Friday, July 28, 2006

Cassini Finds Lakes on Titan's Arctic Region

Numerous well-defined dark patches resembling lakes are present in radar images of Titan's high latitudes. At Titan's frigid temperatures, about minus 180 degrees Celsius, the liquids in the lakes are most likely methane or a combination of methane and ethane.

"This is a big deal," said Steve Wall, deputy radar team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We've now seen a place other than Earth where lakes are present."

Click here for the full story...

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Titan's Great Lakes

Radar sweeps of Saturn's moon Titan, completed just a few days ago by the Cassini spacecraft, have revealed something extraordinary: fluid-filled lakes. Researchers believe the fluid is not water, but liquid methane, a flammable hydrocarbon. See the radar images at http://spaceweather.com .

Upcoming Meteor Shower

This week, Earth is passing through a meteoroid stream from -- where? Its source is unknown. Every year in late July, the mystery stream produces a mild but pretty meteor shower, the Southern Delta Aquarids. The best time to look is Friday morning, July 28th. These meteors tend to be faint, so dark country skies are recommended.

Friday, July 21, 2006

Solar Eruption

Yesterday (July 19th) on the sun, a magnetic filament snapped. The resulting explosion hurled a CME into space and sent beautiful waves of energy surging through the sun's atmosphere. Although the CME is not heading directly for Earth, the outskirts of the cloud might brush against Earth's magnetic field on July 23rd, causing a mild geomagnetic storm.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Binocular Discounts

Binoculars.com have some great deals on astronomy binoculars at the moment with discounts ranging from 20%-45%. Of particluar note is the Nikon 20x120 Bino-Telescope which has a 45% discount.

Other highly discounted models are:



Other lower discounted models (20% discount) are also available. Might be a good time to pick up a pair!

The Apollo Chronicles

The fourth installment of Science@NASA's Apollo Chronicles explains why Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin couldn't fall asleep 37 years ago in the Sea of Tranquillity.


Full story here

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

LunarPhase Pro Version 3 Released

Version 3 of the LunarPhase Pro Moon Observer`s Software toolkit has been released. New functions have been added, including the ability to see lunar features from overhead, an inbuilt news screen that lists all the latest news stories about the moon along with moon-related podcasts and facilities to download hundreds of highly detailed Moon charts that can be panned zoomed and printed out.

LunarPhase Pro continues to evolve based on user suggestions and is the most comprehensive tool available for predicting lunar phenomena as well as coming with an interactive Moon atlas and database of over 9,000 lunar features.

Jupiter Red Spot #2 Update

The two biggest storms on Jupiter have been converging for months, and this week they're at closest approach. So far, Red Junior and the Great Red Spot are surviving the encounter with little disruption or weakening of either storm system.

See the latest images at http://spaceweather.com

GENESIS I Inflatable Satellite

An inflatable satellite? Believe it. Genesis I, launched last week by Russia for a private aerospace firm, blew up like a balloon when it reached Earth orbit on July 12th. The mission tests an unorthodox idea, that inflatable modules might be used to build future space stations. So far so good. Although it's not the brightest object in the night sky, Genesis I can be seen making regular passes over the United States and Europe. A picture of such a flyby is displayed on today's edition of SpaceWeather.com. If you would like to see the satellite yourself, sign up for Space Weather PHONE (http://spaceweatherphone.com). Subscribers will receive email and phone alerts when Genesis is about to make a bright evening flyby over their hometown.