Nullified.net » Space

Tweetup at HQ

nullified — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:58:58 +0000

NASA astronaut TJ Creamer talks about his experience in space during a “Tweetup” at NASA Headquarters, Thursday, July 29, 2010, in Washington. Creamer, who spent 161 days living aboard the International Space Station as part of the Expedition 22/23 crew, set up the orbiting outpost’s live Internet connection and posted updates about the mission to his Twitter account, sending the first live tweet from orbit. Image Credit: NASA/Paul E. Alers

Ambitious Venus Mission Ideas Include Robots, Planes, Humans

nullified — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:58:57 +0000

After over 20 years of neglect, the planet Venus is once more drawing NASA’s eye for ambitious new missions.

Huge Star Burns Fast and Furious in Photo

nullified — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:34:36 +0000

A bright hot star with more than 70 times the mass of our sun will live fast and die young.

Space Farms Could Mine Minerals From Moon Dirt

nullified — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:34:36 +0000

Future missions to the Moon or Mars could use plants as bio-harvesters to extract valuable elements from the alien soils

Hurricane Celia

nullified — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:34:36 +0000

Perfectly circular, powerful Hurricane Celia spaned hundreds of miles over the Pacific Ocean in this image from June 24, 2010. Rough-textured clouds surround the storm’s distinct eye. Farther from the center of the storm, spiral arms appear thinner and smoother. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image of Hurricane Celia at 1:55 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on June 24, 2010. Just five minutes later, the U.S. National Hurricane Center classified Celia as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 135 miles per hour. Image Credit: NASA

Into the Looking Glass

nullified — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:24:48 +0000

Recently, technicians at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., completed a series of cryogenic tests on six James Webb Space Telescope beryllium mirror segments at the center’s X-ray & Cryogenic Facility. During testing, the mirrors were subjected to extreme temperatures dipping to -415 degrees Fahrenheit, permitting engineers to measure in extreme detail how the shape of the mirror changes as it cools. The Webb telescope has 18 mirrors, each of which will be tested twice in the Center’s X-ray & Cryogenic Facility to ensure that the mirror will maintain its shape in a space environment — once with bare polished beryllium and then again after a thin coating of gold is applied. The cryogenic test gauges how each mirror changes temperature and shape over a range of operational temperatures in space. This helps predict how well the telescope will image infrared sources. The mirrors are designed to stay cold to allow scientists to observe the infrared light they reflect using a telescope and instruments optimized to detect this light. Warm objects give off infrared light, or heat. If the Webb telescope mirror is too warm, the faint infrared light from distant galaxies may be lost in the infrared glow of the mirror itself. Thus, the Webb telescope’s mirrors need to operate in a deep cold or cryogenic state, at around -379 degree Fahrenheit. Image Credit: NASA

How Astronomy Lit Up the Solar System

nullified — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:24:41 +0000

Astronomy has come a long way in the 401 years since Galileo turned his first primitive telescope to the sky, so it’s no surprise we see a very different solar system than the field’s earliest pioneers.

Massive Black Hole Bends Light to Magnify Distant Galaxy

nullified — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:24:36 +0000

A giant black hole spouting energy from inside a galaxy is acting like a cosmic magnifying glass, giving astronomers a clear view of an even more distant galaxy behind it.

Wild 2: If You Were There

nullified — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:24:36 +0000

On Jan. 2, 2004 NASA’s Stardust spacecraft made a close flyby of comet Wild 2 (pronounced “Vilt-2″). Among the equipment the spacecraft carried on board was a navigation camera.that Comet Wild 2 is about 3.1 miles in diameter. This artist’s concept depicts a view of Wild 2 that shows the faint jets emanating from the comet. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Huge Satellite Poses 150-Year Threat of Space Debris

nullified — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:24:35 +0000

The huge European satellite Envisat is possible the most dangerous piece of space debris circling the Earth for the next 150 years, experts say.