Science and Technology Facilities Council News and Press Releases
8 Feb 2010, 11:29 UTC
Scientists working on the Cassini space mission have found negatively charged water ions in the ice plume of Enceladus. Their findings, based on analysis from data taken in plume fly-throughs in 2008 and reported in the journal Icarus, provide evidence for the presence of liquid water, which suggests the ingredients for life inside the icy moon.
Signs of liquid water in Saturnian moon
8 Feb 2010, 11:29 UTC
Scientists working on the Cassini space mission have found negatively charged water ions in the ice plume of Enceladus. Their findings, based on analysis from data taken in plume fly-throughs in 2008 and reported in the journal Icarus, provide evidence for the presence of liquid water, which suggests the ingredients for life inside the icy moon.
ESA Human Spaceflight and Exploration
8 Feb 2010, 06:44 UTC
ESA PR 02-2010 Space Shuttle Endeavour was launched at 10:14:08 CET today and is heading for the International Space Station carrying two sophisticated European modules: Node-3 (Tranquility) and Cupola. Their installation will mark the completion of the non-Russian part of the ISS, with more than a third of the pressurised Station elements designed and built in Europe.
Node-3 and Cupola: European technology to complete the ISS
8 Feb 2010, 06:44 UTC
ESA PR 02-2010 Space Shuttle Endeavour was launched at 10:14:08 CET today and is heading for the International Space Station carrying two sophisticated European modules: Node-3 (Tranquility) and Cupola. Their installation will mark the completion of the non-Russian part of the ISS, with more than a third of the pressurised Station elements designed and built in Europe.
ESA Top News
7 Feb 2010, 06:44 UTC
NASA has scheduled Space Shuttle Endeavour's next launch attempt for Monday 8 February at 10:14 CET. The Mission Management Team will meet just after midnight (00:15 CET) to give the 'go' to fill Endeavour's external fuel tank with propellant.
'No go' for Endeavour's Launch on Sunday
7 Feb 2010, 06:44 UTC
NASA has scheduled Space Shuttle Endeavour's next launch attempt for Monday 8 February at 10:14 CET. The Mission Management Team will meet just after midnight (00:15 CET) to give the 'go' to fill Endeavour's external fuel tank with propellant.
ESA Human Spaceflight and Exploration
5 Feb 2010, 15:01 UTC
Space Shuttle Endeavour is being prepared at the Kennedy Space Center for a launch towards the International Space Station. Countdown is on and the first Space Shuttle mission of the 2010 is due to begin at 10:39 Central European Time (CET) this Sunday.
Follow the launch of STS-130 with Node-3 & Cupola
5 Feb 2010, 15:01 UTC
Space Shuttle Endeavour is being prepared at the Kennedy Space Center for a launch towards the International Space Station. Countdown is on and the first Space Shuttle mission of the 2010 is due to begin at 10:39 Central European Time (CET) this Sunday.
ESA Human Spaceflight and Exploration
5 Feb 2010, 11:25 UTC
The unmanned Progress-36 space ferry reached the International Space Station this morning with fresh food, air, propellant, scientific experiments and other cargo. The crew of the Space Station got also an extra treat: a 3D movie camera from ESA.
Stay tuned for stunning hi-def 3D videos from ISS
5 Feb 2010, 11:25 UTC
The unmanned Progress-36 space ferry reached the International Space Station this morning with fresh food, air, propellant, scientific experiments and other cargo. The crew of the Space Station got also an extra treat: a 3D movie camera from ESA.
NASA's Ames Research Center News and Features
5 Feb 2010, 05:00 UTC
NASA scientists hope to better understand exactly how and why plants grow differently in space in an experiment named, Tropi.
NASA to Study Seeds in Space to Understand Plant Growth
5 Feb 2010, 05:00 UTC
NASA scientists hope to better understand exactly how and why plants grow differently in space in an experiment named, Tropi.
