Space and astronomy news
[/caption] If you give most people enough time to think, they can come up with the names of all of the planets. Most will still throw in Pluto, despite its demotion. What those same people will have difficulty with is the Solar System order. It can be difficult to remember which planet is where. The …
[/caption] The bright, hard surface feature beneath the Phoenix Mars Lander has visibly changed from when it was first imaged shortly after the lander touched down on the Red Planet. Scientists believe the area, called “Snow Queen” could possibly be ice. Thruster exhaust blew away surface soil covering Snow Queen as Phoenix landed, exposing a …
[/caption] This image contains all of the largest objects in the Solar System. You can print this diagram of the Solar System, as well as this handy list of all the planets. The Sun – The central star in the Solar System Mercury – The first planet in the Solar System. It’s also the smallest …
[/caption] For the first time, the Phoenix lander stayed up all night. But there was no partying for the little lander, just hard work. Phoenix coordinated its schedule to work together with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to make joint observations to study Mars’ atmosphere. More on that in a minute, but the other big news …
Continue reading “Phoenix Lander Couldn’t Sleep At All Last Night”
The Phoenix Mars Lander successfully used a rasp on the end of its robotic arm to drill into the frozen soil on Mar’s arctic tundra. This effort loosened the icy material, which was then scraped up and collected in the lander’s scoop. Images and data sent from Phoenix early today indicated the shaved material in …
Continue reading “Phoenix’s Rasp Works to Create Ice Shavings”
The US space agency needs to have better consideration for the sexual needs of their astronauts during long missions in space. Also, more research needs to be done to investigate human embryo development in zero-gravity or low-gravity environments, especially if NASA is serious about setting up a colony on Mars in the next 30 years. …
Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Our weekend begins with one very hot look at a very cool area of the Moon – the lunar poles. Why is finding ice just so important? Hang on to your eyepiece because we’ll continue this lunar expedition with some mountain climbing and a look at the big lunar picture. Before our …
Continue reading “Weekend SkyWatcher’s Forecast: July 11-13, 2008”
It’s not that the Phoenix lander’s mission to Mars is over – not by a longshot. But Phoenix did stick a fork in it. The “fork” is a four-pronged thermal and electrical conductivity probe that Phoenix poked into the Martian soil for the first time. The probe tool can help the science team assess how …
Continue reading “Phoenix Lander Tries Out Soil Probe and Atomic Microscope”
Remember the amazing image that the HiRISE Camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured of the Phoenix Lander as it descended to Mars’ surface via parachute back on May 25? Well, the HiRISE scientists have done a little more processing of the image, and have turned up an additional detail they didn’t see at first: …
Continue reading “One More Item Found in Astounding HiRise Image of Phoenix Descending”
Blue is my favorite color. Especially the shade of blue in the image for this week’s “Where In The Universe” challenge. It’s just such an uplifting color. But back to the challenge. The goal of this challenge is to test your skills and knowledge of our solar system. Guess where this image is from, and …