Just Basic Science
 

The Rocsat-2 spacecraft has been in orbit for two months and is studying high-altitude phenomena.

For many years, reports of red streamers, blue jets and strange diffuse glows seen in the upper reaches of the atmosphere were not taken seriously - rather like sailors’ stories of sea monsters. Over the past 10 years or so videos taken from high-altitude aircraft and the space shuttle have persuaded people that that they may be real.

The phenomena are difficult to study as they occur between 50km and 100km up, too high for most aircraft and too low for satellites. To study them, the Taiwanese government built the Rocsat-2 (Republic of China Satellite 2), which includes a sensor built to gather information about the lights.

The first image was returned on July. It showed red sprites - short fluorescent "tubes" glowing like neon lights - reaching to the ionosphere. Another image showed a brilliant lightning flash with a trio of red sprites above it and a sprite halo encircling it.

No obvious benefits here, just basic science.

jseal---I used to see the same thing,before I stopped drinking.Maybe I should
start again.Purely for scientific research! Irish :eek:

For those who are up late at night, the Perseid meteor shower peaks on August 11 & 12

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/040...seid_guide.html

How Far?
 

Here’s a good one: Which spacecraft travels farther to reach its target – Cassini to Saturn, or Messenger to Mercury? If you picked Messenger, you’re right! By the time it gets to Mercury, Messenger will have traveled 4.9 billion miles. Cassini on the other hand traveled “only” 2.2 billion miles to get to Saturn!

Finally!
 

NASA has decided it will save the Hubble Space Telescope by sending a robotic mission to repair it. One of the HST's major instruments has already gone off-line.

The jet plane GlobalFlyer, in which Steve Fossett (of global ballooning fame) plans to fly non-stop around the world without refueling may try the feat early next year. The jet has been designed by Burt Rutan, the man behind the first private spacecraft, SpaceShipOne.

Virgin Atlantic boss Sir Richard Branson is the backer of the GlobalFlyer. He is the reserve pilot for the flight, even though he does not have his pilot's license.

The Cassini-Huygens mission in orbit around Saturn has discovered two new moons around the ringed planet. The new discoveries bump up Saturn's count of natural satellites to 33! The two new satellites are still unnamed, and are very small.

Dr Nuno Santos, of the University of Lisbon, speaking at the EuroScience Open Forum in Stockholm, Sweden, announced the discovery of what he described as the smallest Earth-like planet orbiting a star outside our Solar System. The discovery was made using the Harps spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory's at La Silla, Chile.

The planet is about 14 times the size of Earth – too small to be a gas giant - and is close enough to the star that it is unlikely to be icy. Mu Arae is located about 50 light-years from Earth, so NASA has not yet announced any plans for a mission.

This is interesting. Do you have a link to this? Do they have images posted anywhere?

cowgirltease,

Yes'm. Hope these help. The first link has some images.


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...under.html#main

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cach...+rocsat-2&hl=en

http://www.nspo.gov.tw/e50/menu0402.html

http://www.fas.org/spp/guide/taiwan/earth/

http://www.spaceandtech.com/spaceda...sat-2_sum.shtml

http://nis-www.lanl.gov/~stanleym/d...tion/node8.html

Thank you very much Darlin! :x:

:grin:

Pure Science
 

The Genesis probe, which left Earth in 2001 to gather particles blown off the Sun, is scheduled to eject a capsule containing its cargo today.

The reentry vehicle should fall over Utah, and pilots are to snatch the parachute in midair to prevent the capsule hitting the ground.

Scientists hope the particles of solar wind can tell them about the evolution of the Sun and the planets.

Cassini-Huygens
 

University of London scientists have found a new ring around Saturn and possibly two new "moons".

The Genesis probe didn't go so well. A bit of a hard landing.

So I understand. And wouldn't you know it, but Prof. Pillinger (of Beagle fame) was in line to analyze some of the samples. Space has been unkind to Dr. Pillinger of late.

NASA now claims that some material has been found still intact inside of what was left of the Genesis space capsule.

I'm glad for that. Hopefully not all was lost.

The first direct image of a planet circling another star may have been obtained by a US-European team of astronomers working at the Very Large Telescope facility operated by the European Southern Observatory in Chile.

The planet, a gas giant like Jupiter, is orbiting a star 230 light-years away. I’ll take them at their word, but I have to admit that it strains my credulity that they are able to do this.

A Bright Spark
 

Authorities in Cambridge, England are trying to find the vandal who spray-painted the chemical notation of a molecule of guanine on the road near where the double helix structure of DNA was unveiled. Guanine is one of the amino acids found in DNA.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/...ire/3661972.stm

Jimo
 

NASA has awarded a contract to design the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) spacecraft. Since it is not scheduled for launch until 2011, a lot can happen, but at least they’re moving forward!

Maybe I'm not thinking right, but that would be a full moon every night! How romantic! Anyone know a good realtor on Saturn?

Jumping the Gun?
 

