Space & Astromomy Earth - scientists estimate 100billion, trillion planets exist where life could flourish. I was 7 years old when Sputnik 1 was launched into space by the former USSR, now Russia and neighbouring states. I was enralled. Even today, when I look at the night sky, I marvel that is the same that friends all over the world saw a few hours before, or will see in a few hours time. In my mind, it keeps us united in some intangible way. AC. Update: 2009.10.09.
Apophis was discovered in 2004 and is two-and-a-half times the size of an American football field.
It captured widespread attention after calculations suggested it might pose a threat to the planet. There is now a one-in-250,000 chance of a collision with Earth in 2036, according to new calculations by Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.
At first, astronomers feared the 885ft (270-metre) asteroid had a 2.7% chance of colliding with Earth in 2029. Later calculations ruled out a collision in that year, leaving 2036 as the encounter posing the greatest danger.
Apophis is now expected to sail about 18,300 miles (29,450km) above Earth's surface on April 13, 2029 - closer than some satellites.
Even though scientists are certain it will not hit the Earth, the Los Angeles Times said they are less sure about how the close approach will affect the asteroid's orbit.
The biggest dust ring around the planet Saturn - which has never before been seen - has been spotted by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Skip related content
The ring is so diffuse that it does not reflect much visible light - but the infrared telescope was able to detect it.
Although the ring dust is very cold - minus 316 degrees Fahrenheit - it shines with thermal radiation.
Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) spokeswoman Whitney Clavin said no one had looked at its location with an infrared instrument until now.
The bulk of the ring material starts about 3.7 million miles (5.95 million km) from the planet and extends outward about another 7.4 million miles (11.9 million km).
JPL said the newly-found ring is so huge it would take 1 billion Earths to fill it.
Its diameter is equivalent to roughly 300 Saturns lined up side to side.
Saturn's largest halo is tilted at about 27 degrees from the main ring plane and encompasses the orbit of the moon Phoebe.
Both the ring and Phoebe orbit in the opposite direction of Saturn's other rings and most of its moons, including Titan and Iapetus.
NASA has announced that the last space shuttle flight will be next September. It will officially be the end of the U.S. space shuttle era. Next September, "Discovery" will send a pressurized logistics module to the International Space Station.
The mission will mark the end of the Discovery shuttle era after 27 years of spaceflight. Chief astronaut Steven Lindsey, a veteran of four shuttle missions, will command an all-veteran six-member crew for the final planned mission. Their training will begin in October.
The first U.S. space shuttle blasted off in 1982. Before their retirement, the existing fleet of three shuttles - "Discovery", "Endeavor" and "Atlantis" will make a total six more flights to complete the infrastructure of the International Space Station.
New generation spacecraft named "Orion" and "God of War" are due to replace the space shuttle, aiming to return to the moon by 2020. But this plan now has to be approved by the Obama administration.
Highway in the sky: The gravitational corridors that could help spacecraft travel the solar system
Gravitational corridors could help spacecraft fly across the solar system like ships on ocean currents, it was revealed today.
Scientists in the United States are trying to map the twisting 'tubes' so they can be used to cut the cost of space travel.
Each one acts like a gravitational Gulf Stream, created from the complex interplay of attractive forces between planets and moons.
Spaghetti junction: A computer graphic depicting gravitational corridors that weave around planetary bodies. It is hoped spacecraft could travel along the currents as ships do on the ocean
Depicted by computer graphics, the pathways look like strands of spaghetti that wrap around planetary bodies and snake between them.
The pathways connect sites called Lagrange points where gravitational forces balance out.
Professor Shane Ross, from Virginia Tech in the US, said: 'Basically the idea is there are low energy pathways winding between planets and moons that would slash the amount of fuel needed to explore the solar system.
'These are freefall pathways in space around and between gravitational bodies. Instead of falling down, like you do on Earth, you fall along these tubes.
'Each of the tubes starts off narrow and small and as it gets further out it gets wider and might also split.
'I like to think of them as being similar to ocean currents, but they are gravitational currents. If you're in a parking orbit round the Earth, and one of them intersects your trajectory, you just need enough fuel to change your velocity and now you're on a new trajectory that is free.'
Riding one of the gravitational currents was unlike exploiting the 'slingshot' effect of a planet or moon's gravity, a routine space travel technique, he explained.
'Its not the same as a slingshot,' said Prof Ross. 'Slingshots don't put you in orbit round a moon, whereas this does.'
Just one U.S. mission so far has made use of the concept. The Genesis spacecraft was launched in 2004 to capture solar wind particles and return them to Earth.
Space highway: Scientists in the U.S. are trying to map the twisting 'tubes' so they can be used to cut the cost of space travel
Following the gravitational pathways allowed the amount of fuel carried by the probe to be cut 10-fold.
The mission ended in failure, but only because a parachute failed on landing.
The corridors were especially useful for voyaging between a planet's moons, said Prof Ross, speaking at the British Science Festival at the University of Surrey in Guildford.
'Once you get to another planet that has its own tubes you can use them to explore its moons,' he added. 'You could travel between the moons of Jupiter essentially for free. All you need is a little bit of fuel to do course corrections.'
The trade off was time, he said. It would take a few months to get round the Jovian moon system.
Chinese scientists 'filmed UFO for 40 minutes' 2009.09.07.
The UFO world is alive with speculation that China is about to reveal details of startling and detailed footage of an unidentified flying object taken during the solar eclipse on July 22.
Scientists at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing are reported to have confirmed that they filmed a UFO during the eclipse for 40 minutes. They say that they will spend the next 12 months studying the footage before drawing any conclusions.
The director of the observatory, Ji Hai-sheng, told sina.com that scientists would not be speculating publicly on the nature of what was captured on film until it had been properly studied. He added:"'Purple Mountain Observatory and Chinese Academy of Sciences said that during the July 22 total solar eclipse observation, China had discovered near the sun, by observing staff, an unidentified object, it's physical nature remains to be further studied. "Currently manpower is being organized to deal with this data, complete the data analysis and reveal the scientific results and this will take at least one year's time to finalise."
The incident follows a series of UFO sightings in China which culminated in an object being captured on film by students in Deqing. The footage, which was featured on Chinese television, appears to show the object repeatedly changing shape after initially appearing as a glowing blue sphere
The longest total eclipse for 500 years will be visible in the south-western, central southern and eastern provinces of China between 9am - 9.38am on 22nd July, 2009. It will be visible from Tibet to Shanghai, but most areas, including Beijing will only experience a partial eclipse.
The last total eclipse (pictured above) was at 7.15pm on August 21st, 2008 at Jingta County Jiuquan City in Gansu province. The next will be on 20th March, 2034 but will only be visible from remote provinces such as Tibet and Qinghai.
Hubble Telescope repairs complete. 2009.05.19. Daily Teegraph & NASA
Atlantis' astronauts have dropped the Hubble Space Telescope overboard, sending the restored observatory off on a new voyage of discovery. Hubble ¡ª considered better than new following five days of repairs and upgrades ¡ª will never be seen up close by humans again. This was NASA's last service call
Hubble mission: The sun sets on the space shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.
The Hubble crew: (l-r ) Michael J Massimino, Michael T Good, Gregory C Johnson, pilot; Scott D Altman, commander; K. Megan McArthur, John M. Grunsfeld and Andrew J. Feuste.lHubble crew in training: Astronauts Mike Massimino (r) and Mike Good with home plate from New York City's Shea Stadium. The plate will fly with the STS-125 crew aboard Atlantis.
Nasa is set to dispatch seven astronauts on its most dangerous ever shuttle mission as it attempts to rescue the $7 billion Hubble Space Telescope from meltdown. The mission, which is costing Nasa $1.4 billion and is due to blast off from Florida tomorrow (Tuesday), is considered so perilous that it was once cancelled by space agency chiefs who feared that it could cost the astronauts their lives. It was resurrected only after they agreed to place a second shuttle and crew on emergency stand-by, in the event of a disaster. This is the first time in its 28 year history.
