,629 The steep trenches and cracked surface of Komarov Crater on the far side 56 00:06:04,197 --> 00:06:07,834 tell a story of the ancient volcanic activity from the Moon's interior, 57 00:06:08,668 --> 00:06:12,705 revealing the history of geologic forces carving the lunar terrain through time. 58 00:06:26,352 --> 00:06:27,787 Traversing the landscape, 59 00:06:27,787 --> 00:06:31,924 we can see a beautiful tapestry of ridges, valleys and mountains. 60 00:06:32,425 --> 00:06:35,428 Best encapsulated by the view of Tycho Crater. 61 00:06:37,663 --> 00:06:41,501 The summit of its central peak extends nearly three miles above the crater floor. 62 00:06:42,034 --> 00:06:45,438 A visual metaphor for the steep challenges, but exciting rewards 63 00:06:45,671 --> 00:06:49,642 await us on the Moon and beyond. 64 00:06:53,312 --> 00:06:54,680 And on the lunar horizon, 65 00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:57,750 the most consequential view of all. 66 00:06:58,418 --> 00:07:00,920 Home. To study the Moon is to study 67 00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:04,557 ourselves, our past, our present and our future. 68 00:07:05,224 --> 00:07:08,394 Each new discovery bringing us from darkness into light. 69 00:07:11,531 --> 00:07:15,468 The gravitational forces between Earth and Moon make our very existence possible, 70 00:07:16,302 --> 00:07:20,039 creating one of the most special relationships throughout time and space. 71 00:07:27,513 --> 00:07:30,917 There are a few ways to think about the edge of the solar system. 72 00:07:31,484 --> 00:07:34,086 One is with the extent of the solar wind. 73 00:07:35,354 --> 00:07:37,890 This is the constant flow of charged particles 74 00:07:37,890 --> 00:07:42,361 gushing out of the sun at a million miles per hour and bathing the planets. 75 00:07:42,762 --> 00:07:45,531 The wind forms a giant protective bubble around 76 00:07:45,531 --> 00:07:48,134 our solar system known as the heliosphere. 77 00:07:48,835 --> 00:07:52,405 This huge region says through the Milky Way, shielding us 78 00:07:52,405 --> 00:07:55,875 from interstellar radiation and creating an environment 79 00:07:55,875 --> 00:07:58,377 that helps life on Earth to flourish. 80 00:07:58,978 --> 00:08:00,813 But its borders aren't fixed. 81 00:08:00,813 --> 00:08:04,650 Around 11 billion miles from Earth, far past the planet's 82 00:08:04,884 --> 00:08:07,353 solar wind pushes against interstellar space. 83 00:08:07,987 --> 00:08:11,457 Scientists have been monitoring this boundary over the past decade, 84 00:08:11,824 --> 00:08:14,827 and they're seeing it change with the Sun's activity 85 00:08:16,996 --> 00:08:18,664 roughly every 11 years. 86 00:08:18,664 --> 00:08:20,833 The Sun's magnetic field ramps up. 87 00:08:21,434 --> 00:08:23,569 This is known as the solar cycle. 88 00:08:23,603 --> 00:08:29,242 And at the peak, the Sun's magnetic poles flip north, become south and vice versa. 89 00:08:29,976 --> 00:08:34,914 This cycle causes the sun's activity to sway from calm to turbulent, 90 00:08:34,914 --> 00:08:39,452 with an abundance of flares and eruptions, which in turn affects the solar wind. 91 00:08:40,219 --> 00:08:43,523 Changes from the Sun can make the solar wind gust hard. 92 00:08:43,823 --> 00:08:47,126 When it does, the heliosphere expands like a balloon. 93 00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:51,831 Over the past solar cycle, scientists mapped what that looked like. 94 00:08:53,366 --> 00:08:54,400 To understand these 95 00:08:54,400 --> 00:08:57,904 maps, you need to know how we observe the edge of the solar system. 96 00:08:58,437 --> 00:09:02,842 Scientists use NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX. 97 00:09:03,075 --> 00:09:06,546 About the size of a bus tire and in the orbit around Earth, 98 00:09:06,746 --> 00:09:10,783 IBEX maps the heliosphere with a process similar to sonar. 99 00:09:11,050 --> 00:09:14,153 But instead of using sound to detect objects, 100 00:09:14,320 --> 00:09:17,356 it uses the echo of solar wind variations. 101 00:09:17,890 --> 00:09:20,393 For example, starting in 2014, 102 00:09:20,393 --> 00:09:23,996 there was a huge and prolonged increase in solar wind pressure. 103 00:09:24,497 --> 00:09:27,600 NASA's spacecraft near Earth detected solar wind 104 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:30,903 gusting 50 percent harder than previous years. 105 00:09:31,370 --> 00:09:35,841 After traveling outward for a year, solar, wind hit the edge of the heliosphere. 106 00:09:36,375 --> 00:09:39,278 First, the termination shock, and then it entered the heliosheath 107 00:09:39,912 --> 00:09:42,014 that's encased by the heliopause. 108 00:09:42,615 --> 00:09:45,618 Solar wind particle spent another year or so in this region. 109 00:09:45,985 --> 00:09:49,221 Some collided with interstellar gases in the heliosheath 110 00:09:49,355 --> 00:09:53,025 and turned into energetic, neutral atoms or ENA's. 111 00:09:53,025 --> 00:09:55,728 ENA's travel in all directions. 112 00:09:56,162 --> 00:09:58,164 Some even back toward Earth. 113 00:09:58,164 --> 00:10:03,703 And between 2017 and 2019, a few of the returning ENA's reached IBEX, 114 00:10:04,036 --> 00:10:07,206 an echo of where the boundary is and what it looks like. 115 00:10:10,242 --> 00:10:11,811 If you cut the heliosphere 116 00:10:11,811 --> 00:10:15,948 and laid it out onto a flat surface, this is what you would see. 117 00:10:16,282 --> 00:10:18,985 This is the nose, and this is the tail. 118 00:10:19,185 --> 00:10:22,955 The nose shows high ENA fluxes, which indicate 119 00:10:22,955 --> 00:10:26,325 a strong gust of wind and the heliosphere ballooning. 120 00:10:26,993 --> 00:10:29,495 From tracking this expansion, scientists found that 121 00:10:29,495 --> 00:10:32,131 the nose and tail were not symmetrical. 122 00:10:32,865 --> 00:10:37,570 If we compare the maps, ENA's from that big 2014 solar wind increase 123 00:10:38,004 --> 00:10:42,108 have returned from the nose, but they haven't returned from the tail yet, 124 00:10:42,742 --> 00:10:46,545 suggesting that the tail is much farther away from the sun than the nose. 125 00:10:47,046 --> 00:10:50,449 This indicates that the heliosphere looks more like a comet 126 00:10:50,583 --> 00:10:53,319 rather than a round bubble. 127 00:10:53,319 --> 00:10:57,957 Having a full solar cycle of observations of the heliosphere opens doors 128 00:10:57,957 --> 00:11:02,328 to understanding the only environment we so far know can support life. 129 00:11:02,662 --> 00:11:04,730 And there have been a few surprises. 130 00:11:04,730 --> 00:11:08,300 Beyond the heliosphere near the nose, there was one region 131 00:11:08,300 --> 00:11:12,705 that took two years longer to respond to the 2014 increase of solar wind. 132 00:11:13,239 --> 00:11:16,742 Scientists think these ENA's bounced out of the heliopause 133 00:11:16,742 --> 00:11:20,146 and into interstellar space before heading back toward Earth. 134 00:11:21,013 --> 00:11:24,917 These are signs that we're still learning about the quirks of our heliosphere. 135 00:11:25,351 --> 00:11:28,754 But one thing's for sure, these characteristics could tell us 136 00:11:28,754 --> 00:11:33,359 about the key ingredients for life around a star. 137 00:11:38,998 --> 00:11:42,968 [Music throughout] 138 00:11:42,968 --> 00:11:48,974 In 2003, the Hubble Space Telescope pointed at a dark, empty patch of sky. 139 00:11:49,809 --> 00:11:56,982 It watched this spot for 270 hours, patiently collecting light… 140 00:12:02,988 --> 00:12:08,994 and found the most distant galaxies known. 