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By Daniel Fischer Every page present in Europe & the U.S.!
| Ahead | Awards 
The latest issue!
| A German companion! (SuW version) Current mission news: MGS (latest pictures!) + Cassini + Galileo + NEAR |
The full speech on May 25, 1961, another speech in 1962 (equally famous), and NASA's "Moon Decision" site, with interesting links, esp. to a most detailled radio feature. Also coverage by CNN and APOD. 20 days before the speech A. Shepard did his suborbital hop, still a far cry of Gagarin's full orbit: FT, Huntsville Times, SC, APOD. In the beginning - Peenemünde gets a new museum: SPIEGEL. U.S. space visions today: ZEIT.
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and will most likely be unable to update this site until the end of June or so. Three major events should or will happen in that interval:
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Comet LINEAR breaks up into 2, then 3 piecesWhile the brightness outburst of comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) continues without a noticeable break (it passed the 5.0 mag. mark in late May), its nucleus has started to break up in late April. The first indication came on April 30 when it was imaged as two fragments of roughly equal brightness, 3.5" from each other. One of these fragments ("A") has faded a lot since, while the other one has split again in mid-May into B1 and B2. The three fragments are now moving through space in nearly parallel orbits while they slowly drift apart. Astrometric offsets of component A from B reported between Apr. 30 and May 18 indicate that the splitting occurred around March 30, thus coinciding with the major outburst. V-band images reveal very extended isophotes perpendicular to the separation direction of the new pair of nuclei: This could indicate the presence of a large amount of gas in the coma in addition to the dust.The comet passed through its perihelion May 24 at a distance of about 116 million km. It has brightened considerably in connection with the splitting of its nucleus and can now be seen with the unaided eye by observers in the southern hemisphere as a faint object in the constellation Lepus (The Hare), south of Orion. Comet LINEAR moves in an exceedingly elongated orbit and it is making one of its first approaches to the Sun, perhaps even the first one. It is therefore a "new" comet in which unaltered material from the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago may still be present. For this reason, the splitting of its nucleus is of particular interest to the astronomers: By spectroscopic observations, they may be able to observe directly such material and hence to learn more about the processes that took place at the time of the formation of the solar system. |
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First X-43A experimental hypersonic aircraft destroyedA NASA X-43A hypersonic unpiloted research aircraft was destroyed on June 2nd while on a flight originating from the Dryden Flight Research Center in California - no testing of the scramjet engine was possible. Following pre-launch countdown and separation from the B-52, a malfunction occurred five seconds in to the boost phase that caused the Hyper-X stack (the vehicle and its booster) to depart from controlled flight. The debris impacted within the pre-cleared range impact area in the Pacific Ocean. Speculation what caused the failure ranges from an aerodynamic flaw with the vehicle to a guidance problem or a system breakdown, and it is also unknown if the Pegasus or X-43 craft caused the incident. There was no damage to property on the ground and there were no injuries and no damage to the carrier aircraft.A ramjet operates by subsonic combustion of fuel in a stream of air compressed by the forward speed of the aircraft itself, as opposed to a jet engine where a compressor section compresses the air. The scramjet is a ramjet engine in which the airflow through the whole engine remains supersonic. The fuel for the X-43A is hydrogen. Unlike a rocket that must carry its own oxygen for combustion, an air-breathing engine scoops oxygen from the atmosphere. Without the need to carry oxygen, an air-breathing engine powered vehicle can carry more payload than a rocket-powered propulsion vehicle. |
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A lot more cosmology in the headlinesObservational cosmology is progressing so quickly these days that several recent publications shall be just listed here briefly - but a few years ago each one of them would have been a sensation ...
