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Space Shuttle Discovery Landing Video
Yi So-yeon, South Korea's First Astronaut, Launched Into Space
Yi So-yeon, who replaced as Ko San as South Korea's first (female) astronaut, has been launched into the space. Yi So-yeon together with International Space Station (ISS) crew of Russian cosmonauts Sergey Volkov and Oleg Kononenko boarding a Russian Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft was blasted off from the launching pad at Baikonur cosmodrome April 8, 2008. Yi So-Yeon who is a 29-year-old female doctorate researcher of biotechnology in South Korea will remain in space for an eight day trip. Misss Yi, God speed! Link
Video: Shuttle Endeavour Nighttime Launch on March 11
Yi So-Yeon to Become First South Korea Astronaut
Yi So-Yeon (pictured here), previously a back-up of South Korea's first astronaut candidate Ko San, has now been the top pick after Ko was demoted for "violating security protocol" at a Russian training centre. Ko San was accused of removing sensitive training material from the unnamed Russian facility.
Yi So-Yeon, a 29-year-old female doctorate researcher of biotechnology, was picked togehter with Ko San for the astronaut program of South Korea in September, 2007. So-Yeon is set to fly on board Soyuz TMA-12 during an eight day trip to the International Space Station (ISS) in the coming April. Source: TheRegister
ESA's First Automated Transfer Vehicle Launched
European Space Agency launched its first robot freighter Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) into space from the Launch Zone (ZL-3) of Ariane Launch Complex no. 3 (ELA-3) at the Guiana Space Centre on Sunday, March 9.
The ATV, dubbed "Jules Verne" in honor of the visionary French science fiction writer, is the first ATV that Europe has committed to its participation in the ISS program.
The freighter, 10.3-m long and 4.5-m wide, weighs 11 tonnes and is laden with hi-tech optical navigation, docking sensors and communications equipment.
It will remain in a "parking orbit" and then is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) on April 3 to deliver around eight tons of food, water, fuel and personal items to the ISS crew.
The craft will detach from the ISS after six months or so, with rubbish accumulated during the station's mission. The rubbish will be safely disintegrated together with the freighter over the Pacific.
Source: Xinhua
Amazing Photo: Earth and Moon as Seen from Mars
Credit: NASA
The HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter [wiki] took this picture of Earth and Moon on October 3, 2007, when Earth was 142 million kilometers (88 million miles) from Mars. On the Earth image one easily can make out the west coast outline of South America at lower right and the clouds are the dominant features. via Digg
Earth to Be Swallowed Up by Sun
Sounds scary? Definitely yes! But if the horrific event finally happens, it would have been 7,600,000,000 years later, possibly long before life on Earth have disappeared! Sussex Univeristy Press Release:
21 February 2008
The Sun will vaporise the Earth unless we can change our orbit
New calculations by University of Sussex astronomers predict that the Earth will be swallowed up by the Sun in about 7.6 billion years unless the Earth's orbit can be altered.
Dr Robert Smith, Emeritus Reader in Astronomy, said his team previously calculated that the Earth would escape ultimate destruction, although be battered and burnt to a cinder. But this did not take into account the effect of the drag caused by the outer atmosphere of the dying Sun.
He says: "We showed previously that, as the Sun expanded, it would lose mass in the form of a strong wind, much more powerful than the current solar wind. This would reduce the gravitational pull of the Sun on the Earth, allowing the Earth's orbit to move outwards, ahead of the expanding Sun.
"If that were the only effect the Earth would indeed escape final destruction. However, the tenuous outer atmosphere of the Sun extends a long way beyond its visible surface, and it turns out the Earth would actually be orbiting within these very low density outer layers. The drag caused by this low-density gas is enough to cause the Earth to drift inwards, and finally to be captured and vaporised by the Sun."
The new paper was written in collaboration with Dr Klaus-Peter Schroeder, previously at Sussex, who is now in the Astronomy Department of the University of Guanajuato in Mexico.
