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| Image credit: NASA |
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| What's Up This Week? - October 18 - 24 |
| Oct 18, 2004 - What a wonderful week to be out under the stars! The nights are cool and clear, and there will be many enjoyable astronomy things to do. As we lead up to next week's total lunar eclipse, the Moon is a highlight in the night sky. But be on watch all week as Orionid meteor activity will be up. Here's what's up day by day from October 18 to 24! (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: SOHO |
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| No Sunspots at All |
| Oct 18, 2004 - On October 11, solar astronomers saw something they haven't seen on the Sun in six years... nothing. Not a single sunspot. Within a couple of days, of course, a sunspot popped up, and they're on the Sun right now. This is a clear indication to astronomers that the Sun is on its way to the low point of its 11-year cycle of activity, called the "solar minimum". During the solar minimum, the Sun can be without spots for days or even weeks, and solar flares subside. Astronauts will breath a sigh of relief; it's a safer time to be out in space. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA |
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| Deep Impact Arrives in Florida |
| Oct 18, 2004 - NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and will now be prepared for its launch. If everything goes as planned, Deep Impact will lift off on December 30 atop a Delta rocket and then journey towards Comet Tempel 1. Its "impactor" spacecraft will smash into the comet on July 4, 2005, at a speed of 37,000 kph (23,000 mph), blasting out a crater hundreds of metres across. At the same time, its "flyby" spacecraft will record the event so scientists back on Earth can analyze the excavated material and get a better sense of what's inside a comet. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: ESA |
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| SMART-1 Nearly Captured By the Moon |
| Oct 18, 2004 - The European Space Agency's SMART-1 spacecraft fired its ion thruster nearly continuously last week to set itself up to be captured by the Moon's gravity on November 13. The spacecraft launched just over a year ago, and it's been using its ion engine to make larger and larger orbits around the Earth. Once it gets captured, it'll use the thruster to decrease its orbit until January 15, 2005 when it will get as close as 300 km to the Moon. The probe will then spend another six months making a comprehensive survey of chemical elements on the lunar surface. (Full Story) |
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| Image credit: NASA |
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| Expedition 10 Arrives at the Station |
| Oct 16, 2004 - The crew of Expedition 10 arrived at the International Space Station on Saturday, after a malfunction forced them to dock their Soyuz spacecraft manually. For an unknown reason, the spacecraft sped up when it was only 200 metres (650 feet) the station, so Salizhan Sharipov had to override the automated system, and complete the docking manually. Once the Soyuz TMA-5 was firmly docked to the Pirs airlock module, the three crew entered the station to a warm greeting by the two-man crew of Expedition 9; they're set to return on October 23. (Full Story) |
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