Wrap Your Mind Around This 1 Percent Scenario

Astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson leaves us with something to ponder about Earth and it's relevance in the grand scheme of things...

Messenger Sends Back First Image of Mercury

NASA scientists have received their first images of the planet Mercury captured from the orbiting Messenger probe. Messenger is equipped with two cameras and other sensing equipment which is hoped to shed light on the planets make up and history. The first photo, number 1 of 7500 expected to be sent back to Earth over the coming year, makes Mercury appear as though it is our own moon; baron and pocked by many collisions.

The mission website provides a great deal of information regarding the mission, the scientific portion of which will begin on April 4th.

Gliese 581g - There's Life Out There

An Earth sized planet circling a near by star is said to have the proper conditions for sustaining life, and according to at least one expert it's almost certain that it does. 

Gliese 581g is said to have a surface and has enough gravity to hold an atmosphere. "Personally, given the ubiquity and propensity of life to flourish wherever it can, I would say, my own personal feeling is that the chances of life on this planet are 100 percent,"  Prof Steven Vogt said during a press briefing. "I have almost no doubt about it." Vogt led the team of scientist who discovered the planet.

Gliese 581g is located 20 light years away from Earth in the constellation Libra and is said to have an estimated average surface temperature of between -24 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-31 to -12 degrees Celsius). So, it's no vacation hot spot.

All of a sudden I'm not so skeptical about the UN's Alien Ambassador appointment :) 

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Viewing The Worlds Glaciers - From Space

The good folks at Wired's Wired Science blog have compiled a collection of images, captured from space by astronauts and satellites, of some of the worlds most impressive glaciers. "To a geologist, glaciers are among the most exciting features on Earth. Though they seem to creep along at impossibly slow speeds, in geologic time glaciers are relatively fast, powerful landscape artists that can carve out valleys and fjords in just a few thousand years."

Here is one from the collection. "Covering nearly 1,400 square miles, the vast Heiltskuk Ice Field lies in the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. Taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station, this photo captures the snow-covered mountain slopes as well as several of the ice field’s valley glaciers, which are wide swaths of slowly flowing ice and debris."

MIT Students Capture Photos From Space - Budget $160.00

Three MIT students, Oliver Yeh, Justin Lee and Eric Newton, used common consumer electronics and a weather balloon to snap pictures from space. Dubbed Project Icarus the three who specialize in taking low-cost aerial photographs that they display and sell through a website called 1337arts, captured the photograph below from 28 kilometres up.

"The camera used in the project was a 7.1-megapixel Canon Powershot the students bought used on Amazon.com. They installed an open-source firmware add-on to the camera that would allow them to program it to take a picture every five seconds.

To track the location of the balloon, they used a $50 pre-paid Motorola cellphone with GPS capabilities and installed a free program that would report the phone's location at regular intervals. A USB phone charger powered by AA lithium batteries kept the phone running during the five-hour voyage. They also installed an external antenna to boost the phone's signal"

Perhaps NASA should hire a few more MIT grads!



Source: CBC

Hubble Testing Halts To Capture New Image Of Jupiter

The Hubble telescope has been in test mode since an upgrade and repair mission in May, however NASA scientists brought the Hubble to life on Thursday so that they could capture a shot of Jupiter's newest scar. "Because we believe this magnitude of impact is rare, we are very fortunate to see it with Hubble," said Amy Simon-Miller of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Details seen in the Hubble view shows a lumpiness to the debris plume caused by turbulence in Jupiter's atmosphere." There has been a great deal of interest in Jupiter since an amateur astronomer in Australia noticed the new mark, which is speculated to have been created by a small comet or asteroid plunging into Jupiter's atmosphere and disintegrating, early Monday.

