Red moon
Copernicus
Trimble Announces Tiny Copernicus II Surface Mount GPS Receiver
Trimble is famous for its GPS systems and it has announced a new very small surface mount GPS receiver. The Copernicus II GPs receiver is a thumb nail size surface mount module with high sensitivity.
Read more
vernal equinox
In astronomy, equinox can have two meanings:
* The moment when the Sun is positioned directly over the Earth’s equator and, by extension, the apparent position of the Sun at that moment
* The time at which the vernal point, celestial equator, and other such elements are taken to be used in the definition of a celestial coordinate system—see Equinox (celestial coordinates)
An equinox in astronomy is that moment in time (not a whole day) when the center of the Sun can be observed to be directly above the Earth’s equator, occurring around March 20 and September 23 each year.
Read more
Meteorite That Hit Peru Puzzles Scientists
A meteorite created this crater in Peru in September. The space rock may have been traveling at 15,000 mph when it hit, which surprised scientists. “Normally with a small object like this, the atmosphere slows it down, and it becomes the equivalent of a bowling ball dropping into the ground,” researcher Peter Schultz said.
WASHINGTON (March 11) - A meteorite that struck Peru last September, digging out a deep hole and startling nearby residents, traveled faster and hit harder than would have been expected, researchers reported on Tuesday.
The object, which left a 49-foot-wide crater, was made of rock and, in theory, should have disintegrated in the atmosphere long before reaching the surface, said Peter Schultz, a professor of geological sciences at Brown University in Rhode Island.
It may have been speeding at 15,000 miles per hour when it hit, Schultz told the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in League City, Texas.
Usually only meteorites made of metal make it to the surface.
“Normally with a small object like this, the atmosphere slows it down, and it becomes the equivalent of a bowling ball dropping into the ground,” Schultz said in a statement.
“It would make a hole in the ground, like a pit, but not a crater. But this meteorite kept on going at a speed about 40 to 50 times faster than it should have been going.”
It landed in an arroyo, or dry stream, and the pit quickly filled with water from underneath the surface.
Dozens of people who visited the crater, near Lake Titicaca and the border with Bolivia, reported vomiting and headaches afterward. Some questioned whether the noise and hole were actually caused by a meteorite.
Read more
Beer Can House
Houstonian John Milkovisch worked through the late 1960s to transform his suburban Houston home at 222 Malone Street into the Beer Can House, a folk art monument to eccentricity and recycling. The Beer Can House is now one of Houston’s most recognizable folk art icons.
Milkovisch started his project in 1968 inlaying thousands of marbles, rocks, brass figures and metal pieces in concrete blocks and redwood, all of which were used to make patios, fences, flower boxes, and an array of other items. The result was a yard with no grass, as the entire front and back yards were covered with cement. When asked why he did it, John simply answered, “I got sick of mowing the grass.”
Read more
Mysterious Haze Discovered on Venus
(Feb. 22) - Bright hazes that mysteriously appear and then disappear on Venus in a matter of days have revealed a new dynamic feature of the planet’s cloudy atmosphere that is unlike anything on Earth.
The European Space Agency’s Venus Monitoring Camera (VMC) captured a series of images showing the development of a bright haze over the southern latitudes of the planet in July 2007. Over a period of days, the high-altitude veil continually brightened and dimmed, moving towards equatorial latitudes and then back towards the south pole.
These transient dark and bright markings indicate regions on the cloud-covered world where solar ultraviolet radiation is being absorbed and reflected by sulfuric acid particles, mission scientists said this week.
Gaseous sulfur dioxide and small amounts of water vapor are usually found below altitudes of about 43 miles (70 kilometers) in Venus’ carbon-dioxide rich atmosphere. These molecules are usually shrouded from view by cloud layers above that block our view to the surface at visible wavelengths.
ESA scientists think the sulfuric acid particles that make up the bright haze are created when some atmospheric process lifts the gaseous sulfur dioxide and water vapor high up above the cloud tops where they are exposed to ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
The UV radiation breaks up the molecules, making them highly reactive. The fragments of the molecules eagerly seek each other out and combine to form the sulfuric acid particles.
“The process is a bit similar to what happens with urban smog over cities,” said mission team member Dmitri Titov of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany.
Exactly what causes the sulfur dioxide and water vapor to well up is not known, but Titov says it is likely some internal process of Venus’ atmosphere.
The transient dark markings on the VMC images are even more of a mystery. They are caused by something that absorbs UV radiation, but scientists don’t yet know what the chemical is.
-ap
Shuttle Landing
Shuttle Atlantis leaves orbit for landing
By Irene Klotz Wed Feb 20, 8:24 AM ET
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Space shuttle Atlantis left orbit on Wednesday and headed toward a landing in Florida ahead of a U.S. military operation to shoot a dead spy satellite out of the sky.
ADVERTISEMENT
Flying over the Indian Ocean, shuttle commander Stephen Frick and pilot Alan Poindexter fired Atlantis’ twin braking rockets at around 8 a.m. EST to begin an hour-long descent back to Earth.
Touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida was expected at 9:07 a.m.
“The weather’s looking real nice,” astronaut Jim Dutton radioed to the crew from Mission Control in Houston.
