Universe Today - September 22, 2000 |
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the U N I V E R S E T O D A Y Space Exploration News From Around the Internet, Updated Every Weekday. September 22, 2000 - Issue #312 http://www.universetoday.com info@universetoday.com An HTML version of this newsletter including pictures is available at: http://www.universetoday.com/html/misc/today.html ************************************** -- UNIVERSE TODAY STORY SUMMARY -- * Eros Reveals Secrets About the Early Solar System * Giant Sunspots Could Fire Flares at the Earth * Russian Astronaut Pioneer Dies * Team Gives Up on Japanese X-Ray Observatory EROS REVEALS SECRETS ABOUT THE EARLY SOLAR SYSTEM ------------------------- Astronomers have released the results of the NEAR (Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) survey of Asteroid Eros. The findings confirm that Eros is a consolidated, primitive sample from the solar system's beginnings. The spacecraft has taken more than 100,000 images of the asteroid at distances ranging from 35 to 350 kilometres. And 8 million measurements by the laser rangefinder on board the spacecraft indicate that it is a single solid object, rather than a loosely collected "rubble pile". Original Source: http://near.jhuapl.edu/news/articles/00sep21/ Internet Coverage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_936000/936149.stm http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20000921/sp_eros.html http://www.msnbc.com/news/464783.asp Similar Stories: http://www.universetoday.com/html/topics/asteroids.html Related Sites: http://www.universetoday.com/html/directory/asteroids.html Related Books: http://www.universetoday.com/html/books/asteroids.html GIANT SUNSPOTS COULD FIRE FLARES AT THE EARTH ------------------------- The largest sunspots seen in 9 years are currently on the surface of the sun, and with each rotation of the sun, they spend a little time aimed directly at the Earth. Known as Sunspot Group 9169, the blotch on the surface of the Sun covers about 6 mil lon square kilometres (12 times larger than the surface of the Earth). The group appeared a few days ago, and so far, it has behaved itself, but it could generate a huge coronal mass ejection in our direction. Internet Coverage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_936000/936606.stm http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20000922/sp_sunspot.html Similar Stories: http://www.universetoday.com/html/topics/sun.html Related Sites: http://www.universetoday.com/html/directory/solarastronomy.html Related Books: http://www.universetoday.com/html/books/solarsystem.html RUSSIAN ASTRONAUT PIONEER DIES ------------------------- Gherman Titov, the second man to orbit the Earth, has died at age 65. The Russian space age hero's body was found in the sauna of his Moscow apartment - apparently he had died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Titov's historic flight in August 1961 aboard the Soviet Vostok-2 took him 17 times around the Earth in a 25-hour flight - at 25, Titov was the youngest man to fly in space. Internet Coverage: http://www.msnbc.com/news/464492.asp http://www.floridatoday.com/news/local/stories/2000/sep/loc092200c.htm Similar Stories: http://www.universetoday.com/html/topics/russia.html Related Sites: http://www.universetoday.com/html/directory/russia.html Related Books: http://www.universetoday.com/html/books/russia.html TEAM GIVES UP ON JAPANESE X-RAY OBSERVATORY ------------------------- Officials from the Japanese Space Agency officially threw in the towel Wednesday, after repeated attempts to bring the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA) spacecraft out of safe mode had failed. The spacecraft went into a spin on July 15 when it encountered an anomalous bulge in the Earth's atmosphere. It's expected to reenter the atmosphere next year. Original Source: http://asca.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/asca/safemode.html Internet Coverage: http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0009/22asca/ http://www.spaceviews.com/2000/09/20c.html Similar Stories: http://www.universetoday.com/html/topics/japanese.html Related Sites: http://www.universetoday.com/html/directory/x-rayastronomy.html Related Books: http://www.universetoday.com/html/books/xrayastronomy.html ------------------------- To unsubscribe from this newsletter, just reply with only the subject line "UNSUBSCRIBE !*EMAIL*!". All contents copyright (c) 2000 Universe Today |