There’s nothing more fascinating or TV special-worthy than twins separated at birth. Whether they’re reunited at 15 or 50 it’s safe to say that there’ll be some eerily similar food preferences and a whole lot of crying. But what about two chemically identical grains of silica that haven’t seen each other for more than 4.6 billion years? More »
Space-gazers and fans of the ringed planet Saturn should keep their eyes upward this weekend, as the planet reaches its highest point above the horizon in its opposition phase. Visible to the naked eye – but all the better with a telescope, since you’ll then be able to see its distinctive rings – Saturn will be most clearly visible late on Saturday or in the early hours of Sunday, and though often visible at other times, will be both brighter and bigger than it usually appears.
That extra degree of clarity is because the planet will be at its closest to Earth as well as at its opposition point: the exact opposite from where the sun is positioned. Saturn will be visible all through the night, with a steady glow, though it will take some tools of the astronomy trade if you want to make out more than that.
For instance, Space suggests, magnification of at least 25 power will show more details of Saturn, with the rings making it appear oval in shape rather than circular as the naked eye might see it. Quadruple that magnification and more of the planet’s details will be picked out, including several of its 62 moons.
The best point to see Saturn is late evening, when the planet reaches its highest point. To actually find it, the LA Times suggests, look for the bright star Arcturus – off along the “handle” of the Big Dipper, away from the bowl – and then to the right, where the star Spica is. Saturn is below and left of that.
If that all sounds complicated, then NASA’s video, below, should give more of an indication as to where Saturn will be in the night sky, as well as what you might expect to see with the naked eye and various types of telescope. Saturn will be at its best on April 28, the space agency suggests.
Look up: Saturn at its boldest and brightest this weekend is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Sure, there’s no air in space. But once you’ve overcome that rather urgent deficiency, you’ve got to deal with another one: no water. Thanks to science, astronauts can solve that problem by just drinking pee. Zero-G YouTuber and ISS astrodinaire Chris Hadfield explains. More »
Today the unpiloted Russian cargo ship known as Progress 51 has reached the International Space Station and docked successfully. This news is extra positive due to the failure of the craft’s antenna after initial launch, both Russian mission control and NASA confirming earlier this week. The craft has now docked – at 1225 GMT to be precice – after extra care was given to the landing due to the unopened antenna.
This situation allows Russian cosmonauts Roman Romanenko and Pavel Vinogradov to access three full tons of food, fuel, supplies, and a set of experiment hardware along with the rest of the crew of six aboard the ISS. Though the Kurs antenna remained undeployed, it would appear that the mission has been a full success. The final hard mate occurred at 8:34 a.m. EDT according to NASA.
This docking happened between the Progress 51 Russian cargo ship and the rear port of the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station. What you’re seeing above is a video presented by Russian mission control of the Russian Federal Space Agency at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This launch made way at 6:12 a.m. EDT just two days ago en route to the ISS.
With the supplies brought in this week, the ISS will be stocked with an additional 1,764 pounds of propellant, 57 pounds of air, 926 pounds of water, 48 pounds of oxygen, and 3,483 pounds of spare parts and experiment hardware. For its trip back to our planet, the Progress 51 craft will be filled with trash and station discards. Good luck, team!
And readers, be sure to head to SlashGear’s Science tag portal for more excellent space-bound action!
Russian cargo fail no block to today’s ISS dock is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Saturn is one of the most beautiful planets in our solar system thanks in large part to its gigantic system of rings. Those rings can be difficult to see most of the time, but about halfway through Saturn’s 30 Earth year orbit around the sun, those rings stand out in beautiful detail. The reason is that in the 15th year of Saturn’s 30-year cycle Saturn’s day and nights are equal and sunlight is able to shine on the rings edge-on making them easier to see.
The last time this phenomenon happened was in 2009, and NASA took full advantage of the situation having its Casini spacecraft snap some beautiful photographs of Saturn’s rings. The photographs have recently shown up as scientists used the photographs to perform some research investigating clouds of dust created in the ring system when those rings are struck by meteoroids and other objects flying through space. Scientists say that it’s very easy to see the clouds of dust, called ejecta, spewing out of the ring system in this view.