Source: CNN

Kepler Telescope Launched - In Search Of Earth-like Planets

NASA launched the Kepler telescope aboard a Delta II rocket on Friday night from Cape Canaveral. The telescope, named after 17th-century German astrophysicist Johannes Kepler, is on a mission to seek potentially habitable planets by staring at approximately 100,000 stars some 600 to 3,000 light years away in the so-called habitable zone. "If one of them has a planet like the Earth going around it and if that planet happens to pass in front of that star, the star will get just a little dimmer, then a little brighter for a while as the planet eclipses it," according to CBC's science correspondent Bob McDonald. Over the past 10 years 300 or so planets have been identified to be orbiting stars outside our solar system, but they are largely gaseous planets like Jupiter. Kepler's mission is to look for smaller Earth-like planets.

Russian - US Satellites Collide

A pair of Russian and US satellites collided some 780 km (485 miles) above Siberia on Tuesday leaving a trail of debris. The Russian civilian space agency, Roscosmos, confirmed the collision of the defunct 950kg (2,094lb) satellite, which was said to have launched in 1993. "Spokesman Aleksandr Vorobyev was quoted as saying the satellite had "in all likelihood... belonged in the past to the military", and was therefore not the responsibility of Roscosmos." according to this BBC report. NASA is tracking hundreds of pieces of debris from the incident and says there is little chance of incident between this debris and the International Space Station or Shuttle flights. The ISS is in orbit 435 km below the debris and has the capability to maneuver away from space junk if necessary, it has done so on 8 occassions in it's 60,000 previous orbits.

China Puts 3 Into Orbit

Yesterday China launched it's most risky space adventure to date, sending 3 astronauts into orbit. During the 68 hour flight the 3 will attempt the nation's first ever space walk. The launch of the Shenzhou VII spacecraft took place at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and was attended by President Hu Jintao and other senior leaders. The Chinese President is quoted as saying "I have come to send you off, to wish you success," Now that's an inspirational speech if I've ever heard one! Discovery Channel story here.

SpaceX: '... there has been an anomaly.'

For the third time in three attempts private space company SpaceX has attempted to launch it's Falcon 1 rocket and failed. "It was obviously a big disappointment not to reach orbit on this flight," said Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX in a message to his staff. "On the plus side, the flight of our first stage, with the new Merlin 1C engine that will be used in Falcon 9, was picture perfect. Unfortunately, a problem occurred with stage separation, causing the stages to be held together." The Falcon 1 was carrying Trailblazer, a small satellite built by the Pentagon, a mini-laboratory called PreSat and a 10-sq-m Solar sail, both built by Nasa. SpaceX is being viewed by NASA as a viable alternative to fill the mission gap that will exist as the space agency decommissions the current shuttle fleet and builds it's replacement. BBC Story here.

Virgin's Branson Unveils Craft That Will Take Tourists Into Space

Richard Branson has unveiled White Knight Two "Eve", named after his mother and representing the eve of a new era in space according to the BBC. More than 250 people have already paid $200,000 each in order to be lifted into space to enjoy weightlessness for approximately 5 minutes and then glide back to earth. The inaugural flight is expected to take place in about 18 months and is reserved for Branson's family. "The mothership is a white, four-engine jet designed to cradle SpaceShipTwo under its wing and release it at 50,000 feet (15,200m) in the air. Once separated, SpaceShipTwo will fire its hybrid rocket and climb some 60 miles (100km) above the Earth. Engineers still need to finish building SpaceShipTwo, which is now about 70% complete, according to Virgin Galactic." Anyone want to pitch in on my ticket into space?

Phoenix Mars Lander To Touch Down Sunday

The Phoenix Mars Lander has nearly five million more kilometres to travel but is said to be on track and on time to land on the red planet on Sunday. "All systems are nominal and stable," said Ed Sedivy, program manager for Lockheed Martin Space Systems, which built the spacecraft. "We have plenty of propellant, the temperatures look good and the batteries are fully charged." The craft which has a Canadian made weather station on board, will land in Mars' arctic and dig down into the ice-rich soil, to study the frozen water for evidence of carbon-containing chemicals.

At about 7:45 ET on Sunday, Phoenix will use superheated friction with the atmosphere, a strong parachute and a set of retrorockets to make it's touchdown on the surface, in what NASA officials call "seven minutes of terror," because only 5 of 11 previous attempts to land spacecrafts on Mars have been successful. Let's cross our fingers!

