Monday, January 5, 2009

‘Space’ News

’Little Bang’ Triggered Solar System Formation

Thursday, October 16, 2008 4:20

This image shows a cross-sectional view of one-half of a solar-mass target cloud being struck by a supernova shock front that is traveling downward. The colors represent the target cloud, with redder colors representing denser regions. The solid black contours delineate material that ...

First Detection Of Magnetic Field In Distant Galaxy Surprises Astronomers

Thursday, October 16, 2008 4:19

The astronomers used the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope, which stands 485 feet tall -- taller than the Statue of Liberty. (Credit: NRAO/AUI) Astronomers believe the magnetic fields within our own Milky Way and other nearby galaxies—which control the rate of star formation ...

More Star Births Than Astronomers Have Calculated

Thursday, October 16, 2008 4:18

"H-alpha emissions only occur in the vicinity of very heavy stars," explains Jan Pflamm-Altenburg of the Argelander Institute of Astronomy at Bonn University. It has long been accepted that heavy and light stars are always born in a certain ratio to each other. One "H-alpha baby" is thought to be ...

Space Scientists Set For Second Spacecraft Flyby Of Mercury

Thursday, October 16, 2008 4:16

NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft carrying an $8.7 million University of Colorado at Boulder instrument will make its second flyby of Mercury Oct. 6. The desk-sized spacecraft will settle into Mercury orbit in 2011 after having made 15 loops around the sun since its 2004 ...

New Robotic Repair System Will Fix Ailing Satellites

Thursday, October 16, 2008 4:15

Electrical and Computer Engineering professor Michael Greenspan (right) and graduate student Limin Shang demonstrate a new robotic tracking system that will be used to enable repairs of orbiting satellites. (The Big Bird figure in foreground represents a satellite.) (Credit: Photo by Stephen Wild) “These are ...

Sharpest Whole-Planet Picture Of Jupiter Taken From The Ground

Thursday, October 16, 2008 4:14

Amazing image of Jupiter taken in infrared light on the night of 17 August 2008 with the Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics Demonstrator (MAD) prototype instrument mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. This false colour photo is the combination of a series of images taken ...

Infrared Echoes Give NASA’s Spitzer A Supernova Flashback

Thursday, October 16, 2008 4:13

Cassiopeia A is among the best-studied supernova remnants. This image blends data from NASA’s Spitzer (red), Hubble (yellow), and Chandra (green and blue) observatories. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/CXC/SAO) Eli Dwek of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Richard Arendt of the University of ...

Mars: Ancient And Ongoing Processes That Shape Planet Surface

Thursday, October 16, 2008 4:12

3D view of a few scallops. The ridges are asymmetrical with a steeper, shorter, scarp-facing-slope and form steps on the scallop floor (HiRISE image PSP_001938_2265 overlaid on a HiRISE DEM). (Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona) Professor Alfred McEwen, HiRISE’s Principal Investigator, highlighted some of the ...

Researchers And Students To Develop Small CubeSat Satellites

Thursday, October 16, 2008 4:11

A student in the Student Space Systems Fabrication Laboratory works on a CubeSat. The Radio Aurora Explorer satellite will be made of three CubeSats. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Michigan) Undergraduate and graduate students will be heavily involved in this Radio Aurora Explorer (RAX) ...

Hidden Boundaries Of Sunspots Pump Out Plasma Into Interplanetary Space

Thursday, October 16, 2008 4:10

An active region of the sun observed by Hinode on Aug. 23, 2007. (Credit: JAXA/NASA/NAOJ/STFC/ESA) Using new information from Hinode, an international mission to study the sun, scientists have found that the dim areas at the edges of active regions may hold the key ...