Universe Today - October 29, 2001

NASA has delayed the first photographs to be taken by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft until Tuesday, after they decided to slow the process of aerobraking the spacecraft into Mars' atmosphere. It's not that there's anything wrong with the spacecraft, it's just that NASA is taking the aerobraking very carefully - not wanting to damage the spacecraft's delicate solar array. Odyssey has already performed three aerobrake passes over the weekend, and will continue to sweep through Mars' atmosphere until it reaches a circular orbit in early January.

For the first time ever, Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis (the Northern and Southern Lights) have been captured in an image at the same time. The photograph was taken by NASA's Polar spacecraft, and it shows how the two aurorae seem to be mirror images of each other. The recent aurorae were caused when giant solar flare erupted from the sun early last week, and hit the Earth's atmosphere a few days later.