Should a rescue become necessary, it would provide the greatest space drama since the abortive Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970, say Nasa insiders, when three astronauts limped their crippled spacecraft home just hours from death, following an on-board explosion.
Among the greatest hazards facing Atlantis is the intense amount of space junk - such as broken satellites and dead rockets - that is cluttering the area where the shuttle will rendezvous with Hubble.
Shuttle flights usually only go to the International Space Station no more than 250 miles up intospace. At 350 miles, where Hubble orbits, the hazzards are much greater. If Atlatis is damaged, the crew would be marooned. Hubble is considered the a valuable astronomical tool since Galileo first designed a telescope in the 17th century. On Wednesday Atlantis will catch up with the Hubble, where the astronauts will use the shuttle¡¯s robotic arm to grapple it while both craft orbit Earth at 17,500mph. They will perform 5 high-risk space walks to repair and replace instruments. This is the last and most dangerous servicing missions to Hubble, and will be the last. NASA promises that if the mission is successful, it will 'push the boundaries of how deep in space and how far back in time, humanity can see.
This Hubble image from 2003 shows a storm of turbulent gases in the Omega-Swan nebula. There have been four previous servicing missions to Hubble and the last was in 2002
Edge of the universe: Death throes of dying star spotted 13 billion light years away. Agencies. Astronomers have snapped a picture of the most distant object ever seen in the universe - a titanic burst of energy from a dying star 13 billion light years away. The 'gamma ray burst' is so far away that its light has taken almost the entire age of the universe to reach us.
When the light began its journey, travelling at 186,000 miles per second, only 640 million years had passed since the Big Bang that marked the dawn of creation.
A titanic burst of energy from a dying star 13 billion light years away has been spotted (centre) from Earth. An artist's impression of a dying star exploding to produce a gamma ray burst. Swift detected a 10 second burst of gamma rays from GRB 090423 at 8.55 am UK time on April 23.
The event, was first detected by the American space agency Nasa's Swift satellite, which is designed to spot gamma ray bursts. After Swift recorded an initial blast of gamma and X-rays, ground-based telescopes swivelled to aim at the same point in the sky and observed a fading afterglow of infra-red light.
Scientists believe the burst was caused by a massive star collapsing and exploding at the end of its life.
Gamma-ray bursts are the most luminous explosions in the universe.
Most are believed to occur when massive stars run out of nuclear fuel. As their cores collapse into a black hole or super-dense neutron star, gas jets - driven by processes not fully understood - punch through the star and blast violently into space.
There they strike gas previously shed by the star and heat it to generate short-lived afterglows.
Planet Mercury: Probe reveals magnetic twisters and mammoth crater on hottest planet. By Claire Bates 2009.05.01. The planet mercury is far more active than first thought by scientists, with magnattic twisters which dance across it' surface.
Nasa's Messenger spacecraft flew past the rocky world last October and took close-up images of a third of the planet's surface for the first time.
Mercury as it apears to the human eye, and in false colour to reveal different surface features.
The second Mercury fly-by of Messsenger, provided a number of new findings. One of the surprise findings was the way the magnetic solar winds had dramatically changed since the first fly-past in 2008. Images also revealed a previously unknown gugantic crater, spanning a distance of almost 700km.
Messenger took more than 1,200 new high resolution images. The crater is the first geoplgical image not to be covered in a thick layer of volcanic dust. It wsa formed about 3.9 billion years ago.
The planet had previously been unobsarved by scientists due to the hugh gravitational pull of the Sun, and surface temperatures in excess of 350C. The spacecraft soared 200km above the lanet'sequator at a speed of 23,680km / hour. It will make it's 3rd fly-bu on September 29th later this year.
Scientists find most Earth-like exoplanet ever. Marlowe Hood and Julien Vinzent 2009.05.07.
Astronomers have unveiled the lightest exoplanet ever detected and, in the same distant solar system, the first "serious candidate" for a world with abundant liquid water, both conditions essential for supporting life.
"I would put the two discoveries on an equal footing," said Thierry Forveille, an astronomer at the Grenoble Observatory in France and a co-author of the study released on Tuesday.
The newly detected smaller body, dubbed Gliese 581 "e", has a mass only twice that of Earth. This makes it the smallest of the nearly 350 exoplanets found so far, and means it probably has a rocky surface not unlike our own. Beyond a certain size, exoplanets become giant balls of toxic gas, similar to Jupiter.
"It could even be covered by a large and deep ocean -- it is the first serious 'waterworld' candidate," he said in a statement.
With an orbit only 3.15 days long, Gliese e orbits close to its star and is almost certainly a white-hot, fiery mass. Gliese 581, located some 20.5 light-years distant in the constellation Libra, falls into the category of low-mass, red dwarf stars, around which low-mass planets in the habitable zone are most likely to be found.
One light-year is roughly equivalent to 9.5 trillion kilometres (6 trillion miles).
Planets are formed from a disc of gas and dusty debris left over from the creation of a star. Just how long this process takes is still a matter of debate. Earth is believed to be about 4.5 billion years old, and the Sun about 100 million years older.
Saturn close-up: Sensational cosmic images bring ringed planet to life By Cher Thornhill 200904.21.
Extraordinary glimpses of the planet's atmosphere and surfaces add to our expanding understanding of Saturn, as Nasa's Cassini Equinox mission approaches its second year. The images show the incredible differences within the Saturn system.In one image, serene-looking rings are elegantly stacked up around Saturn¡¯s equator, making a striking contrast to the cratered appearance of its plethora of moons. A composite of pictures taken from the Cassini spacecraft shows two of Saturn's moons, Pan and Prometheus.
The little known planet has its orbiting moons, which hold intriguing parallels with Earth.
Moon Iapetus: This amazing image, taken as Cassini approached one of Saturn's 61 moons, Iapetus, from about 3,870km, reveals its deeply cratered surface
¡®We're looking at a string of remarkable discoveries - about Saturn's magnificent rings, its amazing moons, its dynamic magnetosphere and about Titan's surface and atmosphere,¡¯ said Dr. Linda Spilker, deputy project scientist. ¡®Some of the mission highlights so far include discovering that Titan has Earth-like processes and that the small moon Enceladus has a hot-spot at its southern pole, jets on the surface that spew out ice crystals and evidence of liquid water beneath its surface.¡¯
Saturn's north pole is a seething cauldron of activity filled with rolling cloud bands and swirling masses of gas
The Cassini spacecraft first blasted off from Earth in 1999. In the first five years of its illuminating voyage, Cassini photographed the moon, Mars and Jupiter, only approaching Saturn on June 30, 2004.
The first close-up study of the ringed planet, which ended in June last year, provided such opportunities for exploration and discovery that the space agency extended it for another two years.
Moon range: Epimetheus, seen here orbiting the planet before Saturn's A and F rings, is dwarfed by the impressive Titan, which is shrouded in smog. Saturn's moon Gray Mimas appears to hover above the planet's colourful rings. The huge impact crater seen on the right side of the moon is named Herschel after William Herschel, who discovered Mimas in 1789. This picture reveals Saturn's natural colour. It was taken by the Cassini spacecraft as it soared above the unilluminated side of Saturn's rings.
The extended mission has been called ¡®Cassini Equinox¡¯ in anticipation of Saturn¡¯s approaching equinox in August this year, when its equator and planetary rings will align vertically below the sun. Saturn¡¯s equinox, like that of Earth, is a period of change in the planetary system.
During the extended mission, the spacecraft will orbit Saturn a further 60 times, fly past Saturn's moon Titan 26 more times, Eleceladus seven, and once past each of the moons Dione, Rhea and Helene.
The complex Saturn system has 61 known moons plus hundreds of ¡®moonlets¡¯ concealed within its rings.