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First science observations with the Green Bank TelescopeA remarkable new radar map of Venus is among the first scientific results from the new big radio telescope that opened last year in West Virginia, working jointly with the Arecibo telescope on Puerto Rico (that sent out the radar pulses). These new studies are the first since Magellan to cover large areas of the planet's surface and will provide images showing surface features as small as about 1 km. Venus may be a geologically active planet similar to the Earth, and the new images will be used to look for changes on Venus due to volcanic activity, landslides and other processes that may have modified the surface since the Magellan mission. The radar echoes received by both telescopes also can be combined to form a radar interferometer capable of measuring altitudes over some of the planet's mountainous regions with considerably better detail than was achieved by Magellan. |
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Traces of swallowed planet in star's spectrumThe rare isotope Lithium-6 has been detected by the VLT in the metal-rich, solar-type dwarf star HD 82943 that is also known to possess a planetary system. Unlike the Lithium-7 isotope of this light element, any primordial Lithium-6 would not survive the early evolutionary stages of a metal-rich solar-type star: The Lithium-6 now seen in HD 82943 must therefore have been added later, but from where? The most likely scenario: The star has at some moment engulfed one or more of its planets, whose Lithium-6 was then deposited in the star's atmosphere. This surprising discovery represents important observational evidence that planets may fall into their host stars.Amateur astronomers might be able to "see" an extrasolar planetAmateur astronomers should monitor the variable star IL Aqr = Gliese 876 in order to observe transits by either or both of its recently-discovered Jovian planets (see Update # 215 story 2): From May 16 until early 2002 several time windows will appear in which such transits could be possible. High-precision (CCD or photoelectric photometry) transit observations could improve the information about the radii, mass, density, and orbital elements of both Gliese 876 and its planets and about the limb darkening of the star. It is a red dwarf of spectral class M4V, with a brightness range of 10.15-10.19 V. For the planet Gliese 876b a transit may last as long as 3.53 hours and have an amplitude as much as 0.20 magnitude. For Gliese 876c a transit could last as long as 2.2 hours. And if the planets transit simultaneously, Gliese 876 could be dimmed by as much as 0.45 magnitudes! |
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ISS UpdateThe 1st 'space tourist' has returned from the ISS and is promoting more space tourism (even on the Shuttle). But it is unclear when the next candidate might fly Soyuz (especially since the European Space Agency has now reserved several seats). Meanwhile Atlantis' launch to the ISS had to be delayed first because of wet tiles and then again (until July 2) because of trouble with the Canadarm2.KSC Status of May 30, ISS Status # 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, Energia Reports on the return of the Visiting Crew 1 and the launch of Progress M1-6, an ESA Press Release on the Soyuz seat reservations to the ISS for ESA astronauts and an MSFC Release on commercial experiments on the ISS. Plus coverage of June 5: AFP. June 4: SC. June 1: NYT, SC. May 31: FT, SC, RP, SPIEGEL. May 30: SN, CNN, SC. May 28: FT. May 26: FT. May 25: SC, OS, ST. May 24: SN, FT, ST, CNN, SC. |
May 23:
FT,
SN,
AN,
SC
(
other story),
SR,
Interfax.
May 22:
SC
(
other story),
SD.
May 21:
SR,
ST,
AFP,
SC.
May 20:
HC.
May 18:
FT,
CNN.
May 17:
CNN,
SC
(
other story).
May 16:
SC,
FT.
May 15:
SC,
AP.
May 14:
FT,
Space
News,
RP.
May 13:
SC,
SR.
May 11:
AFP,
SC
(
other story),
BBC,
SR.
May 10:
Reuters,
ST.
May 9:
CNN,
WP,
AFP.
May 8:
AFP,
CNN,
Interfax,
BBC,
SC,
SPIEGEL.
May 7:
AW&ST,
AFP,
AllPolitics,
NYT,
SC,
SPIEGEL.
May 6:
CNN,
BBC,
AN,
AFP,
SC,
SPIEGEL.
May 5:
AFP,
BBC,
SPIEGEL.
May 4:
AW&ST,
CNN,
AN
(other story),
BBC,
SC,
AFP
(other
story and
another one),
RP,
SPIEGEL
(andere
Story).
May 3:
Times of India,
ST,
SC
(
other story and
another one),
BBC
(other
story),
NYT,
WP,
AN,
SC,
AFP,
SPIEGEL.
May 2:
SR,
CNN,
BBC,
AIP FYI,
AN,
FT,
CNNfn,
AFP,
NYT,
RP,
SPIEGEL.
May 1:
Pictures,
BBC,
AN,
MSNBC,
Wired,
SN,
RP.
