(including reports © NASA and © Spaceweather.com
and information from the Royal Astronomical Society)

Updated:    1 March 2010

BREAKING NEWS


Note:  some links on this page will have expired, as the news is no longer topical. Some remain active for only a couple of days. Stories from Spaceweather.com for previous days can be accessed through their Archives on the top right-hand side of their home page. Simply enter the month, day and year as shown in the Dateline of the required story.


New magazine for Australian astronomers, both beginning and advanced:

The publishers of the well-known American magazine 'Sky & Telescope' now produce a similar magazine for the benefit of Australian amateur astronomers and star-gazers. Called 'Australian Sky & Telescope'. Averaging about 100 full-colour pages, its sections are entitled 'News & features', 'Observing & exploring', 'Products & reviews', and 'Activities & people'. There is also a main cover story, which in the first issue investigates how planetary systems form and evolve. The magazine's format is very similar to that of the American version, although it contains a little more humour sprinkled through its pages. This is probably because it is staffed and substantially written by Aussies, and printed here under licence from its American counterpart. Definite bonuses in the Australian version are the coverage of local events (such as the reopening of Mount Stromlo Observatory and a report on Queensland's Astrofest held last August), illustrated reports on the work of local people, the sky descriptions and charts are correct for us, and the advertisers are mostly Australian firms. Click here to access the website of 'Australian Sky & Telescope'.

The Australian magazine 'Sky and Space' and the American 'Astronomy' are also highly recommended.

 

Interesting research news (latest news first):

Giant telescopes damaged by earthquake in Hawaii: Two powerful earthquakes of magnitudes 6.7 and 6.0 struck the island of Hawaii seven minutes apart on the morning of Sunday, October 15 last. These caused significant damage to the large observatories located on the summit of Mauna Kea. Observatory buildings received superficial damage, and electrical power fluctuations and outages caused problems for sensitive equipment. Because of their location at the top of a dormant volcano, most telescopes are fitted with earthquake restraints to protect them from seismic events. These performed as planned, but some damage did occur:

W. M. Keck Observatory: This is home to Keck I and Keck II, the two largest telescopes in the world with mirrors 10 metres across. Keck I was moved horizontally 25 mm, the largest displacement of any of the telescopes, but was unharmed otherwise. Keck II has had two seriously damaged radial pad supports and seismic restraint brackets replaced. Keck II requires additional engineering tests before it can begin on-sky tests.

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope:  The 3.6 metre optical/infrared telescope collided with its earthquake restraints, which were bent as they were designed to. The horseshoe mount was deformed slightly, and the right ascension decoder smashed. During repairs, it was found that, although the gearing and hydraulic systems were operating normally, the replacement decoder had to be placed in a slightly different position. Subsequent testing revealed a problem with tracking at certain hour angles. This was traced to a dent in the horseshoe mounting that will need to be repaired before the telescope can achieve its previous pointing accuracy. The observatory dome also was displaced during the earthquake.

Gemini North Observatory:  The observatory was moved, the telescope engaged its earthquake restraints, and some debris fell on the 8 metre primary mirror, fortunately without harming it. The worst damage was a broken ceramic rod in the secondary mirror system at the top end of the telescope. The rod, about 24 cm long and 25mm in diameter, broke cleanly so engineers were able to successfully glue it back together with epoxy. The rod is one of three used in the secondary mirror assembly. In addition, a new precision position sensor was installed in the system to replace a sensor damaged by the earthquake.

Subaru Telescope: The 8.2 metre telescope suffered no major damage, but its pointing accuracy and tracking were found to be not as good as they were before the earthquake. Three weeks of testing revealed that an encoder unit that measures the rotation of the telescope had shifted. Realignment of the encoder and the telescope have restored the pre-earthquake precision.


