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| What's Up This Week - August 8 - August 14, 2005 |
Aug 8, 2005 - Greetings fellow SkyWatchers! The week starts off rather special as observers in Alaska get the opportunity to watch the Moon occult Venus and more. The return of the Moon might mean the loss of early evening deep sky studies, but we'll still enjoy lunar features and the timeless dance of its orbital track. Take advantage of every clear night as the Perseid meteor shower gears up for its annual peak on Thursday. Keep your eyes on the skies, because...
Here's what's up! (Full Story) |
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| Book Review: Roving Mars |
| Aug 8, 2005 - The Mars Exploration Rovers have unquestionably been one of NASA's most exciting and successful missions to date. The projects scientific principal investigator, Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University has written a candid and fascinating new book about the mission. Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red Planet offers an inside look at the journeys the rovers have taken; not only their captivating treks across Mars, but the surprisingly circuitous and difficult route they took from inception to development and launch. (Full Story) |
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| Astrophoto: M13 by Clyde Miller |
Aug 8, 2005 - Clyde Miller took this picture of M13 on the 17th May, 2005 from Brantford ON Canada.
Do you have photos you'd like to share? Post them to the Universe Today astrophotography forum or email them to me directly, and I might feature one in Universe Today. |
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| Peas growing onboard the International Space Station. Image credit: The crew of ISS Expedition 6, NASA. Click to enlarge |
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| Trick Plants to Grow on Mars |
| Aug 8, 2005 - If humans are going to live on Mars, we're going to need to learn how to grow plants in the planet's thin atmosphere, poor soil, severe cold, and total lack of water. This environment will put plants into a severe state of stress and shut down their metabolism, but NASA scientists think they've got strategies to help them cope. By introducing genes from extremophile microbes that can withstand severe changes in environment, scientists are hoping to modify plants so they won't shut down their metabolism in response to stress. (Full Story) |
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| Shuttle Landing Delayed to Tuesday |
| Aug 8, 2005 - The space shuttle Discovery's landing has been pushed back to Tuesday because of low clouds above Florida's Cape Canaveral on Monday. All three primary landing sites will be activated on Tuesday, so the shuttle can potentially land at Cape Canaveral, Edwards Air Force Base in California, or White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. Weather forecasters are expecting similar weather in Florida for Tuesday, so it's likely Discovery will have to use an alternative site. The first landing attempt will be at 0907 UTC (5:07 am EDT). (Full Story) |
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| Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Will Launch on August 10 |
| Aug 8, 2005 - NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is set to launch in just a couple of days - its launch window opens up on Wednesday, August 10 at 1153 UTC (7:53 am EDT). If all goes well, the spacecraft will blast off on top of an Atlas V-401 rocket with Russian-made RD-180 engines. When it finally reaches Mars in a few months, MRO will begin a series of 514 aerobraking maneuvers, where it skims through the top of the atmosphere to slow down its velocity and bring it into its final science orbit. (Full Story) |
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| Detailed Look at Mimas |
| Aug 8, 2005 - During its recent flyby of Mimas, Cassini found the Saturnian moon to be heavily battered and bruised by impact craters; it's the most heavily bombarded of Saturn's moons. It also got a perfect image of Mimas' Hershel crater, which is 140 km (87 miles) across, and makes the moon look like the Death Star. By analyzing the impact craters, scientists hope to calculate how many impacting asteroids moved through the region early in the life of our Solar System. (Full Story) |
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