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| Help Out Tsunami Victims |
Dec 29, 2004 - At the time I'm writing this, approximately 80,000 people are believed to have lost their lives in the Asian Tsunami. This is a terrible tragedy, but it's not over yet. This disaster hit some of the poorest parts of the planet, where people had inadequate infrastructure to begin with. We have an opportunity now to save potentially hundreds of thousands of lives by donating to relief agencies.
I'm begging you all to take a moment from your busy lives, and donate what you can afford to a relief agency. Here's a handy list at CNN that lists agencies accepting donations on behalf of the victims. What they need right now is money, and lots of it.
Let's help!
Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today |
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| Image credit: NASA/JPL |
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| Asteroid Threat Ruled Out |
| Dec 29, 2004 - Astronomers have now ruled out the possibility that Asteroid 2004 MN4 will strike the Earth in April 2029. Scientists from the Spacewatch Observatory near Tuscon, Arizona searched back through older observations to find some images of 2004 MN4 that were captured in March, 2004. This gave them enough data to recalculate the asteroid's path, and see that it doesn't pose a threat to the planet. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA/JPL |
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| Opportunity Finds its Heat Shield |
| Dec 29, 2004 - NASA's Opportunity Rover has reunited itself with the heat shield that protected its entry into the Martian atmosphere almost a year ago, when it first arrived at Mars. After it was ejected, the shield crashed to the surface nearly 2 km away from Opportunity's landing spot. The rover will study both the heat shield, and its impact mark - now the freshest crater on Mars. Engineers will have an opportunity to understand how the heat shield performed during atmospheric entry, and scientists will get a chance to see what's beneath the surface of Mars. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NOAO |
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| What's Up This Week - Dec 27 - Jan 2, 2005 |
Dec 27, 2004 - Happy Holidays, Skywatchers! This week we continue our celestial journey beginning before dawn with a close pairing of Venus and Mercury. As we wait for the later and later rise of the Moon each evening, we will visit in Aries with a fine double - Mesarthim. Returning again to the north, it's time to locate the M34 in Perseus and begin studying the open clusters of Auriga with the M36 and M38. For those in the north, discovery awaits you with the "Little Dumbbell", M76, while the south enjoys the incredible Eta Carinae. Celebrate the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one by journeying across time and space. Take the time to enjoy the singular beauty of "Hind's Crimson Star" and return again to the "Magnificent Machholz" as it climbs even higher and gets even brighter! So grab your binoculars, get out your telescopes, and hope for clear skies...
Because here's what's up! (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA |
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| Crew Begins Unloading Progress |
| Dec 27, 2004 - An unmanned Progress cargo ship reached the International Space Station on Sunday, and the two-man crew got right to work unloading its cargo. Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao had both cut their food consumption by 10% to stretch out supplies, and had each lost a few kg during the last month. The Progress ship is carrying 2.5 tonnes of supplies, including a 15kg (33 pound) gift package for each man. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: ESA |
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| Huygens is On Its Way |
| Dec 27, 2004 - The European Space Agency's Huygens probe successfully detached from Cassini on December 25, and began its brief journey to Titan. The probe is currently dormant, though, and will remain this way for most of its 20-day journey to Saturn's largest moon. Four days before arrival, a triply-redundant alarm clock will wake the probe up, and it will prepare for arrival. On January 14, 2005, the probe will enter Titan's atmosphere, descending to the surface in about 2 hours. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: Subaru |
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| Jovian Moon Was Probably Captured |
| Dec 24, 2004 - New observations of Jupiter's moon, Amalthea, reveal that it probably didn't form with the giant planet. The observations were made with the powerful Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, which found that Amalthea has unusual amounts of water-carrying minerals. These typically form in low temperature environments. Astronomers theorize that Jupiter's moons formed from several small objects merging together, and Amalthea could be an example of one of these building blocks that never had a chance to merge. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA |
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| Cargo Ship Launches with Supplies for the Station |
| Dec 24, 2004 - An unmanned Progress cargo ship lifted off from Kazakhstan over night, carrying much needed supplies for the International Space Station. Food supplies were getting low on board the station, so the Progress is loaded up with a 112-day supply of food, as well as water, air, propellant, and additional spare parts for the station. It's expected to dock automatically on December 25th to the aft port of the Zvezda living quarters module. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: ESA |
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| Mars Volcanoes Were Active Recently |
| Dec 23, 2004 - Photographs taken by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft seem to indicate that there still could be active volcanism on the Red Planet. The spacecraft took detailed observations of five Martian volcanoes, and found that some had erupted as recently as 4 million years ago. Although this is ancient in human terms, it means that Mars is still probably geologically active. This is very important to biologists, because it means that there could be geothermic vents with heat and liquid water - havens for microbial life. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NRAO |
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| Radio Telescopes Will Contribute to Huygens' Mission |
| Dec 23, 2004 - When Huygens makes its plunge into Titan's thick atmosphere on January 14, 2005, it'll be watched by a host of instruments, including the radio telescopes from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). By measuring the frequency of Huygens' radio signals, scientists will be able to calculate the east-west wind speeds, and build a better model of Titan's weather systems. Another team will track the probe's trajectory to within 1 km (3,300 feet). (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA |
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| Experiments Chosen For Lunar Orbiter |
| Dec 23, 2004 - NASA has selected six proposals for instruments that will fly with the upcoming Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). These instruments include: a laser altimeter, a high-resolution camera, a neutron detector to search for water ice, a thermometer to map the temperature of the lunar surface, an ultraviolet detector to look into shadowed regions, and a cosmic ray telescope to measure background radiation. The LRO will travel to the Moon in 2008, and help gather information needed for future human explorers as part of the new space vision. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA/JPL |
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| Massive Galaxies are Still Forming |
| Dec 22, 2004 - NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer has discovered baby galaxies forming in our relative neighborhood, casting doubt on the theory that only small galaxies were forming this long after the Big Bang. These new galaxies are called ultraviolet luminous galaxies, and they're only 2-4 billion light-years away. They could be as young as 100 million to one billion years old. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer surveyed thousands of galaxies before finding these few dozen ultraviolet-bright ones, which are teeming in new star formation. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: Boeing |
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| Delta 4 Heavy Launches, But Falls Short |
| Dec 22, 2004 - The first Delta 4 Heavy rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Tuesday evening, but it appears there was a glitch that put the rocket's satellite payload into an incorrect orbit. The rocket's first stage shut down 8 seconds earlier than expected, so the upper stage was fired longer than originally planned to compensate. Flight controllers still haven't made an official announcement about the demonstration payload it was carrying, but two additional nanosatellites haven't made contact yet. NASA is considering this vehicle as a potential replacement for some of the space shuttle's cargo carrying duties, so the launch was being watched carefully. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA |
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| Searching for Antimatter in Antarctica |
| Dec 21, 2004 - An international team of researchers have recently launched a huge balloon, the size of a football field, in Antarctica. The instrument, called BESS-Polar launched from McMurdo Station on December 13, and will spend at least 10 days at an altitude of 39 km (24 miles); at the edge of space. The experimenters hope that BESS-Polar will be able to detect any evidence of antimatter created during the Big Bang. And as a bonus, if the instrument can find low-energy antiprotons, it would be evidence of radiation from evaporating black holes, predicted by Stephen Hawking. (Full Story) |
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