If you've got some dark skies, look up for a few minutes, and you're bound to see a meteor go by. That's because the annual Perseid meteor shower has begun, and it's only going to get better. The Earth began passing through the dust trail left behind Comet Swift-Tuttle on July 23rd, and we'll stay in it until August 22. The shower reaches its peak on August 12, however, when skywatchers should be able to see 80-100 meteors an hour. This is a good year for the Perseids because the Moon won't be too bright, and the Earth might be passing through an extra filament of dust for the first time on August 11.
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The second of the Double Star science satellites was successfully launched on board a Chinese-built Long March 2C rocket on Sunday. In an usual move, launch controllers decided to launch the Earth observation satellite a day early to avoid bad weather. Double Star is a collaboration between the European Space Agency and China to study the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetic field. The spacecraft reached its expected altitude, deployed the booms carrying its magnetometers, and seems to be functioning normally.
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NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe made an impassioned plea to the chairman of the US House Committee on Appropriations to restore $1 billion in funding for the new space exploration initiative, announced earlier this year. In his short letter, he asked the committee to consider how the budget cuts will affect the agency's science programs, and delay the development of new technologies to support the Vision for Space Exploration.
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Using data gathered by NASA's SORCE satellite, scientists noticed that the light from the Sun reaching the Earth decreased by 0.1% during the Venus transit earlier this year. This is similar to what happens when large sunspots obscure the face of the Sun. In October 2003, three large sunspot groups moving across the Sun dimmed it by 0.3%. These large sunspots are surrounded by bright areas called "faculae", which actually compensate for the dimmer spots, and provide a net increase in sunlight when measured over a period of a few weeks.
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Cassini took this image of Saturn's moon Enceladus on July 3, 2004, when the spacecraft was 1.6 million km (990,000 miles) away. Enceladus is fairly small, only 499 km (310 miles) across, but it's covered in water ice - it's the most reflective object in the solar system, reflecting 90% of light that strikes it. The moon has smooth and lightly cratered terrain, and many features which are similar to Jupiter's Ganymede and Europa. Cassini will make its first close flyby on February 17, 2005.
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While the Hubble Space Telescope infrared camera was imaging a piece of the sky as part of a scientific survey, operators decided to take a snapshot using its Advanced Camera for Surveys on an adjacent region - they weren't really looking at anything in particular. The image contains a jumble of unrelated galaxies, including a yellow spiral stretched by a galactic collision, a young blue galaxy with regions of starbirth, and some other small red galaxies. The blue arc in the middle of the image is actually a red galaxy which is serving as a gravitational lens to magnify a more distant blue galaxy.
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A brand new nebula was discovered in the constellation of Orion by Jay McNeil back in January, 2004, and astronomers have been turning every instrument they have on this new object to better understand it. It turns out that "McNeil's Nebula" has been there for a long time, but it's only been recently illuminated by the young star that formed it. The Chandra X-Ray Observatory has seen X-ray outbursts from the star which have helped to show that its magnetic field is probably interacting with an orbiting disk of gas, causing it to periodically flare up.
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Here's a beautiful 1024x768 desktop wallpaper of Saturn's rings, taken in full colour by Cassini on June 21, when it was still over a week away from the planet - this photo was taken at a distance of 6.4 million km (4 million miles). The rings are mainly made of water ice, and the colour variations depend on the amount of rock or carbon compounds which make them look dirtier.
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Researchers have found a new meteorite which they believe originated from Mars. The 715 gram (1.6 pound) black rock was discovered during a meteorite search in Antarctica. A total of 1358 meteorites were discovered during the search last year, but this one is unmistakably Martian in origin, according to scientists classifying the meteorites. Scientists from around the world are invited to request samples of the rock, dubbed MIL 03346, for their research. Perhaps it will be able to help clear up the controversy about whether life was found in that other rock from Mars.
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Scientists now believe that rogue waves - which can reach 30 metres (100 feet) high - are responsible for most of the large ship sinkings on the ocean. The ERS Earth observation satellites from the European Space Agency have spotted several of these elusive monsters, confirming their existence. A team of scientists studied a series of images of the Earth's oceans taken by the ERS satellites over a period of three weeks. In those images they found more than 10 giant waves taller than 25 metres. A new study will track the oceans for 2 years to get a better understanding of how they form, and if they can be predicted.
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Cassini took this image of Saturn's moon Tethys on July 3, 2004 when the spacecraft was 1.7 million km (1 million miles) away. This heavily cratered moon is 1060 km (659 miles) across, and it's known to have a huge fracture that covers three-quarters of its circumference; although, this picture doesn't show it. Cassini is expected to make a close-up observation of Tethys in September 2005.
