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| Image credit: Chandra |
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| Chandra Sees the Most Distant X-Ray Jet |
| Nov 17, 2003 - The most distant jet ever seen was recently photographed by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. The jet is huge, blasting 100,000 light years out of a quasar 12 billion light years away - astronomers are seeing it when the Universe was only 1.4 billion years old. This gives astronomers an opportunity to study the intensity of the cosmic microwave background radiation, as light from the jet needs to move through the sea of particles left over from the Big Bang. |
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| Image credit: ESA |
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| Bringing Back a Piece of Mars |
| Nov 16, 2003 - The European Space Agency is planning a mission to study the surface of Mars by picking up material from the surface and returning it to the Earth. The Mars Sample Return mission will consist of two parts: the return capsule will launch in 2011 and go into orbit around Mars; the lander and ascent module will launch two years later and land on the planet to collect a sample from a depth of 2 metres. It will then launch into Mars' orbit, link up with the return capsule, and bring the sample back to the Earth. |
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| Image credit: NASA/JPL |
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| True Colour Picture of Mars |
| Nov 16, 2003 - The NASA/ASU THEMIS imaging team has released a photo of Mars which has been corrected as close as possible to realistic colour. This image of cliffs and basalt sand dunes in the southern Melas Chasma region of Mars was taken by NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft. Astronomer and space artist Don Davis used photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope and his own experience to modify the colours in the picture until they looked natural. |
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