Observations of Titan, Saturn¡¯s largest moon, have shed new light on the likely appearance of Earth before life evolved, NASA believes. Experts claim the moon holds many parallels to Earth, beginning with its land formations, which include lakes, rivers, dunes, mountains and possibly volcanoes.
Weather patterns also show striking similarity to those on our own planet, with clouds, rain and snow.
Meltdown! A solar superstorm could send us back into the dark ages - and one is due in just THREE years
The catastrophe, when it comes, will be beautiful at first. It is a balmy evening in late September 2012. Ever since the sun set, the dimming skies over London have been alive with fire. Pillars of incandescent green writhe like gigantic serpents across the skies. Sheets of orange race across the horizon during the most spectacular display of the aurora borealis seen in southern England for 153 years.
Trouble ahead: How the sun storm might look in London
And then, 90 seconds later, the lights start to go out. Not the lights in the sky - they will dazzle until dawn - but the lights on the ground. Within an hour, large parts of Britain are without power. By midnight, every mobile network is down and the internet is dying. Television - terrestrial and satellite - blinks off the air. Radio is reduced to a burst of static.
By noon the following day, it is clear something terrible has happened and the civilised world has plunged into chaos.
A year later, Britain, most of Europe plus North America is in the grip of the deepest economic catastrophe in history.
By the end of 2013, 100,000 Europeans have died of starvation. The dead go unburied, the sick untreated.
It will take two decades or more for the first green shoots of recovery to appear - recovery from the first solar superstorm in modern history.
This catastrophe is not some academic one-in-a-million chance scenario. It is a very real threat which, according to a report in the latest issue of New Scientist, remains one of the most potent, yet least recognised, threats to the future of human civilisation.
Solar activity: The sun, seen through a NASA telescope. Solar flare: Large-scale activity on the sun in 2003
Moreover, it is something that has happened before - not that long ago - and indeed has the potential to arrive every 11 years.
So what actually is it?
Down on the surface, cocooned under an ocean of air, we rarely notice more than the pretty lights in the sky, created as the electrically charged particles from the Sun sweep into the Earth's own magnetic field to generate the Northern and Southern Lights.
But every now and then, the Sun is convulsed by a gigantic tempest: 50,000-mile-wide eddies of boiling hydrogen plasma on its surface ejecting a billion-tonne, malevolent blob of crackling-charged gas into space at a million miles an hour. And, very occasionally, one of these mighty coronal mass ejections, as they are called, smacks into the Earth head-on. This last happened on the morning of September 1, 1859.
That day, one of Britain's top astronomers, Richard Carrington, was observing the Sun. Using a filter, he was able to study the solar surface through his telescope, and he saw something unusual. A bright flash of light erupted from the Sun's surface and detached itself from it. Unbeknown to Carrington, that bright spot was a cloud of charged plasma on its way to Earth.
Just 48 hours later it struck, and the effects were extraordinary.
Brilliant aurorae lit the Earth's night skies right down to the Tropics - their light being so brilliant it was possible to read a newspaper at midnight. In California, a group of gold miners were roused from their bed hours early, thinking the dawn and a new day's prospecting had come. It was 2am. Telegraph operators received severe electric shocks as solar-induced currents surged through the networks. It was as though the Earth had been immersed in a bath of electricity. Such damage as there was, was easy to repair. In 1859, the world ran mostly on steam and muscle.
Human civilisation did not depend on a gargantuan super-network of electric power and communications. But it does now. Electric power is modern society's 'cornerstone technology', the technology on which virtually all other infrastructures and services depend.
Daniel Baker, a space weather expert at the University of Colorado, prepared a report for the U.S. National Academy of Sciences last month, and the conclusions make grim reading. 'Every year, our human technology becomes more vulnerable,' he says.
A repeat of the 1859 Carrington event today would have far graver consequences than the frying of some telegraph wires.
The problem comes with our dependence on electricity and the way this electricity is generated and transmitted. A huge solar storm would cause massive power surges, amounting to billions of unwanted watts surging through the grids. Most critically, the transformers which convert the multi-thousand-volt current carried by the pylons into 240v domestic current would melt - thousands of them, in every country.
This would bring the world to its knees. With no electricity, we would not just be in the dark. We are dependent, to a degree few of us perhaps appreciate, on a functioning grid for our survival. All our water and sewage plants run on electricity. A couple of days after a solar superstorm, the taps would run dry.
Within a week, we would lose all heat and light as reserves ran out, the supermarket shelves would run empty and the complex supply and distribution networks upon which our society depends would have started to break down. No telephones, no medicines, no manufacturing, no farming - and no food.
Global communications and travel would also collapse - a solar superstorm would probably destroy the network of GPS satellites upon which every airline depends.
Of course, the power grid can be rebuilt, new transformers and cables made, new satellites launched - but organising this in a world teetering on the brink of collapse would not be easy. Humanity would recover, but it would take decades. A seemingly innocuous event, one which apparently poses no direct threat to human health at all, would have an effect on our world comparable to that of a small nuclear war.
So could this really happen? And why is 2012 a year to worry about? Well, we know that solar superstorm did happen, back in 1859.
And we know that 20 years ago a much smaller storm knocked out the power grid across much of eastern Canada, leaving nine million people without electricity. We also know that the Sun's activity waxes and wanes in 11-year cycles.
Currently, the Sun is very quiet. But a solar maximum - a peak of activity - is predicted for 2012, and this is when a superstorm could strike, probably around either the spring or autumn equinox, when the orientation of the Earth's magnetic field to the Sun makes us very vulnerable.
The main point is that every solar maximum puts us more in danger as our growing population becomes ever more dependent on electricity. Ironically, the least-affected parts of the world would probably be the poorest areas. Those Third World nations that usually suffer most from natural disasters, on account of their poor infrastructure, would adjust most quickly to life without electricity, while richer nations would be paralysed.
So can anything be done to prevent an epic disaster? A more robust electricity grid would be a start. And we need new satellites to give warning of what is happening on the Sun.
Of course, it may not happen in 2012 - it may not happen in 2023, the year of the next solar maximum. But sooner or later, a re-run of the Carrington event is inevitable. Perhaps it would be wise to start stocking up on some candles.
Pics: 1. Daryl Pederson, Nome, Alaska USA. 2. Sylvian Serre, Salliut, Quebec, Canada from Spaceweather
March, 2009. A minorsolar windstream buffeted the Earth's magnetosphere sparking Northern Lights areound the Arctic Circle.
Millions of stars revealed as Nasa trains its new telescope on the outer edges of the galaxy. By Cher Thornhill 2009.04.18. NASA
A glance into a cloudless night sky will usually show a handful of stars. But incredible pictures from Nasa's new telescope show a galaxy of millions.The powerful Kepler telescope was designed t o search for unknown planets among more than 100,000 stars in the Milky Way. Kepler's first image reveals a vast star field in the Cygnus-Lyra region of our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Stargazing: The Kepler telescope shows the eight-billion-year-old star cluster NGC 6791, 13,000 light years from Earth
One fascinating picture is ablaze with stars filling the telescope's entire field of view, while two others zoom in on targeted stars and clusters. Scientists believe it could unveil the first gripping evidence of small, rocky planets like the Earth with the right conditions to support life.
1.Awe-inspiring: The Kepler telescope zooms in on the TrES-2 star, aka 'Hot Jupiter'. 2.Search for life-supporting planets: Kepler's full field of view, shows a patch of sky containing around 14 million stars
An executive at the American space agency Nasa's headquarters in Washington DC, said: 'Kepler's first glimpse of the sky is awe-inspiring. To be able to see millions of stars in a single snapshot is simply breathtaking.'
The 15ft telescope, fitted with British-made light detectors, was launched last month from Cape Canaveral, Florida. From a vantage point trailing the Earth round the Sun, it will spend three-and-a-half years focused on a patch of sky equivalent to the size of a human hand held at arm's length.
