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| What's Up This Week - August 22 - August 28, 2005 |
Aug 23, 2005 - Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! I'd like to thank all of you who took the time to write to me about this year's Mars apparition and this week we'll look at both the "fact" and the "fiction". Now it's time to start our explorations as we check in on the planets, visit the "Lagoon", have a look at the M25, journey to the "Small Sagittarius Star Cloud", and track down the "Trifid". So, get your telescopes and binoculars ready, because...
Here's what's up! (Full Story) |
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| Asteroid Close Call Will Be a Gain for Science |
| Aug 22, 2005 - Researchers from the University of Michigan are predicting that when asteroid 99942 Apophis (2004 MN4) swings past the Earth in 2029, it will get so close that astronomers should learn a tremendous amount about how the Earth's gravity can shift asteroid orbits. The researchers are hoping that a space agency will put instruments on the surface of the asteroid to measure seismic data, similar to the way seismologists use earthquakes to probe the Earth's interior. (Full Story) |
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| Proof of Life? |
| Aug 22, 2005 - This is part 2 of an edited transcript of a presentation given by Pamela Conrad, a NASA astrobiologist who has been traveling to the ends of the Earth to study the extremes of life. In this second part, Conrad continues her explanation of how studying cold deserts here on Earth can aid the search for life in our Solar System. Part 1 is available here. (Full Story) |
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| Evidence of Our Violent Early Solar System |
| Aug 19, 2005 - A researcher from the University of Toronto has found unexpectedly young material in meteorites, challenging theories about early events in the formation of the Solar System. A paper published in Nature reports that key minerals called chondrules have been found in meteorites that formed much later than the initial nebula that collapsed to form our Solar System. Instead, these chodrules were probably created when two newly forming planets smashed together. (Full Story) |
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| 999th and 1000th comets identified in SOHO images. Image credit: ESA/NASA Click to enlarge |
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| SOHO Gets Its 1,000th Comet |
| Aug 19, 2005 - The most successful comet hunter in history is actually the ESA/NASA SOHO spacecraft, which spends its time gazing at the Sun. Since many comets streak past the Sun all the time, they often get caught in SOHO's cameras. Toni Scarmato from Calabria, Italy discovered both SOHO's 999th comet, and then 5 minutes later he discovered its 1,000th as well. Almost all the discoveries have been made using SOHO's LASCO instrument, which images the Sun's large corona. (Full Story) |
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| Discovery lifts off on the 26th, July. Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls Click to enlarge |
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| Next Shuttle Will Fly in March 2006 |
| Aug 19, 2005 - Even after all their safety improvements, NASA engineers weren't able to completely solve the problem of foam shedding off the space shuttle's external fuel tank. During Discovery's launch a large piece flew off; fortunately it completely missed the orbiter, but the risk remains. In order to give engineers time to come up with a solution, NASA is targeting March 2006 for Discovery to return to the launch pad and continue construction of the International Space Station. (Full Story) |
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| Artist's impression of Swift spacecraft. Image credit: Spectrum Astro/NASA Click to enlarge |
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| Newborn Black Holes |
| Aug 19, 2005 - NASA's Swift satellite has found brand new baby black holes, just seconds after birth. These newborn black holes are created at the heart of massive star explosions, called gamma ray bursts, and actually generate multiple blasts over the next few minutes. Nearly half of the gamma ray bursts seen by Swift follow a similar model, where there's an initial release of gamma rays, and then followed by several X-ray after-explosions as matter falling into the new black hole clogs up and releases more energy. (Full Story) |
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