AP – NASA on Tuesday delayed next week’s launch of space shuttle Discovery while it runs tests to determine whether newly installed valves would cause serious damage if they broke during liftoff.
More: continued here
COROT has found the smallest terrestrial planet ever detected outside the Solar System. The amazing planet is less than twice the size of Earth and orbits a Sun-like star. Its temperature is so high that it is possibly covered in lava or water vapour.
More: continued here
SPACE.com – NASAengineers are studying the impact of excessive vibrations aboard theInternational Space Station to make surethe unexpected shaking did not damage the $100 billion orbital lab.
More: continued here
2009 January 30
NGC 1579: Trifid of the North Don GoldmanColorful NGC 1579resembles the better knownTrifid Nebula, but lies much farther north in planetEarth’s sky, in the heroic constellationPerseus.About 2,100 light-years away and 3 light-years across,NGC 1579 is, like the Trifid,a study in contrasting blue and red colors, with dark dust lanesprominent in the nebula’s central regions.In both regions, dust reflects starlight to producebeautiful blue reflection nebulae.But unlike the Trifid,in NGC 1579the reddish glow isnot emission from clouds of glowing hydrogengas excited by ultraviolet light from a nearby hot star.Instead, the dust in NGC 1579 drastically diminishes, reddens, andscatters the light from an embedded,extremely young,massive star, itself is strong emitter of the characteristic redhydrogen alpha light.amazed
More: continued here
SPACE.com – A team ofastronauts aboard the International Space Station is pulling for the PittsburghSteelers in this weekend’s Super Bowl showdown against the Arizona Cardinals.
More: continued here
Like most sub-Saharan African countries, Niger faces problems meeting its water needs. As part of ESA’s TIGER initiative, satellite data are being used to identify surface and underground water resources in the drought-prone country.
More: continued here
SPACE.com – The desire to contact intelligentlife on other planets is much older than the UFO craze and the SETI movement.Several 19th century scientists contemplated how we might communicate withpossible Martians and Venusians.
More: continued here
SPACE.com – NASAhas delayed the planned Feb. 12 launch of the space shuttle Discovery byleast a week to allow extra time to evaluate vital fuel valves on thespacecraft, agency officials said late Tuesday.
More: continued here
SPACE.com – NASA engineers are scratching their heads over someunexpected behavior from the long-lived Spirit rover, which began its sixthyear exploring Mars this month.
More: continued here
AP – Swiss police said Thursday they stumbled across a large marijuana plantation while using Google Earth, the search engine company’s satellite mapping software.
More: continued here
%7Cutmcsr%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fantwrp%2Egsfc%2Enasa%2Egov%2Fapod%2Fastropix%2Ehtml%7Cutmcmd%3Drss%3B%2B){kind=small}