141 00:12:14,967 --> 00:12:25,277 10,000 galaxies in one tiny patch of sky. 142 00:12:26,078 --> 00:12:31,350 Forever changing our understanding of how truly vast the universe is, 143 00:12:34,320 --> 00:12:39,992 and how many galaxies are out there. 144 00:12:41,727 --> 00:12:49,001 The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could do the same thing… 145 00:12:49,001 --> 00:12:55,841 on a much larger scale. 146 00:12:58,010 --> 00:13:03,082 There is no telling what we might learn. 147 00:14:12,384 --> 00:14:14,386 It's really an amazing little critter, 148 00:14:14,386 --> 00:14:17,790 and it's been around for over three billion years. 149 00:14:17,790 --> 00:14:22,494 In 2016 Utah Lake exploded and cyanobacteria blooms. 150 00:14:23,128 --> 00:14:27,533 The problem is that many cyanobacteria produce toxins. 151 00:14:28,234 --> 00:14:32,004 You may have heard it called blue green algae, but it's really a kind of bacteria, 152 00:14:32,238 --> 00:14:35,975 taking in sunlight to drive photosynthesis and giving off oxygen. 153 00:14:36,642 --> 00:14:39,511 It actually requires quite a bit of lab 154 00:14:39,511 --> 00:14:42,381 testing to know whether or not it's a harmful algal bloom. 155 00:14:43,148 --> 00:14:46,819 And what we're really worried about is people and pets 156 00:14:47,119 --> 00:14:49,855 ingesting that cyanobacteria. 157 00:14:49,855 --> 00:14:54,226 Dr. Kate Fickas is a harmful algal bloom scientist at Utah State University. 158 00:14:54,627 --> 00:14:56,028 She hopes the Utah Department 159 00:14:56,028 --> 00:14:59,231 of Environmental Quality tracked conditions in lakes and reservoirs. 160 00:15:00,065 --> 00:15:02,935 So Utah is the second dry state of the nation. 161 00:15:02,968 --> 00:15:06,372 Most of our major lakes are actually manmade reservoirs. 162 00:15:06,372 --> 00:15:08,707 They're heavily used for recreation. 163 00:15:08,707 --> 00:15:11,210 They're heavily used for agriculture, 164 00:15:11,210 --> 00:15:13,879 and they're really important to the state as a resource. 165 00:15:14,880 --> 00:15:18,517 In 2017, harmful algal blooms returned to Utah Lake. 166 00:15:18,884 --> 00:15:22,721 This time, officials use satellite data to identify troubled locations. 167 00:15:23,322 --> 00:15:26,992 But how can instruments up in space tell us about microscopic organisms 168 00:15:26,992 --> 00:15:28,794 in a lake down on Earth? 169 00:15:28,794 --> 00:15:30,829 By measuring their blue green color. 170 00:15:31,397 --> 00:15:34,400 Landsat collects light invisible and infrared wavelengths. 171 00:15:34,767 --> 00:15:38,170 Cyanobacteria reflect more green light than plain water does, 172 00:15:38,404 --> 00:15:40,839 allowing Landsat to identify algal blooms. 173 00:15:41,573 --> 00:15:46,445 From satellite what we see is basically that primary pigments, 174 00:15:46,445 --> 00:15:51,083 which is chlorophyl a, but the color by itself could be misleading. 175 00:15:51,383 --> 00:15:57,122 A nice picture is not necessarily providing a sort of quantitative data. 176 00:15:57,823 --> 00:15:59,925 Algal blooms can look beautiful from space, 177 00:15:59,925 --> 00:16:03,028 but the numbers behind the images are the important part. 178 00:16:03,762 --> 00:16:06,265 Each measurements is highly accurate. 179 00:16:06,265 --> 00:16:10,235 And it's very it's very much corresponding to the number of photons 180 00:16:10,235 --> 00:16:12,137 that are leaving the body of water, 181 00:16:12,137 --> 00:16:16,175 which could be related to the biomass and the amount of phytoplankton. 182 00:16:16,909 --> 00:16:19,611 Dr Nima Pahlevan is working with NASA and the U.S. 183 00:16:19,611 --> 00:16:23,549 Geological Survey to make sure Landsat users have consistent, accurate 184 00:16:23,549 --> 00:16:26,051 and ready to use data about lakes and rivers. 185 00:16:26,919 --> 00:16:29,121 Water is difficult to study from space 186 00:16:29,121 --> 00:16:32,358 because only a fraction of the sunlight is reflected back to the satellite. 187 00:16:32,725 --> 00:16:36,295 But engineering improvements on Landsat 8 have leveled up its ability 188 00:16:36,295 --> 00:16:39,665 to measure the small signals from water bodies. 189 00:16:39,665 --> 00:16:42,668 After Landsat collects the data, it gets beamed 190 00:16:42,668 --> 00:16:46,305 down to the USGS EROS Center, where it is archived. 191 00:16:46,538 --> 00:16:51,076 The raw numbers pass through checkpoints to align the geography correct 192 00:16:51,076 --> 00:16:55,180 for sun strength and then compensate for the effects of the atmosphere. 193 00:16:55,547 --> 00:17:01,387 So you're essentially removing those atmospheric scattering, that absorption. 194 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:04,256 Let's break down what Nima means here. 195 00:17:04,256 --> 00:17:07,659 To measure the amount of cyanobacteria, you need to know how much light reflected 196 00:17:07,659 --> 00:17:08,727 off the surface. 197 00:17:08,727 --> 00:17:11,764 But some of that light gets scattered by molecules in the atmosphere 198 00:17:11,897 --> 00:17:15,234 on the way to the satellite, lessening the signal received. 199 00:17:15,534 --> 00:17:17,236 And sometimes light that never made it to 200 00:17:17,236 --> 00:17:20,806 the surface gets scattered into the satellite, adding a false signal. 201 00:17:21,173 --> 00:17:24,710 Like removing the haze from a photograph, atmospheric corrections 202 00:17:24,710 --> 00:17:28,313 leave you with a quantitative measurement of exactly how much light left 203 00:17:28,313 --> 00:17:30,949 the water, known as aquatic reflectance. 204 00:17:31,316 --> 00:17:37,122 You want to look at the actual physical measurements to derive 205 00:17:37,289 --> 00:17:41,226 physically meaningful products from satellite data. 206 00:17:41,460 --> 00:17:45,564 And that's the goal, to transform the raw materials into finished products. 207 00:17:45,864 --> 00:17:48,567 So that end users don't have to build it themselves 208 00:17:49,001 --> 00:17:52,271 by aquatic reflectance products, you're 209 00:17:53,605 --> 00:17:55,674 reducing majorly reducing the 210 00:17:55,674 --> 00:17:58,944 burden on satellite users. 211 00:17:59,845 --> 00:18:02,781 Although it is still provisional, Nima's Aquatic Reflectance 212 00:18:02,781 --> 00:18:05,784 Data product is available for download from the USGS. 213 00:18:06,552 --> 00:18:09,822 Scientists like Kate Fickas convert the data product to maps, 214 00:18:09,822 --> 00:18:13,392 showing the amount of chlorophyl A, helping local officials 215 00:18:13,392 --> 00:18:16,562 pinpoint where to test for toxins and warn residents. 216 00:18:16,895 --> 00:18:19,631 I use Landsat and other remote sensing technology 217 00:18:19,631 --> 00:18:23,168 to help local health departments understand where there's a bloom, 218 00:18:23,435 --> 00:18:26,672 the magnitude of the bloom and the size of the bloom. 219 00:18:27,306 --> 00:18:30,776 The spatial detail is another benefit of using Landsat data. 220 00:18:31,443 --> 00:18:35,180 Each pixel is only a 30 meter square the size of a baseball diamond, 221 00:18:35,714 --> 00:18:38,050 yet it collects data across a broad area. 222 00:18:39,017 --> 00:18:42,421 In other words, there is a lot of data at a fairly high resolution. 223 00:18:42,421 --> 00:18:44,590 With Landsat we can get into some of the 224 00:18:44,590 --> 00:18:48,327 marinas that are popular fishing and swimming spots in order to inform 225 00:18:48,327 --> 00:18:52,064 local health departments about making public health decisions. 