Space News for March 11, 2002
Fraser's News
Hubble Wallpaper
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| Image credit: NASA |
It's been a little while, so here's another wallpaper to grace your desktop. This is one of the last photos taken of Hubble by Columbia astronauts before they released their grasp of it on the weekend.
As always, download the resolution that matches your desktop by clicking on the link. Once the image has fully loaded in your web browser, right-click on the image and choose "Set as Background". Well, that's how it works in Internet Explorer, anyway. :-)
1024x768 (172K) - 800x600 (112K) - 640x480 (77K)
Fraser Cain, Publisher
Universe Today
Mar 11, 2002, 5:00pm
Astronomy
Young Pulsar Defies Theories
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| Image credit: NSF |
Astronomers working with the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array have found a pulsar that is much younger than previously thought. The team tracked the movement of a pulsar, located 8,000 light years from Earth, against the remains of the supernova that created it. By calculating the distance it had moved, they were able to calculate the point at which they were at the same place - 64,000 years ago. Using a different method of calculating age, astronomers had previously pegged the pulsar as 107,000 years old. (source: NSF)
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Mar 11, 2002, 4:47pm
Space Flight
Shuttle Prepares for Morning Landing
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| Image credit: NASA |
The weather in Florida is looking good for Tuesday morning's landing of the space shuttle Columbia. Assuming everything goes as planned (there's slight chance of rain, but nothing that would delay the landing), Columbia will land at the Kennedy Space Center at 0932 GMT (4:32am EST). The mission got off to a rocky start when one of the shuttle's coolant lines was blocked, but controllers say that it won't pose a risk when the shuttle heats up as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere. (source: Reuters)
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Mar 11, 2002, 3:33pm
Astronomy
Search for Planets Gets Closer to Home
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| Image credit: NASA |
Locating the faint evidence of planets circling distant stars used to require high performance optics, like those on the Hubble Space Telescope, but two scientists are putting together a system for NASA that should do the trick with off-the-shelf components for less than $100,000. The system will watch a 5-degree square of sky continuously (about 100x the area of the full moon in the sky), searching for stars which "wink" regularly when a planet obscures it. (source: NASA/JPL)
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Mar 11, 2002, 3:08pm
Space Flight
Success! Columbia Releases Upgraded Hubble
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| Image credit: NASA |
After five days of repairs, the newly upgraded Hubble Space Telescope was released from the space shuttle Columbia. Over the past week, spacewalking astronauts outfitted Hubble with new solar panels, power controller, pointing mechanism, and an advanced camera - 10 times more powerful than its previous system. During this mission, the astronauts set a record for time spent spacewalking, spending a total of 35 hours, 55 minutes outside the shuttle. Columbia is due to return to Earth on Tuesday morning.
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Mar 9, 2002, 2:50pm
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