Planets that could support life would lie in the 'habitable' or 'Goldilocks' zone - an orbital band where temperatures are not too hot and not too cold, but just right to allow the existence of watery oceans, lakes and rivers, Nasa says.
A world with liquid water on its surface may be expected to host living organisms, either primitive or advanced. The Kepler will find planets by detecting almost imperceptible 'winks' - the tiny amount of dimming that occurs each time a planet moves across the face of a star.
Information such as a planet's size and the extent of its orbit can be calculated from the amount of dimming, the length of time between 'winks' and the star's mass.
Since the first 'exoplanet' outside the Solar System was discovered in 1995, more than 340 have been identified. Most have been detected using ground-based telescopes from the way an orbiting planet's gravity tugs on a star causing it to 'wobble'.
Dr James Fanson, Kepler's project manager at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said: 'Everything about Kepler has been optimised to find Earth-size planets.
'Our images are road maps that will allow us, in a few years, to point to a star and say a world like ours is there.'
Giant "hand" reaches across space
Source: CCTV.com | 04-09-2009 Special Report:Tech Max So it is with PSR B1509-58, which long ago collapsed into a sphere just 12 miles in diameter after running out of fuel. And what a strange scene this one has created.
Blue: Energy emanating from the nebula around the dying star PSR B1509-58. Red: A neighboring gas cloud called RCW 89.
In a new image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, high-energy X-rays emanating from the nebula around PSR B1509-58 have been colored blue to reveal a structure resembling a hand reaching for some eternal red cosmic light.
The star now spins around at the dizzying pace of seven times every second ¡ª as pulsars do ¡ª spewing energy into space that creates the scene. Editor:Du Xiaodan
Space Shuttle Atlantis... rolling out
Hubble's greatest hits: Hubble space telescope images
Images: Galileo's sketches and observations that the Moon's surface is mountainous. A 17th C celestial map by Dutch cartographer Frederik De Wit. Subaru telescope (L) and NASA Infrared Telescope (R) on Mauna Kea.
Before blasting off for the International Space Station, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata said he was looking forward to carrying out the missions
He made no mention of the fact that one of those missions is test out state-of-the-art underwear. Mr Wakata, 48, is not being allowed to change his underwear more than once week.
Wakata arrived aboard the space station on Tuesday and is technically classified as a flight engineer with the added responsibility of taking care of the external robotic arm. But throughout his stay, he will be wearing underpants that have been specially designed to handle the rigours of the human body in space.
Developed by researchers at the Japan Women's University and five clothing companies, the underwear is made of a material containing threads of antibacterial polymers that reduce the smells that build up in normal clothing. The clothes have been designed to absorb human sweat and other liquids, insulate the body and dry in a matter of minutes, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. They are also flame-resistant and the use of Velcro helps reduce the build-up of static, a key consideration for anyone working around electronic components.
Astronauts are generally required to change their clothing after three days in space and, as they do not have enough water for the luxury of washing their outfits, simply dispose of them. But with space agencies now looking at manned missions that will last for several years, they are seeking ways to extend the working lives of the crews' garments.
The full range of clothing includes long- and short-sleeved undershirts, shorts and underwear, as well as socks that have been designed with an individual compartment for the big toe, enabling astronauts operating in zero gravity to use their feet to hold on.
The companies that helped developed the clothing range are planning to release a line for Earth-bound humans in the future.
Astronauts dodge space junk 2009.03.13.
Tiny fragments of space junk forced three astronauts to briefly abandon the International Space Station.
RussianYury Lonchakov and Americans Michael Fincke and Sandra Magnus spent about nine minutes in the Soyuz escape ship before the potentially destructive debris passed by.
Nasa chiefs called the threat to the £720 million space station "minimal" and said the astronauts were only moved into the Soyuz capsule as a precaution.
The debris was a very tiny piece - about 1cm long - of an old payload assist motor that was previously on either a Delta rocket or the space shuttle.
Being in the escape craft would have allowed the astronauts to "quickly depart the station in the unlikely event the debris collided with the station causing a depressurisation.
Warnings of the close encounter came too late for flight controllers to maneuver the station out of the way.
It was not immediately clear how close the debris came to the space station. But NASA officials recalled at least five other times station crews had taken refuge in the Soyuz as a precaution, NASA spokesman Kyle Herring said.
Space junk is considered a threat to the estimated 800 or so commercial and military satellites operating in space and the space station, which has been continuously manned since November 2000. There are more than 18,000 pieces of space debris cataloged.
Mars discovery suggests water on planet 1m years ago. 2009.03.02.
Fan-like gullies discovered on Mars suggest the planet had running water on its surface less than a million years ago.
A gully system in the Promethei Terra appears to have been carved by melt watr. Photo: PA.
The discovery increases the chances of life existing on the planet in the recent past, or even surviving today. Scientists identified the gullies inside a crater that appear to be not more than 1.25 million years old. They believe the channels must have been sculpted by surface water from melting ice.
There is evidence of water-borne sediments being carried down from high ground and deposited in low-lying alluvial fans.
Professor James Head, from Brown University in Rhode Island, USA, who with colleagues reported on the discovery in the journal Geology, said: "We think there was recent water on Mars. This is a big step in the direction to proving that."
The gully system is in Promethal Terra, an area of cratered highlands south of the Martian equator.
A powerful camera on the American space agency Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft was able to distinguish four individual lobes of deposited material in the fan system. One was pockmarked with small craters linked to another crater 80 kilometres away known to be 1.25m years old. This lobe was likely to be about the same age. The other three lobes were unblemished and therefore had to be younger, said the scientists.
They believe the best explanation for the gullies is melting snow and ice rather than groundwater bubbling up to the surface. The finding follows discoveries of water-bearing minerals such as opals and carbonates on Mars.
Experts now think the planet was occasionally wet for far longer than was previously believed.
A green goddess: Lulin comet. 2009.03.01.
We have known of its existence for only two years. But one scientist has captured an awe-inspiring picture of comet Lulin as it streaked past Earth on its ever-onward journey. Glowing an eerie green, it came within 38million miles of Earth yesterday, the closest it has ever been, and about the same distance away as Mars. Richard Richins from New Mexico State University snapped this spectacular picture in calm conditions two nights ago.
Lulinover New Mexico 2009.02.25. Photo: Richard Richins
The central coma of the comet is clearly visible and the greenish hue suggests it contains cyanogen - a colourless toxic gas - and diatomic carbon. Lulin appears to have two tails with a yellow dust tail visible trailing to the left and a textured bluish-glowing ion tail to the right.
The spectacular comet will be brightest over the next few nights before fading away in the coming weeks. It is almost 180 degrees around from the Sun and so visible nearly all night long,
This stunning picture shows comet Lulin glowing green in the sky as it makes its closest approach to Earth
Comet Lulin is delighting amateur astronomers who are observing it using telescopes and binoculars Lulin was discovered by a 19-year-old student from a photo taken at Lulin Observatory-Taiwan, in 2007. The stellar traveller is very active, shedding nearly 800 gallons of water each second on its journey around the Sun. That's enough liquid to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in less than 15 minutes. Nasa said: 'This appears to be Lulin's first visit to the inner solar system and its first exposure to intense sunlight. Surprises are possible.'
Astronomers using the Nasa Swift Satellite are tracking a spectacular comet as it closes in on Earth and sheds gas and dust from its vaporised ice. This combined view shows combined ultraviolet and X-ray images of the object. Swift has already revealed that Lulin is surrounded by an hydroxyl cloud spanning nearly 250,000 miles (400,000km, or slightly greater than the distance between Earth and the moon.
Andrew Read, from Leicester University, said: 'The comet is releasing a great amount of gas, which makes it an ideal target for X-ray observations.'
