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| Get Your Calendar by Christmas |
Dec 16, 2003 - I just wanted to give you one last reminder about the Year in Space 2004 calendar which I've been advertising on Universe Today. The author, Steve Cariddi, was nice enough to send me a few copies so I've been reading through it the last few days. On the left-hand side there's a nice full-page picture of something spacey with a description, and then a traditional calendar on the right-hand side. One cool thing is that it has a space-related anniversary for each day (Pioneer 6 launched today in 1965). Steve let me know that he can still do rush orders until Thursday to have the calendar arrive by Christmas. So, if you're looking for a last minute present for a space enthusiast, this might do the trick.
Click here to visit the Year in Space 2004 website (http://www.yearinspace.com).
(Disclaimer, Year in Space 2004 is an advertiser on Universe Today)
Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today
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| Image credit: Hubble |
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| Landers May Be at Risk From a Dust Storm |
| Dec 16, 2003 - Engineers are worried that a new dust storm on Mars might put the three landers at risk when they arrive at the Red Planet in December and January. Right now, several small storms are combining to obscure part of the planet, but they could build to become a global storm - and event that's happened several times in the past. The obscuring dust could limit the amount of electricity the landers can generate with their solar panels; flying dust could damage delicate equipment; and it could also heat up and expand the atmosphere, throwing the calculations off when the landers try to enter the atmosphere. |
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| Image credit: NASA |
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| Potassium Could Be Heating the Earth's Core |
| Dec 16, 2003 - Geologists at the University of Berkeley believe that radioactive potassium might be a substantial source of heat in the Earth's core. The problem has been that scientists haven't found as much potassium in the Earth's crust as they would have expected from the Earth's early bombardment period by asteroids. However, the geologists discovered that potassium can form a heavy alloy with iron under high temperatures and pressures, so it might have just sunk to the middle of the Earth, and could form a minute component of the core - but a fifth of its heat. |
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| Image credit: ESA |
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| Mars Gets an X-Ray |
| Dec 16, 2003 - The European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-Ray Observatory took this recent image of Mars in the x-ray spectrum. Every planet in the solar system, including the Earth, emits x-rays, but scientists aren't completely sure why. One reason is thought to be "florescence emission", when x-rays from the Sun hit atoms in our atmosphere and then get re-emitted with a characteristic signature. The bulk of the x-rays in the picture are coming from oxygen in the Martian atmosphere. |
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