ALBERT

Description: We present the first comprehensive set of lunar exospheric line width and line width derived effective temperatures as a function of lunar phase (66 waxing phase to 79 waning phase). Data were collected between November 2013 and May 2014 during six observing runs at the National Solar Observatory McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope by applying high-resolution Fabry-Perot spectroscopy (R ~ 180,000) to observe emission from exospheric sodium (5,889.9509 , D2 line). The 3-arc min field of view of the instrument, corresponding to ~336 km at the mean lunar distance (384,400 km), was positioned at several locations off the lunar limb; only equatorial observations taken out to 950 km are presented here. We find the sodium effective temperature distribution to be approximately a symmetric function of lunar phase with respect to full Moon. Within magnetotail passage we find temperatures in the range of 2500-9000 K. For phase angles greater than 40deg we find that temperatures flatten out to ~1700 K.

Description: The presence of allophane and other nanophase materials on Mars indicates a time when water was intermittent and short lived. These materials likely represent partially altered or leached basaltic ash and therefore, could represent a geologic marker for where water was present on the Martian surface. Further, they may indicate regions of climate change, where surface water was not present long enough to form clays. Characterization of these materials is important for increasing spectral recognition capacities of our current Martian science array. Ongoing work suggests that variability in the Al:Si ratio of allophane can dictate the amount of both structural and adsorbed water in the crystalline structure.

Description: For the first time in human history, we will soon be able to apply to the scientific method to the question "Are We Alone?" The rapid advance of exoplanet discovery, planetary systems science, and telescope technology will soon allow scientists to search for life beyond our Solar System through direct observation of extrasolar planets. This endeavor will occur alongside searches for habitable environments and signs of life within our Solar System. While these searches are thematically related and will inform each other, they will require separate observational techniques. The search for life on exoplanets holds potential through the great diversity of worlds to be explored beyond our Solar System. However, there are also unique challenges related to the relatively limited data this search will obtain on any individual world.

Description: The Kepler spacecraft's imaging photometer monitored the Pluto system from October-December 2015 during Campaign 7 of the K2 extended mission. Kepler obtained an unprecedented and fortuitous nearly continuous 12-Pluto day lightcurve from measurements acquired every 30 min using long cadence sampling. This 3-month-long baseline anchors the Pluto+Charon lightcurve near the time of the New Horizons July 2015 encounter, observing at solar phase angles between 1.16 and 1.74. Long-term modeling of Pluto's lightcurve will ultimately reveal its long-term seasonal variation. K2's combined Pluto+Charon lightcurves measured at this epoch have an average total amplitude of 0.120+/- 0.006, 0.07 magnitudes smaller than the amplitude predicted by a static frost model (Buie and Tholen, 1989) projected from Hubble Space Telescope surface maps (Buie et al., 1992). Subtracting a static Charon lightcurve from the Pluto+Charon K2 lightcurve produces the same results. Likewise, we subtract each rotation model from the model for the first full rotation and find that the average difference of all variations is 0.017 +/- 0.008 magnitudes. Moreover, the difference between the first and last K2 rotation is 0.005 magnitudes, implying that there are no significant changes in the lightcurve during the 3 months of K2 observations. These results are consistent with seasonal transport on Pluto's surface and the predictions of Buratti et al. (2015a). However, a detailed understanding of the surface-atmosphere interactions associated with these phenomena requires decades of monitoring.

Description: NASA's Resource Prospector (RP) mission is intended to characterize the three-dimensional nature of volatiles in lunar polar and permanently shadowed regions. The Near-Infrared Volatile Spectrometer System (NIRVSS) observes while a drill penetrates to a maximum depth of 1 m. Any 10 cm increment of soil identified as containing water ice can be delivered to a heating crucible with the evolved gas delivered to a gas chromatograph / mass spectrometer. NIRVSS consists of two components; a spectrometer box (SB) and bracket assembly (BA), connected by two fiber optic cables. The SB contains separate short- and long-wavelength spectrometers, SW and LW respectively, that collectively span the 1600-3400 nm range. The BA contains an IR emitter (lamp), drill observation camera (DOC, 2048 x 2048 CMOS detector), 8 different wavelength LEDs, and a longwave calibration sensor (LCS) measuring the surface emissivity at four IR wavelengths. Tests of various RP sub-systems have been under-taken in a large cryo-vacuum chamber at Glenn Re-search Center. The chamber accommodates a tube (1.2 m high x 25.4 cm diameter) filled with lunar simulant, NU-LHT-3M, prepared with known abundances of water. Thermocouples are embedded at different depths, and also across the surface of the soil tube. In the chamber the tube is cooled with LN2 as the pressure is reduced to approx. 5-6x10(exp -6) Torr. For the May 2016 tests two soil tubes were prepared with initially 2.5 Wt.% water. The shroud surrounding the soil tube was held at different temperatures for each tube to simulate a warm and cold lunar environment. Table 1 provides a summary of experimental conditions and Figure 1 shows the nominal view of the NIRVSS components, the drill foot, and the top of the soil tube. Once the average soil temperature reached approx. 178 K, drilling commenced. During drilling activities NIRVSS was alternating between obtaining spectra and obtaining images. Here we discuss NIRVSS spectral data obtained during controlled drill percussions.