Life on Earth will have disappeared long before 7.6 billion years, however. Scientists have shown that the Sun's slow expansion will cause the temperature at the surface of the Earth to rise. Oceans will evaporate, and the atmosphere will become laden with water vapour, which (like carbon dioxide) is a very effective greenhouse gas. Eventually, the oceans will boil dry and the water vapour will escape into space. In a billion years from now the Earth will be a very hot, dry and uninhabitable ball.
Can anything be done to prevent this fate? Professor Smith points to a remarkable scheme proposed by a team at Santa Cruz University, who suggest harnessing the gravitational effects of a close passage by a large asteroid to "nudge" the Earth's orbit gradually outwards away from the encroaching Sun. A suitable passage every 6000 years or so would be enough to keep the Earth out of trouble and allow life to survive for at least 5 billion years, and possibly even to survive the Sun's red giant phase.
"This sounds like science fiction," says Professor Smith. "But it seems that the energy requirements are just about possible and the technology could be developed over the next few centuries." However, it is a high-risk strategy - a slight miscalculation, and the asteroid could actually hit the Earth, with catastrophic consequences. "A safer solution may be to build a fleet of interplanetary 'life rafts' that could manoeuvre themselves always out of reach of the Sun, but close enough to use its energy," he adds.
Space Shuttle Atlantis Landing at Kennedy Space Center Safely, Clearing the Way for America to Shot Down Dyfunct US 193 Spy Satellite
Space shuttle Atlantis's STS-122 mission has successfully finished after it descended to a smooth landing at Kennedy Space Center, Florifa today.
Atlantis flew 5.3 million miles during its mission to install the European-built Columbus laboratory at the International Space Station. The mission lasted 12 days, 18 hours, 21 minutes and 55 seconds. Main gear touchdown occured on time at 9:07:20 a.m. EST. Wheels stop occured at 9:08:08 EST.
The return of Atlantis has cleared the way for the Navy to shoot down the dyfunct spy satellite US 193 which is on the verge of smashing into Earth with a load of 1,000 pounds toxic rocket fuel hydrazine. The missile could be launched as early as Wednesday night, from a warship in the Pacific.
Armed with two specially modified interceptor missiles, the USS Lake Erie has been tasked to intercept the satellite over the Pacific and shoot it down into the ocean, the officials said, adding that a cruiser, the Aegis, is already in waters off Hawaii.
The USS Decatur, a guided missile destroyer, is carrying a third interceptor missile in case the first two attempts fail, defense officials said.
AFP's full report below:Mercury Spider Is a Spidery Crater on Mercury
Mercury Spider (picture above, credit: NASA) is not any known spider species on the Earth, but a unique geologic formation called the Spider sits at the center of the Caloris Basin[wiki] on Mercury. It was just revealed to the world in one of more than 1200 pictures taken from from the unseen side of Mercury by NASA's MESSENGER probe during a recent flyby on January 14. The spidery shape is "unlike anything we've seen anywhere in the solar system," said mission chief scientist Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The image showing what looks like a large crater with [25 miles wide] faint lines radiating out from it demonstrates that Mercury had volcanic eruptions millions of years ago and is a shrinking, aging planet. Link
10-Ton US Spy Satellite Crashing to Earth
Mystery 'Walking Alien Man' on Mars
After years of studying the images sent back by NASA's Mars rover Spirit [wikipedia], some sci-fi enthusiasts have found what appears to be an alien figure walking downhill (see the picture above) on the Mars. The discovery of the life-like figure ambling across the surface of the planet is likely to further boost intrigue in our nearest neighbouring Red Planet. Source: Dailymail
Update: The Sun reported the pictures were photographed at the rock-strewn Gusev Crater which believed by scientists to be the bed of an ancient lake. CelebbrityPuke.com posted Sasquatch on Mars news report video:
Mars Asteroid to Hit Red Planet?
Maunder Crater on Mars (photo credit:NASA)
Mars Asteroid! An asteroid named 2007 WD5 is to have a 1-in-75 chance of hitting Mars, the fourth planet from the sun in our solar system, on January 30, 2008.
