Current News
Image credit: MIT
Magnetic Bubble Could Protect Astronauts on Long Trips
Nov 17, 2004 - It’s the year 2027 and NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration is progressing right on schedule. The first interplanetary spacecraft with humans aboard is on course for Mars. However, halfway into the trip, a gigantic solar flare erupts, spewing lethal radioactive protons directly at the spacecraft. But, not to worry. Research by former astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman and a group of MIT colleagues back in the year 2004 ensured that this vehicle has a state-of-the-art superconducting magnetic shielding system that protects the human occupants from any deadly solar emissions.
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Image credit: NASA
NASA Scramjet Hits Mach 9.8
Nov 17, 2004 - The X-43A scramjet broke its own world record for air breathing engines on Tuesday, when it traveled at nearly 10 times the speed of sound. The prototype scramjet aircraft was dropped from a B-52 aircraft, and then boosted to Mach 4 by a Pegasus rocket. The aircraft detached from the rocket and then accelerated up to Mach 9.8 (11,265 kph or 7,000 mph). This flight was the last in a series of three test flights by NASA in the development of its Hyper-X program, which explores alternatives to rocket power for access to space.
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Image credit: NASA
Swift Launch Pushed Back a Day
Nov 17, 2004 - NASA's Swift spacecraft is sitting on top of a Boeing Delta II rocket at Florida's Cape Canaveral, waiting for technical difficulties to be resolved with a piece of electronic equipment on the rocket. If everything goes well, Swift will lift off on Thursday, and head into space to search for the most powerful explosions in the Universe: Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs), which could be the birth cries of new black holes. The observatory's gamma ray detector scans the sky looking for these explosions. When it finds them, the whole spacecraft will turn to focus on the source within 70 to 100 seconds, and analyze it with a suite of other instruments.
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Image credit: ESA
Collapsed Canyons on Mars
Nov 17, 2004 - The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft took this photograph of a series of canyon systems on the surface of the Red Planet. The canyons are part of the Coprates Catena, which are at the southern end of the enormous Valles Marineris rift. Sections of the structures appear to have collapsed in on themselves at various points; a few landslides are visible. Scientists theorize that underlying ice or water was removed, which then caused the rock and soil to collapse.
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Image credit: NASA
X-43 Flight Delayed
Nov 16, 2004 - NASA has pushed back the launch of its X-43A because of instrument trouble used up most of their launch window on Monday. Although they were go for launch at the end of the window, launch controllers decided to push the launch back until Tuesday. If all goes well, the innovative "scramjet" prototype will detach from a flying B-52 aircraft, and then accelerate to Mach 10 - 10 times the speed of sound, or 11,300 kph (7,000 mph).
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Image credit: ESA
SMART-1 Goes Into Lunar Orbit
Nov 16, 2004 - The European Space Agency's SMART-1 spacecraft is no longer orbiting the Earth... it's orbiting the Moon! The spacecraft has been slowly raising its orbit using its efficient ion engine, and yesterday it passed within 5,000 km (3,100 miles) of the Moon, using its gravity to shift the spacecraft's trajectory. Its engine will now fire for 4 days straight to complete the orbital maneuver. It will continue lowering its orbit around the Moon until mid-January, when it'll get as close as 300 km (186 miles) and begin a scientific study.
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Image credit: NASA
What's Up This Week - Nov 15 - 21, 2004
Nov 15, 2004 - Welcome back, fellow skywatchers! The "hot" news for this week is, of course, the Leonid Meteor Shower. Where will it happen, when will it happen and how many can we expect to see? The answers to that are all matters of calculation and a whole lot of luck! The predictions for 2004 look best for the early hours of November 19, but why wait? The random rate (thanks to a little help from the Andromedids) has been outstanding! We will also locate and explore globular cluster M30 and a beautiful asterism known as the "Coathanger". Want some color in your stars? Then come along as we locate and view Omicron 1 Cygni! We head south for the "Lonely Star" - Formalhaut, and salute Southern Hemisphere viewers with the finest "double" in the sky, Rigel Kentauris. We will examine lunar features and use the Moon to guide you to the outer planets. You'll find a bit of space history here as well as a lot of fun for the naked-eye, binocular and telescope observer. For now? Hope for clear skies and mark your calendars...Because here's what's up!
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A Brief Interview With Sir Patrick Moore
Nov 15, 2004 - TV host Sir Patrick Moore has popularized astronomy for almost half a century in the United Kingdom and around the world by presenting his monthly Sky at Night program without a break - a slight episode of food-poisoning earlier this year that meant Patrick missed a program, but he made a full recovery. Patrick has also written over a hundred books and thousands of papers on the subject, and was working on a new project when Richard Pearson caught up with him at his East Grinstead home.
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Thanks to Fraser Cain for permission to reprint "The Universe Today".
