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2008 December 22 Labtayt Sulci on Saturn’s Enceladus Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA,NASADo some surface features on Enceladus roll like a conveyor belt?A leading interpretation of recent images taken of Saturn’s most explosive moon indicate that they do. This form of asymmetric tectonic activity, very unusual on Earth, likely holds clues to the internal structure of Enceladus, which may contain subsurface seas where life might be able to develop. Pictured above is a composite of 28 images taken by the robotic Cassini spacecraft in October just after swooping by the ice-spewing orb.Inspection of these images show clear tectonic displacementswhere large portions of the surface all appear to move all in one direction.Near the top of the image appears one of the most prominent tectonic divides: Labtayt Sulci, a canyon about one kilometer deep.coat hanger

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AP – The owner of a satellite TV company pleaded guilty Tuesday to providing material aid to a terrorist organization by letting customers receive broadcasts from Hezbollah’s television station.

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2008 December 26 The Elephant’s Trunk in IC 1396 Gordon Haynes(xxxedit and linkxxx)Like an illustration in a galacticJust So Story, theElephant’s Trunk Nebulawinds through the emission nebula and young star clustercomplex IC 1396, in the high and far offconstellationofCepheus.Of course, this cosmic elephant’s trunk is over 20 light-years long.This false-colorcomposite was recorded throughnarrow band filtersthat transmit the light from hydrogen (in green), sulfur (in red),and oxygen (in blue)atoms in the region.The resulting image highlights the bright swept-back ridgesthat outline pockets of coolinterstellardust and gas.Such embedded, dark,tendril-shaped clouds contain theraw material forstar formation and hideprotostars within the obscuring cosmic dust.Nearly 3,000light-years distant,the relatively faintIC1396 complex covers a large regionon the sky, spanning over 5 degrees.This dramatic close-up covers a 2 degree wide field,about the size of 4 Full Moons.light-weekend

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The idea of a white Christmas may seem magical for many of us, but spare a thought for a team of scientists forgoing the festive season to take part in a novel campaign being carried out in one of the most inhospitable regions on Earth to support ESA’s ice mission CryoSat.

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SPACE.com – For the past quarter century, dark matter has been a mystery we’ve justhad to live with. But the time may be getting close when science can finally unveilwhat this befuddling stuff is that makes up most of the matter in the universe.

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SPACE.com – The seven astronauts killed duringthe 2003 loss of NASA’s space shuttle Columbia survived less than a minuteafter their spacecraft began breaking apart, according to a new report releasedTuesday that suggests changes to astronaut training and spacecraft cabindesign.

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AFP – Malaysia is zooming in on forests with a satellite in order to fight illegal logging which its government says is harming the major timber exporting country, a report said Sunday.

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2008 December 27 Crab Pulsar Wind Nebula Credit: NASA /CXC /SAO /F. D. Seward,W. H. Tucker, R. A. FesenThe Crab Pulsar, a city-sized, magnetizedneutron star spinning 30 times a second,lies at the center ofthisremarkable image fromthe orbiting Chandra Observatory.The deep x-ray image gives the firstclear view ofthe convoluted boundaries of the Crab’s pulsar wind nebula.Like acosmicdynamo the pulsar powers the x-rayemission.The pulsar’s energy acceleratescharged particles, producing eerie, glowing x-ray jets directedaway from the poles and an intense wind in the equatorial direction.Intriguing edges are created as the chargedparticles stream away, eventually losing energy as they interactwith the pulsar’s strong magnetic field.With more mass than the Sun and the density of anatomic nucleus,the spinning pulsar itself is the collapsed core of amassive star.The stellar core collapse resulted in a supernova explosion thatwas witnessed inthe year1054.This Chandra image spans just under 9 light-years at the Crab’sestimated distance of 6,000 light-years.cosmic lumps

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2008 December 24 Earthrise Credit: Apollo 8,NASAForty years ago, in December of 1968, the Apollo 8 crew flew from theEarth to the Moon and back again.Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders were launched atop a SaturnV rocket on December 21, circled the Moon ten times in their command module, and returned to Earth on December 27.The Apollo 8 mission’s impressivelist of firsts includes: the first humans to journey to the Earth’s Moon, the first to fly using theSaturn V rocket, and the first to photographthe Earth from deep space. As the Apollo 8 command module rounded the farside of the Moon,the crew could look toward thelunar horizon and see the Earth appearto rise, due to their spacecraft’s orbital motion.Theirfamous picture of a distant blue Earthabove the Moon’s limbwas a marvelous gift to the world.under the tree …

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AFP – A Russian Proton-M rocket was launched into space Thursday with three new satellites for Moscow’s GLONASS navigation system, aimed at competing with US and European systems, a report said.

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