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NASA Invites Students to Name Moon-Bound Spacecraft
Tue Oct 04, 2011 1:18 pm by AstroJunkie
NASA Invites Students to Name Moon-Bound Spacecraft
WASHINGTON -- NASA has a class assignment for U.S. students: help the agency give the twin spacecraft headed to orbit around the moon new names.
The naming contest is open to students in kindergarten through 12th grade at schools in the United States. Entries must be submitted by teachers using an online entry form. Length of submissions can …
NASA Leads Study of Unprecedented Arctic Ozone Loss
Tue Oct 04, 2011 1:17 pm by AstroJunkie
NASA Leads Study of Unprecedented Arctic Ozone Loss
Left: Ozone in Earth's stratosphere at an altitude of approximately 12 miles (20 kilometers) in mid-March 2011, near the peak of the 2011 Arctic ozone loss. Right: chlorine monoxide – the primary agent of chemical ozone destruction in the cold polar lower stratosphere – for the same day …
This artist's concept shows a glowing patch of ultraviolet light near Saturn's north pole that occurs at the "footprint" of the magnetic connection between Saturn and its moon Enceladus. The footprint and magnetic field lines are not visible to the naked eye, but were detected by the …
NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers a World Orbiting Two Stars
Fri Sep 16, 2011 6:26 am by AstroJunkie
NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers a World Orbiting Two Stars
The existence of a world with a double sunset, as portrayed in the film Star Wars more than 30 years ago, is now scientific fact. NASA's Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet -- a planet orbiting two stars -- 200 light-years from Earth.
Herschel Mission Finds Galactic Growth Slow and Steady
Fri Sep 16, 2011 6:21 am by AstroJunkie
Herschel Mission Finds Galactic Growth Slow and Steady
The Herschel Infrared Space Observatory discovered that galaxies do not always need to collide with each other to drive vigorous star birth. The finding overturns a long-held assumption and paints a more stately picture of how galaxies evolve. The new results are based on Herschel's …
NASA Announces Design for New Deep Space Exploration System
Thu Sep 15, 2011 11:42 pm by AstroJunkie
NASA Announces Design for New Deep Space Exploration System
NASA is ready to move forward with the development of the Space Launch System -- an advanced heavy-lift launch vehicle that will provide an entirely new national capability for human exploration beyond Earth's orbit. The Space Launch System will give the nation a safe, affordable and sustainable means of reaching beyond our current …
The Space Launch System, or SLS, will be designed to carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, as well as important cargo, equipment and science experiments to Earth's orbit and destinations beyond. Additionally, the SLS will serve as a back up for commercial and international partner transportation …
The bright sun, a portion of the International Space Station and Earth's horizon are featured in this image photographed during the STS-134 mission's fourth spacewalk in May 2011. The image was taken using a fish-eye lens attached to an electronic still camera.
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers are witnessing the unprecedented transition of a supernova to a supernova remnant, where light from an exploding star in a neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, reached Earth in February 1987. Named Supernova 1987A, it was the closest supernova explosion …
Forget hurricane Irene that hammered the U.S. East Coast last month. You can even forget the monster storm whirling endlessly on Jupiter, creating the famous Great Red Spot. If celestial objects could compare storm violence, a nearby brown dwarf would win easily -- and its effects can be detected 47 …
Astronomers have announced the discovery of 50 (yes, five-zero) exoplanets, the largest group of alien worlds announced at one time.
Sixteen of these worlds are "super-Earths" -- exoplanets that possess masses larger than Earth, yet much lower than the gas giants.
NASA Launches Mission to Study Moon From Crust to Core
Sun Sep 11, 2011 11:40 pm by AstroJunkie
NASA Launches Mission to Study Moon From Crust to Core
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IIrocket carrying the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)
spacecraft for NASA lifted off from Space Launch Complex (SLC)-17B here at 9:08 a.m. EDT today. Image credit: Thom Baur, United Launch Alliance
Fire and smoke light up a blue sky as a United Launch Alliance Delta II Heavy rocket propels NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission into space. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 17B on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida was at 9:08:52 EDT Sept.10.
First Space-Bound Orion Comes Alive With First Weld
Sun Sep 11, 2011 11:12 pm by AstroJunkie
First Space-Bound Orion Comes Alive With First Weld
Construction began this week on the first new NASA spacecraft built to take humans to orbit since space shuttle Endeavour left the factory in 1991. Engineers at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans started welding together the first space-bound Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.
On Sunday morning at 1145 UT, an active region on the sun's western limb unleashed a strong M3-class solar flare.
Although the blast site was not directly facing Earth, radiation from the explosion nevertheless ionized Earth's upper atmosphere. This altered the propagation of radio signals around Europe, where it was high-noon at the time of the flare. "I …