Phoenix Mars Explorer Finished it job
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased communications after operating for more than five months. As expected, seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot’s arctic landing site is not providing enough sunlight for the solar arrays to collect the power necessary to charge batteries that operate the lander’s instruments. Last signal from the Phoenix was received on Nov.2nd. Launched Aug. 4, 2007, Phoenix landed on Mars on May 25, 2008. It verified the presence of water-ice in the Martian subsurface. Phoenix findings also support the goal of learning the history of water on Mars.
Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking Retires
Stephen William Hawking is a British theoretical physicist who became a scientific celebrity through his theories on black holes and the nature of time. Hawking is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a title once held by the great 18th century physicist Isaac Newton. The university said Friday that he would step down at the end of the academic year in September, but would continue working as Emeritus Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. Hawking was quoted before a zero flight saying:
“Many people have asked me why I am taking this flight. I am doing it for many reasons. First of all, I believe that life on Earth is at an ever increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn’t go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space.”
His science bestseller A Brief History of Time
India’s first moon mission scheduled on Wednesday
India’s first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1, is scheduled to blast off aboard an Indian-built rocket at 6:20 a.m. (0050 GMT) on Wednesday. This is the world’s 68th mission. The world’s first moon mission was by the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on Jan 2, 1959. Russia, United States , China, Japan and European Space Agency are the only countries already sent spacecrafts to moon.
Asteroid to Light Up Sky
Astronomers expect a small asteroid measuring few meters in size will enter earth’s atmosphere over eastern Africa before dawn Tuesday. The asteroid will provide a spectacular light show as it disintegrates. The event is expected to occur at 5:46 a.m. local time (10:46 p.m. EDT Monday). The small space rock, designated 2008 TC3, will be traveling on an eastward trajectory that will carry it toward the Red Sea. Its unlikely any part of the asteroid will remain to hit the earth.
Snowfall Seen on Mars
Spacecraft Phoenix detected snow fall 2.5 miles above Mars surface. The snow vaporizes before reaching the ground. So far, Phoenix has confirmed the existence of water-ice. Scientist expects the space probe to be active until end of October before Sun sinks in the horizon,leaving the solar-power probe without energy.
Send Your Name Around The Earth
Members of the public can send their names around Earth on NASA’s Glory satellite. NASA setup a website “Send Your Name Around the Earth” which enables everyone to take part in the science mission and place their names in orbit for years to come. Participant’s name will be ecorded on a microchip that will become part of the spacecraft, they will also receive a printable certificate from NASA. Glory is scheduled for launch in June 2009 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
Leak Found in Earth’s Atmosphere
ESA’s formation-flying quartet of satellites, Cluster, has discovered that Earth’s atmosphere is constantly leaking Oxygen into Space. Charged oxygen ions, flowing outwards from the polar regions into space. The data collected by Cluster from 2001 to 2003 is used to find the phenomenon. Compared to the Earth’s stock of the life-supporting gas, the amount escaping is negligible.
Image Credit : http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMQ8LKRQJF_index_0.html
Solar Eclipse,August 1 2008
The eclipse will start around 8:30 a.m.(GMT) tomorrow in the eastern part of the arc, leading to totality in just under an hour. The eclipse will be visible from a narrow corridor through northern Canada, middle of Russia, western Mongolia and China. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth so that the Sun is fully or partially obscured. Total solar eclipses are rare events. Although they occur somewhere on Earth every 18 months on average. The last full solar eclipse took place almost a year ago on March 29, 2007. Next Total Solar Eclipse will occur on 22nd July, 2009.
Pltuoids = Pluto like Planets
The name Plutoid was proposed by the members of the IAU Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN), accepted by the Board of Division III,as a name for transneptunian dwarf planets similar to Pluto. Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the Sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighbourhood around their orbit. The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris. The IAU has been responsible for naming planetary bodies and their satellites since the early 1900s.
Image Credit:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Pluto_system_2006.jpg
Dust dimming our universe
Universe is actually twice as bright as previously thought, dust is obscuring approximately half of the light that the universe is currently generating. Using an innovative new model of the dust distribution in galaxies, astronomers from UK and German calculated precisely the fraction of starlight blocked by the dust. This obscuring effect from these tiny dust grains also reduce the effectiveness of modern instruments to see further into space.
Phoenix probe lands safely on Mars
After a 680-million-km (423-million-mile) journey from Earth, NASA’s Phoenix probe touched down on the Martian surface. Phoenix entered the Martian atmosphere at about 21,000km/h and used a thermal shield, a parachute, then pulse thrusters to slow down to a mere 8km/h. The Spacecraft landed in the far north of the Red Planet. The probe is equipped with a robotic arm to dig for water ice thought to be buried beneath the surface. Scientists say the mission should give the clearest indication yet of whether the planet could once have harbored primitive life. About half of the three dozen Mars exploration tries have failed over the past five decades. The probe was launched on 4 August 2007.
Organic molecule in space
A molecule closely related to an amino acid has been detected in space by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn. The molecule, amino acetonitrile is detected near the center of our Milky Way. Starting from 1965, more than 140 molecular species have been detected in space, in interstellar clouds as well as in circumstellar envelopes.
(Photo Source:www.kidsastronomy.com)
