Astronomy
Hubble Reveals Retina Nebula
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| Image credit: Hubble |
The most recently released photograph taken by the Hubble Space Telescope is of wispy nebula IC 4406, dubbed the "Retina Nebula". The object is a ring of dust and gas around a dying star and is nearly perfectly symmetrical. One of the more interesting features is the lattice of dark lanes that crisscross the centre of the nebula, each of which is 160 astronomical units wide (1 AU is the distance from the Earth to the Sun). The photograph is a composite of images taken in June 2001 and January 2002.
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Jun 16, 2002, 11:19pm
Space Flight
Sea Launch Delivers PanAmSat to Orbit
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| Image credit: Sea Launch |
A Zenit-3SL successfully carried a PanAmSat's Galaxy IIIC satellite into orbit on Saturday, marking the seventh launch from the floating Sea Launch platform. The three-stage rocket lifted off from the platform on Saturday at 2239 GMT (6:39pm EDT), and the spacecraft's signal was detected a few minutes later, indicating a successful launch. The satellite will move to a geostationary orbit, where it will provide Internet, video, audio and data services to North America.
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Jun 15, 2002, 11:32pm
Space Flight
Endeavour Undocks from the Station
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| Image credit: NASA |
The space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station on Saturday and prepared to return a team of astronauts who broke the American space endurance record - the crew of Expedition 4 will have been in space for 194 days when the shuttle returns to Florida on Monday. The new crew of two Russians and one American will remain on board the station until October.
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Jun 15, 2002, 11:00pm
Astronomy
New Planetary System has Familiar Feel
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| Image credit: NASA |
Planet hunters have discovered a new extrasolar system that looks remarkable like our own Solar System. Until now, planets orbiting around other stars have had elongated and eccentric orbits, but a planet orbiting around 55 Cancri has almost the same distance as our own Jupiter (although, it does have 3.5-5 times the mass). The team of astronomers also announced an additional 13 new planets on the same day, bringing the total number of known planets outside our Solar System to over 90.
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Jun 13, 2002, 11:40pm
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