Universe Today

NASA officials announced this morning that they were successfully able to restart the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope. The camera initially failed on June 19 because of power problems. Engineers devised a solution to switch the camera and two other instruments to a backup power system, and began uploading commands on Thursday. The space telescope will resume normal operations on Sunday night.
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The Hubble Space Telescope demonstrated that the best viewing is outside the Earth's atmosphere. Over the years, a series of new telescopes have been lofted into space, and expanded this view into other wavelengths: Spitzer, Chandra, Compton, etc. Next up is the James Webb Space Telescope, with a mirror 6 times larger than Hubble, due for launch in 2013. But these observatories will pale in comparison when squadrons of space telescopes reach orbit. Both NASA and ESA are working on next generation space-based interferometers. They could answer one of the most fundamental questions of science: is there other life in the Universe?
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Rocks in the desert can form a shiny coating known to geologists as desert varnish. This varnish forms over thousands of years, and can maintain a record of the life around it by binding DNA, amino acids, and other organic compounds into a silica glaze. Geologists from Imperial College in London think that future rovers should be equipped with instruments that can analyze Martian rocks for the presence of past life in this desert varnish.
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Titan glows with a ring of sunlight in this photograph. The picture was taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft when Titan was lit almost completely from behind, and it shows how the light scatters through its thick atmosphere. Cassini took this photo on June 2, 2006 when it was approximately 2.3 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Titan.
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Astronomers think that stars form inside collapsing clouds of cold hydrogen gas. This gas is mainly molecular hydrogen; where two hydrogen molecules are bonded together. These clouds are very difficult to see because the Earth's atmosphere absorbs much of the light that it radiates; however, another gas, carbon monoxide is always present as well, and can be observed easily from Earth. Astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy have developed a detailed map of these star forming regions in the Andromeda galaxy.
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New images of a relatively nearby protoplanetary disk, taken by the Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea, show strange banana-shaped arcs surrounding the central core. The most likely explanation for these arcs is that there's another object orbiting the star; either a companion star or a large planet, and the gravitational interaction of this companion is distorting the disk of material. The protoplanetary disk, known as HT142527, is located 650 light-years away from Earth.
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NASA's Cassini spacecraft will reach the half-way point of its 4 year mission on Friday - it arrived at Saturn on June 20, 2004. Although the spacecraft has already visited Titan 15 times, it'll pick up the pace for the remainder of its mission, performing another 30 flybys. Starting in July, mission controllers will begin altering Cassini's orbit with respect to the Sun by nearly 180-degrees. This will give it a bird's eye view of Saturn's ring system.
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When galaxies interact, it's never a pretty picture. But it can be a source of rebirth and renewal. In this photograph, captured by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, galaxy NGC 5917 (at the top) is tearing apart its nearby neighbour. The tidal forces between galaxies cause huge clouds of gas and dust to compact, creating nurseries of giant, hot stars. These stars live fast and die young as powerful supernovae. Supernova SN2005cf was discovered last year along the bridge connecting the two galaxies.
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Point your telescope at the Moon, and you might see features known as Lunar Swirls. These flat features look like cream just mixed into coffee; except it's pale moondust in swirling patterns atop darker terrain. Even stranger, these swirls have different magnetic fields than the surrounding terrain. What causes them? One theory is that the magnetic field protects the lunar soil from being darkened by solar radiation, creating an unusual dark and light pattern.
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NASA officials announced today that the malfunctioning main camera for the Hubble Space Telescope should be back online by July 3. Ground controllers first learned of a problem with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on June 19, when a voltage spike caused the camera to shut down. Officials think a bad transistor might be responsible for the voltage problem, and believe they can resolve the problem without any degradation to Hubble's performance.
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After the terrible tsunami damage caused by the Sumatra earthquake in December 2004, scientists have been searching for strategies to predict future killer waves. A team of university scientists have shown that Global Positioning System software developed at NASA can determine within minutes if an earthquake is strong enough to generate an ocean-wide tsunami. Ground stations within a few thousand kilometres of the earthquake can actually measure their displacement using the GPS satellites. If they've moved enough, there's a high risk of a tsunami.
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We're accustomed to seeing photographs of Saturn's larger moons, like Titan, Dione and Enceladus. Here's an image of one of its smallest: newly discovered Polydeuces. This moon is only 3 km (2 miles) across, and shares the same orbit as much larger Dione. Cassini took this photo on May 22, 2006 when it was approximately 73,000 kilometers (45,000 miles) away.