 

The Australian National University has joined the Giant Magellan Telescope international consortium of research organisations. The GMT is likely to be one of the first of a small number of next-generation Extremely Large Telescopes that are expected to be built in the next 20 years. The telescope's conceptual design anticipates a moving mass of 1000 tonnes and a cylindrical observatory 65 metres high. It will be built by the participating organisations at a site in northern Chile. The primary mirror will have seven circular segments each 8.4 metres across, six of these surrounding the centrally located seventh. The total light-gathering power will be nearly seven times that of the Gemini telescopes, which are the largest ones to which Australian astronomers currently have access, and the images obtained should be ten times clearer than those taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. The GMT is expected to see first light in 2016.  [GMT Home page]   [ANU's involvement]

 

What do Australian astronomers need in the next ten years in order to stay at the forefront of astronomical research? Our scientists have a proud record of achievement, innovation and discovery in optical and radio astronomy, and in high-energy particle physics and cosmology. The late, great Mount Stromlo 74 inch telescope led the way, followed by the Parkes Radio Telescope which is still at the leading edge of its field of work. In the 1970s came Hanbury-Brown's Stellar Intensity Interferometer, Paul Wild's Radioheliograph, and the Sydney University Giant Air Shower Recorder (all near Narrabri). The last named had an area of 61 square kilometres. All of these instruments worked away, largely unknown and unheralded by the Australian public, although they were featured on the first $50 paper notes. In 1974 the 3.9 metre Anglo-Australian Telescope and the 1.2 metre Schmidt were commissioned on Siding Spring Mountain, and then in 1988 the Australia Telescope was built at Culgoora as a Bicentennial Project.

Where to next? Our astronomers have prepared a wish list for the next ten years called the 'Decadal Plan for 2006-2015'.  [Read it here] .

 

NASA's powerful infrared Spitzer Space Telescope has taken an image that rivals the Hubble Space Telescope's 'Pillars of Creation' photograph taken ten years ago of part of the Eagle Nebula. Dubbed the 'Mountains of Creation', it shows huge clouds of matter undergoing intense star formation in the region W5 in Cassiopeia. These clouds, which are ten times bigger than the Pillars, are illuminated in the infrared band, but appear as dark clouds in visible light images.  [Full story]

 

The Hubble Space Telescope has found a disc of blue stars orbiting around a supermassive black hole at the centre of the Andromeda Galaxy, M31. The disc is only one light year across, and contains 400 hot young stars orbiting the black hole at speeds up to 1000 kilometres per second. As the cores of galaxies typically contain old red Population I stars, this is quite an enigma.  [Full story]

 

The MAGIC Telescope is the largest and most advanced single instrument yet built to observe very-high-energy cosmic rays from the ground. Its parabolic mirror is made up of about a thousand 50 cm X 50 cm aluminium mirror panels, giving a total area equivalent to a single 15 metre diameter mirror. MAGIC is an acronym for 'Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov'.   [Full story]

 

The White House has forced NASA to cancel the fourth shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. It is now expected that the HST will be allowed to burn up during re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere sometime during this decade. The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter had also been a victim of budgetary cuts and is to be postponed indefinitely.  [Full story]

 

The Swift Gamma-ray Observatory observed its first gamma-ray burst on January 17, two months after launch.  [Full story]

 

Earth's most extensive global topographic map has just been completed by NASA and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The final section to be done included Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands. The resolution of the publicly available data is 90 metres at the Equator.  [Full story]

 

ESA's Smart-1 spacecraft reached its final operational orbit around the Moon in late February. The mission has been extended until August 2006.  [Full story]

 

Black holes use their intense gravitational fields to draw in nearby matter, which gives out tremendous amounts of radiation as it approaches the event horizon. The process has been found to be anything but smooth, however.  [Full story]

 

The European Southern Observatory now has the world's largest interferometer using movable 1.8 metre optical telescopes. Two of the telescopes are being tested now, and two more should be operation by the end of next year. Commissioning of the first two telescopes should be finished by this October.  [Full story]

 

The Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered two huge clouds of warm-hot intergalactic matter (WHIM) around our galaxy. This may be some of the missing 'dark matter' or the universe. The clouds have a temperature of about 1 million degrees K, and contain ions of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and neon.  [Full story]

 

Images from space of the December 26, 2004 tsunami are available here, here and here.