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The theory that the expansion of our Universe is accelerating got another boost this week by a group of researchers from Princeton University. They used data in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to measure the light from 3,000 quasars. They weren't looking at these quasars, though, but at diffuse hydrogen gas that sits in space partially obscuring the intervening space. The light from the quasars is changed depending on how much this gas that it has to go through. The astronomers were able to get a sense of how this gas clumped together over time, and their results exactly match the inflationary model of the Universe.
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As part of their efforts to return the space shuttle fleet back to operation, NASA engineers tested out a complete Space Shuttle Main Engine on Monday. The test ran for 520 seconds, which is how long the shuttle takes to get into orbit, and it looks like there were no problems. The engine will next be shipped out to the Kennedy Space Center for installation into the space shuttle Discovery. If the Return to Flight tasks go well, the next flight, STS-114, could launch as early as March 2005 to return to the International Space Station.
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NASA's Cassini spacecraft took this image of Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon on June 2, 2004, when it was 990,000 km (615,000 miles) away. Rhea is 1528 km (950 miles) across, ancient, and cratered. More than 20 years ago, Voyager discovered that one of its hemispheres has bright, wispy streaks that might be deposits of water ice. Cassini is expected to fly only 500 km (311 miles) away from Rhea on November 26, 2005, so we've got a bit of a wait before getting the extreme close-up view.
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NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has uncovered a group of ancient galaxies that had eluded astronomers using other telescopes. The primordial galaxies were originally discovered using the UK's SCUBA instrument on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii, but the instrument wasn't fine enough to determine which were galaxies in the background, and which were actually groups of galaxies, or objects in the foreground. Spitzer resolved the issue in only 10 minutes, giving the SCUBA team a new method of confirming their findings.
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NASA has shortened its list of potential missions for its New Frontiers program down to two spacecraft. The first is called "Moonrise", and would send two identical landers to the Moon's south pole - which is believed to have water ice mixed in with the lunar soil - to return 2 kg (5 lbs) of material back to Earth. The second is called "Juno", and would send a spacecraft into a polar orbit around Jupiter to study the giant planet in great detail. Both missions will receive $1.2 million in funding to perform 7-month feasibility studies to see if they can launch by June 2010 at a cost of less than $700 million.
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Astronomers have detected a small bright spot on a familiar neutron star, Geminga, located 500 light-years away. The hot spot was discovered using the XMM-Newton x-ray observatory, and it's the size of a football field. Geminga itself is only 20 km (12.4 miles) across, and spins 4 times a second, but it's got 1.5 times the mass of our own Sun. The hot spot is created because material ejected from the rapidly spinning object is being recaptured by its gravity, and then funneled by its magnetic field to strike a specific point, heating it up millions of degrees.
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After several days of delays, NASA's Aura Earth observation satellite launched on Thursday atop a Boeing Delta II rocket. The liftoff was from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 1002 UTC (6:02 am EDT), and the spacecraft separated 64 minutes later. Once its science mission begins in the next few months, Aura will sample the Earth's atmosphere to help scientists answer several questions: is the ozone layer recovering? what processes affect air quality? and how is the Earth's climate changing?
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Engineers with NASA have decided to get Spirit to drive up the Columbia Hills backwards because of an ongoing problem with one of its wheels. The problem cropped up a few months ago, when one of its front wheels started getting extra resistance; they've tried heating it, and giving it rest, but nothing's worked. Spirit is now keeping the wheel locked, and then driving backwards, dragging it along like an anchor. This has saved power, but slowed down its speed a bit. Spirit will still use the wheel when it's trying to cross difficult terrain.
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Why does Iapetus have a dark side and bright side? That's a mystery scientists hope that the Cassini spacecraft will be able to solve as it spends the next few years orbiting the Saturnian system. The unusual light/dark nature of the moon was first revealed when the Voyager spacecraft swept past the moon more than 20 years ago. One theory is that the moon was coated by some other foreign material, but only on one side. Another idea is that it's being resurfaced from material inside the moon. This image was taken when Cassini was 3 million kilometres (1.8 million miles) away.
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The world's largest commercial communications satellite, Telstar's Anik F2, was launched atop an Ariane 5G rocket today. The rocket lifted off from the European Spaceport in Kourou at 0044 UTC (8:44 pm EDT July 17), and carried the 5,950 kg (13,118 lb) satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit. Once it reaches its final orbit at 111.1 degrees West, the Anik F2 will provide data and broadcast services to all of North America.
