IT City

Spacecraft images show rings of Saturn’s 2nd largest moon

(Xinhua) — Saturn’s second largest moon, Rhea, may have rings, according to images from a spacecraft managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Los Angeles.

The finding was described in a study published in the March 7 issue of the journal Science.

Scientists at NASA believe the rings may be the remnants of an asteroid or comet collision, which circulated large quantities of gas and solid particles around Rhea.

Read more…

Earth would face a fiery end when Sun becomes red giant

A new study has suggested that the Earth would face destruction when the Sun expands into a red giant in about 7.6 billion years from now.

According to a report in New Scientist, when our sun’s red giant phase would begin, the Earth will be dragged into its atmosphere to a fiery demise.

In a few billion years, the Sun will fuse the last of its hydrogen into helium, turn into a red giant and expand to 250 times its current size.

Read more…

Space shuttle crew readies for Wednesday landing

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Shuttle Atlantis crew members prepared on Tuesday for their planned touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center in central Florida after delivering Europe’s first permanent orbital laboratory to the International Space Station.

The weather at the Cape Canaveral seaside spaceport was expected to be nearly perfect for Atlantis to descend through the skies and land at 9:07 a.m. EST on Wednesday, completing a 13-day flight.

“I’m really optimistic, looking at the weather briefs, that things are going to play out really well for Kennedy,” flight director Bryan Lunney said in a briefing at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Read more…

Smooth sailing for shuttle and European lab: NASA

HOUSTON (Reuters) - NASA said it was smooth sailing on Friday for U.S. space shuttle Atlantis as it headed toward the International Space Station for the long-delayed delivery of a European laboratory.

An initial inspection of the ship’s heat shield turned up no significant damage following Thursday’s launch from Florida, although more data must be studied, the U.S. space agency said.

A few bits of fuel tank insulation foam shook loose from the shuttle as it rose into space, but they appeared to have been harmless, NASA officials said.

Read more…

NASA eyes dark energy, outer solar system missions

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. space agency is planning a mission to better understand a mysterious form of energy in the cosmos and an ambitious unmanned journey to the outer solar system, NASA officials said.

NASA would initiate seven new science missions in fiscal year 2009 that starts October 1 under the budget President George W. Bush proposed to Congress this week. NASA’s proposed $17.6 billion budget includes $4.4 billion for science missions.

“In fact, we have more new starts in this budget for science than in the last three years combined,” Alan Stern, who leads NASA’s science missions, said in an interview.

Read more…

NASA clears space shuttle for liftoff Thursday

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA managers on Tuesday cleared space shuttle Atlantis for liftoff in two days on a mission to deliver Europe’s first permanent space laboratory to the International Space Station.

Launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. EST (1945 GMT) on Thursday.

Meteorologists are predicting a cold front will be moving through the area, possibly causing rain and clouds that would prohibit the launch. The chance conditions would be suitable for liftoff was 40 percent, Air Force meteorologists said on Tuesday.

Read more…

Orbiting U.S. spy satellite could crash to Earth

(Reuters) - A U.S. intelligence satellite has lost power and could fall to Earth sometime in February or March, a government official said on Saturday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the spy satellite can no longer be controlled and it was not known where on the planet it might come down.

Read more…

NASA survey refutes report about drunk astronauts

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts and NASA flight surgeons overwhelmingly dismissed reports of a crewmember flying drunk, although they did confirm a single incident of an astronaut seemingly inebriated a few days before liftoff, an employee survey released on Wednesday showed.

The single isolated incident was “an apparent interaction between prescription medication and alcohol,” Ellen Ochoa, a former astronaut who now serves as the deputy director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, told reporters on a conference call.

Read more…

India launches Israeli satellite: official

India successfully placed an Israeli spy satellite into orbit Monday, an official at the Sriharikota space station in southern India said after a launch carried out under a veil of secrecy.

The launch of the Tecsar satellite, sometimes referred to as the Polaris, was carried out in clear weather at 9:15 am local time (0345 GMT), space centre official S.V. Ramanayya said.

The satellite, the second commercial mission for another country carried out by the Indian Space Research Organisation, was later successfully steered into its predetermined orbit.

Read more…

MESSENGER Buzzes Mercury

The NASA spacecraft MESSENGER this week sent back the first close-up images of Mercury, the solar system’s smallest and innermost planet, since the 1973-75 Mariner 10 mission. MESSENGER came as close as 124.6 miles (200.6 kilometers) to the sun-scorched planet on January 14, 2008, during the first of three scheduled flybys before the craft’s expected entry into orbit in 2011. Along the way it captured dozens of images of Mercury’s sunlit side that had been hidden from Mariner 10, the first and until now only craft to visit the planet. This photo, taken from a distance of about 5,800 kilometers (3,600 miles), reveals a long scarp, or cliff, curving from the top left of the image down to the right, interrupted by an impact crater in the top center. The imaged region is around 170 kilometers (100 miles) across.