Sir Richard Branson, CEO of the Virgin Atlantic airline, has just announced an agreement with Mojave Aerospace Ventures to take the rich - those who can afford a $180,000 – into space. It seems a bit early to me for Space tourism to take off. Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.

It’s Show Time!
 

SpaceShipOne is scheduled to take off at 0600 Pacific Time for the first of the two flights required to win the $10m Ansari X-Prize. The second flight must take place within 14 days.

One down, and One to Go!
 

SpaceShipOne has successfully completed the first of two qualifying flights into space! There was no report of any passengers, so I presume it carried ballast instead. In order to win the $10 million prize, it must make a second successful trip within the next 14 days.

The SpaceShipOne team does not have a lot of wiggle room. A Canadian team is scheduled to try on October 2nd.

Good that means we may have 4 hour flights to the other side of the world instead of 16. That means I can pop over to Bumfuck for lunch and be back home for bedtime! :D

Catch22 !!!!!!!!!!!!

At $100,000 a trip, that'll have to be one hell of a Bumfuck! Yet another of the evils of Globalization revealed for all to see!

So I am a romantic Jseal. A boy can dream you know.

Today’s the Day!
 

SpaceShipOne is scheduled today to make the second of the two qualification flights needed to claim the $10m Ansari X-Prize. The first flight took place on Wednesday last week above California.

Let’s wish them well!

They did it!
 

Official confirmation is still pending, but it looks as if SpaceShipOne successfully made the second of the two qualification flights needed to claim the X-Prize! The only difference from last week’s flight was that the pilot was different. Still no word of passengers, so I guess that ballast was used again.


Yeah Team!

50 Years Young!
 

VIPs from around the world have gathered in Geneva at CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) headquarters to mark 50 years of scientific research.

CERN was also where the World Wide Web was created by Tim Berners-Lee as a method of file-sharing.

Scooby-Doo
 

“Scooby-Doo” has been awarded a Guinness World Record for most episodes of a cartoon comedy series.

The show's 350th episode, Scooby-Doo Halloween, will be aired on Friday. The previous record holder was “The Simpsons”. Doh!

Seen in more than 160 countries, the show was created back in 1969 by Hanna-Barbera, the same company that created The Flintstones.

Amazing!

Smart-1
 

SMART-1, which has entered into the Moon's gravity well, is the first European spacecraft to travel to and orbit around the Moon. It was launched back on September 27th of last year.

It will test a solar-electric propulsion system as one of its primary mission objectives. The engine works by expelling a beam of charged xenon ions from the back of the probe. This is only the second time that ion propulsion has been used as a mission's primary propulsion system. The first was NASA's Deep Space 1 probe.

SMART-1 will look for water (in the form of ice) on the Moon.

Huygens
 

The Huygens probe is on target and set for its descent onto Titan, the large moon of Saturn on 14-JAN-05. For the past seven years the probe has ridden on the Cassini spacecraft, which arrived at Saturn in July.

If all goes according to plan, Huygens should have approx. two and a half hours to study its surroundings as it drifts down to the surface. Titan is unique in that it is the only planetary satellite with a substantial atmosphere.

Aura Update
 

Back in July, NASA launched the Aura satellite, and it is on-line and delivering the goods! :)

It has already provided new images of the ozone hole over Antarctica, and direct measurements of lower atmospheric ozone, including chemicals that lead to "bad ozone" at ground level.

Read all about it at the Beeb: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4112351.stm

Titan - Here I come!
 

The Huygens probe has been released from Cassini, and is scheduled to arrive at Titan in 21 days. As Titan may contain liquid methane or ethane, if all goes well, it could radio back the very first extraterrestrial oceanographic measurements.


Pretty cool.

I have NASA send me updates on the Huygens-Cassini mission. Fascinating, isn't it? Jseal, I love you keeping us posted on these things! Thanks!

Space technologies help save lives.
 

I’m sure we have all heard of the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Darfur, in the west of Sudan.

One of the aid organizations, Respond, is using satellite imagery to produce accurate maps which help address the logistical challenges in getting supplies to where they are needed. These maps have been very useful during Sudan's rainy season, when normally dry riverbeds, or wadis, flood, rather like what happens in the southwest US.

The group uses satellites from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

English Chariot Race Track
 

The remains of the only known Roman chariot racing track in Britain, which archaeologists say was built around the 2nd century AD, have been found.

New homes are to be built on a 209-acre site where builders preparing the groundwork excavated what they believe is a race track nearly 2,000 years old. The developer will include it as a feature in their development of a decommissioned army barracks!

It is one of only four tracks which have been found in the north western Roman Empire provinces

Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur. Hi omnes lingua, institutis, legibus inter se differunt. ..... Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae, propterea quod a cultu atque humanitate provinciae longissime absunt, minimeque ad eos mercatores saepe commeant atque ea quae ad effeminandos animos pertinent important, proximique sunt Germanis, qui trans Rhenum incolunt, quibuscum continenter bellum gerunt.