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It appears that Jupiter and Saturn formed in completely different ways, according to a new computer simulation sponsored by the Los Alamos National Laboratory. If the simulation is correct, heavy elements ended up concentrated at Saturn's heavy core, while they're spread pretty evenly around in Jupiter. This would indicate that a different process built up the two planets. The team ended up running 50,000 different scenarios based on every possible variation permitted by known astrophysics.
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The European Space Agency is considering an ambitious new mission that will attempt to move an asteroid. Named Don Quijote, the mission would include two spacecraft: Sancho and Hidalgo, and launch as early as 2010-2015. The Sancho portion would rendezvous with an asteroid, study in in great detail for seven months, and then watch as Hidalgo smashes into it at tremendous speed. The impact would slightly shift the orbit of the asteroid, and give scientists an understanding of how much force would be required to move future space rocks. Five other missions were considered, including three observation, and two rendezvous missions.
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Scientists from Columbia University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have created a detailed map of Lake Vostok, which is buried 3,700 to 4,300 metres beneath the surface of Antarctic ice. They found that the lake is actually broken into two different regions; water probably doesn't flow between them. That means that scientists could find two completely different ecosystems, which have separately evolved to live in this hostile environment. By drilling down and sampling the water of Lake Vostok, scientists will learn important lessons about how to go about determining if there's life on Europa - one of Jupiter's moons which seems to have liquid oceans encased in ice.
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Although Cassini has arrived at Saturn, NASA is still releasing photos it took of the Ringed Planet before it arrived. Here's a picture taken on May 22 when the spacecraft was 22 million km (13.7 million miles) away from Saturn. It was taken using a special filter which is sensitive to the emissions and absorption of methane gas, giving scientists a great view of the planet's cloud structures.
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When astronomers first realized that the stars in the sky were like our Sun, only more distant, they wondered if those stars had planets too. And if they have planets, is there life? Intelligent life? There's an answer - yes or no - but we don't know it yet. NASA and the European Space Agency are working on a series of space and ground-based observatories that may help get an answer soon. In just a decade, you could gaze into the night sky, locate a star, and know that there's life there. Life could be everywhere.
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When Robert Zubrin imagines the human colonization of Mars, he sees us eventually terraforming the planet to make it more earthlike. In this interview with Astrobiology Magazine, Zubrin details how terraforming the Red Planet might happen, and how long it could take before you can step outside your protective dome without being simultaneously flash frozen, irradiated, and asphyxiated.
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The McDonald Observatory's Hobby-Eberly Telescope has found its first extrasolar planet. The planet is 2.84 times of the mass of Jupiter, and orbits star HD 37605 every 54.23 days. The discovering team used the "radial velocity" technique, where the star's velocity toward and away from the Earth is measured to determine the mass of the planet. The observatory is well-equipped to find planets because of its High Resolution Spectrograph instrument, which can measure the composition of objects with great precision.
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A Blue Moon is a fairly rare event that happens when there are two full moons in a single month. Since the Moon's cycle lasts 29 days, and most months are 30 or 31 days long, it can happen - usually every 30 months or so. Since there was a full Moon on July 2, the next one will happen on July 31. Of course, the Moon won't actually turn blue - it's just a saying.
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When Cassini swept past Saturn last week, it analyzed the planet's rings in many spectra to help scientists understand their composition. Here's a 1024x768 wallpaper of the rings in the ultraviolet spectrum, which shows that there is more water ice toward the outer part of the rings. The red in the rings indicates more "dirty" and smaller particles, while the turquoise is ice.
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Astronomers with the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have discovered a pair of brown dwarfs circling one another, which should help answer some key questions about these objects. Are they large planets, failed stars, or something else entirely? One theory is that brown dwarfs form in clouds of interstellar gas, but they get ejected before becoming full stars. This pair of brown dwarfs, however, circle one another at 6 times the distance of the Sun and Pluto - their gravitational hold on one another is very tenuous. It's more likely they formed in a calm environment like regular stars.
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The European Space Agency is working an ambitious new space observatory that will be capable of precisely mapping a billion stars in our galaxy. Called Gaia, the spacecraft will launch in 2010 and observe the sky for a period of five years. Astronomers will compile this detail into a 3D map of a billion stars, including their position, motion and even composition. With such a comprehensive map of the sky, Gaia will turn up all kinds of new objects, and give astronomers plenty of future targets to study with more sensitive instruments.
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The Sea Launch team has begun looking into what caused a launch malfunction during last week's Telstar 18 mission, which placed the communications satellite 14,000 km short of its intended orbit. Based on preliminary data, the investigators know that the rocket's upper stage shut down 54 seconds prematurely, but the cause of this shutdown is unknown. The satellite is operating normally, and it still has enough fuel on board to maneuver itself to its final geosynchronous orbit position; however, it might have a shorter lifespan than originally designed.