New, really hot ISS pictures by a young amateur astronomer from Germany working with modest equipment and clever processing are now shown on his Analemma site (scroll down)! |
The bulge of M 33 is too smallThe nearby galaxy M 33 has a much smaller central bulge than astronomers had previously thought, or perhaps no bulge at all - this finding may expand current theories of how spiral galaxies form: OSU Press Release, BBC.OH megamasers yield galactic clues - thanks to an upgrade of the radio telescope at Arecibo, 50 such extragalactic radio beacons have been revealed and could yield major clues in understanding the physics behind the formation of galaxies: Cornell Press Release. World-wide effort produces dramatic "movie" of cosmic jetAstronomers using a world-wide collection of radio telescopes have made a dramatic "movie" of a voracious, superdense neutron star repeatedly spitting out subatomic particles at nearly the speed of light into two narrow jets as it pulls material from a companion star: NRAO Press Release.Accretion disk around b.h. candidate trunctated on the inside: MSFC Release, SC, CNN, WP. Black hole candidates of all sizes seen by Chandra in the Circinus galaxy: MSFC Release. "Nest" of tight binaries in globular clusterThe Chandra X-ray Observatory and identified a surprising bonanza of binary stars, including a large number of rapidly rotating neutron stars, in the globular star cluster 47 Tucanae - the discovery may help explain how one of the oldest structures in our Galaxy evolved over its lifetime: paper by Grindlay & al., Chandra Release, CNN, Astronomy, SPIEGEL. The frequency of binary stars in 47 Tuc: long paper by Albrow & al.ISO observations confirm the unified view of active galaxiesRadio galaxies and quasars are the same phenomenon that only looks different because of our special observation point from the Earth - new results obtained by a German team of astronomers using ESA's Infrared Space Observatory (which is able to see a predicted torus of heated dust around the AGNs), confirm this idea: ESA Science News.All quasars possess obscuring donuts of thick gas and dust, Chandra data indicate, the difference is that some 'normal' quasars are being observed through the top into the donut hole, while the shrouded ones are being seen through the side: Chandra Release, SC. A distant quasar engaged in a gravitational battlewith its neighbouring galaxies has been imaged by the VLT - the structures revealed lend support to the hypothesis that quasar activity is connected to gravitational interaction between galaxies: ESO Press Release.Colliding galaxies provide clues to star formation - by comparing computer simulations of a galaxy collision with actual observations, astronomers have found discrete star-formation episodes that may help explain the prodigious star-formation rates that occurred in the early universe: Univ. of Ill. Press Release. Physics on the fringeA bunch of serious but somewhat to extremely strange physics stories:
Meteorite impact in Jordan?There was a bolide in the sky, and then some trees burned - but no meteorites have been found yet: Times of India, JAS Report.The T-J mass extinction was also quick, not a long protracted episode - evidence for an impact role 200 Myr ago? U. Wash. Press Release [EA, SN], NYT, Seattle Times, Nat. Geogr., SC, SPIEGEL. Observing the explosions of big bolides with microphones - a network listening for cladestine nuclear tests has found an astronomical application: LANL Press Release, CNN, SC, NYT. Trade growing in stolen meteoritesCollectors are willing to pay vast sums of money for the rarest specimens and it seems this has now attracted a criminal element - there were at least two major thefts in the past six months in South Africa and Germany: BBC.Still more Mars, Moon meteorites found in Morocco and Oman: Meteoritical Bull., AP. Mars, Moon globes stolen in London: BBC. Star meteor scientist Rob McNaught spent 24 hours in Germany recently, constantly stalked by his fans: pictures ... 