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A Boeing Delta IV rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Wednesday, carrying a surveillance satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. This is the first time that a Delta IV has been launched from the military's California facility; normally they launch from Florida. The satellite has been identified as NROL-22, but no other details about its function or capabilities were announced.
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Detailed photographs of nearby star Beta Pictoris by the Hubble Space Telescope show that it's circled by two disks of dust. Astronomers believe that a planet with the mass of Jupiter is using its gravity to sweep up material from the primary disk. Additional material is attracted to the planet, and is shaped into a second disk. The dust disk was first discovered by ground telescopes in 1984, and then seen by Hubble in 1995.
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New images from ESA's Venus Express confirm that the cloud-covered planet has twin atmospheric vortexes at its southern pole. Previous missions to Venus saw stormy southern skies, but these images map out the shape of the double vortex in detail. High velocity winds take only 4 days to spin around Venus. This "super rotation" combines with the natural recycling of hot air to create this vortex structure. Scientists aren't exactly sure why it's creating a double vortex, though.
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Astronomers from the University of St. Andrews have found evidence that a ring of dust around nearby Epison Eridani is rotating. The observations were made using the Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA), which images the sky in the near infrared spectrum. This gives evidence to the theory that the disks of gas we see around newborn stars will eventually go on to become planets. In fact, the clumps of material tracked by the astronomers could even be newly forming planets themselves, still embedded in a vast disk of gas and dust.
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When you gaze towards a clear moonless night sky, the stars appear as points of light - most are colorless. There are a few exceptions, however: Mars, Aldebaran and the star at the heart of the constellation Scorpius, Antares, can be seen to have a very slight reddish hue. Through a small telescope, star and planetary colors become more apparent but galaxies and nebulas remain un-pigmented and monochromatic. These objects begin to take on a greenish ting when viewed through very large telescopes but rarely show the rainbow of hues seen in many deep space pictures, like the one shown here.
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This photograph, captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows Saturn's moons Enceladus and Janus. Also visible is Saturn's F ring, including the bright core which is about 50 km wide, and contains many features of its own. Cassini took this photograph on May 21, 2006 when it was approximately 565,000 kilometers (351,000 miles) from Janus and 702,000 kilometers (436,000 miles) from Enceladus.
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ESA's new Vega launcher completed another milestone this week with the test firing of its Zefiro 23 second stage solid motor. The test was done at the Italian Ministry of Defence's test centre on Sardinia. The 7.5 metre (25 foot) engine delivered more than 100 metric tonnes (220,000 pounds) of thrust, consuming its fuel in 75 seconds. Vega is designed to launch smaller payloads into lower orbits, and will serve the small satellite launch market.
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When you think you have all the answers, it's time to stretch boundaries. Physicists get to do this all the time, and their boundaries seem to have no end. Leonard Susskind in his book The Cosmic Landscape takes the reader along to share his perceptions of the ultimate boundary; the one about our universe. However, rather than stretching the boundary, it's about the existence of a boundary itself that keeps that makes this book well strung together.
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A new simulation by NASA and the National Science Foundation accurately predicted what the Sun's corona should look like during a recent solar eclipse. The corona is a turbulent region around the Sun which is shaped by twisting magnetic fields. Billions of tonnes of plasma are ejected into space as these fields suddenly snap to new configurations. The simulation too 4 days to complete on a supercomputer with 700 processors.
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A new Progress cargo ship docked to the International Space Station today, carrying more than 2.5 tonnes of fuel, water and other supplies. Progress 20 was recently detached from the station to make room for this new arrival; it will burn up in reentry shortly. Progress 22 might actually remain permanently attached to the station, though, serving as extra closet space for the astronauts.
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Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! As warm nights and later sky dark hours descend on the northern hemisphere, it's time to begin our studies along the incredible arm of the Milky Way galaxy. What better way to begin than with a swim in the "Lagoon Nebula"! Enjoy the beautiful nights and get out your binoculars and telescopes, because…

Here's what's up!
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ESA's SMART-1 has been orbiting the Moon for 16 months, but it's out of fuel, so its life is almost over. On September 3, 2006, it will crash into the Moon's surface in a final act of science. If its orbit was to decay naturally, the spacecraft would impact on the far side of the Moon; however controllers have devised a strategy to help it impact on the near side, in view of Earth-based telescopes.
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Astronauts on board the International Space Station have had a busy week preparing for their next Progress cargo ship. On Monday they detached Progress 20 from the station, which will now burn up through the Earth's atmosphere. If all goes well, Progress 22 will blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on June 24, and link up with the station on June 26. It'll be carrying 2.5 tonnes of equipment and supplies.
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