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| Image credit: NASA |
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| Titan Launches Secret Satellite |
| Sep 10, 2003 - The US Air Force launched a secret satellite cargo early Tuesday morning on board a Titan IV-B rocket. The satellite is believed to be an Advanced ORION signals intelligence satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. The Air Force was so secretive about the launch that they were unwilling to release information about its costs, purpose, or even who built it. |
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| Image credit: NASA |
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| Electrons Surfing on a Solar Wind |
| Sep 10, 2003 - New research indicates that electrons may surf on magnetic waves driven by the solar wind, and get accelerated to the point they can cause some serious damage to spacecraft orbiting the Earth. The process is a result of the interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and fluctuations in the density of the solar wind. As the density of the solar wind changes, it causes waves in the magnetic field to ripple back to the Earth. Electrons can be caught in these ripples and surf back to the Earth so fast they can damage delicate electronics in space. |
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| Image credit: NASA/JPL |
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| Sunlight Spins Asteroids |
| Sep 10, 2003 - Astronomers have long-held that collisions were the primary cause of spinning asteroids, but new research indicates that it might be something much more gentle: sunlight. In a recent study carried out by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and Charles University (Prague), astronomers calculated the effect of millions and even billions of years of sunlight pressure can cause an asteroid to spin so fast it can fly apart; others can be made to stop spinning completely. |
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| Image credit: Chandra |
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| Chandra Detects Sound Waves From a Black Hole |
| Sep 10, 2003 - The Chandra X-Ray Observatory has "heard" a black hole for the first time. The object is a supermassive black hole at the heart of a galaxy in the Perseus cluster, located 250 million light-years away. Chandra detected deep sound waves eminating from the black hole in the surrounding gas and dust which have traveled hundreds of thousands of light-years. This discovery may help astronomers understand why there is so much hot gas in galaxy clusters when all calculations predict it should cool away - the sound energy is warming it up. |
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