Eye of God
The Eye of God: the amaizng object is actually a shellof gas and dust that has been blown off by a faint central star. Photo: ESO
The bright blue pupil and the white of the eye are fringed by flesh-coloured eyelids - but this eye is so big that it light takes two and a half years to cross from one side to the other. The object is actually a shell of gas and dust that has been blown off by a faint central star. Our own solar system will meet a similar fate five billion years in the future.
It lies around 700 light-years away in the constellation of Aquarius, and can be dimly seen in small backyard telescopes by amateur astronomers who call it the Helix nebula. It covers an area of sky around a quarter the size of the full moon. The photo was taken with a giant telescope at the European Southern Observatory, high on a mountaintop at La Silla in Chile. It is so detailed that a close-up reveals distant galaxies within the central eyeball.
AAAS: 'One hundred billion trillion' planets where alien life could flourish
There could be one hundred billion trillion Earth-like planets in space, making it "inevitable" that extraterrestrial life exists, according to a leading astronomer.
By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent in Chicago. Last Updated: GMT 15 Feb 2009
Dr Alan Boss, of the Carnegie Institution in Washington DC, said there could be as many Earths as there are stars in the universe Photo: REUTERS
Life on Earth used to be thought of as a freak accident that only happened once. But scientists are now coming to the conclusion that the universe is teeming with living organisms. The change in thinking has come about because of the new belief there are an abundant number of habitable planets like Earth.
Alan Boss, of the Carnegie Institution in Washington DC, said there could be as many Earths as there are stars in the universe - one hundred billion trillion. Because of this, he believes it is "inevitable" that life must have flourished elsewhere over the billions of years the universe has existed.
"If you have a habitable world and let it evolve for a few billion years then inevitably some sort of life will form on it," said Dr Boss. "It is sort of running an experiment in your refrigerator - turn it off and something will grow in there. "It would be impossible to stop life growing on these habitable planets."
He believes his views will be proved by NASA's Kepler outer space-based telescope, which takes off in the next three weeks with a mission to track down Earth-like habitable planets. Within four years Dr Boss, who was speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, believes it will have found one in our galaxy and that will prove his theories about their abundance. He then would like researchers to build even bigger telescopes and send out an unmanned spacecraft to take photographs of the distant planet that could be up to 30 light years away. It would, however, take at least 2,000 years to report back.
Dr Boss said: "We already know enough now to say that the universe is probably loaded with terrestrial planets similar to the Earth," he says. "We should expect that there are going to be many planets which are habitable, so probably some are going to be inhabited as well." Whether the life we find is intelligent is, however, less than inevitable. "Intelligent life seems to be fleeting," he said. "In terms of the universe it only exists for a fraction of time."
He said it would be a massive coincidence for us to find intelligent life that exists at the same time as us. It is more likely to be bacteria or microbes. "It is unlikely that 'we' will exist for a further 100,000 years," he said.
U.S. and Russian satellites collide sending a cloud of hazardous debris hurtling around Earth at 25,000mph By Mail Foreign Service 2009.02.12.
Two space satellites have smashed into each other for the first time, destroying the two devices and sending debris hurtling at 25,000mph through space. The American and Russian devices collided around 775km (485 miles) above Siberia - and directly above the International Space Station - on Tuesday at 11.55 EST (04.55 GMT). 'We believe it's the first time that two satellites have collided in orbit,' American military spokesman said.
Nasa released this artist's impression of an Iridium satellite in earth orbit: A similar device collided with a Russian communications array over Siberia on Tuesday
The collision, which took place in low-Earth orbit, involved the American Iridium Satellite 33 and Russia's Cosmos 2251 satellite, both of which weighed more than 1,000lb. While the Russian communications array was 'non-operational', the Irridium device was part of a network of 66 low Earth orbiting satellites used to connect Irridium satellite phones. Some types of buoys, such as those used for the tsunami warning system, also rely on Iridium satellites to communicate with their base.
'Within the next 30 days, Iridium expects to move one of its in-orbit spare satellites into the network constellation to permanently replace the lost satellite,' a statement said.
A real-time satellite tracking website appears to show Irridium 33 still orbiting the Earth. The second picture of Irridium 33 was taken in June 2002 with a 30 second exposure from Athens in Greece. Nasa is now monitoring a cloud of debris produced by the impact made up of more than 600 pieces.
Even a one-millimetre scrap of metal orbiting at 25,000mph can wreak as much damage to the International Space Station as a speeding bullet, while a fragment the size of a tennis ball would be 25 times more powerful than a single stick of dynamite.
But the agency believes the risk to the ISS and the three astronauts on board should be low. Nasa spokesman John Yembrick said the space station could do 'a debris-avoidance manoeuvre if necessary.'
There is also deemed to be no risk to a shuttle launch scheduled for Febraury 22. Seven astronauts will be onboard.
A tiny speck of paint can leave a crater in a shuttle windshield glass nearly half a centimetre wide, like on the Space Shuttle Challenge mission STS-7. This computer generated orbital debris graphic from NASA displays currently tracked debris objects.
Mark Matney, an orbital debris scientist at Johnson Space Center, Houston, said: 'We knew this was going to happen eventually. 'The collisions are going to become more and more important in the coming decades.' Most of the debris from the crash will eventually burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.
The Iridium satellite was launched in 1997 weighing 1,433lb, while the Russian device weighing 2,094lb was launched in 1993. There have been four recorded cases of objects colliding in space. However, these were considered to be minor and involved spent rockets or smaller satellites.
Astonishingly, scientists are tracking 13,000 pieces of debris which are tennis ball-sized or bigger, in orbit around the Earth. In total there is some 12.1million lb of man-made rubbish whizzing around the planet. Space junk is now considered the biggest threat to a space shuttle.
Around 6,000 satellites have been sent into orbit since 1957 with approximately 3,000 currently operational.
Intelligent life could be thriving on 40,000 planets. Agencies: 2009.02.05.
Science¡¯s quest to discover life on Mars has so far failed to find even one little green man. But not to worry. Aliens could be alive and well on almost 40,000 other planets. Researchers have calculated that up to 37,964 worlds in our galaxy are hospitable enough to be home to creatures at least as intelligent as ourselves.
This planet, located near the centre of the Milky Way about 20,000 light years from us, is just one of the 40,000 which could be harbouring intelligent life
Astrophysicist Duncan Forgan created a computer programme that collated all the data on the 330 or so planets known to man and worked out what proportion would have conditions suitable for life. The estimate, which took into account factors such as temperature and availability of water and minerals, was then extrapolated across the Milky Way.
Three scenarios of how life could develop were also taken into account.
The first - that it is difficult for life to form but easy for it to evolve - concluded there are at least 361 planets harbouring intelligent life.
The second, which assumed that life is easily formed but struggles to develop further, came up with a total of 31,513.
The third scenario, which assumes that life can be passed from planet to planet with the help of asteroids, saw the total rocket to almost 38,000, the Journal of Astrobiology reports.
What is more, these lifeforms would not be mere amoeba wriggling on the end of a microscope but fully-fledged aliens, because the scientists' definition of intelligent life is a species at least as advanced as humans.
Mr Forgan, who believes it will take 300 to 400 years for us to make contact with our far away neighbours, said: 'I believe the estimate of 361 intelligent civilisations to be the most accurate. 'These would certainly be the most Earth-like civilisations but the bigger figures are certainly possible. We can't rule them out. 'Most of the other planets we have looked at are older than our own - so I would expect to see more advanced civilisations than ours existing.'
Far side of the moon 'once faced Earth before asteroid flipped it around' By Daily Mail Reporter 22nd January 2009
The mysterious far side of the moon has long excited astronomers and science fiction writers alike because it never faces the Earth. But scientists now believe the moon may have faced the other way, before an asteroid flipped it around billions of years ago. A study of impact craters suggests that our satellite performed the ultimate about-turn.
