Space and astronomy news
Columbia Launch Aborted For the Second Time Bad weather at Cape Canaveral scrubbed the launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia for the second time. Thunderstorms surrounded the launch facility, and the director held the countdown at the five-minute mark throughout their entire window of opportunity, but eventually the launch was called off. They’ll try again …
Shuttle Ready for Launch Engineers have repaired the hail damage to Discovery’s fuel tank, and are preparing the Shuttle for launch on Thursday. NASA officials admit they’re a little nervous about this launch, considering the recent series of launch failures. ABC News Astronomy Now CNN Space MSNBC Suicide Mission for Lunar Prospector With its overall …
Hubble Finds Gravitational Lens The Hubble Space Telescope has found a series of gravitational lenses – caused when the gravity of a massive object focuses the light of an object behind it. The lenses can take the shape of strange patterns, arcs, rings and crosses, and can be used by astronomers to calculate universe parameters. …
Viking Location Wrong All Along Astronomers have incorrectly reported Viking Lander 1’s location on Mars’ surface for over 20 years. Recent information from the Mars Pathfinder mission have enabled a more accurate landing position, 4.5 km away from its previously accepted location. Astronomy Now Russia Resupplies Aging Mir Filled with fuel, food, water and other …
Comets an Unlikely Source for Earth’s Water New data gathered by Caltech offers evidence against the long-standing theory that the Earth’s water was delivered by comets over eons. Were this the case, our oceans would contain more deuterium (or heavy water), which is prevalent in comet Hale-Bopp – and likely all comets. Astronomy Now CNN …