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| Image credit: NASA/JPL |
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| Cassini Sees Lightning on Saturn |
| Aug 5, 2004 - In orbit around Saturn for more than a month now, the Cassini spacecraft has been sending back mountains of scientific data. It's now detected flashes of lightning, a new radiation belt, and a glow around Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The spacecraft's radio and plasma wave science instrument is detecting the lighting, which varies from day to day; a dramatically different situation from what the Voyagers found 20 years ago. The new radiation belt is just above Saturn's cloud tops and extends around the planet, yet the radiation particles are able to "jump over" the planet's rings. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: ILS |
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| Proton Launches Amazonas Satellite |
| Aug 5, 2004 - A Russian Proton rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Wednesday, carrying a Brazilian Amazonas satellite into orbit. The rocket launched at 2232 UTC (6:32 pm EDT), and its Breeze M upper stage placed the satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit 9 hours, 11 minutes later. When it reaches its final position of 61-degrees West, it will provide broadcast television services to countries on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: da Vinci Project |
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| da Vinci Project Announces X Prize Attempt |
| Aug 5, 2004 - The Canadian da Vinci Project has informed the Ansari X Prize of its plans to launch its Wild Fire rocket on October 2, 2004. This is the second team to announce a launch attempt, after Scaled Composite revealed they'll be launching SpaceShipOne on September 29. Wild Fire will be carried to altitude in Saskatchewan on board a giant balloon; it will detach and then fly up to 100 km (62.5 miles). The team announced a new sponsor, Internet casino GoldenPalace.com, which has provided cash in exchange for advertising. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: Hubble |
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| Wallpaper: NGC 3949 |
| Aug 5, 2004 - Okay, time to update your desktop wallpaper. This time, it's a beautiful image of galaxy NGC 3949 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. We're embedded inside the Milky Way, so it's impossible to study many of our galaxy's large scale features. NGC 3949 is located 50 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Ursa Major (aka the Big Dipper), and astronomers believe its very similar to the Milky Way in terms of shape and structure - it's like we're looking in a galactic mirror. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: ESA |
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| Slides on Olympus Mons |
| Aug 5, 2004 - This perspective image is of the flanks of Olympus Mons; located on Mars, this volcano is the tallest mountain in the Solar System. It was taken by the ESA's Mars Express spacecraft. The escarpment in the image rises 7,000 metres from the surface of Mars, and you can see the deposits around the base of the escarpment, which scientists have dubbed "aureole"; latin for "circle of light". These aureole deposits are a mystery, but one popular theory is that they're landslides of material shed from the sides of the volcano; perhaps connected with glacial activity. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: ESA |
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| Closer, Dimmer Gamma Ray Burst Spotted |
| Aug 5, 2004 - The European Space Agency's Integral probe detected a gamma ray burst in December 2003, which has now been studied by a host of telescopes and instruments for several months. Researchers now believe that the event, called GRB 031203, was the closest burst on record; it went off in a galaxy only 1.3 billion light-years away. Even though it was much closer, it wasn't much brighter than other bursts, and astronomers believe this could be the first discovery of a whole new class of gamma ray bursts which aren't as energetic, but could be much more common. (Full Story) |
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