Dr Mark Wieczorek and Matthieu Le Feuvre, from the Paris Institute of Earth Physics, studied the age and distribution of 46 known craters. Because it faces the direction of orbiting travel, the moon's western hemisphere should have more impact craters than its eastern hemisphere.
The French scientists found this was true of young craters, but older craters were mostly concentrated in the east. The implication was that the eastern face had once experienced more bombardment than the western face.
The moon now rotates once for every orbit it makes of the Earth. The far hemisphere was first photographed by the Soviet Luna 3 probe in 1959, and wasn't directly observed by human eyes until the Apollo 8 mission in 1968. The face includes the largest known impact feature in the Solar System, called the South Pole-Aitken basin. It measures 1,550 miles in diameter and is 8 miles deep.
Don't panic! Galaxies will collide!
The Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies are on a collision course and will hit one another earlier than scientists had previously predicted. By Chris Irvine
The galaxy of Andromeda is the nearest to our own. Photo:GETTY
According to the most detailed measurements yet, scientists have discovered that our solar system, the Milky Way, is moving at 600,000mph, 100,000mph faster than originally thought. The speedier rotation also means its mass must be similar to that of Andromeda, around 270 billion times the mass of the sun.
It means that the gravitational pull the Milky Way exerts on its neighbouring galaxies is stronger, meaning a collision would happen sooner than expected. The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are the two largest in our cosmic neighbourhood, with the former 100,000 light years across, which is still only half the width of the latter.
Our solar system is around 28,000 light years from the centre of the Milky Way; Andromeda is around two million light years away. The research, presented at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, California, argues that the collision will happen around the same time our sun is due to burn up the last of its nuclear fuel, within the next seven billion years.
It is thought rather than planets and stars colliding, the two galaxies will merge to form a new, large galaxy
Hubble space telescope that show the life cycle of stars
These are the stunning images that depict the life cycle of stars, released to celebrate 18 years of the Hubble Space Telescope.
The first shot captures the Orion nebula - a dense cloud of gas about 1,500 light years from Earth - within which new stars are forming.
Stars are born in clouds of cold hydrogen gas, chaotic neighbourhoods where energy from young stars sculpt fantasy-like landscapes in the gas.
The inset is a close-up of a young star surrounded by a dusty disk that may eventually form planets.
The Orion nebula - within which new stars are forming. The inset is a close-up of a young star surrounded by a dusty disk that may eventually form planets.
The second picture shows young blue stars surrounded by leftover natural gas in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy composed of up to several billion stars - a small number compared to our own Milky Way's 200 to 400 billion stars.
The third image in the montage features an evolving star known as V838 Monocerotis whose past flashes have illuminated material that was ejected in an early stellar wind.
In the fourth a planetary nebula forms as a dying star sheds its outer layers, leaving behind the white dwarf at its centre while a globular cluster - a spherical collection of stars - in the fifth contains many old ones.
Young blue stars are surrounded by leftover natural gas in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy composed of up to several billion stars
The faintest stars in the cluster are also white dwarfs, said Professor Julianne Dalcanton, an astronomer at Washington University.
Writing in the science journal Nature to mark the launch of the International Year of Astronomy, she said Hubble has 'captured the public's imagination' with the estimated 900,000 pictures it has taken since its launch on April 24 1990.
The telescope's deep, clear views are not masked by the Earth's turbulent atmosphere giving it unprecedented resolution when imaging the brightness and structure of objects in deep space.
An evolving star known as V838 Monocerotis
Prof Dalcanton said: 'These advantages have dramatically changed our understanding of astronomy - from tracing the life cycle of stars to demonstrating the role of black holes in galaxy formation and testing fundamental models of the expansion of the Universe.'
Among Hubble's greatest achievements is a set of observations of supernovas that shows the universe is not just expanding, but doing so at an ever-increasing pace.
The blockbuster finding means something called dark energy, which scientists know almost nothing about, is working against gravity - and winning.
An image of a planetary nebula forming as a dying star sheds its outer layers, leaving behind the white dwarf at its centre
Somewhat closer to home, in 2001 Hubble made the first direct measurements of the composition of a planet's atmosphere outside our solar system. Pockmarked with meteoroid impacts, Hubble has over time clocked radically changing winds on Saturn and shown Neptune to have seasons. It spotted mysterious light flashes on Jupiter, and made stunning portraits of Mars.
Prof Dalcanton said: 'The HST's (Hubble Space Telescope's) successes can be attributed to the same three key factors influencing real estate - location, location, location. Raising the HST above most of the Earth's atmosphere has allowed it to escape a host of problems that limit telescopes on the ground.'
'Although stars are frequently assumed to be constant and unchanging features of the firmament, they are in fact evolving dynamic systems.'
'New stars condense out of gaseous nebulae, and old stars evolve through planetary nebulae and supernovae into white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes.'
A globular cluster of stars
'These processes of star formation and evolution are critical to understanding many features of the Universe, including the evolution of galaxies, the dispersal of chemical elements and the distribution and energetics of gas.
'Some of the HST's most lasting - and beautiful - contributions to stellar astronomy have been its studies of star-forming regions like the Orion nebula. In these regions, luminous massive stars ionize the gas cloud from which they coalesced, causing the cloud to glow brightly in various emission lines. The HST's earliest observations of the Orion nebula revealed it was peppered with a remarkable population of young stars surrounded by dense disks of gas and dust.'
Hubble is a joint project between the European Space Agency and NASA.
Minerals suggest life could have existed on Mars
Scientists have found minerals on Mars that suggest the planet was once wet enough to support life. 19 Dec 2008
Deposits of carbonate on Mars. Photo: Getty
Deposits of carbonate, formed in neutral or alkaline water, were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
"Obviously this is very exciting," said John Mustard of Brown University in Rhode Island. "It's white - it's a bulbous, crusty material."
Carbonate is formed when water and carbon dioxide mix with calcium, iron or magnesium. It dissolves quickly in acid, so its discovery counters the theory that all water on Mars was at one time acidic.
"It would have been a pretty clement, benign environment for early Martian life," said Bethany Ehlmann, a graduate student at Brown University who led the study published in the journal Science.
"It preserves a record of a particular type of habitat, a neutral to alkaline water environment."
Carbonates on Earth like chalk or limestone sometimes preserve organic material, but scientists have found no such evidence on Mars.
The 3.6 billion-year-old carbonate was discovered in bedrock at the edge of a 930-mile-wide (1,490-km-wide) crater.
Carbonate previously had been found in minuscule amounts in soil samples provided by the Phoenix Mars Lander, Martian dust and Martian meteorites on Earth. But this is the first time scientists have found a site where carbonate formed.
The deposits are about the size of football fields and are visible in images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
"There were these different water environments in early Mars history, (which) increases the possibilities that life started," said Richard Zurek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
Over the moon: The lunar spectacle that was bigger and brighter than ever. By Daily Mail Reporter 13th December 2008
If the shortening days were getting you down, last night's amazing full moon was sure to raise the spirits. It appeared 14 per cent bigger than usual and a stunning 30 per cent brighter thanks to a rare, natural coincidence. But Star gazers in most of Britain had to work to catch a glimpse of the spectacular phenomenon, though, because of cloud cover.
A jet takes off from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport as the enlarged full moon rises in the background. The moon rises behind bride Kailey Wilson in Alberta, Canada
Each month the moon orbits the Earth and last night it skimmed by at its closest distance for the last 15 years. The moon passed a mere 356,613 km away from us - 28,000 km closer than normal. The 15-year spectacular occurred as the moon's perigee - the closest point that it passes Earth - coincided with the full moon.
A large ring surrounds the moon over the Wasatch Mountains in Provo, Utah
And the phenomenon coincided with the annual Geminid meteor shower which begins last night and continues for two days. The 'shooting stars' appear from the constellation Gemini but can be seen all over the sky - although stargazers are recommended to look away because of the brightness of the moon. It is probably the extinct hulk of a comet's nucleus which released the Geminids meteoroids during its active phase some 4,000 or more years ago. The Geminids' splendour, though, might have been slightly dimmed by the huge, bright moon.