Most Recent News
- 8 Feb 2010
- 7 Feb 2010
-
23:14 UTC
ESA Bulletin 141 (February 2010)
-
06:44 UTC
'No go' for Endeavour's Launch on Sunday
-
23:14 UTC
- 6 Feb 2010
- 5 Feb 2010
-
19:30 UTC
The expanding Universe
-
15:08 UTC
Are we alone in the Universe?
-
15:01 UTC
Follow the launch of STS-130 with Node-3 & Cupola
-
11:25 UTC
Stay tuned for stunning hi-def 3D videos from ISS
-
05:00 UTC
Endeavour to Fly With Improved Welds, Lighter Weight
-
05:00 UTC
Marshall Center Engineering Facility Attains Leed® Gold Certificati...
-
05:00 UTC
NASA Selects Programmatic and Institutional Learning Services Contr...
-
05:00 UTC
NASA Administrator to Hold News Briefing at Kennedy Space Center
-
05:00 UTC
NASA to Study Seeds in Space to Understand Plant Growth
-
05:00 UTC
Space Station Primed for New Era of Scientific Discoveries
-
00:00 UTC
ARIANESPACE READIES FOR ANOTHER BUSY YEAR WITH ITS WORKHORSE ARIANE...
-
19:30 UTC
- 4 Feb 2010
Blogs
One-Minute Astronomer
8 Feb 2010, 21:18 UTC
You can see many things when you look at Mars through a small telescope, but you can’t see its two puny moons, Phobos and Diemos. Few have ever seen these moons directly. Even the largest scopes show them as faint points of light. But they’re there, and recent space probes have snapped close-up images of these potato-shaped satellites as they zip and wobble around the red planet. In an odd way, the presence of Mars’s moons was predicted more than two centuries before they were discovered in 1877. Johannes Kepler, always a believer in mathematics and symmetry, reasoned in the early 1600’s that if Earth had one moon and Jupiter had four moons, then Mars must have two moons. While Kepler was a good mathematician, his mystical beliefs led to some strange reasoning. But it gets stranger. In 1726, Jonathan Swift wrote of Mars’s moons in Gulliver’s travels and assigned orbital diameters and periods not far off the true values, though he presumably had absolutely no way of knowing these quantities. Voltaire also mentioned these moons a few years later in his story Micromegas, though he may have got the idea from Swift. But the true discovery of the moons ...
The Tiny Moons of Mars
8 Feb 2010, 21:18 UTC
You can see many things when you look at Mars through a small telescope, but you can’t see its two puny moons, Phobos and Diemos. Few have ever seen these moons directly. Even the largest scopes show them as faint points of light. But they’re there, and recent space probes have snapped close-up images of these potato-shaped satellites as they zip and wobble around the red planet. In an odd way, the presence of Mars’s moons was predicted more than two centuries before they were discovered in 1877. Johannes Kepler, always a believer in mathematics and symmetry, reasoned in the early 1600’s that if Earth had one moon and Jupiter had four moons, then Mars must have two moons. While Kepler was a good mathematician, his mystical beliefs led to some strange reasoning. But it gets stranger. In 1726, Jonathan Swift wrote of Mars’s moons in Gulliver’s travels and assigned orbital diameters and periods not far off the true values, though he presumably had absolutely no way of knowing these quantities. Voltaire also mentioned these moons a few years later in his story Micromegas, though he may have got the idea from Swift. But the true discovery of the moons ...
Young Astronomers
8 Feb 2010, 20:06 UTC
We have all, at some time or another heard of black holes, but what exactly is a black hole and why is it ‘black’? As I described in my post about star types, most stars grow slowly into massive red giants as they run out of hydrogen. Most then collapse heating up it their final years. This collapse is halted quickly however as most stars don’t have enough mass to create a gravitational pull strong enough to overcome electron degeneracy pressure thus preventing further collapse. In simple terms this is the force that prevents electrons sticking to the protons in the nucleus of the atom. The star can’t release any more energy and it slowly loses its outer layers to space leaving a cooling white dwarf the size of Earth. More massive stars (those with more than 10 solar masses) continue gravitational collapse past electron degeneracy. This means that in the final moments of a massive star’s life it actually fuses electrons and protons together to form neutrons. This process releases massive amounts of energy which overcomes the gravity and the star rips itself apart in a type II supernovae. The core of the star remains as a small, dense ...