 

The Rosetta space vehicle launched last March by the European Space Agency (ESA) will have four planetary intercepts before it heads off to Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which it will reach in 2014.  [Full story]

 

The newly-discovered planetoid Sedna, 1700 km across, is the reddest object in the Solar System except for Mars. It is the furthest object in the Solar System except for comets, and takes 10 500 years to circle the Sun once. Should we call it a planet or is it too small?  [More information about Sedna]

 

The ESA solar spacecraft Ulysses has passed through two, and possibly three comet tails.  [Full story]

 

The Chandra X-ray Observatory has made the first clear detection of x-rays from Saturn, and has also revealed new information about the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.  [Full story]

 

NASA's Genesis spacecraft completed its collection of solar wind particles last April and is now on its way back to Earth. The samples were placed into a sealed container which will be released into our atmosphere on September 8, hopefully parachuting to Earth over Utah. Helicopter pilots are being trained to snag the return capsule in mid-air.  [Full story]

 

NASA's twin Martian Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity conducted a six-week-long eclipse watching program on Mars, during March and April. The tiny moon of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, cross the Sun's disc in a minute or less, and are much smaller than the Sun.  [Full story and photographs Both rovers have left their landing sites and are now on the move, in a five-month extended mission until September 25. On that date Mars reaches superior conjunction, passing on the far side of the Sun, when communication with Earth is blocked. Both rovers have found strong evidence for water on Mars. While NASA's rovers are studying the surface, the ESA's Mars Express orbiter is conducting a parallel search from Mars orbit, and has detected water ice at the Poles and possible springs in the large canyon known as Valles Marineris.   [More on the Mars Rovers]    [Mars Express reports

 

The Hubble Space Telescope has provided the deepest portrait of the visible universe ever taken, with a photograph whose exposure was one million seconds long (over 11.5 days!). It shows the faintest and most distant galaxies (in time as well as distance), some of the faintest possibly being the first galaxies to emerge after the 'big bang'. Hubble's Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) is in the southern constellation Fornax. In ground-based images, the region of the HUDF is largely empty, but the Hubble Telescope has revealed 10 000 galaxies there, in an area of sky only one hundredth the area of the Full Moon.  [Full story]

 

 

Latest Astronomical Headlines from the IAU (International Astronomical Union):

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Dateline - 1 March 2010:   Will the world end on December 21, 2012? 

Worried about the stories getting around about the Mayan calendar predicting the end of the world soon? The technical term for such stories is 'baloney'. Read what reputable NASA scientists have to say  here .

 

Dateline - 24 February 2010:   Bogged Mars rover Spirit has a new  rôle

NASA's venerable Mars rover Spirit is starting a second career as an explorer of the Martian core - but first it must survive the perilous Martian winter.   Full story 

 

Dateline - 8 February 2010:   Large sunspot appears

The sudden emergence of big sunspot 1045 over the weekend has caused a sharp increase in solar activity. The active region has produced three M-class and almost a dozen C-class solar flares since it appeared on Saturday. The strongest blast, an M6-class eruption on February 7, may have hurled a coronal mass ejection toward Earth. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras in the nights ahead as a result of this activity. Also, ham radio operators are picking up strong solar radio bursts using shortwave receivers. Sample sounds and images may be found   here ..

 

Dateline - 6 February 2010:   Last night launch of the Space Shuttle

On Sunday evening, February 7, at 7:39 pm AEST (8:39 pm AEDT), space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled lift off from Kennedy Space Centre on a 13-day mission to the International Space Station. There are only five missions left before NASA ends the shuttle program, and this will be the last one to launch at night. Click  here  for links to blogs and live video from NASA TV.

 

Dateline - 2 February 2010:   Head-on collision between two asteroids ?

