NASA's Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) mission provided its first view of Earth after being installed on the International Space Station. The first light came on at 7 pm. There is a time limit of 10:00 p.m. The space station passed over western Australia.
The Mineral Dust Composition of Earth's arid regions is the focus of the EMIT. The instrument is able to measure the light reflected from Earth. Different substances reflect different wavelengths of light and produce a kind ofspectral fingerprints that can be analyzed by researchers
Ground controllers used the Canadarm2 robotic arm of the space station to remove EMIT from a Dragon spaceship and install it on the outside of the station, which took more than 40 hours to complete. Engineers cooled the instrument to its operating temperature after it was powered on.
An image cube was created by the EMIT team after they collected the instrument's first measurement. There is a mixture of materials in Western Australia, including exposed soil, vegetation, agricultural fields, a small river, and clouds. The main part of the cube has rainbow colors extending through it.
The primary mission of the EMIT instrument will be to collect 10 important surface minerals, which will be measured by the instrument.
Scientists are able to determine the composition of dust minerals. Light-colored clays reflect the sun's energy. Scientists don't know if mineral dust has an effect on the planet. The fingerprints collected by EMIT will answer that question.
Caltech in Pasadena, California manages EMIT for the agency. NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida received more than 5,800 pounds of science experiments, crew supplies, and other cargo from the launch of the SpaceX Dragon. The data from the instrument will be used by other researchers and the public.
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