http://www.redorbit.com Space http://www.redorbit.com/modules/news/images/tools/rss_logo.gif http://www.redorbit.com The International Space Station (ISS) is about to make a remarkable series of flybys over the United States. Beginning this 4th of July weekend, the station will appear once, twice, and sometimes three times a day for many days in a row. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1715631/international_space_station_marathon/index.html?source=r_space Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:10:00 -0500 Space Image Caption: This image shows a cratered region near the moon's Mare Nubium region. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1715330/nasas_lro_returns_first_images_of_the_moon/index.html?source=r_space Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:40:00 -0500 Space Image Caption: Illustration of HLX-1 (blue star to the upper left hand side of the galactic bulge). HLX-1, located on the outskirts of the spiral galaxy ESO 243-49, is the strongest candidate to- date of intermediate-mass black holes. Credits: Heidi Sagerud http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1714747/scientists_find_possible_black_hole_missing_link/index.html?source=r_space Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:45:00 -0500 Space Image Caption: Space shuttle Endeavour is revealed on Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a tanking test July 1. Image credit: NASA TV http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1714304/endeavour_passes_fuel_test_on_target_for_july_11_launch/index.html?source=r_space Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:00:00 -0500 Space NASA is officially still on schedule with their 4-year-old plan to spend $35 billion to build new rockets and finally take astronauts to the moon again, but now a top NASA manager is proposing a cheaper alternative that costs around $6.6 billion.This less expensive option may not be as powerful as NASA's current design with its fancy new rockets, the people-carrying Ares I and cargo-lifting Ares V, but it will still get to the moon and back.The new model requires flying lunar vehicles on top of something they already have — the old space shuttle system with its monstrous orange fuel tank and twin solid-rocket boosters, minus the shuttle itself. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1714199/nasa_manager_has_cheaper_quicker_way_to_the_moon/index.html?source=r_space Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:33:57 -0500 Space Image Caption: Image Caption: Over more than 18 years of observations above and below the poles of the Sun, the ESA/NASA Ulysses mission has made fundamental contributions to our understanding of the Sun itself, its sphere of influence (the heliosphere), and our local interstellar neighborhood. The mission provided the first-ever map of the heliosphere in the four dimensions of space and time. Ulysses was launched by Space Shuttle Discovery in October 1990. It headed out to Jupiter, arriving in February 1992 for the gravity-assist maneuver that swung the craft into its unique solar orbit. It orbited the Sun three times and performed six polar passes. The mission will be shut down on 30 June 2009. Credits: ESA (image by C.Carreau) http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1713995/scientists_bid_farewell_to_ulysses_solar_probe/index.html?source=r_space Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:00:00 -0500 Space Four papers in the journal Science this week offer new details about the history of water on Mars, gleaned from the 2008 NASA Phoenix Mars Mission that was operated from The University of Arizona.Peter H. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1715343/phoenix_mission_study_points_to_martian_climate_cycles/index.html?source=r_space Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:30:00 -0500 Space A new class of pulsars detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is solving the mystery of previously unidentified gamma-ray sources and helping scientists understand the mechanisms behind pulsar emissions.A study to be published by an international team of scientists in the July 2 edition of Science Express describes 16 pulsars discovered by Fermi based on their pulsed emissions of high-energy gamma rays. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1715342/nasas_fermi_telescope_discloses_a_population_of_radioquiet_gammaray_pulsars/index.html?source=r_space Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:25:00 -0500 Space Amidst growing costs and the increasing complexity of missions, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are making concrete overtures of cooperation at a space summit in the UK.According to Ed Weiler, Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA, shared scientific goals and exorbitant expenses are helping to form an alliance that might have seemed unlikely 10 years ago.  The U.S. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1713530/shared_goals_high_costs_nudge_nasa_esa_closer/index.html?source=r_space Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:30:00 -0500 Space  NASA and Japan released a new digital topographic map of Earth Monday that covers more of our planet than ever before. The map was produced with detailed measurements from NASA\'s Terra spacecraft. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1713394/nasa_and_japan_release_most_complete_topographic_map_of_earth/index.html?source=r_space Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:25:00 -0500 Space Western China is a very seismically active area and has had many catastrophic earthquakes during its history. