Space News for January 30, 2002
Fraser's News
More Time for Space News
Well, I'm still tweaking the site quite a bit, but I'm starting to get the handle of using this automated tool. The site is really fast to update at this point, with a computer handling all that pesky HTML formatting. I still need to update the design to make the site look a little cleaner and figure out how to bring some features back in, like larger images, etc. Still, it’s saving me mountains of time already.
I’ve had a couple of people ask what I’m using. It’s Interactivetools.com's Article Manager. A brief disclaimer: I’ve been friends with the company for several years and am currently helping them out. Still, if you’re looking for something similar, I highly recommend you check it out, as well as their other site publishing software.
Jan 30, 2002, 7:54pm
Science
New Clues About the Great Dying
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| Image credit: NASA |
Scientists know that approximately 250 million years something wiped out almost all the life on Earth; however, what exactly happened has remained a mystery - was it a volcano, asteroid strike, or something else? New evidence has been found in pockets of gas deep inside rocks that were formed during the time of the event. The gas contains higher than normal levels of a specific type of helium and argon which is more common in space, so something must have brought the material to Earth, probably an asteroid.
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Jan 30, 2002, 7:28pm
Astronomy
Chandra Spots Plume in Galaxy Cluster
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| Image credit: Chandra |
The latest photograph released from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory shows a long plume of gas and dust wrapped around the Centauris galaxy cluster. Astronomers are puzzled about what the plume is; although, they know it has the same mass as 1 billion suns and is several million degrees cooler than its surroundings. One possibility is that the plume consists of a trail of debris stripped off another galaxy which fell into the cluster.
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Jan 30, 2002, 7:17pm
Space Flight
Odyssey Reaches Final Mapping Orbit
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| Image credit: NASA |
NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft has reached its final mapping orbit after three months of aerobraking manoeuvres around the Red Planet. At 2014 GMT (5:14pm EST) Odyssey fired its thrusters for 25 seconds and decreased its velocity to maintain an orbit which varies between 387km and 450km above the surface of Mars. Two scientific instruments on the spacecraft have already begun collecting data about the composition of the planet’s surface.
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Jan 30, 2002, 7:06pm
Space Flight
EUVE Expected to Enter the Earth's Atmosphere Shortly
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| Image credit: NASA |
The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) spacecraft is expected to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere sometime on Thursday morning. Although they don’t know where or when it will crash - as far South as Brisbane, Australia, and as far North as Orlando, Florida - NASA believes that most of the spacecraft will be destroyed on re-entry with some pieces crashing into the ocean. Unlike many large spacecraft, the EUVE wasn’t built with a propulsion system to control its crash location. During its eight years in orbit, the EUVE observed over 1,000 objects in the extreme ultraviolet spectrum.
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Jan 30, 2002, 6:47pm
Space Flight
Shuttle Columbia Rolls out to the Launch Pad
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| Image credit: NASA |
The space shuttle Columbia rolled out to the launch pad on Monday to prepare for the launch of STS-109; the fourth mission to retrieve and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. If everything goes smoothly, Hubble will lift off on February 28th, and rendezvous with the telescope in space. Over the course of the mission, shuttle astronauts will perform five spacewalks to install a new camera system, solar arrays, and power controller onto the aging space observatory.
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