What is a Black Hole?
8 Feb 2010, 20:06 UTC
We have all, at some time or another heard of black holes, but what exactly is a black hole and why is it ‘black’? As I described in my post about star types, most stars grow slowly into massive red giants as they run out of hydrogen. Most then collapse heating up it their final years. This collapse is halted quickly however as most stars don’t have enough mass to create a gravitational pull strong enough to overcome electron degeneracy pressure thus preventing further collapse. In simple terms this is the force that prevents electrons sticking to the protons in the nucleus of the atom. The star can’t release any more energy and it slowly loses its outer layers to space leaving a cooling white dwarf the size of Earth. More massive stars (those with more than 10 solar masses) continue gravitational collapse past electron degeneracy. This means that in the final moments of a massive star’s life it actually fuses electrons and protons together to form neutrons. This process releases massive amounts of energy which overcomes the gravity and the star rips itself apart in a type II supernovae. The core of the star remains as a small, dense ...
Astronomy magazine editors' blog
8 Feb 2010, 19:24 UTC
Matt Ayerst III photoI just got an e-mail from Canadian amateur astronomer Matt Ayerst III. On November 24, 2008, he used a Canon PowerShot A710 IS with a 35mm lens to photograph the debris cloud of a fireball (brilliant meteor) over Vancouver. Here is the text of his e-mail:Hello, my name is Matt Ayerst III. I live in Vancouver, British Columbia. I have been subscribing to your magazine for 3 years now. Great stuff. I took this picture with my little handheld camera 2 years ago from the top of Burnaby Mountain at Simon Fraser University. In the background is Vancouver Island. The following day I read in the paper that a falling “fireball” was discovered in Alberta. Seems like a far shot (pun intended), but I figured if anyone would know, you guys would. I hope the quality is acceptable.Thank you, Matt, for a great report and photo.
Check out this fireball cloud
8 Feb 2010, 19:24 UTC
Matt Ayerst III photoI just got an e-mail from Canadian amateur astronomer Matt Ayerst III. On November 24, 2008, he used a Canon PowerShot A710 IS with a 35mm lens to photograph the debris cloud of a fireball (brilliant meteor) over Vancouver. Here is the text of his e-mail:Hello, my name is Matt Ayerst III. I live in Vancouver, British Columbia. I have been subscribing to your magazine for 3 years now. Great stuff. I took this picture with my little handheld camera 2 years ago from the top of Burnaby Mountain at Simon Fraser University. In the background is Vancouver Island. The following day I read in the paper that a falling “fireball” was discovered in Alberta. Seems like a far shot (pun intended), but I figured if anyone would know, you guys would. I hope the quality is acceptable.Thank you, Matt, for a great report and photo.
Skymania News
8 Feb 2010, 19:15 UTC
Space scientists have found clues that a fresh place in the solar system may be home to life. They analysed ice volcanoes on a moon of Saturn called Enceladus and discovered powerful new evidence for liquid water beneath its surface. NASA's Cassini spacecraft flew through the icy plumes and detected negatively charged water molecules - a clear sign that there is an underground sea. Back home this short-lived type of ion is produced where water is moving, such as in waterfalls or crashing ocean waves. It was known that the jets contained water but it was not clear before whether this might be liquid. Cassini scientist Andrew Coates, from University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, led the team that made the new breakthrough, reported in the journal Icarus. He said the evidence gathered by Cassini pointed to other constituents for life, such as carbon, plus a source of heat to keep the water liquid. It has been suggested that this energy source is the tidal pull of giant Saturn. Dr Coates said: "While it's no surprise that there is water there, these short-lived ions are extra evidence for sub-surface water. And where there's water, carbon and energy, some of ...
