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| Image credit: NASA |
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| Be Safe Florida |
Sep 2, 2004 - At the time I'm writing this, Hurricane Frances is bearing down on Florida, and should make landfall within the next 36 hours. More than a million people have been ordered to evacuate their homes to avoid what could be the worst hurricane in more than a decade to strike the coast. Unfortunately, it looks like NASA's Kennedy Space Center is right on target for the storm, and it could be hit by the most powerful part, called the "north wall". KSC has been evacuated, but the three space shuttles are secured in a building designed to survive winds of 168 kph (105 mph) - Frances has gotten to 233 kph (145 mph). It's going to be a nailbiter.
If you live in the area, definitely follow the evacuation instructions. I hope everyone stays as safe as possible.
Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today |
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| Image credit: NASA |
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| Hot and Hotter |
| Sep 2, 2004 - A mystery that has puzzled astronomers for years is: why does the Sun's temperature rise as you get further away from it? While the surface of the Sun might only be 6000 degrees Celsius, the corona which surrounds it can be 2 million degrees. The "wave heating" theory proposes that the Sun's magnetic field carries waves of heat from the surface of the Sun and dumps them into the corona. Another theory proposes that lines in the Sun's magnetic field get twisted up and eventually snap, releasing a tremendous amount of energy into the corona. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA/JPL |
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| Rover's Grinder Working Again After Glitch |
| Sep 2, 2004 - NASA's Opportunity rover has gone back to work after a two week delay because a pebble was jamming its rock abrasion tool. The pebble fell out of the tool on its own just before engineers tried reversing its motor to kick it out. Opportunity demonstrated that everything was working fine by cleaning off a rock inside "Endurance Crater" with its wire brush. Mars and Earth are approaching "conjunction", where the Sun lies directly in between our planets, so controllers will be unable to communicate with the rovers for several days. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA |
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| Contractors Selected for New Space Vision |
| Sep 2, 2004 - NASA has awarded the first contracts for aerospace firms to begin preliminary concept studies for returning humans to the Moon, and then onto Mars. A total of $27 million USD was awarded to eleven companies to work on concepts for human lunar exploration and the crew exploration vehicle; there is also an option for an additional $27 million. The contracts will give the companies six months to work on their ideas, and then the additional six-month options may be exercised depending on the quality of the work. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: Hubble |
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| Supernova in Nearby Galaxy NGC 2403 |
| Sep 2, 2004 - The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of a supernova exploding in a relatively nearby galaxy. The star that became supernova SN 2004dj was probably 15 times the mass of our own Sun, but only 14 million years old - the larger the star, the shorter and more violent its life is. The star was located in a galaxy called NGC 2403, which is only 11 million light-years from Earth, so this makes it the closest supernova seen in more than a decade. Astronomers will continue to study SN 2004dj for years to understand how certain kinds of stars explode, and what chemicals they're made up of. (Full Story) |
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