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed a mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust that suggest a head-on collision between two asteroids.    Full story

 

Dateline - 29 January 2010:   Renowned astronomer Dr Geoffrey Burbidge dies in San Diego at 84

With his wife Margaret, Dr Burbidge is credited with having a profound influence in the development of modern astrophysics and cosmology, the metaphysical study of the origin and nature of the universe. In the 1950s he and his wife were among the astronomers breaking new ground in the field of creation of elements (nucleosynthesis) inside stars. He also had a reputation as a contrarian for his stance rejecting the big-bang theory, which states that the universe originated from a single point of infinite energy that exploded in a fireball of creation.    More

 

Dateline - 28 January 2010:   Tomorrow night's Full Moon is the biggest of the year, plus Mars

Tomorrow night's full Moon is the biggest and brightest full Moon of the year. It's a 'perigee Moon', as much as 14% wider and 30% brighter than other full Moons you'll see later in 2010. But that's not all. Mars is having a close encounter with Earth, and tomorrow night, January 30, it will join the Moon for an all-night-long conjunction. Mars will be about seven degrees to the left of the Moon in the evening. Don't miss it! Sky maps and images may be found  here .

 

Dateline - 28 January 2010:   Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on February 7

NASA is preparing to launch space shuttle Endeavour on February 7. It's the last night launch of the shuttle program and it kicks off a 13-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS). You can follow the ISS and Endeavour as they streak across the night sky using Spaceweather's new Satellite Flybys app for the iPhone or iPod Touch. For details, click  here .

 

Dateline - 26 January 2010:   Mars rover Spirit is hopelessly bogged and can no longer be moved

NASA announced today that Spirit cannot be freed from its Martian sandtrap. Now the rover will begin a second career as a stationary science platform.    Full story 

 

Dateline - 26 January 2010:   Mars is at its closest to Earth until 2014

This week Earth and Mars are having a close encounter. On January 27, the red planet will be only 99 million kilometres away and will look bigger through a telescope than at any time between 2008 and 2014.    Full story 

 

Dateline - 21 January 2010:   New sun-grazing comet

NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft has discovered another bright sun-grazing comet. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has a good view of the comet's death plunge, which is happening today. Click  here  for movies and updates.

 

Dateline - 21 January 2010:   Aurora Borealis pictures

A solar wind stream hit Earth on January 20 sparking the first geomagnetic storm of the year and an intense display of polar aurorae. Images from around the Arctic Circle may be found  here..

 

Dateline - 15 January 2010:   Giant ribbon at the edge of the Solar System

Last year, when NASA's IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) spacecraft discovered a giant ribbon at the edge of the solar system, researchers were mystified. They called it a 'shocking result' and puzzled over its origin. Now the mystery may have been solved.   Full story 

 

Dateline - 14 January 2010:   NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will join the search for exoplanets

NASA's next great observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, is designed to study stars and galaxies. With a mirror made up of 18 hexagonal segments totalling a collecting area of 25 square metres, the telescope will work at infrared wavelengths. It is due to be launched in 2014. Astronomers are beginning to realise, however, that Webb will make a great planet hunter too.

"Webb was originally conceived to search for the first galaxies and address the big cosmological questions associated with them, but we now know it can contribute powerfully to the planet hunt," says Mark Clampin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre. "Exoplanets are tremendously exciting. The field is changing literally by the day. I gave a talk on exoplanets the other day, and in the time between writing and delivering the speech, astronomers announced 30 new planets!"   Full story

 

Dateline - 8 January 2010:   NASA's new SOFIA telescope undergoes testing

Most astronomers wouldn't dream of opening their observatory's doors in 160 kph winds. Yet NASA's new SOFIA telescope (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy) recently flew in an airplane at 420 kph with doors wide open. The successful test is an important step forward for infrared astronomy.   Full story

 

Dateline - 6 January 2010:   Hubble space telescope photographs oldest galaxies yet

The refurbished Hubble Space Telescope has set a new distance record by discovering the oldest galaxies ever seen, dating back 13 billion years, or 600-800 million years after the Big Bang. The never-seen-before galaxies are keys to interpreting the development of the first stars and the formation of the first galaxies that later evolved into the elliptical galaxies like our own Milky Way that now populate the universe.The age and masses of the galaxies were calculated by combining new data from Hubble (the first space telescope was refurbished by a shuttle mission last May) and images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The galaxies are small, only one-hundredth the size of the Milky Way.   More   Picture   These two links contributed by Gary Taylor.