Researcher Matthew Tiscareno, a planetary scientist from Cornell University, and his team used the photographs taken by Cassini to investigate the ejecta to determine what kind of impact had created the dust plumes. The team of researchers looked for observed dust clouds anytime between one hour and 50 hours after the initial impact. The team worked backwards measuring the length and tilt of the cloud to see what sort of impact created the dust cloud.
According to Tiscareno and his team, by analyzing the images of Saturn’s ring system they were able to determine that the ejecta clouds they observed were created by “streams of meteoroids” plunging through Saturn’s ring plane. The researchers initially believe that single meteoroids impacting the ring plane were causing these clouds of debris. His team now believes that single meteoroids moving through the ring plane would create a hole, but not a cloud. These clouds of dust and debris are now believed to have been created by a group of meteoroids that are able to displace a lot of dust at one time. The research performed by the team of scientists is detailed in today’s issue of the journal Science.
[via Space.com]
Cassini snaps pics of Saturn’s rings getting pummeled by debris is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
About 7,000 light years away from us sit two recently-discovered stellar bodies, one being a white dwarf star and the other being a rotating neutron star said to be double our Sun’s mass. These two stars are unusual because they orbit each other, passing by every 2.5 hours. Such a pairing provides a rare way to test gravity theories, of which Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity trumps them all.
Upon its discovery, the system was observed through multiple telescopes, including ones located in Chile, the Canary Islands, Germany, Puerto Rico, and the United States. Dubbed PSR J0348+0432, the stars are newsworthy and provide an excellent point for theory testing for several reasons, such as how close the white dwarf is to the larger star and the neutron star’s mass. According to Phys.org, the system is unprecedented.
Thus far, all the observations made of this unique stellar system substantiate Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, something researchers believed might not be the case, thinking that the particular conditions of these two stars would result in off-kilter orbital decay rates, with other theories proving more accurate. To their surprise, this wasn’t the case.
Because General Relativity is holding true, the researchers may be able to detect the gravitational waves from the stellar bodies, something only possible using advanced equipment in conjunction with understanding the waves’ characteristics. About detecting the waves, McGill University’s Ryan Lynch, who is one of the researchers, said, “Our results indicate that the filtering techniques planned for these advanced instruments remain valid.”
[via Phys.org]
Theory of Relativity demonstrated in unusual binary star system is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
If you’re in the mood for a lunar eclipse, NASA says that there will be one later today, but it probably won’t be anything too spectacular according to their description. The partial lunar eclipse will be taking place during the day in the US, but there will be a live stream from Dubai that will start at 3 pm ET.
This will mark the first lunar eclipse of 2013, but it won’t be a full one. According to NASA, less than 1.5% of the moon will be darkened by Earth’s shadow, and it will only last 27 minutes, which will make it one of the shortest lunar eclipses that we’ve seen in the past 100 years or so.
The partial lunar eclipse will start at 10 pm GST, and the folks at Slooh Space Camera will be live streaming a video feed from a telescope in Dubai, where the partial lunar eclipse should be completely visible as long as the weather cooperates. Commentary will also be provided by Dr. Lucie Green, who is a researcher at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in England, so it should be quite the learning experience.
If you miss today’s lunar eclipse, don’t worry, as there will be two more throughout 2013, with the next one occurring on May 25. That one should be visible by folks in the US, although it won’t be a completely full lunar eclipse, however. The third lunar eclipse will take place on October 18.
[via S]” target=”_blank”>via LA Times]
Partial lunar eclipse live-streaming later today is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Space debris that could potentially disrupt future satellites or even space travel must be actively cleared, with nets, harpoons, and other collection methods all under consideration, the European Space Agency concluded today. Although expensive, the tidy-up of space is essential if we’re not to face even bigger bills for replacing damaged satellites, the ESA warned after the 6th European Conference on Space Debris held this week; in fact, the agency argues, the issue is akin to the problems recognized around climate change two decades ago.