226 00:18:52,731 --> 00:18:55,734 For the 2017 outbreak, that's exactly what happened. 227 00:18:56,268 --> 00:18:59,638 Satellite data gave an early warning to local officials in Utah. 228 00:18:59,938 --> 00:19:02,641 The extra week of warning saved hundreds of thousands of 229 00:19:02,641 --> 00:19:04,209 dollars in healthcare costs. 230 00:19:05,944 --> 00:19:08,380 Monitoring algal blooms from aquatic reflectance 231 00:19:08,380 --> 00:19:11,950 data is just one example of benefits from Landsat's data products. 232 00:19:12,718 --> 00:19:17,089 Wildfires, snow cover, vegetation, health temperature 233 00:19:17,422 --> 00:19:20,359 and more are available for every spot on Earth. 234 00:19:23,996 --> 00:19:26,331 Landsat's highly calibrated data products 235 00:19:26,565 --> 00:19:30,769 free to download and use are making detailed Earth observation data 236 00:19:30,769 --> 00:19:34,673 more accessible to users and bringing a greater benefit to society. 237 00:19:40,512 --> 00:19:45,284 There is evidence that a planet around a distant star lost its atmosphere, 238 00:19:45,284 --> 00:19:48,353 then gained a second one through volcanic activity, 239 00:19:48,353 --> 00:19:51,723 according to scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. 240 00:19:52,191 --> 00:19:56,195 The planet GJ 1132b is hypothesized 241 00:19:56,195 --> 00:19:59,431 to have begun as a gaseous world with the rocky core. 242 00:19:59,798 --> 00:20:02,601 Starting out at several times the diameter of Earth, 243 00:20:02,768 --> 00:20:08,507 this so-called sub Neptune quickly lost its early hydrogen and helium atmosphere 244 00:20:08,707 --> 00:20:12,711 due to the intense radiation of the young hot star it orbits. 245 00:20:13,045 --> 00:20:17,382 Then the planet was stripped down to a bare core about the size of Earth. 246 00:20:17,549 --> 00:20:19,718 And that's when things got interesting. 247 00:20:21,019 --> 00:20:21,954 To the surprise of 248 00:20:21,954 --> 00:20:26,091 astronomers, Hubble observed an atmosphere which, according to their theory, 249 00:20:26,325 --> 00:20:29,228 is a secondary atmosphere that is present now. 250 00:20:30,162 --> 00:20:33,365 Based on a combination of direct observational evidence 251 00:20:33,498 --> 00:20:36,768 and inference through computer modeling, the team reports 252 00:20:36,768 --> 00:20:39,638 that the atmosphere consists of molecular hydrogen, hydrogen 253 00:20:40,472 --> 00:20:44,676 cyanide and methane, and also contains an aerosol haze. 254 00:20:45,310 --> 00:20:49,114 Scientists think hydrogen from the original atmosphere was absorbed 255 00:20:49,114 --> 00:20:52,951 into the planet's molten magma mantle, then slowly released 256 00:20:52,951 --> 00:20:56,021 through volcanic processes to form a new atmosphere. 257 00:20:56,655 --> 00:20:58,290 Though this hydrogen continues 258 00:20:58,290 --> 00:21:02,527 to escape into space, the secondary atmosphere is replenished 259 00:21:02,661 --> 00:21:06,798 by volcanic gases that seep through cracks in the planet's thin crust. 260 00:21:07,499 --> 00:21:10,569 Scientists are wondering how many other planets might 261 00:21:10,569 --> 00:21:14,673 have started out as gas giants, but became smaller and rocky 262 00:21:14,773 --> 00:21:17,476 after their early atmospheres evaporated away. 263 00:21:17,943 --> 00:21:21,713 Astronomers hope to use the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope 264 00:21:21,813 --> 00:21:26,218 infrared vision to detect hot areas of volcanic activity on the planet. 265 00:21:27,619 --> 00:21:32,791 GJ 1132b be might be orbiting a distant star, 41 light years away, 266 00:21:32,791 --> 00:21:39,097 but thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, it just got a little bit closer. 267 00:21:51,410 --> 00:21:53,612 Carbon dioxide is a kind of plant food. 268 00:21:54,813 --> 00:21:57,316 Plants break down carbon dioxide as they make energy 269 00:21:57,316 --> 00:22:00,485 through photosynthesis, releasing oxygen in the process. 270 00:22:01,953 --> 00:22:04,623 That's why as humans have increased the amount of carbon dioxide 271 00:22:04,623 --> 00:22:07,626 in the atmosphere, some places have seen increased plant growth. 272 00:22:08,660 --> 00:22:11,463 But that won't continue forever. 273 00:22:12,831 --> 00:22:16,568 Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, responsible for warming our planet. 274 00:22:17,969 --> 00:22:20,038 Right now, the land and the ocean absorb 275 00:22:20,038 --> 00:22:23,008 about 55 percent of the carbon dioxide released by humans. 276 00:22:23,442 --> 00:22:27,279 The rest stays in the atmosphere, acting like a blanket around Earth. 277 00:22:27,279 --> 00:22:31,983 As the climate gets warmer, plants are absorbing less carbon dioxide. 278 00:22:33,218 --> 00:22:36,922 In some places like the Arctic region, water is becoming scarcer, 279 00:22:36,955 --> 00:22:39,691 acting as a limiting factor that inhibits plant growth. 280 00:22:40,926 --> 00:22:43,195 In other places like the tropical latitudes, 281 00:22:43,528 --> 00:22:44,930 low soil nutrients limit 282 00:22:44,930 --> 00:22:47,833 the growth of plants even when there's plenty of carbon dioxide. 283 00:22:49,634 --> 00:22:51,336 But it's not just external factors 284 00:22:51,336 --> 00:22:53,672 that could affect how plants absorb carbon dioxide. 285 00:22:55,407 --> 00:22:59,578 As the concentration in the atmosphere increases, plants seem to use less of it. 286 00:23:00,412 --> 00:23:03,882 From 1982 to 2015, we've already seen a decrease 287 00:23:03,882 --> 00:23:06,551 in how efficient plants are at absorbing carbon dioxide. 288 00:23:07,786 --> 00:23:11,123 NASA researchers are using data from a variety of different satellites 289 00:23:11,123 --> 00:23:14,292 to calculate how efficient plants are at absorbing carbon dioxide. 290 00:23:15,994 --> 00:23:18,663 They're working to understand how more carbon emissions will warm 291 00:23:18,663 --> 00:23:23,068 the planet as plants use less of it, important for understanding 292 00:23:23,068 --> 00:23:24,336 how hot Earth will get. 293 00:23:31,076 --> 00:23:31,777 There's a rhythm 294 00:23:31,777 --> 00:23:34,880 emanating from the Sun to the edges of the solar system. 295 00:23:35,547 --> 00:23:38,850 Roughly every 11 years, our star ramps up to a turbulent 296 00:23:38,850 --> 00:23:42,254 state, expelling violent eruptions after a peak. 297 00:23:42,354 --> 00:23:46,024 It calms down to a quiet phase before starting all over again. 298 00:23:46,591 --> 00:23:48,960 This is known as the solar cycle. 299 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:53,098 This ebb and flow of solar activity affects the entire solar system, 300 00:23:53,665 --> 00:23:56,435 including spacecraft electronics and astronauts 301 00:23:56,535 --> 00:24:00,605 that can be affected by particle radiation if they're not sufficiently protected. 302 00:24:01,506 --> 00:24:04,709 Understanding the solar cycle is one of the oldest problems 303 00:24:04,709 --> 00:24:08,713 in solar physics, and now predicting it is more critical than ever 304 00:24:08,747 --> 00:24:11,450 as we venture to the Moon, Mars and beyond. 305 00:24:11,750 --> 00:24:14,085 So here are ways we've learned about tracking it. 306 00:24:17,856 --> 00:24:20,125 So welcome to the dome. 307 00:24:20,125 --> 00:24:23,929 Today we're gonna observe the Sun and see if there are some sunspots. 308 00:24:24,796 --> 00:24:26,698 Every morning when the skies are clear 309 00:24:26,698 --> 00:24:30,101 Olivier looks through this telescope in search of sunspots. 