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NASA scientists have been busy in the last few days, downloading the mountains of data sent back from Cassini when it made its orbital insertion around Saturn last week. As part of the insertion maneuver, Cassini made the closest approach it'll make to Saturn's rings for its entire mission. One finding has been that the Cassini division - the large gap between the A and B rings - is mostly particles, and not entirely ice as originally believed. Scientists think it might be the remnants of a shattered moon. Cassini has also turned up excess amounts of oxygen at the edge of the rings.
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Only days after arriving at Saturn, Cassini made its first flyby of Titan, the planet's largest moon. The spacecraft only got as close as 339,000 km (210,600 miles), but that was enough to reveal surprising new features about the moon's surface. Cassini is equipped with special camera filters that allow it to peer through the thick clouds that obscure most wavelengths of light. Darker regions seem to be made up of water ice, while the lighter regions are a mixture of ice and hydrocarbons. Cassini is scheduled to make 45 flybys of Titan, getting as close as 950 km (590 miles), so the view will only get better.
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The concepts of Dark Matter (hidden mass that surrounds all galaxies) and Dark Energy (an accelerating force on the Universe) are still largely mysteries; astronomers have detected them, but they have no conclusive idea what they are. A new theory by Vanderbilt University researcher Robert Scherrer proposes that they are actually two aspects of a single, unknown force, called a K-essence field. Under some conditions, this field would have the repulsive force of dark energy, while in other conditions, it would appear to clump together and mimic the effect of invisible particles.
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Astronomers have found that a nearby star, Tau Ceti, is surrounded by 10 times as many asteroids and comets as our own Solar System. Even if there are planets orbiting Tau Ceti, they would be unlikely to support life because of the frequent and devastating impacts by these objects. This discovery will help astronomers narrow down their search when looking for distant worlds that may support life; ones which have a small number of comets and asteroids.
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As Cassini passed directly through a gap in Saturn's rings, it got the closest view any spacecraft has ever had of the Ringed Planet. This image was taken after the spacecraft had passed the ring plane, and was seeing it lit by the Sun. Cassini was only 195,000 kilometres (121,000 miles) above the rings when this picture was taken. One interesting feature is the wavy edge of the inner ring; this is caused by interactions with Saturn's moon Pan, which orbits in the middle of this gap.
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New observations of Procyon from MOST, Canada's space telescope, have called long-held assumptions about the star into doubt. Launched a year ago, MOST watched Procyon 8-times a minute, making a total of 250,000 observations over the course of 32 days. It found that the star is completely stable, and doesn't pulsate or vibrate in any way. This challenges 20 years of speculation that Procyon does vibrate, and could reveal insights about its interior - astronomers will need to find a new candidate.
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Another day, another wallpaper. Today it's a 1024x768 image of active star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. This region is called N11B, and it contains new stars in all stages of early formation. The stars on the left of the image are among the most massive stars ever seen in the Universe. The region around them is clear of dust because of the strong stellar winds blowing from these powerful stars. As the dust is blown away, it collides with other clouds, which can collapse to form new stars.
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Seven years after it set out from Earth, the Cassini spacecraft finally arrived safely at Saturn. Using its high-gain antenna to protect it from dust particles, the spacecraft crossed the ring plane early Thursday morning at 0203 UT (10:03pm EDT Wednesday). It fired one of its twin main engines for 96 minutes to slow down its velocity, and then pointed at Earth to transmit news of its successful arrival. The spacecraft then took detailed images of Saturn's rings, as Cassini isn't scheduled to ever get this close to them again. Cassini will now begin its 4 year mission to analyze Saturn and its moons.
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A seven-year journey is nearly over as NASA's Cassini spacecraft is arriving at Saturn later today. The spacecraft will fire its main engine for 96 minutes beginning at 0236 UTC (10:36 pm EDT), which will put it into orbit around Saturn. Scientific data from the spacecraft will arrive on Earth about 4 hours later, and the first photographs will be returned 6 hours after that, at 1239 UTC (8:39 am EDT). As Cassini is performing these operations, the scientific equipment will be running, gathering as much data as possible on this extremely close pass.
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NASA researcher Marc Cohen thinks that a permanent base on the Moon might not be the right way to get started - in the beginning, you've got to stay mobile. Cohen is proposing that NASA consider lunar bases that can move on wheels, or even legs. This would increase landing zone safety, provide equipment redundancy, and allow explorers to survey many sites of scientific interest. There are many challenges with this idea too, however, including constant repairs in the vacuum of the lunar surface, and carrying enough radiation protection to keep the astronauts safe.
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