 

Dateline - 4 January 2010:   Kepler space telescope finds its first extra-solar planets

NASA's Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars, has discovered its first five new exoplanets.    Full story

 

Dateline - 2 January 2010:   Sun-grazing comet

Today, a bright comet is approaching the sun for a perilous close encounter, and it probably will not survive. The comet was discovered by an amateur astronomer monitoring images from NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has a good view of the comet's approach and images are being posted  here .

 

Dateline - 31 December 2009:   Sunspot surge

2009 is ending with a flurry of sunspots. The month of December has had more 'spotted days' than any previous month of the year by a significant margin, and all of the month's sunspot groups have been members of new Solar Cycle 24. Could this herald an end to the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century? That remains to be seen. Sunspot counts and trends are shown here , but ensure the date is set to 31 December.

 

Dateline - 31 December 2009:   Make your iPhone or iPod into a satellite tracker

Turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into a field-tested satellite tracker! Click here to find out how.

 

Dateline - 31 December 2009:   Blue Moon eclipse

The second Full Moon for December will occur at 19:13 hrs Universal Time on December 31. This will therefore be a 'Blue Moon' for everyone west of Israel. In Queensland, the Full Moon will not occur until 5:13 hours on January 1, 2010, so it won't be 'blue' for us. In America, Europe and Africa, for the first time in almost 20 years there's going to be a 'Blue Moon' on New Year's Eve. In Europe, sky watchers will witness an even rarer event - an eclipse of a Blue Moon on New Year's Eve. What are the odds? Probabilities and observing tips may be found here.

In Australia, we will have a Full Moon on January 1 and another on January 30. With two Full Moons in the same month, the second one will be 'blue'. It is important to know that the normal colour of the Moon will not change. The lunar eclipse of January 1 will not be visible from Nambour.

 

Dateline - 12 December 2009:   Geminid meteor swarm approaching

This weekend, Earth will pass through a stream of debris from extinct comet 3200 Phaethon, source of the annual Geminid meteor shower. Forecasters expect more than 100 meteors per hour to fly out of the constellation Gemini when the shower peaks on December 13 and 14. For most observers, the best time to look will be from 10 pm local time on Sunday night to dawn on Monday morning. Click  here  for photos, a sky map, and live audio from a meteor radar.

 

Dateline - 11 December 2009:   New climate change website comes online

NASA reports that researchers attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen have unveiled a unique web site that gathers and organizes climate data for decision makers, professional scientists and lay people.  It is available  here..

 

Dateline - 9 December 2009:   Stunning spiral light show over Norway

This morning in arctic Norway, onlookers were stunned when a gigantic luminous spiral formed in the northern sky. Veteran observers accustomed to the appearance of Northern Lights say they have never seen anything like it. It was neither a meteor nor any known form of atmospheric optics. Rumours that the spiral was caused by the botched launch of a Russian rocket have not yet been confirmed. Click  here  for images and eyewitness reports of this mysterious apparition.

 

Dateline - 8 December 2009:   Geminid meteor shower due next week

The annual Geminid meteor shower has been intensifying, and researchers say 2009 could be the best year yet. This year's display peaks on December 13 to 15 (next Sunday to Tuesday).    Full story

 

Dateline - 2 December 2009:   Mars rover Spirit still bogged in sand, but still working

While stuck in a sandtrap, Mars rover Spirit has made a discovery one researcher calls "supremely interesting."     Full story

 

Dateline - 26 November 2009:   Meteor explodes over Johannesburg, South Africa

Last night a meteor exploded in a blaze of colour, and was filmed by a traffic control camera. See the amazing video  here.  This link contributed by Gary Taylor.