310 00:24:30,368 --> 00:24:34,773 These are dark blotches on the Sun that are the main source of solar eruptions. 311 00:24:34,906 --> 00:24:37,175 They appear and disappear on the Sun's surface. 312 00:24:37,843 --> 00:24:39,511 So we're not looking at the Sun. 313 00:24:39,511 --> 00:24:43,615 In fact, we're looking at the shadow of the instrument. 314 00:24:44,683 --> 00:24:48,186 Then we put the paper always the same place. 315 00:24:49,154 --> 00:24:52,023 And then we can start drawing. 316 00:24:52,324 --> 00:24:56,962 Olivier and a team of Sun observers record the pattern of sunspots by pencil. 317 00:24:57,496 --> 00:24:58,463 The first known record 318 00:24:58,463 --> 00:25:01,933 of sunspots date back to around a thousand years ago in China. 319 00:25:02,267 --> 00:25:05,937 After the invention of the telescope in the 17th century, routine 320 00:25:05,937 --> 00:25:07,572 observations were made. 321 00:25:07,572 --> 00:25:10,842 Today sunspot drawers still use the same technique. 322 00:25:11,376 --> 00:25:14,613 While we've created satellites that can see the Sun in much more detail 323 00:25:14,613 --> 00:25:19,684 in recent decades, drawing by hand keeps the centuries long record consistent. 324 00:25:20,385 --> 00:25:24,022 The sunspot number record goes back farther than any other instrument, 325 00:25:24,155 --> 00:25:28,493 allowing scientists to analyze the Sun's behavior over many, many solar cycles. 326 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:30,395 .Sunspot numbers are collected 327 00:25:30,395 --> 00:25:33,398 from observatories around the world and are averaged. 328 00:25:33,765 --> 00:25:37,235 During every 11 year cycle, the number of sunspots rise 329 00:25:37,235 --> 00:25:40,472 from zero to a peak and then go back down to zero again. 330 00:25:40,839 --> 00:25:44,776 Scientists use these numbers to determine when a new solar cycle begins 331 00:25:45,043 --> 00:25:47,078 and how active a cycle is. 332 00:25:47,379 --> 00:25:51,149 Solar maximum, the period of highest activity, can vary 333 00:25:51,149 --> 00:25:53,785 wildly from cycle to cycle. 334 00:25:53,785 --> 00:25:58,056 The more sunspots there are, the higher the frequency of solar storms of all 335 00:25:58,056 --> 00:26:03,161 types. Some that create aurora and some that can affect power grids on Earth. 336 00:26:03,595 --> 00:26:06,698 But sunspot number isn't the only indicator we see. 337 00:26:06,698 --> 00:26:09,367 These numbers are often combined with other signs. 338 00:26:10,302 --> 00:26:13,505 At the beginning of each cycle, sunspots appear on the Sun 339 00:26:13,505 --> 00:26:16,374 in the mid latitudes for a brief few hours to days. 340 00:26:16,775 --> 00:26:19,945 At solar minimum, there are often days without any spots at all. 341 00:26:20,245 --> 00:26:23,248 As the Sun becomes more active, sunspots form 342 00:26:23,248 --> 00:26:27,052 closer to the equator and can stick around for weeks to months. 343 00:26:27,319 --> 00:26:31,156 These sunspot patterns give clues to what drives the solar cycle. 344 00:26:31,289 --> 00:26:33,725 The twisting of the Sun's magnetic field. 345 00:26:34,125 --> 00:26:38,263 Like Earth, the Sun has a magnetic field with a north and south pole, 346 00:26:38,496 --> 00:26:42,934 but unlike Earth, the sun's magnetic field becomes extremely complex. 347 00:26:43,034 --> 00:26:46,371 This is because the Sun is made of plasma, a charged gas 348 00:26:46,371 --> 00:26:49,574 that generates electric currents as the Sun rotates. 349 00:26:49,708 --> 00:26:53,011 Plasma around the equator moves faster than near the poles, 350 00:26:53,445 --> 00:26:57,682 causing the magnetic fields to become stretched, elongated and then twisted. 351 00:26:58,083 --> 00:27:01,553 Then kinks in the magnetic fields burst through the surface 352 00:27:01,553 --> 00:27:04,089 as sunspots larger than the size of Earth. 353 00:27:04,556 --> 00:27:07,325 As the solar cycle unfolds, more sunspots 354 00:27:07,325 --> 00:27:10,328 appear and the magnetic field becomes more tangled. 355 00:27:10,428 --> 00:27:14,265 At the peak of the solar cycle, the Sun's magnetic field flips 356 00:27:14,733 --> 00:27:17,636 the North Pole, switches to the south and vice versa. 357 00:27:18,136 --> 00:27:20,939 The cycle then ramps down, ready to start a new cycle. 358 00:27:21,139 --> 00:27:24,909 Scientists can eventually see the result of this flip inside 359 00:27:24,909 --> 00:27:26,578 sunspots using satellites. 360 00:27:29,414 --> 00:27:30,281 This black and white 361 00:27:30,281 --> 00:27:33,618 image of the Sun shows the magnetic field on the surface. 362 00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:36,254 Most sunspots appear in pairs. 363 00:27:36,454 --> 00:27:39,624 Like a magnet, one side is positive and the other is negative. 364 00:27:39,924 --> 00:27:43,428 After they form, they gradually disappear again, leaving 365 00:27:43,428 --> 00:27:47,666 behind remnants of magnetic fields that move towards the Sun's poles. 366 00:27:47,966 --> 00:27:51,569 Eventually, each pole accumulates enough magnetic fields, 367 00:27:51,569 --> 00:27:54,806 forcing the Sun's poles to flip at the peak of the cycle. 368 00:27:55,774 --> 00:28:00,545 Then new sunspot groups appear with the polarities in the opposite direction. 369 00:28:01,079 --> 00:28:04,549 Scientists look for a consistent string of these new sunspots 370 00:28:04,549 --> 00:28:06,785 in order to declare the next solar cycle. 371 00:28:07,385 --> 00:28:10,488 But the transition between cycles is slow and messy. 372 00:28:10,889 --> 00:28:14,225 Cycles often overlap, creating fractals of old 373 00:28:14,225 --> 00:28:16,828 and new sunspots on the Sun at the same time. 374 00:28:17,295 --> 00:28:20,165 Scientists can only determine we're in the new cycle 375 00:28:20,165 --> 00:28:23,068 when the number of new sunspots overtake old ones, 376 00:28:23,334 --> 00:28:26,871 which can be six months to year after the new cycle has begun. 377 00:28:27,372 --> 00:28:30,842 While these spots give us a visible tracker, in recent years, 378 00:28:30,842 --> 00:28:34,412 scientists have discovered another signal that's hard to see from Earth. 379 00:28:35,447 --> 00:28:39,551 The strength of the Sun's poles during solar minimum can help predict 380 00:28:39,551 --> 00:28:45,090 how active the next cycle will be after the poles have reversed at the peak. 381 00:28:45,223 --> 00:28:48,093 Scientists keep a close eye on it for the next few years. 382 00:28:48,626 --> 00:28:52,564 If the magnetic fields accumulated at the poles become strong during this 383 00:28:52,564 --> 00:28:56,334 time, it's likely the next solar cycle will be an active one. 384 00:28:56,568 --> 00:29:00,138 If the build up is weak, the next solar cycle won't be as active. 385 00:29:01,573 --> 00:29:06,311 While we use these indicators to track the Sun, predictions are still hard. 386 00:29:07,078 --> 00:29:09,347 After all, we've only had detailed 387 00:29:09,347 --> 00:29:12,584 satellite observations of the last four solar cycles. 388 00:29:12,751 --> 00:29:16,488 And scientists are still learning about what causes the Sun's cycle. 389 00:29:16,788 --> 00:29:20,692 So until we piece together those missing pieces, the Sun, 390 00:29:20,692 --> 00:29:25,163 even with its 11 year clock, will continue to surprise us. 391 00:29:33,872 --> 00:29:35,507 Five years ago, a 392 00:29:35,507 --> 00:29:40,111 NASA-funded science team ventured onto an ever-changing region 393 00:29:40,111 --> 00:29:43,815 of the Greenland ice sheet in the peak of summer melt season, 394 00:29:44,349 --> 00:29:47,619 when the ice was literally melting out from under their feet. 395 00:29:50,355 --> 00:29:51,389 What they learned 396 00:29:51,389 --> 00:29:54,692 is changing the way we think about the movement of ice sheets 397 00:29:55,126 --> 00:29:59,631 and possibly changing our computer models that predict how fast ice 398 00:29:59,631 --> 00:30:04,169 will melt, a question which matters to every coastline on the planet. 