Smiles over Oz... from 'Sydney Morning Herald'
A smile that will light up the night sky. Richard Macey 1st & 2nd December, 2008
THE world may be facing its worst economic turmoil in decades, but the heavens are about to smile on Australia. A rare cosmic alignment tonight will produce a smiling face - or an emoticon, depending on your generation - high over the country.
From soon after 8pm until just before 11pm the planets Venus and Jupiter will stare down from the western sky like two brilliant eyes. Directly below, the crescent moon will form a happy mouth. "I think it will be very spectacular," Sydney Observatory's astronomer, Nick Lomb, said. "The three brightest objects in the night sky will all be in the same patch of the sky." As the night draws on, Dr Lomb predicted, "the smiley face" - with Venus playing the left eye and giant Jupiter the right - "will improve and become a little more compact".
To the superstitious, unusual astronomical apparitions were often seen as omens. While Dr Lomb said he did not believe in such things, he noted that Monday's smiling face will appear on the eve of the next Reserve Bank's meeting at which it will consider interest rates. "There was an upside-down sad face visible on the morning of April 23, 1998," he recalled. That day's Herald was dominated by news of conflict on Australia's waterfront, protests against child-care costs, big rises in bank fees and executions in Rwanda.
Dr Lomb urged people to attempt to photograph tonight's heavenly show, which will not smile on the US or Europe. "It should be very easy to take a photograph with a digital camera and a tripod. Use a one-, two- or three-second exposure and, of course, no flash."
However the cosmic cheeriness will be a fleeting affair. Another smiley face will not grin over Australia until the early hours of July 21, 2036.
1. Heavenly smiles over Australia. Photo: Gabby Loveday 2. Western Australia. Photo: rick Mason 3. Cosmic alignment of Venus & Saturn with the Crescent moon at Lismore NSW. Photo: Soozn
Space shuttle Endeavour lands safely in California
Space shuttle Endeavour and its seven astronauts safely returned to Earth on Sunday, taking a detour to sunny California after storms hit the main landing strip in Florida. 01 Dec 2008
Endeavour touched down at 4.25pm. EST, wrapping up a 16-day trip that left the international space station freshly remodelled and capable of housing bigger crews.
NASA ordered the detour after dangerously high wind and a stormy sky prevented a Florida landing. With the weather at Kennedy Space Centre looking no better for Monday, Mission Control opted for its backup landing site. "Welcome back. That was a great way to finish a fantastic flight," Mission Control radioed.
"And we're happy to be here in California," shuttle Commander Christopher Ferguson replied.
Congratulations also came down from the space station. "Wow," said skipper Mike Fincke, who watched the landing broadcast live.
Returning home from a six-month mission was former space station resident Gregory Chamitoff, who had rocketed away from the planet at the end of May.
The space shuttle's journey, short by comparison, spanned 6.6 million miles (11 million kilometres) and 250 orbits of Earth. NASA always prefers to land the space shuttles at its home base in Florida. It takes about a week and costs $1.8 million to transport a shuttle from California to Florida, atop a modified jumbo jet. The astronauts also had been rooting for a Florida touchdown ¨C that's where their families were waiting. But the crosswind at the Florida landing strip was too strong, and thunderstorms moved in. Monday's outlook was just as dismal; NASA officials said it would make no sense to keep Endeavour in orbit an extra day if the weather wasn't expected to improve in Florida.
As Endeavour soared over Houston, home to Mission Control, Ferguson could see all the bad weather in Florida.
"I think you made a good call," he radioed.
It was the first space shuttle landing at Edwards in more than a year.
NASA video -
Space shuttle Endeavour Returns to Earth after 12 days in space. November 30th, 2008.
Lost in Space: toolkit visible in space, say scientists
A toolkit that was lost in space is visible to anyone ¡°looking in the right place and with a reasonably powerful telescope or binoculars¡±, scientists claim.
By Ben Leach - 26 Nov 2008
Last week astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper lost her toolbag during a repair mission on the International Space Station (ISS) as she became the first woman to lead a space walk. Nasa officials had expected the bag to burn up on reentry into the Earth¡¯s atmosphere. Instead it has been stuck in orbit. And for the rest of this month and into the first days of December the bag should be visible, although it will look like a tiny and faint star.
The toolkit is the size of a backpack and is travelling at more than 15,000mph about 250 miles (400km) from the surface of the planet. The angle at which it appears in the sky varies, but tonight it will be at 72 degrees and on Friday at 77 degrees. The bag will be in the southern part of the sky, travelling from west to east. Each appearance will last for three or four minutes.
People on the South Coast of England will have, weather permitting, the best view. Farther north it will be harder to see and in northern Scotland it will be out of view.
Kevin Fetter, a veteran satellite observer, captured the backpack-sized bag at the exact time it passed over his observatory. He used a £380 Celestron Nexstar 102 SLT telescope fitted with a high-resolution camera, which was in turn connected via a networking cable to his computer.
Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society, said: ¡°I would be a bit sceptical. It might be possible to pick it up with a telescope or a pair of binoculars, but it will be difficult. You would have to be very sure of the position. It¡¯s like trying to spot a football next to a football pitch but from hundreds of miles away.¡± The ISS, a $100 billion (£610 billion) project of 16 nations, has been under construction for 10 years. Fascinating stuff!
Postscript: Lost & Found Missing space tool bag spotted by British photographer
By Daily Mail Reporter & 'YOU TUBE' 15th December 2008. The missing tool bag that was dropped by an astronaut during a mission to repair the International Space Station has been spotted after it dropped into low orbit. The vital kit floated away last month when lead spacewalker Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper was working on restoring full power to the orbital outpost, 200 miles above Earth.
Video footage of the astronaut flailing around aimlessly for the bag was captured under the watchful eye of NASA cameras and became an instant hit when it appeared on the YouTube website.
Venus (left) and the tool bag dropped from the International Space Station (right) as they travel across the sky in this 40second exposure . Now the backpack-sized tool bag - which NASA said cost about £66,000 - has been captured by an amateur photographer Mark Humpage in a 40-second exposure shot from his home in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, as it orbits the earth.
Great Orion Nebulae. waiting copyright permission
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion, also known as M42, is one of the most famous nebulae in the sky. The star forming region's glowing gas clouds and hot young stars are on the right in this sharp and colorful two frame mosaic that includes the smaller nebula M43 near center and dusty, bluish reflection nebulae NGC 1977 and friends on the left. Located at the edge of an otherwise invisible giant molecular cloud complex, these eye-catching nebulae represent only a small fraction of this galactic neighborhood's wealth of interstellar material. Within the well-studied stellar nursery, astronomers have also identified what appear to be numerous infant solar systems. The gorgeous skyscape spans nearly two degrees or about 45 light-years at the Orion Nebula's estimated distance of 1,500 light-years.
I was inspired to put this feature on the website following a programme on BBCtv of actress Joanna Lumley's quest to fulfill her dreams of seeing the Northern Lights.
It reminded me of the only time I have witnessed the phenomenon, once very early in the morning returning to Bristol from the north. The impressive display acroos the Severn Estuary, over the Welsh Mountains and Brecon Beacons occurred on a bitterly cold night during the winter of 1991 or 92.
Silent, curtains of dancing light hang down, billowing slightly in a light breeze against darkened skies Colours change almost imperceptively, from white, through yellows, orange, red, green, lilac, purple and blue.
They originate during explosions and fares from the Sun., occuring as a result of solar particles colliding with gasses in our atmosphere, 65km (40 miles) above the Earth's surface., and travelling at 300 - 1,000 km per second. Spectacular pictures aren't they?