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1715566/chinas_environment_monitored_from_space/index.html?source=r_space Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:40:00 -0500 Space On Wednesday, TerreStar-1, the world’s largest commercial telecommunications satellite, was set into orbit by the Ariane 5 rocket.The satellite, which weighs nearly seven tons, was built for TerreStar Networks and will provide voice, messaging, and data connections through North America.TerreStar-1 was so large that the Ariane rocket, which routinely carries double payloads, was unable to carry any other cargo.  The launch was the third mission for Ariane this year, with four more already scheduled. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1715044/ariane_launches_new_telecommunications_satellite/index.html?source=r_space Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:10:00 -0500 Space Image Caption: Color-composite annotated image of part of the Galactic Plane seen by the ATLASGAL survey, divided into sections. In this image, the ATLASGAL submillimeter-wavelength data are shown in red, overlaid on a view of the region in infrared light, from the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) in green and blue. The total size of the image is approximately 42 degrees by 1.75 degrees. Credit: ESO/APEX & MSX/IPAC/NASA http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1714518/largest_map_of_cold_dust_revealed/index.html?source=r_space Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:45:00 -0500 Space Our Milky Way galaxy only survived because it was already immersed in a large clump of dark matter which trapped gases inside it, scientists led by Durham University's Institute for Computational Cosmology (ICC) found.The research, to be presented at an international conference today (Wednesday, July 1), also forms a core part of a new ICC movie charting the evolution of the Milky Way to be shown at the Royal Society.The researchers said that the early Milky Way, which had begun forming stars, held on to the raw gaseous material from which further stars would be made. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1714301/intense_heat_killed_wouldbe_galaxies/index.html?source=r_space Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:30:00 -0500 Space As America celebrates its 233rd birthday this holiday weekend, there will be an extra light in the sky along with the fireworks. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1714299/see_the_space_station_over_july_4_weekend/index.html?source=r_space Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:20:00 -0500 Space Three International Space Station crew members will board an attached Soyuz spacecraft and move it to a different docking port, U.S. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1714215/iss_crew_prepares_to_move_soyuz_spacecraft/index.html?source=r_space Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:30:00 -0500 Space Image Caption: The new (temporary) constellation 'Wee Sleekit Beastie' or 'Ode to a Mouse' created by Laura, a year 7 pupil at Dalmeny Primary School, Edinburgh. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1713762/scottish_children_make_new_constellation/index.html?source=r_space Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:20:00 -0500 Space Last night, the detectors of Planck's High Frequency Instrument reached their amazingly low operational temperature of -273°C, making them the coldest known objects in space. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1715574/coolest_spacecraft_ever_in_orbit_around_l2/index.html?source=r_space Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:20:00 -0500 Space Image Caption: Left: This is a Submillimeter Array image of 253-1536 taken at a wavelength of 880 microns. The mass of the disk on the left is 70 times the mass of Jupiter, while the one on the right is 20 Jupiter masses. Right: The optical image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the shadow of the large disk, but the smaller disk is obscured in the glare of the brighter star. Credit: University of Hawaii and Nathan Smith, University of California at Berkeley http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1714314/astronomers_discover_pair_of_solar_systems_in_the_making/index.html?source=r_space Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:04:49 -0500 Space UC Riverside astronomer leads international team studying galaxy formation and evolution in early history of the universeAn international team of researchers led by a UC Riverside astronomer has completed the largest ever survey designed to find very distant clusters of galaxies.Named the Spitzer Adaptation of the Red-sequence Cluster Survey, "SpARCS" detects galaxy clusters using deep ground-based optical observations from the CTIO 4m and CFHT 3.6m telescopes, combined with Spitzer Space Telescope infrared observations.In a universe which astronomers believe to be 13.7 billion years old, SpARCS is designed to find clusters, snapped as they appeared long ago in time, when the universe was 6 billion years old or younger.Clusters of galaxies are rare regions of the universe consisting of hundreds of galaxies containing trillions of stars, plus hot gas and mysterious dark matter. Most of the mass in clusters is actually in the form of invisible dark matter which astronomers are convinced exists because of its influence on the orbits of the visible galaxies.An example of one of the most massive clusters found in the SpARCS survey is shown in the accompanying image. Seen when the universe was a mere 4.8 billion years old, this is also one of the most distant clusters ever discovered. Many similar-color red cluster galaxies can be seen in the image (the green blobs are stars in our own galaxy, The Milky Way)."We are looking at massive structures very early in the universe's history," said Gillian Wilson, an associate