 

Dateline - 24 November 2009:   Waves on the Sun

Data from NASA's STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) spacecraft have confirmed the stunning reality of monster waves on the sun known as 'solar tsunamis.'     Full story

 

Dateline - 18 November 2009:   Fireball over the USA

As forecasters predicted, the Leonid meteor shower peaked during the early hours of November 18, favouring sky watchers in Asia with an outburst of 100+ meteors per hour. Just as the outburst was dying down, an even bigger event took place over the western USA. Something hit Earth's atmosphere and exploded with an energy equivalent of 0.5 to 1 kiloton of TNT. Witnesses in Colorado, Utah, Idaho and elsewhere say the fireball "turned night into day" and "shook the ground" when it exploded just after midnight Mountain Standard Time. Researchers who are analyzing infrasound recordings of the blast say the fireball was not a Leonid. It was probably a small asteroid, now scattered in fragments across the countryside. Efforts are underway to measure the trajectory of the asteroid and guide meteorite recovery efforts.     Full story

 

Dateline - 16 November 2009:   Leonid meteor shower due mid-week

The Leonid meteor shower peaks on Wednesday morning, November 18, with a new Moon providing ideally-dark viewing conditions. Forecasters expect a relatively mild display (20 to 30 meteors per hour) over North America followed by a much stronger outburst (100 to 300 per hour) over Australia and Asia. No matter where you live in Australia, the best time to look is from 2 am to 4 am on Wednesday morning.     Full story

 

Dateline - 13 November 2009:   The Moon is not waterless after all

The argument that the Moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water. At a press conference today, researchers revealed data from NASA's LCROSS mission indicating that water exists in a permanently shadowed crater near the lunar South Pole.  See articles below, datelined 8 October 2009 and 17 October 2009.    Full story

 

Dateline - 10 November 2009:   A possible outburst of the Leonid meteor shower arrives next Wednesday morning  

The 2009 Leonid meteor shower peaks at 3:30 am on November 18. Although predictions vary between 3 and 30 meteors per hour, an outburst of many more than that is a possibility. NASA says that between 200 and 300 per hour may be seen over Australia and East Asia. There will be no moonlight to interfere with observations, so this could be one of the best meteor showers in years.    Full story

 

Dateline - 3 November 2009:   How the International Space Station has been built so far  

Click  here  for an animation showing how the International Space Station has been assembled over the years since 1998. It is now bigger than a Boeing 767.

 

Dateline - 30 October 2009:   Next Mars Rover  

NASA's next Mars rover, a super-capable robot named 'Curiosity', will push Mars exploration to a new level.    Full story

 

Dateline - 28 October 2009:   Small asteroid explodes over Indonesia  

A 10 metre asteroid exploded over Indonesia with the force of three Hiroshima bombs - and no one on Earth knew it was coming. The New Scientist website reports the dramatic explosion over South Sulawesi, Indonesia, on October 8, and underscores how blind humanity is to the danger of giant space rocks. NASA estimated the explosion was the equivalent to 50 000 tons of TNT, making it one of the largest asteroid explosions ever observed. However, this time we were lucky - the blast caused no damage on the ground because it occurred at high altitude, 15 to 20 km above Earth's surface. While the explosion was heard by witnesses in Indonesia and picked up by international nuclear explosion detectors, the asteroid only became visible after it exploded.    News story   More
 

Dateline - 23 October 2009:   NASA mission to study the Moon's tenuous atmosphere - before it's too late  

The Surveyor 7 spacecraft that landed on the Moon in January 1968 took photographs showing that the Moon had a very thin 'atmosphere' (more properly termed an 'exosphere') of electrostatically charged particles that became active and rose above the surface in sunlight and fell to the ground in the lunar night. Apollo astronauts confirmed this phenomenon. Now NASA scientists are building a probe to be called LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) to investigate this process, and which chemicals are most active.    Full story

 

Dateline - 19 October 2009:   Orionid meteor shower peaks tomorrow and Thursday  

Caused by debris from Halley's Comet, the 2009 Orionid meteor shower peaks on Wednesday, October 21 and Thursday, October 22, and forecasters say it could be an unusually good show. "Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, the source of the Orionids," says Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "Flakes of comet dust hitting the atmosphere should give us dozens of meteors per hour."    Full story

 

Dateline - 17 October 2009:   LCROSS lunar impact plume photograph released  

NASA has just released pictures of infrared flashes and a visible plume of debris produced by a Centaur booster rocket hitting the Moon on October 9. The images confirm that the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) experiment was a success despite the fact that the impacts were visually unimpressive from Earth. Click  here  for images of the plume and commentary from mission scientists.