399 00:30:06,004 --> 00:30:08,206 The number one reason we are here 400 00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:11,843 is all about global sea level rise. 401 00:30:12,677 --> 00:30:17,148 Greenland is the single largest melting chunk of ice in the world. 402 00:30:17,715 --> 00:30:19,918 What really matters to the world is how much of that water 403 00:30:19,918 --> 00:30:22,086 melted in the ice sheet, gets out to the ocean. 404 00:30:23,154 --> 00:30:27,358 In order to collect this data, the team had to first transport 405 00:30:27,358 --> 00:30:32,463 scientific equipment and survival gear to Greenland and then travel via 406 00:30:32,463 --> 00:30:38,303 helicopter to set up camp in the ablation zone, a region of melting ice. 407 00:30:39,237 --> 00:30:41,573 Camping out here logistically is very difficult. 408 00:30:41,806 --> 00:30:45,109 We're camping the ablation zone. It's very wet, as you can see. 409 00:30:45,109 --> 00:30:48,780 The ablation zone is where it is melting over the summer. 410 00:30:48,980 --> 00:30:50,448 Even talking to the logistics 411 00:30:50,448 --> 00:30:52,383 coordinators, they're very interested in our camp 412 00:30:52,383 --> 00:30:56,187 because they're trying to learn things about how do you camp in the ablation zone. 413 00:30:57,222 --> 00:30:59,457 One lesson is to be quick and nimble. 414 00:30:59,824 --> 00:31:02,627 The team had to evacuate from the first spot they scouted 415 00:31:03,127 --> 00:31:06,164 because the surface started melting right under their camp. 416 00:31:07,165 --> 00:31:11,202 So what big science questions are at the heart of this bold undertaking? 417 00:31:12,170 --> 00:31:17,375 In 2015, when we started this study, there was surprisingly little attention 418 00:31:17,375 --> 00:31:20,912 paid to this hydrology of streams and rivers 419 00:31:21,246 --> 00:31:24,782 on the ice sheet, especially inland, away from the ice edge. 420 00:31:25,316 --> 00:31:29,888 And we felt that this was a critical scientific gap. 421 00:31:30,321 --> 00:31:34,893 Just from looking at satellite images of the ice sheet, it was very apparent 422 00:31:34,893 --> 00:31:38,663 that very large volumes of meltwater were moving through these systems. 423 00:31:39,063 --> 00:31:44,168 And one of the things we learned is that the total volume of water 424 00:31:44,235 --> 00:31:46,337 passing through these river systems 425 00:31:46,337 --> 00:31:50,475 far exceeds the volume of water contained by lakes. 426 00:31:51,042 --> 00:31:54,345 Much like the terrestrial land surface, lakes catch your eye because 427 00:31:54,345 --> 00:31:57,315 they're so big, but the real action, the real fluxes be the rivers. 428 00:31:59,384 --> 00:32:01,920 All of these rivers 429 00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:07,525 terminate in a stunning and dangerous feature called a moulin, 430 00:32:07,525 --> 00:32:12,096 which is a essentially a sinkhole in the glacier surface 431 00:32:12,497 --> 00:32:16,834 that develops when these large rivers 432 00:32:17,769 --> 00:32:20,371 melt down into the ice to a point 433 00:32:20,371 --> 00:32:23,274 where they encounter a crack of some type. 434 00:32:23,675 --> 00:32:27,979 At that point, the river is captured and it ceases to flow over 435 00:32:27,979 --> 00:32:33,151 the surface of the ice sheet and instead plummets down into the interior. 436 00:32:33,551 --> 00:32:39,524 And this year, we mapped 538 of these very large blue rivers 437 00:32:39,791 --> 00:32:43,895 and showed that every single one of them terminates in one of these moulins. 438 00:32:44,595 --> 00:32:50,101 So water that's melted on top of the ice sheet is quickly and effectively gathered 439 00:32:50,401 --> 00:32:55,106 and transferred through these branching stream and river network systems. 440 00:32:55,406 --> 00:32:59,077 They are swept off the surface of the sheet 441 00:32:59,110 --> 00:33:03,181 within a matter of a few hours or even less, and ultimately 442 00:33:03,181 --> 00:33:06,184 emerge 80 kilometers from here at the ice edge. 443 00:39:10,715 --> 00:39:12,516 Aww that's a beautiful shot. 444 00:39:21,525 --> 00:39:22,793 What makes data visualization 445 00:39:22,793 --> 00:39:24,729 a bit different from other types of animation 446 00:39:24,729 --> 00:39:26,564 is that some component of the visual, 447 00:39:26,564 --> 00:39:29,767 some aspect of the visual, is directly based on some type of science data. 448 00:39:30,067 --> 00:39:32,203 So in the case of the tour of asteroid Bennu, 449 00:39:32,203 --> 00:39:35,973 the OSIRIS-REx trajectory is actually based on mission data. 450 00:39:36,073 --> 00:39:38,342 The model itself, the asteroid model, 451 00:39:38,542 --> 00:39:42,179 that is real lidar data that was collected from the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. 452 00:39:42,179 --> 00:39:44,749 The imagery that you're seeing wrapped in the surface of Bennu, 453 00:39:44,782 --> 00:39:47,651 that is actual satellite imagery taken by the spacecraft. 454 00:39:47,885 --> 00:39:48,853 And so that's kind of the difference 455 00:39:48,853 --> 00:39:51,655 between visualization and animation, is we're showing the real data. 456 00:39:51,655 --> 00:39:52,857 This is the real asteroid. 457 00:39:52,857 --> 00:39:55,459 So if we zoom all the way in on a boulder, that's the real boulder. 458 00:39:55,459 --> 00:39:57,995 That's that's what it looked like from the perspective of the spacecraft. 459 00:39:58,396 --> 00:40:02,266 I'm Kel Elkins, and I was the lead data visualizer on the tour of asteroid Bennu. 460 00:40:02,666 --> 00:40:03,567 I'm Dan Gallagher. 461 00:40:03,567 --> 00:40:06,370 I was the producer and writer on the tour of Asteroid Bennu. 462 00:40:06,904 --> 00:40:11,208 Tour of asteroid Bennu was inspired by an earlier video that was also made by 463 00:40:11,208 --> 00:40:15,746 NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio, and that video is called Tour of the Moon. 464 00:40:15,946 --> 00:40:20,551 The Visualizer, Ernie Wright, used elevation data and high resolution 465 00:40:20,551 --> 00:40:24,155 imagery from a NASA's spacecraft called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. 466 00:40:24,455 --> 00:40:27,958 And he was able to fly the camera very close to the lunar surface 467 00:40:27,958 --> 00:40:31,629 and show the actual textures, shadows, highlights, 468 00:40:31,862 --> 00:40:33,063 just the way that they would appear 469 00:40:33,063 --> 00:40:35,299 if you were hovering close to the surface of the Moon. 470 00:40:35,533 --> 00:40:38,869 So we kind of borrowed some of those techniques for the tour of asteroid Bennu. 471 00:40:38,903 --> 00:40:42,807 Really using lighting as a way to help viewers understand the shape of Bennu, 472 00:40:42,807 --> 00:40:46,110 in the shape of these different geological features we were zooming in 473 00:40:46,110 --> 00:40:49,213 on, which would just really help the visualization come to life. 474 00:40:51,015 --> 00:40:54,185 So a good example of how we use lidar comes about halfway 475 00:40:54,185 --> 00:40:57,755 through the video when we take viewers to a boulder called the Gargoyle. 