07 - Mercury
at inferior conjunction with the Sun
at 15h UT.
0000Mercury
passes into the morning sky (not visible).
08 - Moon
near Mars at 1h UT (evening sky). Mag.
+1.5.
19 - Venus
at superior conjunction with the Sun
at 4h UT.
0000Passes
into the evening sky (not visible).
19 - Moon
near Saturn at 7h UT (evening sky).
Mag. +0.7.
18 - Full Moon at 17:30 UT.
20 - Moon near Jupiter at 14h
UT (morning sky). Mag. -2.7. Jupiter displays
the
0000largest
and most detailed planetary disk of all the
planets. Even a small telescope
0000will
reveal Jupiter's cloud bands and its four largest
moons known as the Galilean
0000moons
(discovered by Galileo in 1610). Jupiter has
a total of 63 moons.
20 - Pluto at opposition at
16h UT. Mag. 14. Requires at least a 10-inch
telescope and
0000a
very dark sky to view.
20 - June solstice at 23:59
UT. The time when the Sun reaches the point
farthest north
0000of
the celestial equator marking the start of summer
in the Northern Hemisphere
000
and winter in the Southern Hemisphere.
00 0 0
0 0 0//
Get the complete calendar version
at skymaps.com
7 -
The
Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut
- On February 1, 1978, the first group of space shuttle
astronauts, twenty-nine men and six women, were introduced
to the world. Among them would be history makers, including
the first American woman and the first African American
in space. This assembly of astronauts would carry NASA
through the most tumultuous years of the space shuttle
program. Four would die on Challenger. Mullane vividly
portrays every aspect of the astronaut experience --
from telling a female technician which urine-collection
condom size is a fit; to walking along a Florida beach
in a last, tearful goodbye with a spouse; to a wild,
intoxicating, terrifying ride into space; to hearing
"Taps" played over a friend's grave. Mullane is brutally
honest in his criticism of a NASA leadership whose bungling
would precipitate the Challenger disaster.
Monday, January 24, 2005
Methane Rainfalls on the Super-cold Titan
When it rains on Earth, it pours water, but on Titan, it pours liquid methane...liquid natural gas. At least that's the resulting data collected by Huygens probe, a little spacecraft that plunged into the smog-shrouded moon from its Saturn orbitting mothership, Cassini spacecraft last week. A press confrence held by ESA Huygens teams verified the previous theory on the existance of liquid hydrocarbons or methane in large quantity on the orange-tinted moon. The pictures released by ESA indicated that there's a liquid pool-like region nearby the Huygens landing site. Also, it's depicting a liquid flowing region or channel that spills into a vast dark region, probably a riverbed with some sort of liquidity on it. It's said by one of the team member that there was methane rain two days before Huygens touched down at the landing site. It's from analysis of the instrument attached to the bottom of the lander that analyze the structure of solid surface, the liquid methane was just percipated down to the surface and a few inches away from the lander. Wow the lander was a bit late to grasp the moment.
Well, It's quite fascinating to see this facts. More data and pictures from ESA are highly anticipated for sure by Space anthusiasts. I think the unveiling secrets of Titan is getting more exciting to watch in the coming days. I do hope there will be a future lander mission, like Spirit and Opportunity rovers that's still roaming the surface of Mars, on this alien world.
Finally, after 8 years planning plus 7 years journey of 2 billions km, Huygens probe designed by European Space Agency descended flawlessly to Titan surface. First images of Titan have been sent back by the Cassini mothership. The pictures are stunning, breathtaking, unbelievable experience to look at this alien world. The first three pictures published on ESA website shows a very interesting and alluring landscape. Drainage channels was seen there, cut by a dark region, possibly by an ocean. The proof on the existance of seas of liquid methane on Titan becames stronger although it needs few days by the science teams to conclude it because it requires more pictures and data from 5 other science instruments on board of Huygens to analyze this. The Huygens probe released from its mothership, Cassini, on December 25 and took 20 days for the piggy-backed lander to reach the surface. The Huygens had to penetrate the Titan's murky atmoshphere, one and half thicker than Earth's atmoshphere. Three parachutes was used to slow down the descent speed and jettisoned on different altitude. At first, scientist did not know what kind of surface the probe will land on. It is because the science team cannot determine it from the space and Earth-based telescope. The thickness of atmoshphere that enveloped the hazy moon has hindered them. But now after one picture beamed back by the spacecraft, it clearly shows it landed on a solid surface not on methane ocean. This prolonged short life of the probe after landing. The probe transmitted scientific data for 5 hours after landing, 3 hours more than the science team thought, until the signal received by Cassini faded away and died. Well, I just want to congratulate to the Huygens team and all of the Cassini-Huygens mission teams. I respect their brilliant work. It will open up a new horizon of our understanding on where we are living in now. Hopefully, any upcoming space missions will follow their predecessors, like Cassini-Huygens mission.
The
Oort cloud, is a postulated spherical cloud
of comets situated about 50,000 to 100,000 AU from
the Sun. This is approximately 1000 times the distance
from the Sun to Pluto or roughly one light year, almost
a quarter of the distance from the Sun to Proxima
Centauri, the star nearest the Sun. The Oort cloud
would have its inner disk at the ecliptic from the
Kuiper belt. Although no direct observations have
been made of such a cloud, it is believed to be the
source of most or all comets entering the inner solar
system (some short-period comets may come from the
Kuiper belt), based on observations of the orbits
of comets. Source: Wikipedia
Finally, after 8 years planning plus 7 years journey of 2 billions km, Huygens probe designed by European Space Agency descended flawlessly to Titan surface. First images of Titan have been sent back by the Cassini mothership. The pictures are stunning, breathtaking, unbelievable experience to look at this alien world. The first three pictures published on ESA website shows a very interesting and alluring landscape. Drainage channels was seen there, cut by a dark region, possibly by an ocean. The proof on the existance of seas of liquid methane on Titan becames stronger although it needs few days by the science teams to conclude it because it requires more pictures and data from 5 other science instruments on board of Huygens to analyze this. The Huygens probe released from its mothership, Cassini, on December 25 and took 20 days for the piggy-backed lander to reach the surface. The Huygens had to penetrate the Titan's murky atmoshphere, one and half thicker than Earth's atmoshphere. Three parachutes was used to slow down the descent speed and jettisoned on different altitude. At first, scientist did not know what kind of surface the probe will land on. It is because the science team cannot determine it from the space and Earth-based telescope. The thickness of atmoshphere that enveloped the hazy moon has hindered them. But now after one picture beamed back by the spacecraft, it clearly shows it landed on a solid surface not on methane ocean. This prolonged short life of the probe after landing. The probe transmitted scientific data for 5 hours after landing, 3 hours more than the science team thought, until the signal received by Cassini faded away and died. Well, I just want to congratulate to the Huygens team and all of the Cassini-Huygens mission teams. I respect their brilliant work. It will open up a new horizon of our understanding on where we are living in now. Hopefully, any upcoming space missions will follow their predecessors, like Cassini-Huygens mission.