If the asteroid with a length of an Olympic-size swimming pool (about 160 feet across) does hit the red planet, the impact of 2007 WD5, which travels at a speed of 28,000 mph, with Mars, will blast a crater half-a-mile wide, said Steve Chesley, a member of NASA's Near Earth Object office at JPL in Pasadena.
"Because scientists have never observed an asteroid impact -- the closest thing being the 1994 collision of comet Shoemaker-Levy with Jupiter -- such a collision on Mars would produce a 'scientific bonanza." Chesley told to the LAT.
The asteroid which was traced only since November is about the size of one that exploded over Siberia in the Tunguska event of 1908 [wiki]. The force of that explosion, the equivalent of 10 million to 20 million tons of TNT, turned hundreds of square miles of forest into a flattened expanse of scorched logs. The left image is a computer-generated picture showing a 3D reconstruction of Lake Cheko [wiki] which scientists from University of Bologna in Italy claimed to be the crater left by Tunguska event.
Update: The possibility of Mars asteroid collision on January 30 is now very low, a January 9 update on the Near-Earth Object Program at the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the impact probability is approximately 0.01% or 1 in 10,000 odds.
Since our last update, we have received numerous tracking measurements of asteroid 2007 WD5 from four different observatories. These new data have led to a significant reduction in the position uncertainties during the asteroid's close approach to Mars on Jan. 30, 2008. As a result, the impact probability has dropped dramatically, to approximately 0.01% or 1 in 10,000 odds, effectively ruling out the possible collision with Mars.
Our best estimate now is that 2007 WD5 will pass about 26,000 km from the planet's center (about 7 Mars radii from the surface) at around 12:00 UTC (4:00 am PST) on Jan. 30th. With 99.7% confidence, the pass should be no closer than 4000 km from the surface.
Impact craters are routinely scattered on the surface of moon, but not on the Earth. Meteor Crater in Arizona is one of the best known examples of an impact crater on Earth. The crater is 1.2 kilometers in diameter and 200 meters deep. It formed approximately 49,000 years ago when an iron meteorite that was roughly the size of a school bus struck the Arizona desert east of what is now Flagstaff (via).
Picture of Meteor Crater in Arizona (by David Roddy, USGS)
Another famous meteror crater on the Earth is Mexico's Chicxulub Meteror Crater on Yutachan peninsular, which was formed when a large asteroid/comet struck the Earth 65 million years ago and believed to be responsible for the die-out of Dinosaurs during the Cretaceous mass extinction. The following two pictures show the Chicxulub crater (via) and its location (via).
Video: Giant spider 'Attacked' Shuttle Atlantis
Solar System's Shape Is Not Round But Dented
Scientists have long suspected the solar system was bent, but never had direct evidence until now the unprecedented founding was made by NASA's 30-year-old unmanned nuclear powered Voyager 2 [wikipedia]. The probe has crossed into a sweeping region called the termination shock in our solar system this August. Tags:
China's First Moon Picture Accused of Plagiarizing from NASA
Chinese netizens accused that China's first moon picture (below) copied a picture (above) that USA took in 2005, after they found the striking similarities between parts of the two images. What the difference one can find is that there has an extra small crater spotted in the Chinese version photo (please compare the red-circled areas of two pictures posted).
It's this extra small crater that becomes the proof of Ouyang Ziyuan, aka father of Chinese moon exploration, who insists China's first moon picture is genuine during a lecture in Shanghai December 2. He did believe the two pictures showed the same area on the moon, but still pointing out the possibility that the resolution of cameras on USA's moon orbiter might be not high enough or during 2005 to 2007, the added small crater was created after some a small celestial object hit the moon surface. Link
First Moon Surface Picture by China's Chang-E 1 Lunar Probe
The black and white picture showing rough surface scattered with big or small pits was made public at a gala ceremony in Beijing Aerospace Control Center on November 26 by Premier Wen Jiabao, who hailed it as a major step in "the Chinese race's 1,000-year-old dream" of exploring the moon.
Wen asserted in a passionate and inspiring speech on Monday that China has joined the select group of world powers with the capabilities to engage in deep-space exploration.