Another moon may be home to life
8 Feb 2010, 19:15 UTC
Space scientists have found clues that a fresh place in the solar system may be home to life. They analysed ice volcanoes on a moon of Saturn called Enceladus and discovered powerful new evidence for liquid water beneath its surface. NASA's Cassini spacecraft flew through the icy plumes and detected negatively charged water molecules - a clear sign that there is an underground sea. Back home this short-lived type of ion is produced where water is moving, such as in waterfalls or crashing ocean waves. It was known that the jets contained water but it was not clear before whether this might be liquid. Cassini scientist Andrew Coates, from University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory, led the team that made the new breakthrough, reported in the journal Icarus. He said the evidence gathered by Cassini pointed to other constituents for life, such as carbon, plus a source of heat to keep the water liquid. It has been suggested that this energy source is the tidal pull of giant Saturn. Dr Coates said: "While it's no surprise that there is water there, these short-lived ions are extra evidence for sub-surface water. And where there's water, carbon and energy, some of ...
Space Fellowship
8 Feb 2010, 17:10 UTC
(ESA) - The service module of the new Alphabus generation of telecommunication satellites has completed its first journey – from Cannes to Toulouse, in France. The three-day trip was completed last Friday. The exceptional convoy was made up of a 20 m-long lorry carrying the satellite container, several escort cars and a police escort to close off streets and redirect traffic as they passed through urban areas. This platform will be used for the Alphasat I-XL satellite being built by [...]
First journey for Alphabus
8 Feb 2010, 17:10 UTC
(ESA) - The service module of the new Alphabus generation of telecommunication satellites has completed its first journey – from Cannes to Toulouse, in France. The three-day trip was completed last Friday. The exceptional convoy was made up of a 20 m-long lorry carrying the satellite container, several escort cars and a police escort to close off streets and redirect traffic as they passed through urban areas. This platform will be used for the Alphasat I-XL satellite being built by [...]
Supernova Condensate
8 Feb 2010, 16:39 UTC
Oh frosty, frosty Pluto, how you tantalise us. So small that even the most powerful telescopes can only discern you as a handful of pixels, yet immutably fascinating every time we learn something new about you!(Read more ...)
Everyone's favourite frostball!
8 Feb 2010, 16:39 UTC
Oh frosty, frosty Pluto, how you tantalise us. So small that even the most powerful telescopes can only discern you as a handful of pixels, yet immutably fascinating every time we learn something new about you!(Read more ...)
Most Recent Blogs
- 8 Feb 2010
-
23:07 UTC
Heavy Snow around U.S. Capital
-
22:58 UTC
limit cycle
-
22:43 UTC
Opportunity Sol 371 (Spirit Sol 392)
-
22:39 UTC
Space School in Tokushima
-
22:07 UTC
STS-130 Launch
-
22:06 UTC
Astronomy Look-alikes, No. 13
-
21:58 UTC
Sky on Fire as Endeavour Blasts to Space
-
21:55 UTC
An X Asteroid?
-
21:37 UTC
Haze along the Himalaya
-
21:18 UTC
The Tiny Moons of Mars
-
21:01 UTC
Tafelmusik back from tour
-
20:40 UTC
Under-Sec. Defense: Protect U.S. Industrial Base
-
20:26 UTC
One Last Night Departure
-
20:06 UTC
What is a Black Hole?
-
20:03 UTC
Spaced-Out Super Bowl Ads 2010
-
19:47 UTC
Sharing Constellation Letter & Contacts
-
19:47 UTC
Last Nighttime Shuttle Launch
-
19:36 UTC
A New Petition To Support Constellation
-
19:30 UTC
The Sky This Week - Thursday February 11 to Thursday February 18
-
19:24 UTC
Check out this fireball cloud
-
23:07 UTC
