the UNIVERSE TODAY Space Exploration News From Around the Internet Updated Every Weekday.
http://www.universetoday.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] An HTML version including pictures is available at: http://www.universetoday.com For information on unsubscribing or changing your email address, check the bottom of this newsletter. ************************************** GEMINI SEES GALAXIES IN A ROYAL RUMBLE Sep 7, 2004 - The latest image released by the Gemini Observatory shows a group of galaxies tearing each other apart 300 million light-years away. The galaxies are members of Stephan's Quintet, and their shapes are completely warped by gravitational interactions that have been going on for millions of years. This ongoing chaos has spawned huge stellar nurseries - hotspots of furious star formation. They'll keep on interacting for a few more million years before merging into larger objects; the smaller galaxies will be completely torn apart. http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/gemini_galaxies_royal_rumble.html <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/gemini_galaxies_royal_rumble.html";>AOL Link</a> NASA ASSESSES THE DAMAGE FROM FRANCES Sep 7, 2004 - It's bad, but it could have been much worse. Hurricane Frances devastated Florida over the weekend, with the eye sweeping close to NASA's Kennedy Space Center - the region sustained winds as high as 110 kph (70 mph). There were no injuries, and the worst damage was to the Vehicle Assembly Building, which lost more than 1,000 panels, leaving huge holes in its sides. None of the space shuttles or the Swift mission were damaged. The center is closed Tuesday for most employees, and a more detailed damage assessment should be released later today. http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/nasa_damage_frances.html <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/nasa_damage_frances.html";>AOL Link</a> HUBBLE SEES THE STINGRAY NEBULA Sep 7, 2004 - The Hubble Space Telescope took this image of the Stingray Nebula, known to astronomers as Henize 1357. The dim star is surrounded by a halo of gas that was shed when the star became a red giant - a final stage in its life. As the nebula expanded away from the star, the remaining core got hotter and hotter, heating the gas up until it glowed. The Stingray Nebula is the youngest known planetary nebula; it wasn't visible in the sky just 25 years ago, when the gas around the central star hadn't heated up enough to glow. http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/hubble_stingray_nebula.html <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/hubble_stingray_nebula.html";>AOL Link</a> FINAL HELIOS REPORT RELEASED Sep 4, 2004 - The board inquiring into the loss of the remotely-operated Helios aircraft released its final report on Friday. Helios was a solar-powered aircraft, capable of flying higher than any conventional plane. During a test flight in June, 2003, the aircraft took off from the island of Kauai and flew out over the Pacific Ocean. About 30 minutes into its flight, turbulence caused Helios to become unstable, with its wings bending more than it was designed for. Shortly after that, the upper surface of the wing ripped off, and it plunged into the ocean. The board determined that NASA lacked the analysis tools to predict how turbulence could affect the plane in all conditions. http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/final_helios_report_released.html <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/final_helios_report_released.html";>AOL Link</a> ASTRONAUTS COMPLETE FINAL SPACEWALK Sep 3, 2004 - The crew of Expedition 9, Gennady Padalka and Mike Fincke, completed their fourth and final walk outside the International Space Station on Friday. The spacewalkers spent a total of 5 hours and 21 minutes in space installing equipment to prepare for the arrival of the new European cargo ship next year, including three communication antennas. Three more antennas will be installed by the next station crew, and Expedition 11 will upgrade equipment inside the Zvezda module to prepare for the new cargo ships as well. http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/expedition_9_final_spacewalk.html <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/expedition_9_final_spacewalk.html";>AOL Link</a> ENVISAT WATCHES HURRICANE FRANCES Sep 3, 2004 - The European Space Agency's Envisat Earth has a whole suite of tools to analyze Hurricane Frances with, and that's just what it's done. The Earth observation satellite has both optical and radar instruments, and it can observe high-atmosphere cloud structure in both the visible and infrared spectrum, and use radar backscatter to look at the roughness of the water underneath to calculate wind speeds. Frances is expected to make landfall in Florida on Saturday and cause a significant amount of damage. http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/envisat_watches_hurricane_frances.html <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/envisat_watches_hurricane_frances.html";>AOL Link</a> SATURN'S COOL... WELL, ITS RINGS ARE Sep 2, 2004 - According to NASA's Cassini spacecraft, the temperature of Saturn's rings range from cold to really really cold. In this false-colour image, the red signifies 110 Kelvin (-261 degrees F), and the blue is 70 Kelvin (-333 degrees F). Cassini has shown that opaque regions of the rings are cooler, while transparent sections are warmer; this was predicted by scientists before the spacecraft arrived. The data was gathered using one of Cassini's 12 scientific instruments, the composite infrared spectrometer. http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/cool_saturn_rings.html <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/cool_saturn_rings.html";>AOL Link</a> ROVER'S GRINDER WORKING AGAIN AFTER GLITCH