Best of Earth from the ISS – The International Space Station has been orbiting the Earth every day for over 10 years, and the astronauts all say their favorite pastime is looking at the Earth. During the past 10 years, the crews have taken some great pictures of our planet, and these images provide a unique look at our world. These are just a few of the spectacular views of Earth from the space station. -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today
NASA’s Comet Mission May Face Multiple Jets Nov. 4 – Two movies derived from images taken by the two cameras aboard NASA’s EPOXI mission spacecraft show comet Hartley 2 is, as expected, quite active, and it provides information on the nucleus’s rotation. The spacecraft has been imaging Hartley 2 almost daily since Sept. 5, in preparation for its scheduled Nov. 4 flyby of the comet -NASA/JPL
Ten years of the International Space Station – 10 years ago today, Expedition 1 Commander Bill Shepherd and Flight Engineers Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko climbed aboard the International Space Station, marking the first of 3652 days of continuous occupation so far. I think that on that day a decade ago, we truly became a space-faring species. -Phil Plait / Bad Astronomy
Hubble Predicts the Future of Omega Centauri – Using four years of data from the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, astronomers have made the most accurate measurements of the movement of stars in the globular cluster Omega Centauri, and now can predict their movements for the next 10,000 years. This “beehive” of stars is tightly crammed together, so resolving the individual stars was a job that perhaps only Hubble could do. -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today
ISS Fires Its Rockets to Avoid Space Debris Collision – The International Space Station (ISS) fired its rockets for three minutes Tuesday to change its position in order to avoid a possible collision with a piece of orbiting junk, officials said.The Itar-Tass agency cited Russian space centre officials outside Moscow as saying that the chances of a collision were minimal – only one-thousandth of a per cent. -Daily Galaxy
Countdown to Comet Flyby Down to Nine Days – NASA’s EPOXI mission continues to close in on its target, comet Hartley 2, at a rate of 12.5 kilometers (7.8 miles) per second. On Nov. 4 at about 10:01 a.m. EDT (7:01 a.m. PDT) the spacecraft will make its closest approach to the comet at a distance of about 700 kilometers (434 miles). It will be the fifth time that a comet has been imaged close-up and the first time in history that two comets have been imaged with the same instruments and same spatial resolution. -NASA/JPL
3C186: Precocious Galaxy Cluster Identified by Chandra – NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has observed an unusual galaxy cluster that contains a bright core of relatively cool gas surrounding a quasar called 3C 186. This is the most distant such object yet observed, and could provide insight into the triggering of quasars and the growth of galaxy clusters. -NASA/Chandra
Aboriginal Astronomers Saw Stellar Blowup in 1843 – Now a team of researchers from Macquarie University in Austrlia is reporting what they believe is the only indigenous record of one of the most spectacular southern astronomical events of the 19th century. -Airspace Mag
The New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) today dedicated the nearly two-mile long Governor Bill RIchardson Spaceway at Spaceport America, representing significant progress toward launching commercial customers into space from the desert of New Mexico. Governor Bill Richardson, Sir Richard Branson and approximately 30 of more than 380 Virgin Galactic future astronauts attended the event along with guests from around the world and watched a flyover and landing by Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo, in a captive carry with SpaceShipTwo.
Photos
Observaing the sky
3C186
The Sun today
Auroro Photos
Gallery Pick of the Day
Bratislava, Slovakia as seen by Expedition 14 on March 13, 2007 from the altitude of 339km
NASA’s last flight of Discovery – If you have always wanted to watch a launch of the Shuttle that lofted Hubble into orbit, then you get one final chance: the last scheduled flight of Discovery is now set for November 1. -Phil Plait / Bad Astronomy
Another X-ray Nova Detected by ISS, Swift – A new X-ray emitting object in the Milky Way has been recently announced by the Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI) team and the Swift satellite astronomers. MAXI, a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency supported instrument, monitors the entire sky in the X-ray portion of the spectrum from its perch on the International Space Station module “Kibo”. On October 12th, MAXI noticed nothing out of the ordinary in a portion of the sky in the constellation Centaurus. -Nicholos Wethington / Universe Today
After a day-long flight readiness review at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, senior NASA and contractor managers voted unanimously to set November 1, 2010 as the official launch date for Space Shuttle Discovery
Photos
The Moon a few nights ago
Sunrise
Sunspot
Richat structure in Mauritania
Gallery Pick of the Day
Milky Way all around the horizon line and Gegenschein from Atacama desert in Chile - Credit: Stéphane Guisard
China Plans Mars Mission – China has drawn up a technical plan for an independent Mars orbiter exploration project, space technology experts said. Based on research conducted by the China Academy of Space Technology, the plan envisions a launch date as early as 2013, Huang Jiangchuan, a scientist with the academy, was quoted by Beijing-based Science and Technology Daily. The Mars probe will be sent to an Earth-Mars transfer orbit first, and then fly about 10 months before entering an elliptical orbit around Mars. The Mars exploration will last one to two years, he said. -Daily Galaxy
LRO/LCROSS’ Discoveries Prove Obama’s Lunar Policy is Flawed – It has been about a year since scientists announced the discovery of water on the moon. On Thursday, Oct. 21 they revealed new data uncovered by NASA’s Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). -Jason Rhian / America Space
Rethinking Habitability – Astronomers are re-thinking the requirements that need to be met for an exoplanet to be considered ‘habitable.’ A new simulation of the Gliese 581 system is helping astrobiologists refine their search for Earth-like worlds in the Universe. Gleise 581 recently made news because a planet could be orbiting within the system’s habitable zone. -Jon Voisey / Astrobiology Magazine
NASA's Kennedy Space Center came under attack from the merciless Decepticons this week. However, Optimus Prime and his valiant band of Autobots fended them off, and then stood watch over the space center for the remainder of the week - along with the cast and crew of "Transformers 3, The Dark of the Moon." Although the set was closed - there were some interesting revelations about what one can expect to see in the third installment of the highly-successful film franchise -- including a very special guest star.
