|
|
| Book Review: Space Tourist's Handbook |
| Nov 9, 2005 - "Aruba, Jamaica oh I want to take you, Bermuda, Bahamas, come on pretty mamma, that's where you want to go to get away from it all", or do you? What about the edge of space, low earth orbit or Mare Tranquillitatis? They don't rhyme as well, but the company Space Adventures can take you there or get you as close as any private company can make possible. To show their stuff, Eric Anderson, the president of Space Adventures, together with Joshua Piven, have written, The Space Tourist's Handbook. In it, they help you decide which space vacation to choose and how to make the best of your special time. So really get away from it all, skip the run-of-the-mill, and read about trying some truly out-of-this-world stuff. (Full Story) |
|
|
|
|
|
| Liftoff for Venus Express |
| Nov 9, 2005 - ESA's Venus Express lifted off today atop a Russian Soyuz-Fregat rocket, beginning its journey to Venus. ESA's Space Operations Centre (ESOC) at Darmstadt, Germany made contact with the spacecraft two hours after liftoff, and reported that it has oriented itself correctly and deployed its solar arrays. Its onboard systems are working properly, and its low gain antenna is communicating back to Earth - the high-gain antenna will be deployed in three days. If all goes well, Venus Express will arrive at our closest planetary neighbour in April 2006 and begin orbiting maneuvers. (Full Story) |
|
|
|
 |
| Rhizocarpon geographicum, species of lichen. Image credit: ESA. Click to enlarge. |
|
| Lichen Can Survive in Space |
| Nov 9, 2005 - Scientists have found that hardy bacteria can survive a trip into space, and now the list of natural astronauts includes lichen. During a recent experiment by ESA, lichen astronauts were placed on board the Foton-M2 rocket and launched into space where they were exposed to vacuum, extreme temperatures and ultraviolet radiation for 14.6 days. Upon analysis, it appears that the lichens handled their spaceflight just fine, in fact, they're so hardy, it's possible they could survive on the surface of Mars. (Full Story) |
|
|
|
 |
| Artist illustration of a star ejected from the Large Magellanic Cloud. Image credit: ESO. Click to enlarge. |
|
| Star on the Run |
| Nov 9, 2005 - Astronomers have discovered a massive star moving extremely quickly through the outer halo of the Milky Way, and into intergalactic space. The star, named HE 0437-5439, was discovered as part of the Hamburg/ESO sky survey, and was clocked traveling at 723 km/s, or 2.6 million kilometres per hour (1.6 million miles an hour). It's possible that the star was accelerated when it came too close to a supermassive black hole in the centre of the Large Magellanic Cloud. (Full Story) |
|
|
|
 |
| Dione underneath Saturn's wispy F ring. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI. Click to enlarge. |
|
| Dione Beneath the Rings |
| Nov 9, 2005 - This Cassini photograph shows Saturn's moon Dione, passing just underneath the planet's wispy F ring. If you look carefully, you can actually see several strands of the ring. This picture was taken on September 20, 2005, when Cassini was approximately 2 million km (1.2 million miles) from Dione. (Full Story) |
|
|
|
|
