|
05/17/2012 07:11 AM
|
|
New Crew Arrives at Space Station
|
The crew aboard the International Space Station is now back to a compliment of six. New Expedition 31 crew members Gennady Padalka, Joe Acaba and Sergei Revin docked and have now been welcomed on board the ISS after the hatches opened Thursday at 08:10 UTC (4:10 a.m. EDT). They docked to the Poisk module at [...]
|
|
05/17/2012 06:44 AM
|
|
Meet MIRI, Infrared Camera for Webb Telescope
|
Our friend Will Gater from the BBC’s Sky At Night Magazine had the chance to get a behind-the-scenes tour of the facility that is building the Mid-Infrared Instrument on the long-awaited James Webb Space Telescope. You’ll meet MIRI inside clean room at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK, before it’s packaged up and sent [...]
|
|
05/17/2012 06:24 AM
|
|
Venus Transit — There’s an App for That!
|
There have been only six Venus transits since the invention of the telescope in the early 17th century. It was not until 1761 that the transit of Venus on June 6th was observed as part of the first ever international scientific observation project, instigated by Edmond Halley. Astronomers across the globe viewed the transit and [...]
|
|
05/16/2012 06:57 PM
|
|
Asteroid 2012 KA to Buzz Earth on May 17
|
On the heels of a bus-sized asteroid that passed harmlessly between Earth and the orbit of the Moon on May 13, another asteroid between 4.5 and 10 meters (14-33 feet) wide will buzz by at about the same distance on May 17, 2012. Asteroid 2012 KA was discovered just today (May 16), and is projected [...]
|
|
05/16/2012 04:03 PM
|
|
The Big Dipper Like You’ve Never Seen It Before!
|
All right, it may look just like any other picture you’ve ever seen of the Big Dipper. Maybe even a little less impressive, in fact. But, unlike any other picture, this one was taken from 290 million km away by NASA’s Juno spacecraft en route to Jupiter, part of a test of its Junocam instrument! [...]
|
|
05/16/2012 02:38 PM
|
|
4,700 Asteroids Want to Kill You
|
There are now 4,700 asteroids out there — plus or minus 1,500 – that are considered Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs). This is the latest and best assessment yet of our solar system’s population of Near Earth Objects that have the potential to make close Earth approaches. The new results come from data obtained from the [...]
|
|
05/16/2012 01:10 PM
|
|
Beautiful Night Launch for Ariane 5
|
Practice your French counting skills and enjoy a beautiful night launch all in one fell swoop! An Ariane 5 rocket launched last night (May 15 at 22:13 GMT) from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, sending two telecommunications satellites to space. The satellites, JCSAT-13 and Vinasat-2, were successfully and accurately injected into their transfer orbits about [...]
|
|
05/16/2012 09:37 AM
|
|
See the Winners of the Earth & Sky Photo Contest
|
Enjoy this delightful video put together by Babak Tafreshi from The World At Night showing the winners of the third International Earth and Sky Photo Contest. With the theme of ‘Dark Skies Importance,’ these are lovely landscape astrophotos, “ in appreciation of the night sky beauty as an essential element of our nature, importance of [...]
|
|
05/16/2012 08:00 AM
|
|
Opportunity Roving Mars Once Again
|
After spending 19 weeks working in one place during the Martian winter in Meridian Planum, the Opportunity Mars rover is now roving once again. During the winter, available solar power was too low for driving, but on May 8th (here on Earth), Opportunity took its first drive since Dec. 26, 2011. She drove about 3.67 [...]
|
|
05/16/2012 07:02 AM
|
|
The Most Profitable Asteroid Is…
|
With the recent announcement of the asteroid mining company, Planetary Resources, some of the most-asked questions about this enticing but complex endeavor include, what asteroids do we mine? Which are the easiest asteroids to get to? Could it really be profitable? While Planetary Resources officials said they hope to identify a few promising targets within [...]
|