Photos
Soyuz 24S
Moon in daylight
NGC 1806
Lake Malawi, Great Rift Valley
Gallery Pick of the Day
San Francisco bay area from the International Space Station - Credit: Douglas H. Wheelock / Expedition 25 / NASA
Is the World Ready for An Asteroid Threat? Apollo’s Schweickart Pushes for Action – If we discover an asteroid heading directly towards Earth, are we ready to deal with the challenges of either deflection strategies or an evacuation prior to impact? Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart has spent years championing the need for the human race to prepare for what will certainly happen one day: an asteroid threat to Earth -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today
Are most pulsars really magnetars in disguise? – Astronomers using XMM-Newton and other world-class X-ray telescopes have probed a curious source, which emits flares and bursts just like a magnetar but lacks the extremely high external magnetic field typical of these objects. -ESA / Science and Technology
Mysterious pulsar with hidden powers discovered – Dramatic flares and bursts of energy – activity previously thought reserved for only the strongest magnetized pulsars – have been observed emanating from a weakly magnetised, slowly rotating pulsar. The international team of astrophysicists who made the discovery believe that the source of the pulsar’s power may be hidden deep within its surface. -UK Space Agency
Chandra: What Lies Beneath? Magnetar Enigma Deepens – An artist’s rendering of SGR 0418+5729, a slowly rotating neutron star with a very weak magnetic field at its surface. Observations from several telescopes, including NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, have revealed that the star is giving off bursts of X-rays and gamma rays. -NASA/Chandra
Sneak preview into the the National Geographic documentary on Virgin Galactic.
The first episode will be shown on Monday 18th October at 10.00pm both ET and PT in the USA. Never seen footage of the team at Scaled Composites and the journey towards the completion of SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo.
Photos
Madagascar
Crew of STS-133 before the TCDT
Mars landslide spotted
Klyuchevskaya volcano in Kamchatka
Gallery Pick of the Day
Approaching Hawaii Islands, big view, as seen by Expedition 25 commander Douglas H. Wheelock
SOHO sheds new light on solar flares – After detailed analysis of data from the SOHO and GOES spacecraft, a team of European scientists has been able to shed new light on the role of solar flares in the total output of radiation from our nearest star. Their surprising conclusion is that X-rays account for only about 1 per cent of the total energy emitted by these explosive events. -ESA SOHO
Giant Star Goes Supernova, Smothered by its Own Dust – Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered that a giant star in a remote galaxy ended its life with a dust-shrouded whimper instead of the more typical bang. -JPL/NASA
The six-member crew of the next space shuttle mission, STS-133, arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 12 to participate in a full launch dress rehearsal, known as the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, and related training. The test provides an opportunity for the crew and ground teams to participate in various simulated countdown activities, including equipment familiarization and emergency exit training. Shuttle Discovery's crew members are Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe and Mission Specialists Alvin Drew, Michael Barratt, Tim Kopra and Nicole Stott. Discovery is targeted to launch Nov. 1 on its final scheduled flight. - Credit: NASA TV
Photos
ISS View of the Southwestern USA
Crew of STS-133 arrives at KSC
NGC 1316
NGC7000 + IC 5070 in Ha/sG/OIII
Gallery Pick of the Day
Olympus Mons stands 27 kilometres high above the mean surface of Mars, being the tallest known volcano and mountain in the Solar System. It is about three times taller than Earth's Mt. Everest.