476 00:40:58,189 --> 00:41:01,592 Now, the Gargoyle has a very complex, amorphous shape, 477 00:41:01,859 --> 00:41:05,830 and it looks really different when you see it from different angles 478 00:41:05,830 --> 00:41:07,565 in two dimensional photographs. 479 00:41:07,565 --> 00:41:11,769 But when we finally got a good 3-D model of the gargoyle, Kel was able 480 00:41:11,769 --> 00:41:16,507 to put a virtual camera down near the surface of Bennu and rotate it 481 00:41:16,507 --> 00:41:20,077 around the boulder in a way that we never could with two dimensional imagery. 482 00:41:20,578 --> 00:41:23,681 So something really cool about working on this particular visualization--and 483 00:41:23,681 --> 00:41:27,117 actually all the visualizations we made for the OSIRIS-REx mission--was 484 00:41:27,151 --> 00:41:30,754 as the spacecraft got closer and closer to the asteroid on its way there, 485 00:41:30,754 --> 00:41:32,790 and as it spent more time studying the asteroid, 486 00:41:32,823 --> 00:41:34,425 the models got better and better. 487 00:41:34,425 --> 00:41:36,560 The data that was collected was getting better and better. 488 00:41:36,794 --> 00:41:40,331 So some of our early visualization tests, we had this relatively low poly 489 00:41:40,331 --> 00:41:43,100 model of the asteroid and we could only push in so far with the camera. 490 00:41:43,100 --> 00:41:46,003 You can't push in too far and you just see an individual polygons. 491 00:41:46,003 --> 00:41:49,507 But as we got further and further along, we ended up with five centimeter 492 00:41:49,507 --> 00:41:52,776 resolution tiles and you could push all the way into individual boulders. 493 00:41:52,943 --> 00:41:54,778 And that's just the nature of how these science missions work. 494 00:41:54,778 --> 00:41:56,113 The more time you spend with something 495 00:41:56,113 --> 00:41:58,415 more data collect, the better the models get. 496 00:41:58,983 --> 00:42:02,186 Missions like OSIRIS-REx take us to places that we haven't 497 00:42:02,186 --> 00:42:05,923 been before, literally new worlds that we've never experienced. 498 00:42:06,357 --> 00:42:12,029 But they show us those places in ways that can't always be easily seen. 499 00:42:12,296 --> 00:42:17,001 Tour of asteroid Bennu gives us a way not only to show the public 500 00:42:17,001 --> 00:42:21,038 what these places are like, but it almost gives us remote presence. 501 00:42:21,272 --> 00:42:24,642 It allows viewers and even scientists on the mission 502 00:42:24,875 --> 00:42:28,445 to see these objects up close through technology. 503 00:42:39,990 --> 00:42:41,225 So you're looking to find 504 00:42:41,225 --> 00:42:44,528 and watch some black holes, and there are quite a few of them. 505 00:42:44,728 --> 00:42:46,530 So you're in for a treat. 506 00:42:46,530 --> 00:42:48,632 But before you get to all the fancy ones, 507 00:42:48,632 --> 00:42:50,768 let's first take a look at some of the simplest ones. 508 00:42:51,302 --> 00:42:54,305 After all, looking at the fancy ones first, it would be like trying to spot 509 00:42:54,305 --> 00:42:57,541 a Zordogian Grandlebuss before you even know basic Grandlebuss anatomy. 510 00:42:57,575 --> 00:42:59,410 And that would just be silly. 511 00:42:59,410 --> 00:43:04,048 Anyway, your basic solitary black hole is well, basic, relatively speaking. 512 00:43:04,949 --> 00:43:06,483 It has a lot of mass. 513 00:43:06,483 --> 00:43:10,254 A bit of spin, a boundary inside of which everything, including light, 514 00:43:10,321 --> 00:43:11,755 can only form inward. 515 00:43:11,755 --> 00:43:15,926 And beyond that, well, we actually have no idea, however, 516 00:43:16,026 --> 00:43:19,296 because solitary black holes are so simple, they're quite hard to spot. 517 00:43:19,930 --> 00:43:23,167 But if you have a keen eye, you might be able to catch a glimpse of it 518 00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:24,868 by looking at their surroundings. 519 00:43:24,868 --> 00:43:28,639 For example, black holes bend the light traveling past them, and you can see this 520 00:43:28,639 --> 00:43:31,342 effect, called lensing, around the edge of the black hole. 521 00:43:31,976 --> 00:43:35,346 There you are! Also because black holes tend to mess 522 00:43:35,346 --> 00:43:38,515 with their environments, you can sometimes find one by using other clues, 523 00:43:38,716 --> 00:43:41,352 such as a bunch of stuff orbiting what appears to be nothing. 524 00:43:41,919 --> 00:43:45,789 Anyway, now that you know a bit more, grab your telescopes and enjoy. 525 00:43:53,964 --> 00:43:56,667 An unusual eruption on the Sun may offer clues 526 00:43:56,667 --> 00:43:59,603 to understanding our star's mysterious explosions. 527 00:44:01,372 --> 00:44:03,440 Solar eruptions are massive releases 528 00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:05,476 of material off the surface of the Sun. 529 00:44:09,346 --> 00:44:14,084 This material can travel across the solar system to Earth and Mars. 530 00:44:18,756 --> 00:44:21,725 The radiation and the material from the Sun can interact 531 00:44:21,725 --> 00:44:26,397 with the planet's magnetic fields, affecting astronauts and technology. 532 00:44:28,799 --> 00:44:31,635 Eruptions on the sun usually come in one of three forms: 533 00:44:33,637 --> 00:44:37,574 coronal mass ejections, jets and partial eruptions. 534 00:44:40,277 --> 00:44:41,612 The new research studying 535 00:44:41,612 --> 00:44:44,848 an event named the Rosetta Stone of Solar Eruptions. 536 00:44:45,849 --> 00:44:48,419 Just as the Rosetta Stone was the key to understanding 537 00:44:48,419 --> 00:44:52,156 Egyptian hieroglyphics, studying this eruption could be the key 538 00:44:52,156 --> 00:44:54,825 to understanding all types of solar eruptions. 539 00:44:56,827 --> 00:44:57,895 In the Rosetta Stone 540 00:44:57,895 --> 00:45:01,365 eruption, all three types of eruptions happened in the same event. 541 00:45:02,900 --> 00:45:05,669 They usually occur separately. 542 00:45:07,004 --> 00:45:08,505 The main eruption was too big 543 00:45:08,505 --> 00:45:11,842 to be a jet, but too narrow to be a coronal mass ejection. 544 00:45:12,676 --> 00:45:15,746 A second cooler layer of material on the surface of the Sun 545 00:45:15,746 --> 00:45:18,382 also started to erupt about a half an hour later, 546 00:45:19,883 --> 00:45:22,853 but it fell back down as a partial solar eruption. 547 00:45:25,622 --> 00:45:28,859 This Rosetta Stone of solar eruptions will also give clues 548 00:45:28,859 --> 00:45:31,695 to help scientists predict large eruptions in the future. 549 00:45:34,565 --> 00:45:37,468 The better our predictions are, the more time we have to prepare 550 00:45:37,468 --> 00:45:40,971 for material from the Sun to interact with Earth's magnetic field. 551 00:45:45,309 --> 00:45:47,578 Predicting large solar eruptions can help better 552 00:45:47,578 --> 00:45:51,648 protect our astronauts and technology, near Earth and beyond. 553 00:46:02,159 --> 00:46:10,167 Morning. This is the 22nd of March 2021. 554 00:46:10,167 --> 00:46:14,671 4:15 in the morning. 555 00:46:15,339 --> 00:46:20,043 We are here this early to load the SPEXone instrument into the truck. 556 00:46:42,933 --> 00:46:47,538 SPEXone will measure the intensity and degree of polarization of light 557 00:46:47,971 --> 00:46:51,542 that is reflected by small particles in the atmosphere. 558 00:46:52,209 --> 00:46:54,211 These particles are called aerosols. 559 00:46:55,412 --> 00:46:58,048 So overall aerosols 560 00:46:58,048 --> 00:47:03,954 counterbalance the warming by greenhouse gases, but we don't know by what amount. 