Back and Working
After a series of trips, I’m back to work on Eclectic Planet. Look for more in the days ahead.
Japanese Spacecraft Set to Hit the Moon
IMPACT ALERT: Japan’s Kaguya will crash into the Moon on Wednesday, June 10th, around 1830 UT. The timing favors observers in Asia and Australia, who might be able to see a flash of light or a plume of debris rising from the Moon’s southeastern limb. The spacecraft masses 2,600 kg and it will slam into the lunar surface at 6,000 km/hr. No one knows, however, how bright the flash might be or whether it will be visible even through large telescopes. (more…)
Red Glow Traces Ocean Plant Health
May 28, 2009: A unique signal detected by NASA’s Aqua satellite is helping researchers check the health and productivity of ocean plants around the world.
Fluorescent red light emitted by ocean phytoplankton and detected by Aqua reveals how efficiently the microscopic plants are turning sunlight and nutrients into food through photosynthesis.
“This is the first direct measurement of the health of the phytoplankton in the ocean,” says Michael Behrenfeld, a biologist at Oregon State University who specializes in marine plants. “We now have an important new tool for observing changes in phytoplankton all over the planet.”
Above: Phytoplankton — such as this colony of chaetoceros socialis — naturally give off fluorescent light as they dissipate excess solar energy that they cannot consume through photosynthesis. Credit: Maria Vernet, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Planet-Hunting Method Succeeds at Last
JPL – PASADENA, Calif. — A long-proposed tool for hunting planets has netted its first catch — a Jupiter-like planet orbiting one of the smallest stars known.
The technique, called astrometry, was first attempted 50 years ago to search for planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets. It involves measuring the precise motions of a star on the sky as an unseen planet tugs the star back and forth. But the method requires very precise measurements over long periods of time, and until now, has failed to turn up any exoplanets.
NASA Selects Student’s Entry as New Mars Rover Name – “CURIOSITY”
PASADENA, Calif. – NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory rover, scheduled for launch in 2011, has a new name, thanks to a sixth-grade student from Kansas. Twelve-year-old Clara Ma from the Sunflower Elementary school in Lenexa submitted the winning entry, “Curiosity.” As her prize, Ma wins a trip to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., where she will be invited to sign her name directly onto the rover as it is being assembled.
Iran launches Medium-Range Missile
Kepler Space Telescope Begins Work
Two months after launch, and extensive testing and alignment, NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has begun its search for other Earth-like worlds. The mission, which launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on March 6, will spend the next three-and-a-half years staring at more than 100,000 stars for telltale signs of planets. Kepler has the unique ability to find planets as small as Earth that orbit sun-like stars at distances where temperatures are right for possible lakes and oceans.
Spitzer Space Telescope begins “Warm” Mission
Powered by Web Design Company Plugins