professor of physics and astronomy who leads the SpARCS project.The SpARCS survey has discovered about 200 new cluster candidates."It is very exciting to have discovered such a large sample of these rare objects," Wilson said. "Although we are catching these clusters at early times, we can tell by their red colors that many of the galaxies we are seeing are already quite old. We will be following up this new sample for years to come, to better understand how clusters and their galaxies form and evolve in the early universe."A summary of the survey and additional images of newly discovered clusters may be found in two companion papers led by Wilson and Adam Muzzin of Yale University, published in the June 20 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.The SpARCS team consists of Wilson, who joined UCR in 2007, Ricardo Demarco of UCR; Muzzin of Yale University, Conn.; H.K.C. Yee of the University of Toronto, Canada; Mark Lacy and Jason Surace of the Spitzer Science Center/California Institute of Technology; Henk Hoekstra of Leiden University; Michael Balogh and David Gilbank of the University of Waterloo, Canada; Kris Blindert of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Germany; Subhabrata Majumdar of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India; Jonathan P. Gardner of the Goddard Space Flight Center; Mike Gladders of the University of Chicago; and Carol Lonsdale of the North American ALMA Science Center; Douglas Burke of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Shelly Bursick of the University of Arkansas; Michelle Doherty, Chris Lidman and Piero Rosati of ESO; Erica Ellingson of the University of Colorado; Amalia Hicks of Michigan State University; Alessandro Rettura of Johns Hopkins University; David Shupe of the Herscel Science Center/California Institute of Technology; Paolo Tozzi of the University of Trieste, Italy; Renbin Yan of the University of Toronto; and Tracy Webb of McGill University, Canada.This work is based in part on archival data obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. This work is also based on observations obtained with The Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, under contract with the National Science Foundation; observations obtained with MegaPrime/MegaCam, a joint project of CFHT and CEA/DAPNIA, at the Canada France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), which is operated by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, the Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) of France, and the University of Hawaii; and by observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (United Kingdom), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia (Brazil) and SECYT (Argentina).Support for this work was provided, in part, by awards issued by JPL/Caltech, and from Wilson's College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences start-up funds at UCR.---Image Caption: This is one of the most distant galaxy clusters ever discovered. Credit: G. Wilson, UC Riverside, and A. Muzzin, Yale University. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1714302/largest_very_distant_galaxy_cluster_survey_complete/index.html?source=r_space Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:35:22 -0500 Space High-resolution radio, gamma-ray observations reveal site of relativistic particle acceleration in galaxy M 87An international collaboration of 390 scientists reports the discovery of an outburst of very-high-energy (VHE) gamma radiation from the giant radio galaxy Messier 87 (M 87), accompanied by a strong rise of the radio flux measured from the direct vicinity of its super-massive black hole.The combined results give first experimental evidence that particles are accelerated to extremely high energies of tera electron Volt (one electron Volt is the energy an electron or proton gains when it is accelerated by a voltage of one Volt) in the immediate vicinity of a supermassive black hole and then emit the observed gamma rays. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1715344/pinpointing_origin_of_gamma_rays_from_a_supermassive_black_hole/index.html?source=r_space Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:35:00 -0500 Space NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez, set to fly aboard space shuttle Discovery in August, is providing insights about his training on Twitter in both English and Spanish. It will be the agency's first bilingual Twitter. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1715341/astronaut_starts_agencys_first_bilingual_twitter/index.html?source=r_space Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:20:00 -0500 Space The HST team investigating the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) anomaly presented findings and recommendations to the HST project on June 30 that included a plan to bring the instrument out of suspend mode later this week. It has been off line since June 23. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1715340/hubble_space_telescope_status_report/index.html?source=r_space Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:15:00 -0500 Space  Three members of the International Space Station crew will board a Soyuz spacecraft attached to the station and move it to a different docking port on Thursday, July 2. The journey will be broadcast live on NASA Television. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1714028/nasa_tv_to_broadcast_space_station_crews_move_of_return/index.html?source=r_space Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:19:31 -0500 Space U.S. http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1715399/study_mars_imitates_earth_in_many_ways/index.html?source=r_space Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:30:00 -0500 Space