1999 KW4 is another double asteroidas radar observations indicate - the images show separations up to at least 2 km between the components, whose sizes differ by a factor of at least three: special page, JPL Release, IAUC, Astronomy, movies. Double asteroids everywhere: AP.Why doesn't Eros have a magnetic field? The asteroid may contain a large number of tiny, individually-magnetized bodies whose magnetic fields are randomly oriented: SN. Galileo passes Callisto, camera seems to work after glitchesThe Galileo spacecraft has successfully completed a flyby of Jupiter's moon Callisto, closer than any of the spacecraft's 30 previous flybys of Jovian moons - the camera appeared to be working well from the time it was given a command on the 24th to turn off then back on. Status and coverage of May 29: BBC. May 28: BBC. May 25: JPL Release, SC. May 24: Status, SC, Astronomy, Aerosp. Daily. May 23: Status. Previews: JPL Release, ST, SC.Cassini, Galileo untangle mysteries of Jupiter's magnetic field - joint observations by the 2 s/c have revealed new features and explained old mysteries, including an unexpected abundance of high-energy particles bleeding out of one side of the magnetosphere: JPL Release, SN. Jupiter as a crescent as seen from Cassini: PIA 3451. JPL Release. Io color eclipse movie: PIA 3450. Stardust's camera is seeing much clearernow, after repeated heating cycles - the pictures are the best since launch, and stars almost as faint as tenth visual magnitude can be detected: May 18 Status. Genesis passes environmental review, reaches KSC for July 30 launch: NASA Statement, JPL Release.NASA gives go-ahead to build 'Deep Impact' spacecraft - the first mission to ever attempt to impact a comet nucleus has successfully completed its preliminary design phase: Homepage, JPL, NASA Releases, CNN, FT ( earlier), AN, SC, AFP, Astronomy, BBC, SPIEGEL, WELT. Contract for Planck, Herschel satellites to be signedThe largest single European space-science contract ever awarded is about to be signed between Alcatel Space and ESA for the design, construction, launch and in-orbit testing of ESA's Herschel and Planck astronomy satellites of 2007: Space News.Next HST servicing mission slips to 2002 as Columbia's mission is delayed by several months: FT. What was/is planned: FT. Another gyro glitch: SR. INTEGRAL was oversubscribed 19 times - deciding on the winning observing proposals for the gamma satellite was tough: ESA Science News. "Hitch-hiker's Guide" author dead at 49Science fiction buffs around the world are saddened by Douglas Adams' sudden death - just days after an asteroid was named after "Hitch-hiker's" lead character Arthur Dent: Edge, CNN, BBC, ABC, SC, AFP, New Sci., SPIEGEL, ZEIT. |
2nd HST Guide Star Catalog releasedCompleting a seven-year effort at digitizing the entire sky for a second time, astronomers are releasing the Guide Star Catalog II. This new version, which replaces the historic 1989 catalog, provides important information on nearly one-half billion stars - over 20 times as many as the original Guide Star Catalog: STScI Press Release.2dF Galaxy Survey data to be released on June 30, with redshift data and spectra from the first 100,000 galaxies: AAO News Release. Astronomers report galactic baby boomTwo postdocs have found by far the largest group of very distant and highly energetic young galaxies, 150 in a full-moon-sized patch of sky, by using specially designed filters to screen 40,000 objects in a survey for likely candidates for young galaxies: JHU Press Release.Baby globular clusters in a starburst galaxy - observations with the Gemini North Telescope indicate three of the youngest massive star clusters yet detected each are swaddled in huge dust cocoons, providing new clues to the evolution of the early universe: U. of CO Press Release. Neutral atoms discovered in the solar windScientists have confirmed the existence of and imaged "free spirit" atoms - atoms not subject to magnetic forces because they are electrically neutral - in the solar wind for the first time, thanks to the IMAGE satellite. They hope to use the observations to better estimate the arrival time of solar storms and to estimate the amount of dust left over from the solar system's birth: GSFC Press Release [SN], pictures.Aurorae on May 12, due to a coronal hole. The high activity of the Sun in recent months: SF Gate. Impressions from Sun-Earth Day around the world: ESA Science News. Changes in Sun's intensity could be linked to recurrent droughts in Maya region: NSF Press Release. Proplyds are bright radio sources!Researchers using the Australia Telescope have found they can spot the dusty blobs that might be planet systems in the making (the famous "proplyds") - their unexpected radio brightness will help astronomers to hunt more effectively for these elusive objects, and