The problem is twofold, the ESA said. First, new missions into space must be sustainable, with designs that take into account safe disposal of spent rocket stages and other components that might traditionally have been left to orbit the Earth.
Second, though, is the work needed to actively clear what debris has already been abandoned. The ESA has called for pilot missions to clean the area of localized space around the planet, so as to mitigate the potential for satellites to be knocked out of the sky.
Space Debris overview:
“While measures against further debris creation and actively deorbiting defunct satellites are technically demanding and potentially costly,” ESAT Space Debris Office chief Heiner Klinkrad said in a statement, “there is no alternative to protect space as a valuable resource for our critical satellite infrastructure.”
Replacing 1,000 active satellites, for instance, would carry a cost of around €100bn ($131bn), the group estimates. That ignores the knock-on effect of navigation, broadcast, weather, telecoms, and other satellite infrastructure to business and operations on the ground.
Potential methods to actively gather up debris include the space equivalent of nets and harpoons, the AP reports, as well as more outlandish proposals that include deflecting rogue objects with laser light, and even repositioning them with robots, such as a 2011 suggestion by an Italian aerospace engineer. His idea was to actively chase down objects, seize them, and then glue rockets to them that would blast them back down to Earth. Last year, Swiss scientists revealed plans for a hunter-gatherer satellite that would cruise through its orbit like a shark, swallowing up abandoned materials.
However it’s done, the problem has already had an impact on space projects. A Russian satellite collided with debris earlier this year, believed to have been left behind by a Chinese mission, and became the fourth satellite known to be destroyed after a crash. Last year, meanwhile, NASA was almost forced to reposition the International Space Station, after fears debris could hit it.
Clean up space or suffer satellite destruction warns ESA is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
NASA has launched a lot of things into space, such as humans and space ships of course, but one thing we certainly didn’t expect them to launch into space were cell phones.
Yes – mobile phones have been launched into space by NASA as part of a low-budget, experimental satellite program using off-the-held components. The three smartphone that were sent into space were all HTC Nexus One devices and are currently circling the Earth at an altitude of around 150 miles inside of 4-inch metal cubes, and are expected to burn up on re-entry within the next two weeks. The mission for reach “PhoneSat” is to snap photos of the Earth to send back radio messages on a regular basis in order to learn of they can be considered to supply the “brains” for future satellites. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: HP WindsorNot Leaked Yet Again, German Court Dismisses Nokia Vs HTC Patent Claim , 
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Scientists have been studying the planet Jupiter to determine why the atmosphere over the planet’s southern hemisphere contains more water than the atmosphere over the northern hemisphere of planet. The scientists used data collected from the Herschel space observatory to determine that the southern hemisphere of the atmosphere contains more water.
Using the data collected, the scientists have theorized that the source of the increased water in the planet’s upper atmosphere has to be from external regions. Specifically, the scientists believe that the extra water in the upper atmosphere was caused by the impact of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet with the surface of the planet back in 1994. Considering that comets are made out of ice and rock, a comet impact would certainly have the potential to release large amounts of water into the upper atmosphere of the planet.
Study lead Thibault Cavalie says that the difference in water between the two hemispheres suggests that the extra water in the southern hemisphere was delivered during a single event. That would rule out the water coming from other sources such as icy rings or moons orbiting the planet. Cavalie says that the team’s model indicates that as much as 95% of the water in the stratosphere of Jupiter was put there by the impact of the comet in 1994.
The scientists also point out that it’s not uncommon for other planets in our solar system to have water in their atmospheres. The odd thing about Jupiter was one hemisphere having more water than the other. The water in the atmosphere also wasn’t aligned to the poles of the planet.
Cavalie said, “The asymmetry between the two hemispheres suggests that water was delivered during a single event and rules out icy rings or moons as candidate sources…Local sources would provide a steady supply of water, which over time would lead to a hemispherically symmetric distribution in the stratosphere. Depending on whether the chemical species are transported in neutral or ionized form, local sources of water would result in higher concentrations either at the poles or along the equator, but not in a north-south asymmetry.”
[via Latinospost]
Scientists link water in Jupiter’s atmosphere to Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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