Universe Today - July 26, 2001

the
U N I V E R S E
T O D A Y

Space Exploration News From Around the Internet
Updated Every Weekday.

July 26, 2001 - Issue #461
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Quick note,

That photograph of Mt. Etna taken by Terra is incredible (it's the bottom story). It just replaced the Hubble photo of Mars as my desktop. If you want a nicely cropped and resized version of the image for your own desktop (it's 1024x768), visit this link and download it for yourself.

http://www.universetoday.com/html/picture/etna.jpg

Let me know if you enjoy this, and I'll make more of these pictures available.

Enjoy!

Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today

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-- UNIVERSE TODAY STORY SUMMARY --

* Callisto Might Have an Ocean Too
* Mars May have Reserves of Water
* Star Forming Region Captured by Hubble
* Terra Catches Mt. Etna Eruption

CALLISTO MIGHT HAVE AN OCEAN TOO
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Astronomers have long suspected that there's a ocean of water underneath the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa, but now a Spanish researcher believes Callisto might be a good candidate as well. Based on the fact that the Galileo spacecraft detected a magnetic field but no metallic core as it flew past the moon, Javier Ruiz believes there's 20km deep ocean located 150km underneath the surface. A salty ocean can create a magnetic field around a moon or planet.

Original Source:
http://www.nature.com/nsu/010726/010726-12.html

Internet Coverage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1458000/1458241.stm
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/callisto_water_010726.html

Similar Stories:
http://www.universetoday.com/html/topics/astrobiology.html

Related Sites:
http://www.universetoday.com/html/directory/astrobiology.html

Related Books:
http://www.universetoday.com/html/books/astrobiology.html


MARS MAY HAVE RESERVES OF WATER
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A new analysis of the images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft has turned up evidence that there may be large deposits of water ice near the surface. A survey of over 8,000 Surveyor photos by researchers at Brown University found that terrain at mid-latitudes was mostly smooth, with very few impact craters. The team believes that water has collected inside a porous layer of dust between 1 and 10 meters deep across large areas of the surface. If this water is there, it will be a critical resource for future human missions to the Red Planet.

Original Source:
http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2001-02/01-006.html

Internet Coverage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1456000/1456708.stm
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/07/25/martian.permafrost.ap/index.html
http://www.cosmiverse.com/space07260102.html
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/reu/20010723/mars.html

Similar Stories:
http://www.universetoday.com/html/topics/mars.html

Related Sites:
http://www.universetoday.com/html/directory/mars.html

Related Books:
http://www.universetoday.com/html/books/mars.html


STAR FORMING REGION CAPTURED BY HUBBLE
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A new photograph released from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows a beautiful view of a star forming region in the Nebula 30 Doradus, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy located only 170,000 light years from Earth. The photograph shows how the region is both creating stars in nursaries of gas and dust, and destroying others in waves of intense radiation.

Original Source:
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/2001/21/

Internet Coverage:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/586894.asp

Similar Stories:
http://www.universetoday.com/html/topics/hubble.html

Related Sites:
http://www.universetoday.com/html/directory/astronomy.html

Related Books:
http://www.universetoday.com/html/books/hubble.html


TERRA CATCHES MT. ETNA ERUPTION
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New images taken by the NASA's Terra spacecraft show incredible detail of an eruption on Sicily's Mt. Etna on July 22, 2001. Two distinct plumes can be seen emanating from the volcano and drifting off to the SouthEast; the top, brighter one is ash, while the lower, more diffuse one is composed of water vapour and sulphuric acid. The eruption closed the local airport and caused a state of emergency in the town of Nicolosi.

Original Source:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/earth/volcano/etna_caption.html

Internet Coverage:
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0107/26mtetna/

Similar Stories:
http://www.universetoday.com/html/topics/environment.html

Related Sites:
http://www.universetoday.com/html/directory/earthobservation.html

Related Books:
http://www.universetoday.com/html/books/earthobservation.html


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