 

Dateline - 15 October 2009:   Giant ribbon of invisible particles found at the edge of the Solar System  

NASA's IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) spacecraft has discovered a vast, glowing ribbon at the edge of the solar system. One mission scientist calls the discovery 'shocking' and says theorists are 'working like crazy' to explain the finding.     Full story

 

Dateline - 15 October 2009:   Lunar lander control jets using compressed air ?  

How do you fly on a world with no atmosphere? Wings won't work and neither will propellers. How about compressed air? NASA is perfecting the art of 'airless flying' using a new prototype lunar lander at the Marshall Space Flight Centre.     Full story

 

Dateline - 8 October 2009:   Tonight's Lunar Impact update  

NASA's LCROSS spacecraft and its Centaur booster rocket are on course for an impact in crater Cabeus near the Moon's south pole tonight. The Centaur will strike first on 9 October at 9:31 pm AEST, followed by the LCROSS mothership at 9:35:45 pm AEST. The spectacular double-impact, designed to excavate water frozen in the crater's shadowy depths,15oct_iibex15oct_ibex will be broadcast live on  NASA TV . The Moon will be below the horizon for amateur astronomers in Australia. f   Full story

 

Dateline - 7 October 2009:   New, giant (but faint) ring found around Saturn  

Just when you thought every big thing in the Solar System had already been discovered, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found an extraordinary new supersized ring around Saturn.     Full story

 

Dateline - 5 October 2009:   LCROSS satellite will impact the Moon this Friday coming  

On Friday night, 9 October, you can watch a pair of spacecraft crash into the Moon. The purposeful impacts are the climax of NASA's LCROSS mission to unearth signs of water in lunar soil. Although the waning gibbous Moon will be below the horizon for Australian observers, the impact can be watched on  NASA TV .     Full story

 

Dateline - 29 September 2009:   Record-high levels of cosmic rays hitting Earth  

NASA spacecraft are measuring record-high levels of cosmic rays - a side-effect of the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. The cosmic ray storm appears to be intensifying, say researchers, and the peak may be yet to come.    Full story

 

Dateline - 26 September 2009:   Underground ice on Mars revealed  

Fresh meteorite impacts are exposing underground ice on Mars. NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is beaming back must-see photos of the process at work.    Full story

 

Dateline - 24 September 2009:   NASA scientists discover water molecules on the Moon  

Using instruments on three separate spacecraft, scientists have discovered water molecules in the polar regions of the Moon.     Full story

 

Dateline - 23 September 2009:   NASA spacecraft due to photograph Mercury next week  

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is set to make its third and final flyby of the planet Mercury on 29 September. The encounter is expected to produce hundreds of images of previously unseen terrain and confirm the strange elliptical shape of Mercury's equator.     Full story

 

Dateline - 23 September 2009:   Spring Equinox occurs today

Today, 23 September, the Sun crossed the celestial equator at 7:18 am AEST. This event marks the beginning of Spring in the southern hemisphere (except in Australia, where Spring is reckoned to begin on September 1), and Autumn in the northern hemisphere. It's also the beginning of the aurora season around the poles.

 

Dateline - 22 September 2009:   New large sunspots appear

In a year when the sun has been utterly blank 80% of the time, the sudden emergence of two large sunspots in a single day is a noteworthy event. Today is such a day. NASA satellites and amateur astronomers are monitoring a pair of growing sunspots, both apparently members of long-overdue Solar Cycle 24. The emergence of these active regions is not enough to end the deepest solar minimum in nearly a hundred years, but they do represent a significant uptick in solar activity.      More

 

Dateline - 15 September 2009:   Finding dark asteroids that could collide with Earth

NASA is set to launch a sensitive new infrared telescope to seek out sneaky things in the night sky - among them, dark asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth (there were two near misses last March).    Full story

 

Dateline - 11 September 2009:   LCROSS satellite will impact the Moon in four weeks time

