Harimedia Forum

• History: Explosion of a Star and a Myth


- An exploding star. To the sixteenth century mind this was as absurd as a flying elephant. It just did not happen. It was contrary to the order of nature according to which stars belong to the ". . . ethereal region of the celestial world which is free from change or corruption." The stars were symbols of the eternal and unchangeable, part of a system of permanence standing above the ever-changing, ever-corruptible world below.

Then, in November 1572, a star brighter than the planet Venus appeared suddenly in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It was noticed throughout Europe and in the Far East. The New Star or Nova of 1572 would shatter forever man's belief in the incorruptibility of the stars. The man most responsible for this rearrangement of the cosmic landscape was Tycho de Brahe, a stormy, roisterous astronomer known for his acid tongue and silver nose. Tycho, who wore a prosthetic silver nose to replace the one he had lost in a duel at age twenty, made accurate measurements of the position of the star relative to the other stars in Cassiopeia.

For 18 months, though the brightness of the star declined steadily until it became invisible, its position remained fixed. This proved that the new star, or Stella Nova, belonged to the "eighth sphere" of the fixed stars. Today, more than 400 years later, we use the word supernova to describe Tycho's object, even though we now know that it was not a new star at all. It had been there for tens of millions of years or more, invisible to the naked eye because of its distance of more than 6000 light years. It became visible at the end rather than the beginning of its evolution, as it underwent a catastrophic explosion. Continued...

From the book by the astrophysicist Dr. Wallace H. Tucker called "The Star Splitters" wich one can read online.

Nasa.gov/education

Why Do We Explore Space?
NASA Space Exploration.


"Why should mankind explore space? Why should money, time and effort be spent exploring, investigating and researching something with so few benefits? Why should resources be spent on space rather than on conditions and people on Earth, or in our own country. Perhaps the best answer lies in our genetic makeup. What drove our distant ancestors to move from the trees into the plains? Was it the lack of skills to compete in one ecological niche? If so, the adaptations selected for after the move have resulted in a species expanding into all possible areas and environments. The drive to spread genetic material and ensure the success of not just the species, but of one type of genetic material.

The wider the distribution of a species, the better the chance of survival. Perhaps the best reason for exploring space is the built in genetic predisposition to expand into all possible niches. Culturally nearly every successful civilization has been willing to explore. In exploring, dangers of surrounding areas may be learned and prepared for. Dangers may be political enemies in neighboring cultures, physical features of the area, a change in the area which might effect food supplies or any other number of factors. All pose a real danger and all may be made less dangerous if certain preparations are made. Without knowledge, the danger may strike and completely destroy. With knowledge, the effects or consequences may be lessened.

Exploration also allows resources to be located. Resources translate into power and success at survival. Whether the success be financial, political or genetic additional resources are always a boon when used wisely. In any of the three manners, use of resources allows a heightened percentage for survival. If the resources have no immediate need, then perhaps later the resources will be used. Resources may be more than physical assets. Knowledge or techniques acquired in exploring or preparing to explore always filter from the developers to the general populace. Techniques may be medical applications, uses for drugs or ways of living to increase the quantity of time lived or the quality of that time. Techniques may be social, allowing the people in a society to better understand those within or outside the culture. Better understanding may lead to better use of resources or a lessening of outright competition for the resources.

While many resources are spent on what seems a small return, the exploration of space allows the creative, the brave, the intelligence of our species to focus on what may serve to save us. While space may hold many wonders and explanations of how the universe was formed or how it works, it also holds dangers. The chance of a large asteroid or comet hitting the earth is small. But given time, it will happen. Several current models of evolution propose many changes in a very short time period. Some explanations for the drastic speed of extinction and evolution include strikes by asteroids or comets. Human technology is reaching the point where it might be able to detect such a threat and allow us to do something about it. The danger exist, knowledge can allow us as a species to survive. Without the ability to reach out across space, the chance to save ourselves might not exist.

