An Ignoble Experiment: Universe Today - 10 new stories for 2012/12/25

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10 new stories for 2012/12/25

A Color View of Darling Dione

Color-composite of Dione made from raw Cassini images acquired on Dec. 23, 2012. (NASA/JPL/SSI. Composite by J. Major.)

Although made mostly of ice and rock, Saturn's moon Dione (pronounced dee-oh-nee) does have some color to it, as seen in this color-composite made from raw images acquired by Cassini on December 23.

700 miles (1120 km) wide, Dione is covered pole-to-pole in craters and crisscrossed by long, bright regions of "wispy line" terrain — the reflective faces of sheer ice cliffs and scarps that are too steep for darker material drifting in from Saturn's E ring to remain upon.

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© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Cassini, color, craters, dione, Moon, Saturn, Solar System

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SpaceX Grasshopper Takes Off and Lands Vertically in New 12-Story Hop

SpaceX recently released video of the latest test of their Grasshopper Vertical Take Off and Landing Vehicle, where it rose 40 meters (131 feet), hovered and landed safely on the pad using closed loop thrust vector and throttle control.

The test flight took place on December 17, 2012 at SpaceX’s rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas. The goal of Grasshopper is to eventually create a reusable first stage for SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which would be able to land safely instead of falling back into the ocean and not being usable again.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Tweeted that they strapped a 6-ft (2 meter) cowboy dummy to the side of the rocket “to provide a little perspective on the size of Grasshopper.”

See the pictures below:
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Astrophoto: Widefield, Narrowband View of the Crab Nebula by Nick Howes

Crab Nebula in a widefield, narrowband image. Credit: Nick Howes

This gorgeous shot of the Crab Nebula, or M1, by astronomer Nick Howes shows the famous nebula in a different light than the usual full spectrum views we’ve seen from the likes of the Hubble Space Telescope. Narrowband filters are designed to capture specific wavelengths of light, and since the Crab Nebula is emitting its own light rather than reflecting light from another source, it is a perfect candidate for imaging in narrow, or a limited part of the spectrum.
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The Rings on the Planet Go 'Round and 'Round…

Raw wide-angle Cassini image of Saturn’s rings (NASA/JPL/SSI)

Recently I posted an image of two of Saturn’s shepherd moons, Pandora and Prometheus, captured by Cassini in a face-off across the spindly F ring. Now here’s a much wider-angle view of the gas giant’s rings, seen by Cassini two days later on December 20, and the same two moons can still be seen staring each other down… two tiny points of light visible across the wavering line of the F ring at lower center.

This is just one raw image in a series of 56 that Cassini captured on the 20th, and I’ve combined them together to make a GIF animation — click below to watch:

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Read the rest of The Rings on the Planet Go ‘Round and ‘Round… (138 words)

© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | 4 comments |
Post tags: animation, Cassini, moons, NASA, planets, Prometheus, rings, Saturn

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Orion assemblage on track for 2014 Launch

Image caption: Orion EFT-1 crew cabin construction ongoing inside the Structural Assembly Jig at the Operations and Checkout Building (O & C) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). This is the inaugural space-bound Orion vehicle due to blastoff from Florida in September 2014 atop a Delta 4 Heavy rocket. Credit: Ken Kremer

NASA is thrusting forward and making steady progress toward launch of the first space-bound Orion crew capsule -designed to carry astronauts to deep space. The agency aims for a Florida blastoff of the uncrewed Exploration Flight Test-1 mission (EFT-1) in September 2014 – some 20 months from now – NASA officials told Universe Today.

I recently toured the Orion spacecraft up close during an exclusive follow-up visit to check the work in progress inside the cavernous manufacturing assembly facility in the Operations and Checkout Building (O & C) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Vehicle assemblage is run under the auspices of prime contractor Lockheed Martin Space Systems Corporation.

A lot of hardware built by contractors and subcontractors from all across the U.S. is now arriving at KSC and being integrated with the EFT-1 crew module (CM), said Jules Schneider, Orion Project manager for Lockheed Martin at KSC, during an interview with Universe Today beside the spacecraft at KSC. (...)
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© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | 22 comments |
Post tags: cape canaveral, Delta 4 Heavy, esa, kennedy space center, NASA, Orion, Orion Capsule, Orion EFT-1, SLS

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Astrophoto for December 21, 2012: Stars over the Temple of Quetzalcoatl

Templo de la Serpiente Emplumada / Temple of Quetzalcoatl. Credit: César Cantú. Click on the image for access to a larger version.

Our friend César Cantú sent us this image today, and it seemed perfect to share on the day where nothing apocalyptic happened. Hopefully, the day turned out for all our readers as only a chance to have a party and share a few jokes, to realize the specialness of those around you, or just to finish up your holiday preparations.

As someone once said, “Live long and prosper,” and as 2012 comes soon to a close, that is our wish to all of you.

(That, and please don’t believe any of those crazy doomsday prophesies anymore.)

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Win a Deck of Hubble Star Cards

A couple of years ago Universe Today writer John Williams created a card game called Hubble Star Cards, and the game won a Hubble Gold Star award in 2010 from NASA and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies for its inspiring use of the amazing imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope. As the description says, "the vivid, stunning images motivate and engage children of all ages to learn about objects in space. Now, thanks to John, Universe Today is giving away two decks of these beautiful cards!

In order to be entered into the drawing, just put your email address into the box below before Tuesday, December 25nd, 2012. We'll send you a confirmation email, so you'll need to click that to be successfully entered.
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Space: The Last Minute Holiday Gift Idea Frontier

I’m a last minute shopper, and luckily there are a lot of spacey gifts and greetings that you can still take advantage of. For example in the greeting card department, the Hubble Holiday Cards are fabulous, with loads of imagery from everyone’s favorite space telescope — such as the one above — that can be printed out and sent as cards, or it’s easy to nab one of their holiday greeting images to send via email, as I have done in the past! If you are looking for e-greeting cards, the European Space Agency has a great collection of images that can be sent to anyone in your email list.

What else?
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Today's Solstice Sun

This beautiful image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory provides a view of our Sun on the solstice (winter solstice for the northern hemisphere and summer solstice for the southern hemisphere,) at 11:12 UTC, December 21, 2012. No killer solar flares, no apocalypse, just pure beauty and the life-giving light and warmth from Old Sol.

Happy solstice to all!

Via @Camilla_SDO

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New Crew Arrives at Space Station

The latest crew has arrived to the International Space Station! Cosmonaut and Expedition 34/35 Soyuz Commander Roman Romanenko, Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn of NASA and Flight Engineer Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency docked their Soyuz TMA-07M at 14:09 UTC (9:09 a.m. EST) to the Rassvet module on the Russian segment of the ISS. We extend special congratulations to Hadfield, as we have been featuring him in our series about his training for the mission. He told us how much he is looking forward to his 5-month mission in space. “After a lot of lucky coincidences and a lot of hard work I get to be one of those who stays for an extended period off the planet. I'm really looking forward to it," he said.

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© nancy for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Chris Hadfield, international space station, ISS, Space Flight, Space Station

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