CBC story here.

Astronomers Witness The Death Of A Star

On January 9th of this year, astronomers using a NASA X-ray satellite to spy on a star considered to be near death, observed another star in the same galaxy as it started to explode. "A star exploded right before my eyes," lead author Alicia Soderberg, an astrophysics researcher at Princeton University, said Wednesday in a teleconference. She compared the event to "winning the astronomy lottery. We caught the whole thing from start-to-finish on tape." According to the researchers less than one percent of all stars will end their life in supernova. "As much energy is released in one second by the death of a star as by all of the other stars you can see in the visible universe," said University of California at Berkeley astronomy professor Alex Filippenko. The outburst was 100 billion times brighter than Earth's sun, so bright it flooded the satellite's instrument, giving it a picture akin to "pointing your digital camera at the sun," Soderberg said. CNN has more here.

Russian Capsule Makes Off-Course Landing, Astronauts Shaken But Okay

South Korea's first space traveller Yi So-yeon, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko are reported to be in satisfactory condition after what NASA commentator John Ira Petty described as a "ballistic" re-entry. The three were subjected to severe G-force and the entry took them 420 kilometres off target in northern Kazakhstan. For Whitson the time she spent aboard the International Space Station, together with a previous stay, totals 377 days in space, more than any other U.S. spacefarer. You can find more from NASA here and the CBC here.

US spy satellite loses power - could strike Earth

Wired is running a story about a disabled U.S. Spy Satellite that according to government officials could hit the Earth in late February or early March. The satellite is said to possibly contain hazardous materials, like they don't know, and it is unknown as of yet where it might impact Earth. Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, says "Numerous satellites over the years have come out of orbit and fallen harmlessly. We are looking at potential options to mitigate any possible damage this satellite may cause." Don't know about you but this conjures up all sorts of "scrable the F-15's" type of scenarios in my head... the stuff that movies are made of!

Large Asteroid to pass within viewing distance of Earth

The CBC is reporting that NASA scientists are saying "Asteroid 2007 TU24 will pass within about 540,000 kilometres, or 1.4 lunar distances, of Earth early Tuesday for Canadians, reaching its closest approach at 3:23 a.m. ET." The asteroid is approximated as 150 to 600 metres in diameter and is said to have no chance of hitting or affecting Earth. While NASA says asteroids of this size pass this close to Earth about every five years, they only hit the Earth on average once every 37,000 years. Uhhh.... when was the last one?

Supernova discovered in 2006 caused by two colliding white dwarf stars

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) says a supernova discovered last year was caused by two colliding white dwarf stars. A Harvard press release says "The white dwarfs were siblings orbiting each other. They slowly spiraled inward until they merged, touching off a titanic explosion." The image to the left is an artists depiction of the event that was previously only believed to exist in theory. Cool!

Super Mario in Zero G!

This is pretty funny... veteran astronaut Dr. Buzz Aldrin helps Super Mario experience zero g's in a publicity stunt aimed at the upcoming release of Super Mario Galaxy. Is it me or does Mario look like he's about to loose his lunch?

Hurricane shortens shuttle mission

Fearing that Hurricane Dean might disrupt operations, NASA has ordered Space Shuttle Endeavor to depart the International Space Station today and is scheduling landing for Tuesday. NASA is concerned that the hurricane might make course for Houston, Mission Control, which would necessitate a relocation of flight controllers to Cape Canaveral the back up control center which is not considered as good a location. Boy, never a dull day for this mission! CNN story here.

NASA fighting on two fronts

While NASA astronauts are working to repair the torn thermal blanket on the Space Shuttle Atlantis, Russian cosmonauts are working diligently to reboot 3 failed computers that control the Interational Space Station's orientation. The docked shuttle is able to assist the space station with it's thrusters while the Russian's work from onboard and from earth. Atlantis crew have powered down some systems to conserve energy in the event that they will have to prolong their stay to help keep the station on orbit. While NASA says there are no current plans to abandon the space station that is the worst case scenario in the event the computers can not be restarted. More here at Globeandmail.com