While Earth is the only planet known to sustain life, surely the adaptive ability of humans would allow other planets and moons to become inhabited. True the life style would be different, but human life and cultures have adapted in the past and surely could in the future. Our genetic makeup will allow humans to move into unoccupied niches and flourish. The culture group holding the high ground, in this case space, has attained a great advantage over other groups. It can see farther, act sooner and be safer from attack. In space all of these things are true. The culture which expands is like and organism which adapts. It may be found everywhere. If one group is eliminated, the species as a whole survives. The old adage, do not put all your eggs in one basket hold true for humans and cultures. The more a culture expands, the less chance of it becoming extinct. Space allows us to expand and succeed." MORE »

Copied to this forum by me just as a source of information nothing more. More Web links


• What's Visible from Space? (more)

SPACE.com

JWS Tele: Diving Deep into the Universe
By Leonard David, Senior Space Writer


• Astronomy: Hubble's successor takes shape

- A model of the James Webb Space Telescope by Northrop Grumman/Ball Aerospace team. Using technology similar to that of night vision goggles, this telescope will study infrared emissions from the first objects created in the Universe. The Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) will look back to an extremely important period in the early history of the universe -- a time when the first stars and galaxies began to form -- and a point in cosmological history that could be called "the Dark Age".


Boulder, Colorado -- Eye-catching is the watchword for the folks building the James Webb Space Telescope - a 21st century high-tech space observatory that pledges to down shift the Hubble Space Telescope into humble mode. Astronomers tend to look toward the future more than most other scientists. It's why they were planning the Galileo spacecraft's journey to Jupiter even before the twin Voyagers had lifted off the launch pad. It's why initial plans for the Spitzer Space Telescope were being made before its predecessor, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, had started to reveal the unique discoveries that could be made through observations of infrared radiation. And it is why astronomers are drooling over the possibilities of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) even while Hubble continues to dazzle.

This is NASA's promissory note to the future: The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will push the cosmological envelope, letting astronomers delve deeper and further back in time to better understand the origins of the Universe. Work is underway at Northrop Grumman Space Technology, primary contractor for the JWST. This spaceborne wonder is slated to utilize a lightweight, light-gobbling mirror much larger in size contrasted to Hubble. Photons gathered by JWST will be fed to instruments that are exceptionally sensitive to infrared wavelengths. Peering deeper into the Universe than Hubble, the increased light-collecting power of JWST should unveil an important but previously unobserved epoch of galaxy formation. It will stare through dust to witness the birth of stars and planetary systems similar to our own. In putting JWST to work, scientists hope to shed light on such intriguing questions as dark matter - that mysterious, non-luminous matter, whose existence is suggested because of the effects of its gravity on the rotation rate of galaxies and the presence of clusters of galaxies.


high res.

Physorg: The J.W.Space Telescope model is flying to Germany - www.northropgrumman.com ( more) JWS Telescope


To see into the depths of space, plans call for the JWST to carry a near-infrared camera, a multi-object spectrometer and a mid-infrared camera/spectrometer. JWST is also outfitted with a huge shield that blocks the light from the Sun, Earth, and Moon. Rays of light streaming in from these objects would heat up the telescope and interfere with delicate observations. The shield cools the observatory to very low temperatures without the use of complex refrigeration equipment. Unlike Hubble's close-in, Earth-orbiting address, JWST's working location is 940,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) out in space - stationed at what's called the Lagrange Point 2, or L2 for short.

It is in this locale where the spacecraft is fully deployed, fully ready for action (in 2013), and balanced between the gravity of the Sun and the Earth. That balance of gravitational pull at the L2 point means that JWST will keep up with the Earth as it goes around the Sun. At that distance -- again unlike Hubble -- astronauts couldn't service the telescope because it would be too far away from human or tele-robotic touch, according to present plans. here is no doubt that the JWST is billed as one powerful astronomical tool. But given a now-projected liftoff of 2010 for the super-telescope, there's also much work to be done. Continued...





Related images and more information at:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/wat ... wired.html
http://www-05.ibm.com/it/ideasfromibm/nasa
http://jwst.gsfc.nasa.gov (more...)

James Webb Telescope Mirrors Chill Out at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
- The first of 18 mirror segments that will fly on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope arrived this week at the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. to prepare it to meet the extreme temperatures it will encounter in space. MORE »

MPR.org

When all life ends, will we see it coming?
by Bob Collins, Minnesota Public Radio


• Space.com: All about the Universe


Next to trying to understand the pivotal scene in Trading Places, few things inspire more headaches than conversations about space and time. And yet, we try because we are, by nature, explorers, they tell us. MPR's Midmorning today invited us to explore such things in a fascinating interview with Heidi Hammel, a senior research scientist at the Space Science Institute. She is helping to build the James Webb Space Telescope scheduled to launch in 2013.