Atlantis blasted off 13 days ago to deliver Europe’s first permanent space laboratory, Columbus, to the International Space Station.
NASA took the unusual step of staffing its backup landing site in California for the shuttle’s first landing opportunity in case weather at the Florida spaceport prevented a touchdown there.
The U.S. military wanted the shuttle down as soon as possible so it could proceed with a plan to shoot down an ailing spy satellite, which will create a debris cloud at the edge of the atmosphere, presenting a possible hazard to a returning space shuttle.
The debris is expected to burn up in the atmosphere within a few days.
The military has said it will fire a ship-based missile at the satellite, which died shortly after a 2006 launch, because it is carrying toxic rocket fuel that could endanger populated areas if it re-entered the atmosphere without human intervention to guide it into the ocean.
The shootdown could come as early as Wednesday night.
The satellite is lower than the space station, which orbits 200 miles above Earth, and the military says the missile should therefore not be a danger to the station.
US Navy missile hits dead satellite in orbit - official
Navy missile hits spy satellite
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer 39 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - A missile launched from a Navy cruiser soared 130 miles above the Pacific and smashed a dying and potentially deadly U.S. spy satellite Wednesday, the Pentagon said. Two defense officials said it apparently achieved the main aim of destroying an onboard tank of toxic fuel.
ADVERTISEMENT
Officials had expressed cautious optimism that the missile would hit the satellite, which was the size of a school bus. But they were less certain of hitting the smaller, more worrisome fuel tank, whose contents posed what Bush administration officials deemed a potential health hazard to humans if it landed intact.
In a statement announcing that the attack on the satellite, the Pentagon said, “Confirmation that the fuel tank has been fragmented should be available within 24 hours.” It made no mention of early indications, but two defense officials close to the situation said later that it appeared the fuel tank was hit. One said observers saw what appeared to be an explosion, indicating that the tank was hit.
Because the satellite was orbiting at a relatively low altitude at the time it was hit by the missile, debris will begin to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere immediately, the Pentagon statement said.
“Nearly all of the debris will burn up on re-entry within 24-48 hours and the remaining debris should re-enter within 40 days,” it said.
The USS Lake Erie, armed with an SM-3 missile designed to knock down incoming missiles — not orbiting satellites — launched the attack at 10:26 p.m. EST, according to the Pentagon. It hit the satellite about three minutes later as the spacecraft traveled in polar orbit at more than 17,000 mph.
The Lake Erie and two other Navy warships, as well as the SM-3 missile and other components, were modified in a hurry-up project headed by the Navy in January. The missile alone cost nearly $10 million, and officials estimated that the total cost of the project was at least $30 million.
The launch of the Navy missile amounted to an unprecedented use of components of the Pentagon’s missile defense system, designed to shoot down hostile ballistic missiles in flight — not kill satellites.
The operation was so extraordinary, with such intense international publicity and political ramifications, that Defense Secretary Robert Gates — not a military commander — made the decision to pull the trigger.
Gates had arrived in Hawaii a few hours before the missile was launched. He was there to begin a round-the-world trip, not to monitor the missile operation. His press secretary, Geoff Morrell, told reporters traveling with Gates that the defense chief gave the go-ahead at 1:40 p.m. EST while en route from Washington.
Morrell said Gates had a conference call during the flight with Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, head of Strategic Command, and Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They told him that “the conditions were ripe for an attempt, and that is when the secretary gave the go-ahead to take the shot, and wished them good luck,” Morrell said.
At 10:35 p.m. EST, Gates spoke to both generals again and “was informed that the mission was a success, that the missile had intercepted the decaying satellite, and the secretary was obviously very pleased to learn that,” said Morrell.
The government organized hazardous materials teams, under the code name “Burnt Frost,” to be flown to the site of any dangerous or otherwise sensitive debris that might land in the United States or elsewhere.
Also, six federal response groups that are positioned across the country by the Federal Emergency Management Agency were alerted but had not been activated Wednesday, FEMA spokesman James McIntyre said before the missile launch. “These are purely precautionary and preparedness actions only,” he said.
President Bush gave his approval last week to attempt the satellite shootdown on grounds that it was worth trying to destroy the toxic fuel on board the satellite before it could possibly land in a populated area.
The three-stage Navy missile, designated the SM-3, has chalked up a high rate of success in a series of tests since 2002, in each case targeting a short- or medium-range ballistic missile, never a satellite. A hurry-up program to adapt the missile for this anti-satellite mission was completed in a matter of weeks; Navy officials said the changes would be reversed once this satellite was down.
The government issued notices to aviators and mariners to remain clear of a section of the Pacific Ocean beginning at 10:30 p.m. EST Wednesday, indicating the first window of opportunity to launch the missile.
Having lost power shortly after it reached orbit in late 2006, the satellite was out of control and well below the altitude of a normal satellite. The Pentagon determined it should hit it with an SM-3 missile just before it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, in that way minimizing the amount of debris that would remain in space.
Left alone, the satellite would have been expected to hit Earth during the first week of March. About half of the 5,000-pound spacecraft would have been expected to survive its blazing descent through the atmosphere and would have scattered debris over several hundred miles.
Subscribe
Recently Written
Categories
Archives
Admin
-
Custom Search