The success, he said not only manifested China's rising national strength and technical innovation capability but also elevated the country's international status and cemented national cohesion.
"It showcases eloquently that the Chinese people have the will, the ambition and the capability to compose more shining new chapters while ascending the science and technology summit," Wen said.
Citing a letter from an overseas Chinese, Wen said that the farther the China-made satellite flew, the higher would the overseas Chinese hold their heads.
The area covered by the picture, about 460 km in length and 280 km in width--- about half the size of the United Kingdom, is within a location of 70 to 54 degrees south latitude and 83 to 57 degrees east longitude. Source: Chinadaily & CNN-IBN Tags:
Arp 87 Interacting Galaxies
Amazing!
This photo, released by NASA/ESA on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007, shows Arp 87, a pair of interacting galaxies. In this view from the Hubble Telescope, stars, gas, and dust flow from the large spiral galaxy, NGC 3808, form an enveloping arm around its companion. The shapes of both galaxies have been distorted by their gravitational interaction. Arp 87 is located in the constellation of Leo, the Lion, approximately 300 million light-years away from Earth, and appears in Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. As also seen in similar interacting galaxies, the corkscrew shape of the tidal material suggests that some stars and gas drawn from the larger galaxy have been caught in the gravitational pull of the smaller one.
Beam Solar Power from Space
(Illustration Credit: Mafic Studios)
Dan Cho of NewScientist.com writes:
A futuristic scheme to collect solar energy on satellites and beam it to Earth has gained a large supporter in the US military. A report [download pdf file] released yesterday (October 10) by the National Security Space Office recommends that the US government sponsor projects to demonstrate solar-power-generating satellites and provide financial incentives for further private development of the technology.
Space-based solar power
would use kilometre-sized solar panel arrays to gather sunlight in orbit. It would then beam power down to Earth in the form of microwaves or a laser, which would be collected in antennas on the ground and then converted to electricity. Unlike solar panels based on the ground, solar power satellites placed in geostationary orbit above the Earth could operate at night and during cloudy conditions.
What is 3.26 Light Years?
When interviewed by Nitin Raj of the International Reporter on some basic answers how the light year is calculated and what actually it is, Dr. Raj Baldev, a Cosmo Theorist from India, explained what 3.26 light years is:
Though the light-year is normally used to measure distances to stars, in astronomy in particular, the preferred unit of measurement for such distances is the parsec that is defined as the distance at which an [astronomical] object generates one arcsecond of parallax when the observing object moved one Astronomical Unit perpendicular to the line of sight to the observer [on the earth]. This calculation is equal to about 3.26 light-years.
So 3.26 light years can be referred to a parsec, or a distance of approximately 3.086×1016 m.
Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, Malaysia's First Astronaut Launched Into Space
Along with Russian cosmonaut Yury Malenchenko (m) and NASA's Peggy Whitson 
(R, who sets to be the first female commander of ISS), Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor , a Malaysian doctor was launched into the space on the Soyuz TMA-11 rocket at 1322 GMT from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
"Going to space is a small step for me, but it's definitely a giant leap for all the Malaysian people," he borrowed Neil Armstrong's famous phrase as saying before the Wednesday's launch.
As a Muslim, Sheikh Muszaphar will observe religious rituals during the holy month of Ramadan under the guides that Malaysia's Department of Islamic Development drafted last month.
Sheikh Muszaphar's journey is believed to have a price tag of about $30m – based on the amount paid by previous space tourists - but in reality it is not costing Malaysia anything.
The trip was added by Moscow as a sweetener as part of a billion-dollar purchase of 18 Russian Sukhoi fighter jets.
Anyway, back in Malaysia here, the country is in a high jubilant mood and deems the mission as a milestone for the country which this year celebrates its 50th year of independence.
King Mizan Zainal Abidin said: "This is a truly historic moment for all Malaysians" and will help the country "attain further progress in science, technology and innovation".
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi,said, "I am very happy that our man has been chosen to join this special mission into space. I hope he will do well."
Malaysia Bolei!
Sources: Malaysian astronaut enters space @ Aljazeera
First Malaysian, first female commander blast into space @ AFP