And there's more...........in the southern hemmisphere...Aura Australis
This is not an image of the Aura phenomena, but is so magnificent, it had to be seen - unknown
Photographs: The Meteorological Office - UK (title image)
Nasa's Phoenix Lander finds evidence of water and snow on Mars
Nasa's Phoenix Mars Lander has found evidence suggesting there was once water at its polar landing site on Mars and detected snow falling from Martian clouds for the first time.
By Catherine Elsworth. 2008.09.30.
Evidence of lava deposition and floods. Photo: GETTY IMAGES.
A laser instrument aboard the craft designed to gather information about how the planet's atmosphere and surface interact detected snow from clouds about 2.5 miles above where the lander touched down on the planet's northern plains.
Data sent back to Earth shows the snow turning into vapour before reaching the ground.
"Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars," said Jim Whiteway, lead scientist for Phoenix's meteorological station. "We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground."
In addition, soil experiments conducted by the lander have provided the first evidence that water could once have been present at this arid, northerly latitude.
Tests by the lander's robotic laboratory revealed the presence of minerals that on Earth usually only form in the presence of liquid water- calcium carbonate, found in limestone and chalk, and particles thought to be clay.
Phoenix landed in the Martian arctic plains in May on a 90-day mission to probe the Red Planet's permafrost for "habitable zones" and evidence of organic compounds that could indicate an ability to support basic microbial life.
In July, mission researchers confirmed the long-held belief that frozen water was buried beneath the northern plains with proof that a hard subsurface layer at the lander's site contains water-ice. Tests meanwhile showed the soil was slightly alkaline and contained important nutrients and minerals.
Scientists believe there could once have been standing water at the arctic site or that the ice melted and interacted with the minerals.
"Is this a habitable zone on Mars? I think we're approaching that hypothesis," said the mission's lead scientist Peter Smith, of the University of Arizona. "We understand, though, that Mars has many surprises for us and we have not finished our investigation."
Phoenix has now been operating for nearly five months and on Monday Nasa extended the mission, saying the solar-powered lander would continue to operate until it dies amid the freezing, pitch black Martian winter.
At present the sun disappears for more than four hours every night and the output from the solar panels is decreasing. Scientists are racing to use the remaining four of Phoenix's eight tiny test ovens to analyse soil samples before the craft dies.
Experiments so far have failed to turn up definitive evidence of carbon-based compounds, considered the building blocks of life
Before the lander's power runs out, the Phoenix team will also attempt to activate a microphone on the craft to capture sounds on Mars.
NASA releases new images of Mars
These spectacular pictures of Mars appear to show how climate change has shaped the Red Planet over millions of years. By Richard Alleyne. 2008.09.19.
Dune Field in an Impact Crater, Cerebus Fossae. Photo: AP
More than 1,000 observations taken by the high resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, so powerful it can reveal tiny details on the planet as small as a chair. One picture shows deposits in the north region of the planet which have formed a layer of "dusty" ice two miles thick. The layer exposed on the cliff face shows not just dusty ice but sand as well, suggesting each layer was a dune field that was only later covered by ice as the temperature cooled.
The colours seen in the images are not the natural colours seen with normal human vision, but are important to distinguish ice, frost, dust and rock on the Martian surface.
The 1,005 Mars observations made between April 26 and July 21st are the latest to be released by scientists working on the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRise). The camera has revealed the highest resolution images of a planet's surface ever seen from an orbiter.
"Scientists all over the world are already using these images to understand many previously-unexplained phenomena on the Red Planet. We might also discover brand new types of features never seen before," a spokesman said.
Scientists hope studies of Mars will reveal more about how the Earth was formed. They believe life in our solar system formed during or even before the Late Heavy Bombardment of 3.9 billion years ago, when large impact craters were formed on the Moon and the surrounding planets.
Space & Astromomy Earth - scientists estimate 100billion, trillion planets exist where life could flourish. I was 7 years old when Sputnik 1 was launched into space by the former USSR, now Russia and neighbouring states. I was enralled. Even today, when I look at the night sky, I marvel that is the same that friends all over the world saw a few hours before, or will see in a few hours time. In my mind, it keeps us united in some intangible way. AC. Update: 2009.10.09.
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Space highway: Scientists in the U.S. are trying to map the twisting 'tubes' so they can be used to cut the cost of space travel 
The incident follows a series of UFO sightings in China which culminated in an object being captured on film by students in Deqing. The footage, which was featured on Chinese television, appears to show the object repeatedly changing shape after initially appearing as a glowing blue sphere
Total solar eclipse : 
History of China's rocket development via Links in 3 parts 
Hubble mission: The sun sets on the space shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.
The Hubble crew: (l-r ) Michael J Massimino, Michael T Good, Gregory C Johnson, pilot; Scott D Altman, commander; K. Megan McArthur, John M. Grunsfeld and Andrew J. Feuste.l Hubble crew in training: Astronauts Mike Massimino (r) and Mike Good with home plate from New York City's Shea Stadium. The plate will fly with the STS-125 crew aboard Atlantis.
This Hubble image from 2003 shows a storm of turbulent gases in the Omega-Swan nebula. There have been four previous servicing missions to Hubble and the last was in 2002 
Hubble Images via link 
A titanic burst of energy from a dying star 13 billion light years away has been spotted (centre) from Earth. An artist's impression of a dying star exploding to produce a gamma ray burst. Swift detected a 10 second burst of gamma rays from GRB 090423 at 8.55 am UK time on April 23.
Mercury as it apears to the human eye, and in false colour to reveal different surface features.
Messenger took more than 1,200 new high resolution images. The crater is the first geoplgical image not to be covered in a thick layer of volcanic dust. It wsa formed about 3.9 billion years ago.
Saturn close-up: Sensational cosmic images bring ringed planet to life By 
Saturn's north pole is a seething cauldron of activity filled with rolling cloud bands and swirling masses of gas
Trouble ahead: How the 
Pics: 1. Daryl Pederson, Nome, Alaska USA. 2. Sylvian Serre, Salliut, Quebec, Canada from Spaceweather
1.Awe-inspiring: The Kepler telescope zooms in on the TrES-2 star, aka '
Astronaut tests space-age underwear. Julian Ryall. 2009.03.19. Photo: REUTERS
A gully system in the Promethei Terra appears to have been carved by melt watr. Photo: PA.
Lulin
Astronomers using the Nasa Swift Satellite are tracking a spectacular comet as it closes in on Earth and sheds gas and dust from its vaporised ice. This combined view shows combined ultraviolet and X-ray images of the object. Swift has already revealed that Lulin is surrounded by an hydroxyl cloud spanning nearly 250,000 miles (400,000km, or slightly greater than the distance between Earth and the moon.
The Eye of God: the amaizng object is actually a shellof gas and dust that has been blown off by a faint central star. Photo: ESO
This planet, located near the centre of the Milky Way about 20,000 light years from us, is just one of the 40,000 which could be harbouring 
Far side of the moon 'once faced Earth before asteroid flipped it around' By 
The galaxy of Andromeda is the nearest to our own. Photo:GETTY
The Orion nebula - within which new stars are forming. The inset is a close-up of a young star surrounded by a dusty disk that may eventually form planets.
Young blue stars are surrounded by leftover natural gas in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy composed of up to several billion stars 
An evolving star known as V838 Monocerotis
An image of a planetary nebula forming as a dying star sheds its outer layers, leaving behind the white dwarf at its centre
A globular cluster of stars
Deposits of carbonate on Mars. Photo: Getty
Smiles over Oz... from 'Sydney Morning Herald'
Space shuttle Endeavour lands safely in California 
Last week astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper lost her toolbag during a repair mission on the 
Aura Borealis - 
And there's more...........in the southern hemmisphere...Aura Australis 
Evidence of lava deposition and floods. Photo: GETTY IMAGES.
Dune Field in an Impact Crater, Cerebus Fossae. Photo: AP