Space and astronomy news
After three weeks of tests, NASA controllers have given the newly upgraded Hubble Space Telescope a clean bill of health. Initial tests are largely complete; however, calibrations of the observatory’s instruments are expected to continue for another two months. Routine science observations have now resumed using the telescope’s Imaging Spectrograph and the Wide Field and …
Image credit: Gemini The Gemini Observatory located on top of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea has been used to create an animation of the action going on in galaxy NGC 1068. Using a tool called the Integral Field Unit, astronomers have been able to create a 3-dimensional animation of the tremendous jet emanating from the supermassive black …
Image credit: NASA Locating the faint evidence of planets circling distant stars used to require high performance optics, like those on the Hubble Space Telescope, but two scientists are putting together a system for NASA that should do the trick with off-the-shelf components for less than $100,000. The system will watch a 5-degree square of …
Shuttle Launch Aborted at Last Second Everything was ready to go, but a hydrogen leak detected in the last few seconds caused NASA to abort the launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia. It turned to be a false alarm, and the shuttle is being prepared for another window on Thursday. ABC News BBC News CNN …