Description: In 2017 April, we acquired comprehensive high-resolution spectra of newly discovered comet C/2017 E4 (Lovejoy) as it approached perihelion, and before its disintegration. We detected many cometary emission lines in the range (2.8-5.3) m, in four customized instrument settings (L1-c, L3, Lp1-c, and M1) of iSHELL-the new near-IR high-resolution immersion echelle spectrograph at NASA/IRTF (Maunakea, Hawaii). We identified 12 molecular species: nine primary volatiles (H2O, HCN, NH3, CO, C2H2, C2H6, CH4, CH3OH, H2CO) and three product species (CN, NH2, OH). We detected 85 H2O emission lines from 12 water vibrational bands across L1-c and M1 settings. The many detected water emission lines enabled retrieval of accurate measures for ortho- and para-H2O independently, thereby reducing systematic uncertainty in the derived ortho-para ratio and nuclear spin temperature. Excitation analyses and emission profile analyses were performed for all species, and molecular abundance ratios relative to water are compared with values found for other Oort Cloud comets in our infrared database. Abundance ratios are consistent for most species, with the exception of underabundant methanol and overabundant ammonia in E4.

Description: The Curiosity rover is exploring Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR), a ~6.5 km long and ~200 m wide topographic feature trending northeast-southwest across Aeolis Mons (informally known as Mt. Sharp) (Fig 1). In orbital data, VRR is distinct from the underlying Murray formation due to its relative erosional resistance and greater exposure of bedrock. Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) orbital data show a hematite spectral signature over much of the ridge (Fig. 2). On the ground, Curiosity also observed hematite associated with the sedimentary rocks of the underlying Murray formation, although these detections are difficult to see with CRISM due to mixing with sand and dust.

Description: Venus and Earth were formed approximately the same distance from the Sun, and have almost the same masses and volumes: they should be the most similar pair of planets in the Solar System. A vital, outstanding question is how and when these planets diverged in their atmospheric evolutions. Significantly, recent investigations present evidence for microbial life in Venus' cloud deck. Venus presents us with fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of planetary bodies and life in our Solar System.Venera-D (D stands for the Russian word for "long-lived:" dolgozhivushaya) is a potential mission that would combine simultaneous observations of Venus' atmosphere, plasma environment, and surface to try to answer these essential questions.

Description: NASA is at the forefront of planetary exploration. The inability to test planetary space-craft in the flight environment prior to a mission requires engineers to rely on ground-based testing and models of the vehicle and expected environments. One of the most widely used engineering models of the atmosphere for many NASA projects is the Global Reference Atmospheric Model (GRAM) developed by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). Over the past decade GRAM upgrades and maintenance have depended on inconsistent and waning project-specific support. Recently, the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) has agreed to provide funding support in Fiscal Year 2018 and 2019 to upgrade the GRAMs.

Description: Distinctive low-reflectance material (LRM) was first observed on Mercury in Mariner 10 flyby images. Visible to near-infrared reflectance spectra of LRM are flatter than the average reflectance spectrum of Mercury, which is strongly red sloped (increasing in reflectance with wavelength). From Mariner 10 and early MErcury, Surface, Space, ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) flyby observations, it was suggested that a higher content of ilmenite, ulvospinel, carbon, or iron metal could cause both the characteristic dark, flat spectrum of LRM and the globally low reflectance of Mercury. Once MESSENGER entered orbit, low Fe and Ti abundances measured by the X-Ray and Gamma-Ray Spectrometers ruled out ilmenite, and ulvospinel as important surface constituents and implied that LRM was darkened by a different phase, such as carbon or small amounts of micro- or nanophase iron or iron sulfide dispersed in a silicate matrix. Low-altitude thermal neutron measurements of three LRM-rich regions confirmed an enhancement of 1-3 weight-percent carbon over the global abundance, supporting the hypothesis that LRM is darkened by carbon.