In search of water, NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is on a collision course with the Moon. The impact will occur on the evening of 9 October next, at 10:30 pm AEST. The site chosen for the impact is the small crater Cabeus A, near the lunar south pole. LCROSS will search for ice by plunging its spent upper-stage Centaur rocket into the permanent shadows of Cabeus A, where water might be trapped in frozen form. The LCROSS satellite will then fly into the plume of debris kicked up by the impact and measure the properties of the plume before it also collides with the lunar surface. Observing from Nambour, the waning gibbous Moon at the time of impact will be below the north-eastern horizon, not rising until 11 pm.    Full story 

The LCROSS mission has been dedicated to the memory of Walter Cronkite, the legendary CBS News anchor man, who provided coverage of NASA's missions from the beginning of America's manned space program to the age of the space shuttle.

 

Dateline - 9 September 2009:   Hubble Space Telescope is more powerful than ever after an extreme makeover

Today, astronomers declared the Hubble Space Telescope a fully rejuvenated observatory with the release of spectacular new images and data from four of its six operating science instruments.     Full story and new images

 

Dateline - 31 August 2009:   What is 'magnetic reconnection', and why does it cause massive explosions on the Sun ?

NASA is planning a daring new mission to investigate the Universe's favourite way of making things explode. Unlocking the secrets of 'magnetic reconnection' could help alleviate the energy crisis on Earth.     Full story

 

Dateline - 19 August 2009:   Chandra Orbiting X-Ray Observatory is 10 years old

Astronomers are celebrating 10 years of discovery by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Today's  story  highlights some of Chandra's most surprising, violent and beautiful images of the high-energy Universe.

 

Dateline - 19 August 2009:   Amazing Jupiter moon movie

Christopher Go, an amateur astronomer in the Philippines using a Celestron C11 on an Astro-Physics mount, has photographed one of Jupiter's moons, Io, casting its circular shadow across another, Ganymede. The movie he made of this rare event is must-see cinema for astronomers. It's playing now k  here  (set the date at right to August 19, 2009).

 

Dateline - 6 August 2009:   New Kepler Space Telescope examines exosolar planet

NASA's new planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has detected the changing phases and atmosphere of a planet a thousand light years away.    Full story

 

Dateline - 4 August 2009:   Possible Perseid meteor swarm outburst

This year's Perseid meteor shower could be even better than usual. According to NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, a filament of comet dust has drifted across Earth's path and when Earth passes through it, sometime between 6 pm and 7 pm AEST on August 12, the Perseid meteor rate could surge to twice its normal value. Check  here  for details and observing tips.

 

Dateline - 3 August 2009:   What hit Jupiter ?

Two weeks after something slammed into Jupiter, creating a cloud of debris that is still easy to see through backyard telescopes, researchers are wondering ... what was the impactor?   Full story

 

Dateline - 21 July 2009:   Longest solar eclipse of the 21st century is about to beginW

The eclipse starts just hours from now at approximately 11 am Australian Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday, 22 July. The path of totality crosses many major cities in India and China, setting the stage for possibly the most widely observed eclipse in history. Photos from the path of totality will be posted  here  as the event unfolds.

 

Dateline - 21 July 2009:   40th anniversary of the first lunar landing by Apollo 11

Widespread coverage is available concerning this anniversary.

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Dateline - 20 July 2009:   Long eclipse of the Sun over India and China tomorrow

The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century takes place tomorrow, Wednesday, 22 July. The path of totality crosses many major cities, including Shanghai, setting the stage for possibly the best-observed eclipse in human history. No part of the eclipse will be visible from the Sunshine Coast.   Full story

 

Dateline - 19 July 2009:   New Jupiter impact ?

On 19 July, Andrew Wesley, a veteran observer of Jupiter living in Murrumbateman, New South Wales, photographed a fresh dark 'scar' in Jupiter's cloudtops near its south pole. The feature resembles the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts of 1994. It is possible that Jupiter has been struck anew by an asteroid or comet. Astronomers around the world should train their telescopes on Jupiter to confirm the event and monitor its progress, as the jet streams in Jupiter's atmosphere will probably destroy the feature fairly rapidly.   Full storyf photos and updates.

 

 

 

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Astro News prior to 30 June 2009                          Observatory Index