Space and astronomy news
Image credit: NASA The Canadian Space Agency’s SCISAT satellite was successfully launched Wednesday morning on board a Pegasus XL rocket. The L-1011 carrier aircraft deployed the three-stage Pegasus rocket at 0210 GMT (22:10 EDT Tuesday) at 12,000 metres, which then blasted up to a 650 km polar orbit. During its two-year mission, SCISAT will help …
Image credit: NASA Observations from three NASA satellites have confirmed that the rate of ozone depletion in the Earth’s upper atmosphere is decreasing. The observations were made by SAGE I, SAGE II, and HALOE satellites which scanned the upper stratosphere since 1997. Their observations are consistent with the decline of man-made chemicals in the atmosphere …
Image credit: NASA A team of astronomers from MIT reported today that Pluto’s atmosphere is expanding, even as the planet is getting further away from the Sun on its elliptical orbit. The team made their findings by watching the dimming of a star as Pluto passed in front. Astronomers were expecting to find the opposite …
Image credit: ESA After a picture perfect launch Monday afternoon, the European Space Agency’s Mars Express is now headed towards the Red Planet. The spacecraft, attached to the top of a 4-stage Russian Soyuz-Fregat rocket, lifted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome at 1745 GMT. Over the course of the next 90 minutes, the rocket shed …
Image credit: Cornell According to researchers from Cornell University, binary asteroids – where a small asteroid orbits a larger one – are actually pretty common in Earth crossing orbits. In fact, they think that gravitational interactions with the Earth might actually help to cause the arrangement. The researchers estimate that 16% of asteroids larger than …
Continue reading “Astronomers Find Five Double Asteroid Systems”
Astronomers will have a treat on Wednesday when the planet Saturn sneaks behind a quarter moon and then return approximately an hour or so later. This planetary eclipse is called an occultation, and it will be best viewed from North-eastern part of North America. The exact time of the occultation depends on your location, so …
VentureStar Looks for Government Backing Lockheed Martin has gone to Congress to find funding for its VentureStar reusable space vehicle project, after failing to get any backing from Wall Street investors. Too expensive for Lockheed Martin to develop on its own, the company needs to find billions from a variety of government and commercial financing …
Moon to Eclipse Aldebaran Astronomers are preparing for April 18th, when the moon will pass in front of Aldebaran, one of the brightest stars in the sky. The Midwestern US will be late evening for the occultation, making it dark enough to see without a telescope. ABC News Spiral Star Found Probably caused by the …