This photo, taken by the Cassini-Huygens Probe shows Saturn’s rings as we’ve never seen them. Taken from behind the planet while the Sun was eclipsed, the photo reveals that there are more rings than previously believed.
Funny things happen when you get the illumination coming from behind an object. Damsel once took a photo of Air Force One that gave the illusion of a transparent vertical stabilizer.
Read the whole story: NASA Finds Saturn’s Moons May be Creating New Rings
Over the next several days, Mars and Venus will converge on the Sun. This graphic (courtesy SOHO and NASA) is a movie of solar coronagraph pictures taken over the last few days. The outline of the Sun is the small white circle in the center. The dark circle is the solar shield in the imaging instrument. This allows images of the solar corona to be collected in spite of the bright light.
While not designed for this purpose, stars and planets are also frequently imaged. In the coming weeks planets Mars and Venus will pass behind and in front of the Sun, respectively. Neither planet will transit, or pass directly through the solar disk, but slightly above the ecliptic plane (defined by the orbit of the Earth).
Transits of Venus across the disk of the Sun are among the rarest of planetary alignments. Indeed, only seven such events have occurred since the invention of the telescope (1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874, 1882 and June 8, 2004). Venus will do an encore on June 6, 2012. After that, it will pass above or below the solar disk for another 105 years or so.
I’ve written about solar phenomena and sunspots several times in our Global Warming category, but haven’t covered the man-made variety. This is from APOD:
Though it’s 93 million miles away, the Sun still hurts your eyes when you look at it. But bright sunlight (along with accurate planning and proper equipment!) resulted in this sharp silhouette of spaceship and space station. The amazing telescopic view, recorded on September 17, captures shuttle orbiter Atlantis and the International Space Station in orbit over planet Earth. At a range of 550 kilometers from the observing site near Mamers, Normandy, France, Atlantis (left) has just undocked and moved about 200 meters away from the space station.
Space junk floating above Earth? In addition to losing a bolt on this mission (STS115), the shuttle seems to have shaken off an unknown object after testing the reaction control system:
From NASA:
Object Investigation, Weather Force Managers to Wave Off Wednesday Landing
The Mission Control Center in Houston informed the STS-115 crew about 10:45 a.m. EDT that Wednesday’s landing attempts have been waved off due to an unfavorable weather forecast, coupled with the possibility of additional inspections of Space Shuttle Atlantis.
An object was observed by flight controllers using a TV camera on the shuttle in close proximity to the spacecraft. It was observed following standard tests of Atlantis’ reaction control system about 2:45 a.m. today. Flight controllers continue to analyze the situation and are concerned the item may be something that came off of Atlantis.
Image: unknown object in center of highlighted circle (courtesy NASA)
UPDATE: All Systems were GO and Discovery blasted off this afternoon! Godspeed to the Astronauts.
Image: Discovery clears the pad on liftoff — FoxNews.com
Discovery is on the pad and poised for a Fourth of July launch. NASA gives it a sixty-percent chance of launching.
Discovery’s a “Go” for Independence Day
After analysis of available data, the Mission Management Team has given a “go” for Tuesday’s launch of Space Shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station.
During a routine inspection Sunday night after the draining of the external fuel tank, a crack was discovered in the foam near a bracket that holds the liquid oxygen feedline in place. It is believed that the rain experienced during Sunday’s launch attempt caused water to run down the feedline and form ice near the top of the strut next to the feedline bracket. As the tank warmed and expanded, the ice that formed most likely pinched the foam on the top of the strut, causing a crack and eventual loss of the small piece of foam. The Mission Management Team met Monday at 6:30 p.m. EDT to discuss the results of the information before making a final decision regarding Tuesday’s launch attempt.
Extensive analysis showed that the area around the crack is intact and there is no concern for heating as there is adequate foam in place on the strut. Additional borescope inspection of the tank revealed that the bracket has no cracks.
Currently, there is a 60 percent chance of favorable launch weather for Tuesday and a 40 percent chance of favorable weather for Wednesday according to Air Force First Lt. Kaleb Nordgren of the 45th Weather Squadron. If the weather cooperates this will be the first Independence Day launch of a space shuttle!
A Fourth of July Discovery Launch would nicely compliment STS-4 Columbia‘s Fourth of July, 1982 landing at Edwards AFB in California.
SpaceLine.org — July 4, 1982 – 9:09:31 a.m. PDT at Runway 22, Edwards Air Force Base, California. Rollout distance was 9,878 feet. Rollout time was 73 seconds. Mission duration was 7 days, 1 hour, 9 minutes, 31 seconds. Landing occurred during the 113th orbit.
This was the first landing on the 15,000-foot concrete runway at Edwards.
I was lucky enough to have been on Rogers Dry Lake on July 4th, 1982 and witnessed the arrival of STS-4 at Edwards and also to observe NASA’s 747 piggy-back departure with another of the Space Shuttle Fleet in tow that same Day – spectacular! President Reagan was there that day, although I didn’t get close enough to see him.
Who are Al Gore and his enviroloons going to blame for this reckless discharge of greenhouse gasses?
From Astronomy Picture of the Day:
What is happening to that volcano? It’s erupting! The first person to note that the Aleutian Cleveland Volcano was spewing ash was astronaut Jeffrey N. Williams aboard the International Space Station. Looking down on the Alaskan Aleutian Islands two weeks ago, Williams noted, photographed, and reported a spectacular ash plume emanating from the Cleveland Volcano. Starting just before this image was taken, the Cleveland Volcano underwent a short eruption lasting only about two hours. The Cleveland stratovolcano is one of the most active in the Aleutian Island chain. The volcano is fueled by magma displaced by the subduction of the northwest-moving tectonic Pacific Plate under the tectonic North America Plate.
Image and story courtesy NASA and APOD
I’m sure there is a purpose in all this besides a science project . . .
Six years ago, MIT engineering Professor David Miller showed the movie Star Wars to his students on their first day of class. There’s a scene Miller is particularly fond of, the one where Luke Skywalker spars with a floating battle droid. Miller stood up and pointed: “I want you to build me some of those.”
So they did. With support from the Department of Defense and NASA, Miller’s undergraduates built five working droids. And now, one of them is onboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Inset image: MIT undergrads flight-test a prototype droid onboard NASA’s KC-135 reduced gravity aircraft.
Didn’t NASA Astronauts refer to the reduced gravity aircraft as the “vomit comet?”
