Space Shuttle Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and space shuttle mockup to become centerpiece of new exhibit at Space Center Houston visitor center near NASA's Johnson Space Center. Still in its protective shrink wrap, space shuttle Atlantis has been raised and tilted into display position at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Atlantis starred in a daylong parade and celebration as the shuttle was moved into an exhibit hall at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The storied spacecraft's pair of 60-foot-long doors were closed Sept. 20 during preps for permanent display. NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft pilots will carry Endeavour to its new home in Los Angeles.
s Hubble Observes Young Dwarf Galaxies Bursting With Stars NASA's Hubble Observes Young Dwarf Galaxies Bursting With Stars This image reveals 18 tiny galaxies uncovered by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The puny galaxies, shown in the postage stamp-sized images, existed 9 billion years ago and are brimming with star birth. Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys spied the galaxies in a field called the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS). The galaxies are among 69 dwarf galaxies found in the GOODS (marked by green circles in the large image) and other fields. Images of the individual galaxies were taken November 2010 to January 2011. › View larger image Using its near-infrared vision to peer 9 billion years back in time, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered an extraordinary population of young dwarf galaxies brimming with star formation. The resulting observations are somewhat at odds with recent detailed studies of the dwarf galaxies that are orbiting as satellites of the Milky Way. Related Link:
Galaxy Zoo: Hubble Buenos Aires Herald Soyuz TMA-16 Thursday, March 18, 2010 Russian Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev (C) is transported to a helicopter after the landing of the Russian Soyuz TMA-16 space capsule, carrying an Expedition 22 U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut from the International Space Station, near the town of Arkalyk, northern Kazakhstan. A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying a US astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut from the International Space Station landed safely in Kazakhstan. The capsule -- ferrying Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev -- landed in the vast steppe near the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan as planned, Russia's Mission Control said. "The descent capsule of the Soyuz TMA-16 ... has landed," an announcer at Mission Control outside Moscow said to applause from space officials and controllers. The capsule, charred on re-entry, ended its three-and-a-half-hour ride to Earth in a puff of dust after activating its boosters to cushion the touchdown.
Stellarium Telescopes Help Discover Surprisingly Young Galaxy NASA Telescopes Help Discover Surprisingly Young Galaxy PASADENA, Calif. -- Astronomers have uncovered one of the youngest galaxies in the distant universe, with stars that formed 13.5 billion years ago, a mere 200 million years after the Big Bang. The finding addresses questions about when the first galaxies arose, and how the early universe evolved. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope was the first to spot the newfound galaxy. Detailed observations from the W.M. Infrared data from both Hubble and the post-coolant, or "warm," phase of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope mission revealed the galaxy's stars are quite mature, which means they must have formed when the universe was just a toddler. "This challenges theories of how soon galaxies formed in the first years of the universe," said Johan Richard of the Centre de Recherche Astronomique de Lyon, Université Lyon 1 in France, lead author of a new study accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The Sun Our Sun is a normal main-sequence G2 star, one of more than 100 billion stars in our galaxy. diameter: 1,390,000 km. mass: 1.989e30 kgtemperature: 5800 K (surface) 15,600,000 K (core) History of The Sun The Sun is by far the largest object in the solar system. It contains more than 99.8% of the total mass of the Solar System (Jupiter contains most of the rest). It is often said that the Sun is an "ordinary" star. The Sun is personified in many mythologies: the Greeks called it Helios and the Romans called it Sol. The Sun is, at present, about 70% hydrogen and 28% helium by mass everything else ("metals") amounts to less than 2%. The outer layers of the Sun exhibit differential rotation: at the equator the surface rotates once every 25.4 days; near the poles it's as much as 36 days. Conditions at the Sun's core (approximately the inner 25% of its radius) are extreme. The Sun's power (about 386 billion billion mega Watts) is produced by nuclear fusion reactions. The Sun's satellites
100,000 Stars Flash Earth ...satellite and aerial imagery of the Earth in Flas [blog] Autour du Ciel | actu astrophysique / astronomique Lost in Space When America's space shuttle program ends in September, the U.S. will be completely dependent on Russian rockets for launching men and women into space -- and bringing them back. But what will happen to America's astronauts if relations between the U.S. and Russia sour? Until American companies come to market with commercial rockets and launch vehicles to replace the shuttle, the only nation ever to put a man on the Moon won't even be able to put a man into orbit. And that, experts tell FoxNews.com, has the potential to be a "tragic mistake," one that could hold America's astronauts in orbit hostage to the whims of the Kremlin. "The U.S. has surrendered its advantage in space, conceding the high ground to others who are probably our enemies," said Jane Orient, a science policy expert and professor at the University of Arizona. Former rocket scientist Shannah B. "Remember a few years ago when china 'accidentally' hit a satellite in space?" , Orbital Sciences Corp. Sen.
Star Wars: Neil Armstrong, Obama Spar Over NASA's Future Neil Armstrong, as NASA astronautNASA Visitors view a full-scale mockup of NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle during its one-day display August 12 at StenniSphere, the visitor center at John C. Stennis Space Center. The first man to walk on the moon has blasted off at the Obama administration's stripped-down space plans, describing the president's proposals as "devastating." Moonwalk icon Neil Armstrong, in an open letter co-signed by Apollo Commanders James Lovell and Eugene Cernan, wrote on Tuesday that "The … decision to cancel the Constellation program, its Ares 1 and Ares V rockets, and the Orion spacecraft, is devastating. "America's only path to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station will now be subject to an agreement with Russia to purchase space on their Soyuz (at a price of over 50 million dollars per seat with significant increases expected in the near future) until we have the capacity to provide transportation for ourselves. Jeremy A.