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| 2005 Pat Rawlings Autographed Space Art Calendar |
| Buckle up and let yourself be catapulted beyond Earth's boundaries - all from the comfort of your own office as SAIC's 2005 Beyond Calendar, the fifth and final issue in the Beyond design series, takes your eyes, minds, and hearts at hyperspeed to the frontiers of space, time, and technology. As SAIC marks its 15th consecutive year producing its famed calendar, noted SAIC Artist Pat Rawlings lights up the pages of this Special Final Edition calendar with his space exploration and high-technology imagery in Beyond 2005. Mr. Rawlings has graciously signed each individual calendar. Mr. Rawlings' conceptual artwork has appeared in numerous publications, exhibits, TV programs, documentaries, and movies. Order now from Countdown Creations!(Advertisement)
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| Image credit: NOAO |
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| What's Up This Week - Dec 20 - Dec 26, 2004 |
Dec 20, 2004 - Season's Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Take the time from your busy holiday schedule to relax with some astronomy. There will be three minor meteor showers this week: the Coma Berenicids, Delta Arietid and the Ursids. The waxing Moon will become our guide as we locate historic variable Mira. Mare Humorum and Crater Gassendi are great features to learn about on the lunar surface and we'll travel to the outer arm of our own galaxy to study a multiple star system - Sigma Orionis. Not enough? Then I have a special and very challenging surprise for you on Christmas Day! Although the Moon goes full during this seven-day period, those who are just beginning with new telescopes will appreciate its presence as an easy "pointer" to Saturn. So lift your eyes toward the heavens and enjoy the bright stars of Winter...
Because here's what's up! (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI |
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| Saturn's Environment is Driven By Ice |
| Dec 17, 2004 - Ice particles are a key part of Saturn's changing environment according to a new paper published by Larry Esposito from the University of Colorado at Boulder. According to Esposito, much of Saturn's system is filled with ice, and its components: oxygen and hydrogen, which extend millions of kilometres outward from the planet. Researchers are seeing large fluctuations in the amount of oxygen, which could be caused by small, icy moons which are colliding with the planet's E ring, which produces small grains of ice that yield oxygen atoms. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI |
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| Titan's Layered Atmosphere |
| Dec 17, 2004 - On Cassini's recent flyby of Titan, scientists discovered that Saturn's largest moon has a surprising number of layers of haze in its atmosphere. These layers of haze extend several hundred kilometres above the moon's surface. This image was taken in ultraviolet, and then colourized on computer to look like natural colour. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: Hubble |
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| What is the Shape of the Helix Nebula? |
| Dec 16, 2004 - The shape of the Helix Nebula has always been a bit of a mystery to astronomers; some theorized that it's donut-shaped, or it could even resemble a snake-like coil. But new observations from the Hubble Space Telescope have helped to shed some light on this issue. Researchers tracked the speed of material being expended from the central dying star, and came to the conclusion that it's actually two gaseous disks which are perpendicular to each other. One disk was expelled 6,600 years ago, and the other was fired off 12,000 years ago. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: Gemini |
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| New Storms Seen on Titan |
| Dec 16, 2004 - Astronomers had seen storms around Titan's south pole before, but now they've been discovered at the moon's mid-latitudes as well. The discovery was made using the Gemini North and Keck 2 observatories, which have adaptive optics systems capable of resolving Saturn's largest moon with great detail. These storms could be created by surface activities, like cryovolcanoes which could spew an icy mix of chemicals into the atmosphere. It could also be caused by seasonal temperature changes, like the weather here on Earth. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI |
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| Cassini's First Flyby of Dione |
| Dec 15, 2004 - Just days after completing its second flyby of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, Cassini proceeded on to its next target: Dione, Saturn's 4th largest moon. The spacecraft came within just 81,000 kilometres (50,600 miles) of the moon and sent back a stream of close up images of its strange surface, which are now being analyzed by scientists. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA |
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| Radiation Concentrates During Solar Storms |
| Dec 15, 2004 - Scientists were surprised to learn that the Earth's magnetic field can concentrate radiation from the Sun during powerful solar storms, even in places that were previously thought to be safe. One region is the gap between the two Van Allen radiation belts that surround our planet, which resemble two donuts, one inside the other. In between these belts is a relatively safe area that could be prime real estate for satellites because of the low radiation levels. During the extreme solar weather last year, that safe zone actually filled up with radiation and became quite hazardous for more than five weeks. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA |
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| Experiments Chosen for Mars Science Laboratory |
| Dec 15, 2004 - NASA has selected eight proposals for experiments that will be installed on the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover, which will launch for the Red Planet in 2009. The instruments proposed for the minivan-sized rover include: a stereo video camera, a laser that can blast material off from 10 metres, a microscope, an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, an X-ray diffraction/X-ray fluorescence instrument, a radiation detector, a descent camera, and a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer which would be able to detect organic compounds and chemicals produced by bacteria. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA/JPL |
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| Deep Impact Prepared for Launch |
| Dec 14, 2004 - Engineers are making the final preparations for the launch of NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft, due to lift off from Cape Canaveral on January 12, 2005. The spacecraft will make a six-month journey to reach the nucleus of Comet Tempel 1, and then deploy a probe that will crash into it at 37,000 km/h (23,000 mph). The 1-metre square copper probe will completely vapourize, and should carve out a hole the size of the Roman Coliseum, which Deep Impact will be able to study as it passes the comet shortly afterwards. The impact will also be recorded by Hubble, Spitzer, Chandra, and dozens of Earth-based observatories. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA/JPL |
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| Rovers Find Another Indication of Martian Water |
| Dec 14, 2004 - NASA's Spirit Mars rover has found even more evidence that there was liquid water in the Red Planet's past. Scientists have identified a mineral called geothite, which is similar to the jarosite found by Opportunity, and forms only in the presence of water (gaseous, liquid or ice). The rovers previously found hematite, but this can sometimes form without water. Spirit will now climb further up the Columbia Hills to attempt to answer if the water was present on the surface, or just pooled underground. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: Chandra |
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| Pulsar is Even Denser Than Prevously Thought |
| Dec 14, 2004 - The Chandra X-Ray Observatory took a good long look at a pulsar and found that it's cooling rapidly, and suggests that it has matter packed much more densely than scientists were expecting. An international team of astronomers used Chandra to measure the pulsar at the centre of nebula 3C58, which is the remnant from a supernova that exploded in 1181. In less than 800 years, it has cooled to less than 1 million degrees Celsius - for pulsars, that's cold. The cooling depends on the density of the matter in the pulsar. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI |
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| Cassini Flies Past Mysterious Titan Again |
| Dec 14, 2004 - NASA's Cassini spacecraft swept past Titan for the second time yesterday, this time on a more direct course, and passed by 1,200 kilometres above the surface. Once again the spacecraft's cameras took hundreds of images as Cassini drew closer to Titan, revealing the same surface features now associated with the landing site of the Huygens probe that is set to decend to Titan's surface in mid January. (Full Story) |
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| What's Happening on the Universe Today Forum? |
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Check out the Universe Today discussion forums and share your thoughts with other space enthusiasts. Here are a few interesting topics recently added:
Space 2005 - What do you see next year?
Comet Machholz - Have you seen this comet yet?
19 Cold Hours - "Frosty" Dave Mitsky has a cold night of observing.
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Copyright © 1999-2004 Universe Today, All rights reserved.
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