better estimate how many planet-forming systems are out there: CSIRO Press Release.Evidence of an asteroid belt around a nearby star has been found at zeta Leporis (HR 1998) - it is enveloped by swirling dust in quantities and at temperatures that indicate a massive asteroid belt could surround it: UCLA Press Release, NYT, SN, SC. Planet formation may be rare in universe as only about 10 percent of young stars are born in environments shielded from the intense radiation of nearby massive type O and B stars: U. of CO Press Release. Young star 'belches' spheres of gasinstead of the narrow jets one would expect - stellar theoreticians are scratching their heads: NRAO Press Release, Nature Science Update, SC, SPIEGEL, RP.Another star makes a perfect circle, actually a shell of gas expanding into space: BBC. The best hi-res picture of the (former) 'Mars Face'and other releases of recent Mars Global Surveyor pictures: PIA 3225, Science@NASA, BBC, AFP, SC, AP, CNN, SPIEGEL, RP, all new pictures, which include PIA 322... 2, 3, 4 & 6, SPIEGEL.The first trajectory correction of Odyssey could be kept small: Status. Odyssey and the space weather on Mars: Science@NASA. Report recommends quarantine of Mars samples: NRC Release, a briefing, SN, SC, NYT, CNN, SD. Massive water erosion of Mars' highlands? WUStL Press Release, SC. 43 ideas for Mars Scouts were discussed at a meeting: SC. Russian talk about Mars mission unfounded: SC. Recent pictures of Mars by amateurs in a big collection from Japan, many drawings from France, more observations from May 8+9, May 3 and April 30, the Japanese Mars Reports # 7 and 6. The current opposition: Science@NASA, S&T, CNN, SC, BBC. Germany has its 1st Space Program in 20 years8 billion DM to be spent in the next 4 years, future ISS role confirmed: Pressemitteilung (in German), AN, AFP, AP (in English), SPIEGEL, RP (in German).Roger Bonnet's farewell message after 18 years as ESA's science director: ESA Science News. An interview with Bonnet: Space News. Australia signs space launch agreement with Russia - it will enable two separate launch projects to use Russian rockets for launching satellites from Christmas Island and Woomera in centeral Australia: Gov't Press Release, SD, SC, AN. NASA awards $767m in Space Launch Initiative contractsto both large and small companies: NASA, MSFC Press Releases, SLI News, SpaceTransportation.com, list of winners, Space News, NYT, SN, AN, FT, ST, SC.X-40A drop tests end, similar tests with the full-scale X-37 demonstrator set for next year: NASA Release, AN, ST. Is there anyone who wants to be NASA Administrator and replace Dan Goldin? FT. A report card for Goldin: SC. Fire disrupts Russian MilSat operationsRussia's Space Forces temporarily lost contact with four satellites in the early hours of May 10 as fire ravaged a key space control facility: CNN, BBC, AFP, Space News, RP. Contact to satellites slowly regained: AFP. Facility being restored: SC. Full contact reestablished: AFP, SC.The Cluster satellites are increasing their separation, until each spacecraft will have drifted to a distance of 2000 km from its partners, compared to the current figure of 600 km: ESA Science News. Auctions show decline in space memorabilia interestDiminished and sporadic bidding characterized two major space auctions offering 3,211 lots in early May - and the biggest one, a real, flown Soyuz, didn't even find a buyer: SC. But Gagarin's "diary" brought $170,000, and 4 cloth emblems, worn by the late astronaut James Irwin aboard the Apollo 15 moon mission, sold for $358,000: AP, BBC. The Gagarin paper may have been stolen, though: AP."Wieviele Sterne sehen wir noch?"Austria's public asked to measure the darkness of the night sky: Homepage. Astronomers donate telescope to Chilean city for taking care of light pollution: Reuters. Fight against lightpollution near Stellafane successful - prison will try to stay dim: Astronomy. Light pollution especially bad in Utah: SL Tribune. Luxurious planet trail opened in Austria: pictures.A major star party in Germany, the ITV 2001, finally gets good weather: Kowollik and Trittelvitz reports.
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All other historical issues can be found in the Archive.
The U.S. site of this Cosmic Mirror has been visited
since it was issued (the German site has no counter).
Compiled and written by Daniel Fischer
(send me a mail to [email protected]!), Skyweek