Sep 2, 2004 - NASA's Opportunity rover has gone back to work after a two week delay because a pebble was jamming its rock abrasion tool. The pebble fell out of the tool on its own just before engineers tried reversing its motor to kick it out. Opportunity demonstrated that everything was working fine by cleaning off a rock inside "Endurance Crater" with its wire brush. Mars and Earth are approaching "conjunction", where the Sun lies directly in between our planets, so controllers will be unable to communicate with the rovers for several days. http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/rover_grinder_working_again.html <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/rover_grinder_working_again.html";>AOL Link</a> CONTRACTORS SELECTED FOR NEW SPACE VISION Sep 2, 2004 - NASA has awarded the first contracts for aerospace firms to begin preliminary concept studies for returning humans to the Moon, and then onto Mars. A total of $27 million USD was awarded to eleven companies to work on concepts for human lunar exploration and the crew exploration vehicle; there is also an option for an additional $27 million. The contracts will give the companies six months to work on their ideas, and then the additional six-month options may be exercised depending on the quality of the work. http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/contractors_selected_new_space_vision.html <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/contractors_selected_new_space_vision.html";>AOL Link</a> SUPERNOVA IN NEARBY GALAXY NGC 2403 Sep 2, 2004 - The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of a supernova exploding in a relatively nearby galaxy. The star that became supernova SN 2004dj was probably 15 times the mass of our own Sun, but only 14 million years old - the larger the star, the shorter and more violent its life is. The star was located in a galaxy called NGC 2403, which is only 11 million light-years from Earth, so this makes it the closest supernova seen in more than a decade. Astronomers will continue to study SN 2004dj for years to understand how certain kinds of stars explode, and what chemicals they're made up of. http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/supernova_ngc_2403.html <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/supernova_ngc_2403.html";>AOL Link</a> ATLAS LAUNCHES SECRET PAYLOAD Sep 1, 2004 - Despite a series of delays, a Lockheed-Martin Atlas IIAS rocket lifted off Tuesday night, carrying a secret payload for the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The rocket lifted off at 2317 UTC (7:17 pm EDT) from Cape Canaveral's Pad 36A; payload separation of the satellite into its transfer orbit happened 73 minutes later. This was the last Atlas 2 rocket that will fly. After this launch, both the class of rocket, and Pad 36A will be retired. http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/atlas_launches_secret_payload.html <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/atlas_launches_secret_payload.html";>AOL Link</a> ARRIVING THIS WEEK: THE OZONE HOLE Sep 1, 2004 - The European Space Agency's Envisat earth observation satellite is getting ready for the arrival of an annual event - the opening of the hole in the Earth's ozone layer. Since a hole first opened up in the mid-1980s, satellites have been tracking its arrival and shape for years, and scientists have gotten quite good at predicting the conditions that will create the gap. The ozone hole should open up in about a week's time, and then close up again in November or December when higher temperatures around the South Pole will mix ozone-rich air into the region. http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/arriving_this_week_ozone_hole.html <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/arriving_this_week_ozone_hole.html";>AOL Link</a> NEW CLASS OF PLANETS FOUND Aug 31, 2004 - Astronomers announced today that they have discovered a new class of extrasolar planets which are between 10 and 20 times the mass of the Earth - roughly the same size as Neptune. Two planets were discovered orbiting smaller stars: one around Gliese 436 and another around 55 Cancri. Both planets orbit their parent stars in about 3 days. They were discovered using the radial velocity method, which finds planets because of how they wobble their parent star. Because these planets are much smaller than Jupiter, they're probably made of rock and ice, rather than gas. http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/new_class_planets_found.html <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/new_class_planets_found.html";>AOL Link</a> STATION WILL GET A BETTER VIEW Aug 31, 2004 - The view from the International Space Station is great, but the window is a little small. But a new observation module - or "cupola" - under development by the European Space Agency will change all that. It's an observation and control tower that will give astronauts a panoramic view for observing and guiding operations outside the station. The 1.8 tonne module has been completed in Italy, and now it'll be transported to Cape Canaveral, Florida to launch to the station in 2009. http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/station_will_get_better_view.html <a href="http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/station_will_get_better_view.html";>AOL Link</a> ----------------------------------------------------- All contents copyright (c) 2004 Universe Today -- To unsubscribe from: Universe Today - Weekly Edition (HTML), just follow this link: http://www.universetoday.com/mojo/mojo.cgi?f=u&l=wk%2dhtml&[EMAIL PROTECTED]&p=4996766 Click this link, or copy and paste the address into your browser. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/BCfwlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! 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