561 00:47:04,421 --> 00:47:10,127 And because this is so known, it's hard to predict future climate change. 562 00:47:10,561 --> 00:47:14,665 And with SPEXone, we want to accurately measure 563 00:47:14,965 --> 00:47:17,534 the effect of aerosols on clouds and climate. 564 00:47:34,785 --> 00:47:35,752 One challenge in 565 00:47:35,752 --> 00:47:38,722 building and designing SPEXone was the design of the optical system. 566 00:47:38,822 --> 00:47:40,858 Since SPEXone is a multi-viewing instrument, 567 00:47:41,358 --> 00:47:44,828 we need to be able to capture the light from five different directions 568 00:47:44,828 --> 00:47:48,198 into a single compact instrument. 569 00:49:12,115 --> 00:49:16,353 The Blue Marble that was our first 570 00:49:16,653 --> 00:49:20,824 view of ourselves, we really are the blue planet. 571 00:49:21,191 --> 00:49:23,093 We're hanging out here in the middle of nowhere. 572 00:49:28,365 --> 00:49:33,270 In fact, Apollo imagery was part of the justification 573 00:49:33,270 --> 00:49:38,008 for putting together a satellite that would look at the Earth. 574 00:49:38,008 --> 00:49:40,711 That satellite was the first Landsat. 575 00:49:40,711 --> 00:49:45,315 The Landsat mission now holds the title for the longest continuous space 576 00:49:45,315 --> 00:49:47,751 based record of Earth's land in existence. 577 00:49:50,721 --> 00:49:55,258 At least one Landsat satellite has been orbiting the Earth since 1972. 578 00:49:55,726 --> 00:49:58,795 That's nearly 50 years of steadfast observation. 579 00:49:59,363 --> 00:50:02,466 The program was born in the midst of several historical flashpoints 580 00:50:02,666 --> 00:50:05,268 during a time when the world was changing quickly. 581 00:50:06,870 --> 00:50:08,705 Well, it really was a perfect storm. 582 00:50:08,705 --> 00:50:14,244 We had a lot of technology coming out of World War II with air flown sensors. 583 00:50:14,711 --> 00:50:19,616 We also had an awareness of the environment between Rachel Carson. 584 00:50:19,916 --> 00:50:23,153 Even Stewart Udall wrote a book called The Quiet Crisis. 585 00:50:23,453 --> 00:50:28,625 Those two things together, the space race, all of those came together. 586 00:50:29,359 --> 00:50:32,329 But the Landsat story doesn't actually start with NASA. 587 00:50:32,629 --> 00:50:35,365 It starts with the United States Geological Survey. 588 00:50:35,932 --> 00:50:39,503 There were a couple of really interesting players. 589 00:50:40,137 --> 00:50:45,475 The primary one is William Pecora, and he was director of the U.S. 590 00:50:45,642 --> 00:50:47,444 Geological Survey. 591 00:50:47,444 --> 00:50:49,446 His boss was Stuart Udall. 592 00:50:49,446 --> 00:50:52,883 He tried floating it around and it didn't quite make it. 593 00:50:54,017 --> 00:50:59,723 Department of Defense, the CIA, NASA which was just beginning at that point. 594 00:50:59,756 --> 00:51:02,592 They all said, you know, this isn't the right time. 595 00:51:03,193 --> 00:51:06,329 So in 1966, Pecora and Udall 596 00:51:06,329 --> 00:51:10,634 announced that, OK, fine, Department of Interior will launch. 597 00:51:11,134 --> 00:51:14,204 And so that caused a big kerfuffle. 598 00:51:14,805 --> 00:51:16,106 And the bottom line was 599 00:51:16,106 --> 00:51:19,676 that NASA was forced to step up and say, yeah, OK, we'll do it. 600 00:51:19,976 --> 00:51:21,678 But let's pause for a second. 601 00:51:21,678 --> 00:51:24,748 Obviously, there was a big push to make an Earth observing satellite. 602 00:51:25,082 --> 00:51:27,818 But what exactly did it need to do? 603 00:51:27,818 --> 00:51:29,986 Landsat's entire job is to collect light, 604 00:51:30,187 --> 00:51:33,256 visible light like this, and non visible light like this. 605 00:51:33,723 --> 00:51:37,661 After Landsat captures the light it sees, it can make two kinds of pictures: 606 00:51:37,928 --> 00:51:40,530 true color images and false color images. 607 00:51:41,264 --> 00:51:44,000 Did you know your eyes can only detect red, green and blue? 608 00:51:44,201 --> 00:51:46,036 It sounds crazy, but it's true. 609 00:51:46,036 --> 00:51:49,306 In fact, if you took a magnifying glass to the screen you're probably looking at 610 00:51:49,306 --> 00:51:52,342 right now, you'd see a jumble of red, green and blue dots. 611 00:51:52,576 --> 00:51:54,744 Mix Those colors together with different intensities 612 00:51:55,011 --> 00:51:57,547 and your brain, interprets all the colors of the rainbow. 613 00:51:57,981 --> 00:52:01,485 True color images are made by combining red, blue and green light. 614 00:52:01,952 --> 00:52:03,487 But what's even more amazing, 615 00:52:03,487 --> 00:52:07,023 Landsat also captures infrared light beyond what we can see. 616 00:52:07,224 --> 00:52:08,625 And that light can reveal 617 00:52:08,625 --> 00:52:11,695 some incredible things when you look at a false color image. 618 00:52:11,695 --> 00:52:15,132 Like the difference between types of plants, how healthy those plants are, 619 00:52:15,365 --> 00:52:19,336 healthy coral reefs, and even dead coral reefs, fire tracking, ocean pollution. 620 00:52:19,603 --> 00:52:22,405 The possibilities are nearly endless. 621 00:52:22,405 --> 00:52:25,675 In fact, I bet you've probably seen Landsat's influence on pop culture 622 00:52:25,675 --> 00:52:27,310 without even knowing it. 623 00:52:27,310 --> 00:52:30,480 From Google Earth and works of art to television and movies. 624 00:52:31,014 --> 00:52:32,315 And I should know. 625 00:52:32,315 --> 00:52:36,319 Before my untimely smushing by an 85 foot tall great ape deep into the film, 626 00:52:36,319 --> 00:52:40,557 I, your narrator, played Landsat Steve in Kong: Skull Island. 627 00:52:41,124 --> 00:52:43,593 But I digress. Now back to our story. 628 00:52:44,361 --> 00:52:47,731 NASA and USGS get to work largely under the direction of lead 629 00:52:47,731 --> 00:52:51,601 engineer Virginia Norwood, who was often called the Mother of Landsat. 630 00:52:52,969 --> 00:52:55,872 Norwood and her team had to design an experimental instrument, 631 00:52:55,906 --> 00:52:59,776 the Multispectral Scanner, that had never been flown in space before. 632 00:53:00,177 --> 00:53:05,815 We took a--NASA took a real gamble to propose a scanner for this. 633 00:53:06,116 --> 00:53:08,585 That was quite a bit of skepticism. 634 00:53:08,585 --> 00:53:11,354 To assuage the skeptics and test the scanner's capabilities, 635 00:53:11,388 --> 00:53:14,824 the team loaded up the test model on a truck and headed to Yosemite. 636 00:53:15,225 --> 00:53:18,929 And this was because nobody believes that scanner would work. 637 00:53:18,962 --> 00:53:22,332 I think you better, you better give us some assurance. 638 00:53:23,166 --> 00:53:26,870 But the true test came 639 00:53:26,870 --> 00:53:30,674 when Landsat one launched on July 23, 1972. 640 00:53:31,208 --> 00:53:32,409 Sadly, William T. 641 00:53:32,409 --> 00:53:35,545 Pecora, one of the project's original champions, died 642 00:53:35,545 --> 00:53:38,481 just three days before Landsat took its place in orbit. 643 00:53:39,049 --> 00:53:41,585 But with this launch, the United States, and soon 644 00:53:41,585 --> 00:53:45,155 the world, would step into a new paradigm of Earth observation. 645 00:53:45,822 --> 00:53:48,825 Never before seen snapshots of land resources and the environment 646 00:53:48,992 --> 00:53:52,762 would be key for critical decision making decades into the future. 