Its purpose, like the Hubble, is to look at distant galaxies, which, because it takes so long for light to reach us, is looking back in time. Among her more interesting observations was that the universe is expanding so fast, that we will soon -- and for purposes of these sorts of high falutin' discussions "soon" can mean within a billion years, give or take -- lose the ability to look back at the beginning of it all -- the time at which time started. MORE
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Related Article:

• Cosmos Mag: Massive Hubble successor unveiled (more)

- "The James Webb Space Telescope is a 21st century space observatory that will peer back more than 13 billion years in time (It is approximated that the universe began 13.7 billion years ago) to understand the formation of galaxies, stars and planets and the evolution of our own solar system. By extending our knowledge of the cosmos, the Webb telescope will play an important role in our quest to answer the compelling questions “How did we get here?” and “Are we alone?” It is expected to launch in 2013. The telescope is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency." (more)


Cosmos Magazine: Supernovae shed light on dark energy
- That mysterious force called dark energy is not a new constituent of space, but was pushing the early universe apart, evidence from nine billion-year-old supernovae has revealed. "We think this is a significant clue in the quest to understand what is probably one of the most, if not the most, pressing questions in physics," said astrophysicist Adam Riess of Johns Hopkins University and the U.S. space agency NASA's Space Telescope Institute in Maryland. Scientists still do not understand dark energy - which appears to be everywhere, pushing the universe apart with its repulsive power. But these new findings, published in the Astrophysical Journal, might have set them on the right track. MORE »
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On the Net:
The Planetary Society: www.planetary.org
About Hubble Telescope: Space.com/hubble

The Hubble Space Telescope versus New James Webb Space Telescope


• NASA: Images • Articles

- Full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope with some of the people who have been working on it at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight
Center in Maryland. Credit: Goddard Space Flight Center/NASA. • Hubble Space Telescope vs. New James Webb Space Telescope


Related articles:

• BBC News: Nasa unveils Hubble's successor
- Hubble, launched in 1990, has sent back pictures of our solar system, distant stars, and remote fledgling galaxies formed not long after the
Big Bang. But scientists say the JWST will enable them to look deeper into space and even further back at the origins of the Universe. "Clearly
we need a much bigger telescope to go back much further in time to see the very birth of the Universe," said Edward Weiler, director of
Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre.

• Technology Review: Giant Mirror for a New Space Telescope
- Engineers have developed a new lighter, cheaper mirror to sit aboard the Hubble's successor, enabling scientists to peer deep into the universe.


• The "Hubble Ultra Deep Field", Hubble's deepest look into the Universe.
The HUDF field (photographed in March, 2004) contains an estimated 10,000 galaxies. MORE »

Space.com

Physicists Say Big Bang was 'Nothing Special'
By SPACE.com Staff


• The Big Bang Theory


At all began with the Big Bang, scientists have been telling us for years. And so that expansive beginning of the universe must have been very special, one would assume.

Not so, according to two physicists at the University of Chicago. "We like to say that the big bang is nothing special in the history of our universe," said Sean Carroll, an Assistant Professor in Physics at the University of Chicago. The big bang could be a normal event in the natural evolution of the universe that will happen repeatedly over incredibly vast time scales as the universe expands, empties out and cools off, say Carroll and graduate student Jennifer Chen. The duo wondered why time flows in only one direction, and whether the Big Bang -- a theory that has not been proven -- arose from an energy fluctuation in empty space that conforms to the known laws of physics.

Other researchers have long suggested that the universe is cyclic, and that the Big Bang was the beginning of our universe as we know it, but not the beginning of the larger Universe that encompasses everything, including that which we can never see because it's beyond our cosmic bubble. The question about the arrow of time has vexed physicists for a century because "for the most part the fundamental laws of physics don't distinguish between past and future. They're time-symmetric," Carroll says. Time is closely related to the concept of entropy, a measure of disorder in the universe. Entropy naturally increases with time, physicist Ludwig Boltzmann suggested a century ago.

