Here’s an interesting new result from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Scientists announced today that the spacecraft has turned up evidence that some kind of liquid or gas once flowed beneath the surface of Mars.
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Atlantis Moves Out to the Launch Pad
The space shuttle Atlantis made its journey out to the launch pad on Thursday, perched atop the slow-moving crawler transporter. If everything goes well, Atlantis will blast off on March 15, beginning an 11-day visit to the International Space Station to install a new truss segment.
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Lunar Eclipse Coming on March 3, 2007
Skywatchers in Eastern North America, Europe, Africa and parts of Asia are about the be treated to one of the most beautiful events in the night sky: a total lunar eclipse. The eclipse gets underway on Saturday, March 3, 2007, and will last about 6 hours from start to finish.
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Hubble View of Planetary Nebula NGC 2440
This beautiful photograph was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, and it shows the planetary nebula NGC 2440. Once again, we’re looking at a haunting vision of the future that awaits our own Sun.
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Podcast: Counting Aliens with the Drake Equation
If you’re wondering how many extraterrestrials there are in our galaxy, you just have to use a simple equation developed by astronomer Frank Drake in 1961. Just find out how many stars there are, how many support life, how many advanced societies form, and a few other details and we’ll be set.
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Comets Colliding Inside the Helix Nebula
The latest photograph taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope shows a bizarre false colour view of the Helix Nebula. Located around 700 light years from Earth, in the constellation of Aquarius, this beautiful nebula used to be a star similar to our own Sun. As it died, it sloughed off its outer layers, creating the view we see today.
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Atlantis Prepared for Assembly
The Space Shuttle Atlantis was transported to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Wednesday, beginning the preparations for its assembly. Over the coming days, technicians will attach Atlantis to its external fuel tank, and twin solid rocket boosters.
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Imaging Problems for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Although NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is about to break the record for science data returned from the Red Planet, it’s got a couple of problems that could be getting worse.
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Distant Quasars Surrounded by Dark Matter Halos
Astronomers have taken 4,000 of the brightest quasars and figured out just how much dark matter surrounds them. As we’re starting to learn, wherever there’s matter, there’s 10x as much dark matter. These quasars back that theory up.
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What’s Up this Week: February 12 – February 18, 2007
Monday, February 12 – Celestial scenery alert! As the Moon moves along the ecliptic, it has now neared Jupiter and you’ll find the pair less than half a fistwidth apart in the morning skies.
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