647 00:54:01,338 --> 00:54:03,473 As we started to approach Bennu from a distance 648 00:54:03,473 --> 00:54:05,609 and it started to fill up the camera field of view, 649 00:54:05,642 --> 00:54:09,112 it looked exactly like we thought it would with a few boulders sticking out. 650 00:54:09,145 --> 00:54:13,049 But as we got closer, we expected to see a very sandy surface 651 00:54:13,049 --> 00:54:15,085 with maybe a few boulders here and there. 652 00:54:15,085 --> 00:54:17,587 And what we saw is very little sand. 653 00:54:17,754 --> 00:54:20,757 And we saw these mountains, we saw boulders, we saw rocks, 654 00:54:20,924 --> 00:54:24,928 and we saw very few areas that had this sandy surface 655 00:54:24,928 --> 00:54:27,430 that we were expecting and what we had designed to. 656 00:54:33,403 --> 00:54:35,772 We have never done this before. 657 00:54:35,772 --> 00:54:39,142 We're actually going to collect a sample and bring it back down to Earth 658 00:54:39,142 --> 00:54:41,144 for further examination by scientists. 659 00:54:42,212 --> 00:54:45,415 In order to achieve that objective, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft 660 00:54:45,415 --> 00:54:46,716 has been navigating around 661 00:54:46,716 --> 00:54:50,153 Bennu for about the last two years, studying it in great detail 662 00:54:50,520 --> 00:54:54,924 and also overcoming a number of challenges that Bennu has presented. 663 00:54:55,158 --> 00:54:59,462 We were looking for locations on Bennu that were 50 meters in diameter, 664 00:54:59,696 --> 00:55:02,866 relatively flat and covered with fine grained material 665 00:55:02,866 --> 00:55:07,070 and by fine-grained material, I mean stuff that's the size of a dime or smaller. 666 00:55:07,137 --> 00:55:10,206 We realized that there were no sites on Bennu that even came close 667 00:55:10,206 --> 00:55:11,508 to meeting this criteria. 668 00:55:11,508 --> 00:55:14,511 Everywhere we looked was too small and covered with boulders. 669 00:55:14,611 --> 00:55:17,514 So we actually had to fly a number of additional close passes 670 00:55:17,514 --> 00:55:21,484 over the asteroid and rethink our entire plan for grabbing the sample. 671 00:55:23,653 --> 00:55:25,989 After the additional observations of Bennu, 672 00:55:25,989 --> 00:55:29,426 we had to downselect to four sites and then go back and survey 673 00:55:29,426 --> 00:55:33,163 those sites even further to select the final primary sample site. 674 00:55:33,496 --> 00:55:37,167 My first impression of Nightingale is that's the last place I wanted to go. 675 00:55:37,634 --> 00:55:40,837 But as we started looking at other sites, we saw that one. 676 00:55:40,837 --> 00:55:45,175 This is probably one of the most sampled both sites and two, 677 00:55:45,175 --> 00:55:49,379 we were over performing in our navigation capability and our ability to contact. 678 00:55:50,313 --> 00:55:52,782 Natural feature tracking works a lot like the human mind 679 00:55:52,782 --> 00:55:55,785 in that we pick up landmarks along the way as we descend. 680 00:55:55,819 --> 00:55:57,821 We look at features on the ground. 681 00:55:57,821 --> 00:56:00,290 We program the computer to recognize certain features. 682 00:56:00,323 --> 00:56:02,959 It takes a picture, says this feature is not 683 00:56:02,959 --> 00:56:03,960 where I expected it to be, 684 00:56:03,960 --> 00:56:07,997 it's a little bit off to the side, updates its position based on where it's pointed 685 00:56:07,997 --> 00:56:10,266 and where that feature shows up in the camera position. 686 00:56:12,202 --> 00:56:15,438 The TAG event is our touch and go event, 687 00:56:15,505 --> 00:56:19,609 which is where we'll actually be retrieving the sample from Asteroid Benu. 688 00:56:19,642 --> 00:56:23,213 We start with a series of maneuvers, one of them being the checkpoint burn, 689 00:56:23,213 --> 00:56:26,683 which is where we'll actually check our position velocity in relation 690 00:56:26,950 --> 00:56:28,485 to the sample sites. 691 00:56:28,485 --> 00:56:29,819 And then the matchpoint burn. 692 00:56:29,819 --> 00:56:31,454 about 10 minutes later, 693 00:56:31,454 --> 00:56:34,457 we'll zero out our horizontal velocity relative to the surface. 694 00:56:34,624 --> 00:56:36,359 And then about 10 minutes after that, 695 00:56:36,359 --> 00:56:40,230 we make contact with the TAGSAM team, fire the gas bottle, and then back away. 696 00:56:40,463 --> 00:56:43,600 And we hope to get at least 60 grams of sample. 697 00:56:43,600 --> 00:56:47,103 And then we'll be able to store that and bring it back down to Earth. 698 00:56:47,170 --> 00:56:48,705 But there are several things that could go wrong, 699 00:56:48,705 --> 00:56:49,706 and we also have to be 700 00:56:49,706 --> 00:56:53,243 prepared that we won't be successful on our first try at Nightingale. 701 00:56:53,743 --> 00:56:57,614 We don't only get one shot at TAG, we actually have three nitrogen 702 00:56:57,614 --> 00:57:00,884 bottles onboard the spacecraft so we can potentially do three 703 00:57:00,917 --> 00:57:02,452 TAG attempts if needed. 704 00:57:02,452 --> 00:57:06,689 We go through several what-if scenarios, and this is how we actually prepare 705 00:57:06,689 --> 00:57:08,591 for a lot of our contingencies. 706 00:57:08,591 --> 00:57:11,928 So we've had to look all around the surface and identify the rocks 707 00:57:11,928 --> 00:57:15,698 and boulders that if the spacecraft were to tip over up to twenty five degrees, 708 00:57:16,099 --> 00:57:18,101 it could come into contact and be damaged. 709 00:57:18,134 --> 00:57:21,504 We had to develop a hazard map, which we programed into the computer 710 00:57:21,504 --> 00:57:25,041 and says, if you're getting too close to those hazards, we'll do a wave off. 711 00:57:25,341 --> 00:57:28,645 We'll back away from the asteroid, we'll come back and do this another day. 712 00:57:28,812 --> 00:57:30,447 Everything might work perfectly. 713 00:57:30,447 --> 00:57:35,185 We come down, we touch the surface just where we want to, we fire the gas bottle. 714 00:57:35,452 --> 00:57:39,622 But the area we contact is covered in large rocks. 715 00:57:40,123 --> 00:57:43,293 Those rocks would prevent any fine grained material 716 00:57:43,293 --> 00:57:46,763 from being stirred up and captured in the TAGSAM head. 717 00:57:46,763 --> 00:57:50,166 Another similar scenario is that the TAGSAM were to touch 718 00:57:50,166 --> 00:57:52,235 on the edge of a boulder and become tipped up? 719 00:57:52,702 --> 00:57:56,105 In that case, when the gas bottle fires, much of that gas escapes out 720 00:57:56,105 --> 00:57:59,275 the side, not turning up the material that we want to capture. 721 00:57:59,476 --> 00:58:03,046 The day of TAG is going to be really exciting, but the excitement for our team 722 00:58:03,046 --> 00:58:04,113 doesn't end there. 723 00:58:04,113 --> 00:58:07,517 We have to verify that we have a proper sample. 724 00:58:07,884 --> 00:58:10,119 First, we're going to image the TAGSAM head 725 00:58:10,119 --> 00:58:11,821 by sticking it in front of one of the cameras. 726 00:58:11,821 --> 00:58:14,557 Then we're going to do a maneuver called the sample mass measurement, 727 00:58:14,557 --> 00:58:18,695 in which we stick out the arm and spin the spacecraft in order for us to decide 728 00:58:18,695 --> 00:58:22,432 if we've collected enough mass to be able to stow the sample and return home 729 00:58:22,732 --> 00:58:24,000 or if we have to try again. 730 00:58:24,000 --> 00:58:26,202 This is the culmination of a lot of work. 731 00:58:26,202 --> 00:58:28,505 It's probably one of the most exciting missions that I've worked on. 732 00:58:28,505 --> 00:58:32,509 It is really exciting to know that we're finally going to be able to touch