As Carroll puts it: "You can turn an egg into an omelet, but not an omelet into an egg." But the mystery remains as to why entropy was low in the universe to begin with. The difficulty of that question has long bothered scientists, who most often simply leave it as a puzzle to answer in the future. Previous researchers have approached whole shebang the assumption that entropy in the universe is finite. Carroll and Chen take the opposite approach. "We're postulating that the entropy of the universe is infinite," Chen said in a statement issued yesterday. "It could always increase." To successfully explain why the universe looks as it does today, both approaches must accommodate a process called inflation, which is an extension of the Big Bang theory. According to inflation, the universe underwent a period of very rapid and massive expansion in a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. But there's a problem with that scenario.

To begin inflation, the universe would have encompassed a microscopically tiny patch in an extremely unlikely configuration, not what scientists would expect from a randomly chosen initial condition. Carroll and Chen argue that a generic initial condition is actually likely to resemble cold, empty space -- not an obviously favorable starting point for the onset of inflation. In a universe of finite entropy, some scientists have proposed that a random fluctuation could trigger inflation. This, however, would require the molecules of the universe to fluctuate from a high-entropy state into one of low entropy-a statistical longshot. "The conditions necessary for inflation are not that easy to start," Carroll said. "There's an argument that it's easier just to have our universe appear from a random fluctuation than to have inflation begin from a random fluctuation."

Carroll and Chen's scenario of infinite entropy is inspired by a finding in 1998 that the universe will expand forever because of a mysterious force scientists have come to call "dark energy." Under these conditions, the natural configuration of the universe is one that is almost empty. "In our current universe, the entropy is growing and the universe is expanding and becoming emptier," Carroll said. But even empty space has faint traces of energy that fluctuate on the subatomic scale. As suggested previously by Jaume Garriga of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and Alexander Vilenkin of Tufts University, these flucuations can generate their own big bangs in tiny areas of the universe, widely separated in time and space.

Carroll and Chen extend this idea in dramatic fashion, suggesting that inflation could start "in reverse" in the distant past of our universe, so that time could appear to run backwards (from our perspective) to observers far in our past. Regardless of the direction they run in, the new universes created in these big bangs will continue the process of increasing entropy. In this never-ending cycle, the universe never achieves equilibrium. If it did achieve equilibrium, nothing would ever happen. There would be no arrow of time. "There's no state you can go to that is maximal entropy. You can always increase the entropy more by creating a new universe and allowing it to expand and cool off," Carroll explained.

• Space: Big Bang related articles
• AP: Space Telescope May Bring View of Early Universe
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• Photos: Buzz Aldrin

- On November 11, 1966, Buzz Aldrin and command pilot James Lovell were launched into space in the Gemini 12 spacecraft on a four-day flight, ending the successful Gemini program. Aldrin established a new record for extravehicular activity (EVA), spending a total of 5-1/2 hours outside the spacecraft. His two-hour spacewalk on the flight was the longest and most successful spacewalk ever done to that time. (more)

What Neil Armstrong & Buzz Left on the Moon


(High res. photo) • Livescience: Video from the Moon

- Laser Ranging Retroreflector arrays like this one were deployed on the Moon by astronauts from Apollo 11, Apollo 14, and Apollo 15. Modern versions of these instruments may be standard on the nodes of the International Lunar Network. Lunar mirrors require no power source. They haven't been covered with moondust or pelted by meteoroids, as early Apollo planners feared. Lunar ranging should continue for decades, perhaps for centuries. MORE »



• Global Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) and Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR) Tracking Stations


- A cutting-edge science experiment left behind in the Sea of Tranquility by Apollo 11 astronauts is still running today. In this way, for decades, researchers have carefully traced the moon's orbit, and they've learned some remarkable things, among them:

(1) The moon is spiraling away from Earth at a rate of 3.8 cm per year. Why? Earth's ocean tides are responsible.
(2) The moon probably has a liquid core.
(3) The universal force of gravity is very stable. Newton's gravitational constant G has changed less than 1 part in 100-billion since the laser experiments began.

