Fraser Cain, Author at Universe Today

September 21, 2006 by Fraser Cain

Expedition 14 Reaches the Station

The next crew of residents arrived at the International Space Station on Wednesday, and they brought a special visitor. Expedition 14, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, travelled to orbit with space tourist Anousheh Ansari. Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will remain on board the station until the Spring, while Ansari will return with Expedition 13 in a week.

Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin of the 14th International Space Station crew docked at the International Space Station at 1:21 a.m. EDT Wednesday to begin a six-month stay on the orbiting laboratory.
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September 21, 2006January 23, 2013 by Fraser Cain

New Ring Discovered at Saturn

Cassini recently passed behind Saturn, so that the Ringed Planet completely obscured the Sun from view. This revealed intricate details in the planet’s environment, including a brand new ring. This newly discovered ring is outside Saturn’s main rings, but inside the G and E rings – the moons Janus and Epimetheus orbit within it. During its pass behind Saturn, Cassini also captured an image of the Earth, from a vantage of nearly 1.5 billion km (930 million miles) away..
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September 21, 2006March 29, 2013 by Fraser Cain

Opportunity Sees the Rim of Victoria Crater

NASA’s Opportunity rover is close enough to spot the edge of the massive Victoria crater; its destination for almost 2 years. The crater is roughly 750 metres (.5 mile) across and up to 70 metres (230 feet) deep. Once the rover gets inside, it’ll be able to examine exposed rock on the crater walls. Scientists are still gathering evidence of past water conditions on the surface of Mars, and this view will be one of the best “opportunities” they’ve had so far.
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September 21, 2006March 29, 2013 by Fraser Cain

New Image of the Face on Mars

When NASA’s Viking 1 Orbiter sent its first pictures back from Mars in 1976, one feature caught the eye – the famous “Face on Mars” in the Cydonia region. Other NASA orbiters have returned higher resolution images showing that it’s just a naturally forming rock structure. And now ESA’s Mars Express has revealed even higher resolution images, showing a new perspective view of the face.
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September 21, 2006March 24, 2012 by Fraser Cain

Atlantis Back on Earth, Safe and Sound

Atlantis and its astronaut crew returned safely back to Earth this morning after 12 days in space. The shuttle touched down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1021 GMT (6:21am EDT). During its mission, the shuttle and astronauts delivered and installed the P3/P4 truss segment to the International Space Station, dramatically increasing its solar panels and power generation.
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September 19, 2006December 21, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Podcast: In Search of Other Worlds

Look down at your feet. There – you’re looking at a planet. Now look into the night sky and you should be able to spot a few more. After that, spotting additional planets becomes really hard, especially when you’re trying to find them orbiting other stars. This week we discuss the techniques astronomers use to locate distant worlds.
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September 19, 2006January 24, 2021 by Fraser Cain

Angry Astronomy and Centauri Dreaming

I wanted to take a moment and point your browsers at a few websites that I really enjoy, and I think you will too. You’ve probably heard of the Bad Astronomer, but do you know of the Angry Astronomer? Jon Voisey is an astronomy major at the University of Kansas. Jon has recently been journaling the battle against intelligent design and antiscience movements, but if you dig a little deeper into his archives, you’ll see some great articles explaining concepts in astronomy.
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September 18, 2006March 24, 2012 by Fraser Cain

What’s Up this Week: September 18 – September 24, 2006

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! As the week opens, we’re treated to several lovely views of the waning Moon and the bright winter objects just before dawn. Early evening dark skies mean an opportunity to galaxy hunt and study planetary nebulae. Mark your calendar to enjoy a weekend meteor shower, too! It’s time to dust off the scopes and head out, because…

Here’s what’s up!
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September 18, 2006March 29, 2013 by Fraser Cain

The Location of the Oldest Recorded Supernova Discovered

Ancient Chinese astronomers recorded the occurence of a bright star in the sky in 185 AD; probably a supernova explosion. And now modern astronomers think they’ve found that explosion’s corpse: supernova remnant RCW 86. New calculations have found that RCW 86 is about 2000 years old, making it the best candidate for this ancient supernova. This new data was gathered using the XMM-Newton and Chandra X-Ray observatories.
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September 18, 2006March 24, 2012 by Fraser Cain

Brown Dwarf Discovered in Planetary System

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has directly imaged a small brown dwarf star orbiting a larger star – the first time this has ever been seen. The brown dwarf, HD 3651, is classified as a “T dwarf”, has about 50 times the mass of Jupiter, and orbits about 10 times the distance from the Sun to Pluto. Astronomers theorized that the system contained a brown dwarf, because a Saturn-sized planet had a strangely elliptical orbit; something was tugging on it.
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