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Amazing Photos of Saturns Moon, Enceladus by Cassini

admin — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:59:37 +0000

The Cassini spacecraft was sent to dive through an ice geyser on Saturn’s moon Enceladus last night. Pictures were radioed back to Earth late last night and NASA personnel were able to process and upload the raw images to their website early this morning.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft had a deliberate near-miss with Enceladus on Wednesday afternoon, passing about 31 miles above its surface at a speed of more than 32,000 miles per hour. Over the next couple of years, Cassini is to swing by another seven times, scrutinizing this little moon more than all of the 50-odd others circling Saturn, except perhaps Titan.

The flyby is a risky maneuver. If just one millimeter-size piece of debris hits the spacecraft, it could be the end of the mission. But the chance to fly within 31 miles of the moon and 398 miles of the geyser’s plume was just too tempting.

Large Binocular Telescope, First Spectacular Images

admin — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 03:11:49 +0000

The first images captured by the world’s most powerful optical telescope have been released by scientists. The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), which now operates from Mount Graham in Arizona, is able to capture detailed images of space objects millions of light-years away, having 10 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Located on Mount Graham in southeastern Arizona, the $120 million LBT is the first of a new generation of extraordinarily large optical telescopes and it is breaking boundaries in astronomy and related fields. It uses two massive 8.4-meter (27.6 foot) diameter primary mirrors mounted side-by-side to produce the light gathering power equivalent to an 11.8-meter (39 foot) circular aperture. The mirrors which are lighter in weight than conventional solid-glass mirrors, due to their unique “honeycomb” structure, are now working in tandem and will be capable of operating as a single instrument. Ultimately, the interferometric combination of the light paths of the two primary mirrors will provide a resolution of a 22.8-meter (75 foot) telescope. With its capability, the LBT is the largest single telescope in the world.

The first images were taken with the help of the two 8.4-meter (27.6 foot) diameter mirrors and were first released to the public on Thursday, showing a spiral galaxy 102 million light-years away. The images were originally taken on 11 and 12 January, but they haven’t been revealed until recently.

Image credits: LBT Observatory

Countdown begins for Tuesday space shuttle launch

admin — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 17:59:53 +0000

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Countdown clocks at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida began ticking on Saturday toward Tuesday’s launch of space shuttle Endeavour carrying a Japanese lab section and Canadian-built robot for the International Space Station.

Liftoff is targeted for 2:28 a.m. EDT. Meteorologists predicted clear skies and light breezes, with a 90 percent chance conditions would be suitable for liftoff.

The seven-man Endeavour crew arrived at the Florida spaceport early on Saturday, delayed several hours by a cold front pushing through central Florida that whipped up winds, thunderstorms and sporadic heavy rain.

The shuttle is scheduled to spend 16 days in orbit, NASA’s longest planned mission to the space station so far. With just 11 flights remaining to the orbital outpost, NASA wants to squeeze in as much construction and maintenance time as possible before the shuttles are retired in two years.

During their 12 days at the space station, Endeavour’s astronauts plan to conduct five spacewalks to install the first part of Japan’s Kibo complex and set up a robot to help with station maintenance and other tasks. The main part of Kibo, which is Japanese for “hope,” is due to arrive in May.

Full story here.