Physicists have also used the laser results to check Einstein's theory of gravity, the general theory of relativity. So far, so good: Einstein's equations predict the shape of the moon's orbit as well as laser ranging can measure it. But Einstein, constantly tested, isn't out of the woods yet. Some physicists believe his general theory of relativity is flawed. If there is a flaw, lunar laser ranging might yet find it. MORE »

Related Information:


• Experiment Operations During Apollo EVAs (more)


• Fundamental Physics in Space: Lunar Laser Ranging - (JPL)
• APOLLO facility - (UCSD) information about the new lunar laser ranging facility, from Tom Murphy
• McDonald Laser Ranging Station - home page for the lunar laser ranging operation at McDonald Observatory
• Lunar retroreflectors - (UCSD) information about retroreflector mirrors on the Moon's surface.
• Excerpts from the Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal describe Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's deployment of the lunar retroreflector array.
• Professor Carroll O. Alley - (Uni. of Maryland) During the Apollo years. Prof. Alley led the lunar Laser Ranging Retroreflector project.
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On the Net:

• Mcdonaldobservatory.org/news (more)


• Science Headline News: Science.nasa.gov
• Wikipedia: Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment
• Lunar and Planetary Institute: www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar
• Station de Télémétrie Laser-Lune: wwwrc.obs-azur.fr (more)
• Mc Donald Observatory: Mcdonaldobservatory.org - http://www.csr.utexas.edu/mlrs (more)

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news135.html


http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002 ... object.htm

- Attached to the Saturn IV-B stage, the Lunar Module Adapter's four panels are retracted to the fully open position. This is where the Lunar Module (LM) is stored during launch. On missions requiring the use of a LM, the four panels would be retracted and jettisoned before rendezvous and docking. This photo was taken during the Apollo 7 mission, when no Lunar Module was carried. The SIV-B stage flew as the second stage on a Saturn IB rocket. It is also used as the third stage on the Saturn V. The Apollo 7 mission was designed to test the Apollo Command and Service Module spacecraft systems specifically. Apollo 9 was the first mission to fly the Lunar Module. (more)

On the Net:
Rocks and Soils from the Moon: Curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar (more)
Apollo Mission Links: Intercosmos.iespana.es/reportajes/luna_evidencia.htm

APOLLO LASER RANGING EXPERIMENTS YIELD RESULTS

• Photos: From the Moon

- Buzz Aldrin, born Edwin Eugene Aldin Jr., was the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned mission to land on the moon.


• Retroreflector arrays on the Moon (more)

- Scientists who analyze data from the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment have reported some watershed results from these long-term experiments, begun 25 years ago when the Apollo 11 astronauts deployed a reflector array in the Sea of Tranquillity. "Using the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment, we have been able to improve, by orders of magnitude, measurements of the Moon's rotation," said Jet Propulsion Laboratory team investigator Dr. Jean Dickey. "We also have strong evidence that the Moon has a liquid core, and laser ranging has allowed us to determine with great accuracy the rate at which the Moon is gradually receding from the Earth."

The first laser ranging retroreflector was positioned on the Moon in 1969 by the Apollo 11 astronauts. By beaming laser pulses at the reflector from Earth, scientists have been able to determine their round-trip travel time that gives the distance between the two bodies at any time to an accuracy of about 3 centimeters. The laser reflector consists of 100 fused silica half-cubes, called corner cubes, mounted in a 46-centimeter square aluminum panel. Each corner cube is 3.8 centimeters in diameter. Corner cubes reflect a beam of light directly back toward the point of origin. "Lunar ranging involves sending a laser beam through an optical telescope," Dickey said. "The beam enters the telescope where the eye piece would be, and the transmitted beam is expanded to become the diameter of the main mirror, then bounced off the surface toward the reflector on the Moon."

The reflectors are too small to be seen from Earth, so even when the beam is precisely aligned in the telescope, actually hitting a lunar retroreflector array is technically challenging. At the Moon's surface the beam is roughly four miles wide. Scientists liken the task of aiming the beam to using a rifle to hit a moving dime two miles away. Once the laser beam hits a reflector, scientists at the ranging observatories use extremely sensitive filtering and amplification equipment to detect the return signal, which is far too weak to be seen with the human eye. Even under good atmospheric viewing conditions, only one photon is received every few seconds. From the ranging experiments, scientists know that the average distance between the centers of the Earth and the Moon is 385,000 kilometers with an accuracy of better than one part in 10 billion. Laser ranging has also made possible a wealth of new information about the dynamics and structure of the Moon. MORE


• Apollo 14 Mission

Lunar Dust Detector - Prior to the Apollo landings, it was thought that there would be a heavy dust layer deposited on the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) during lunar module ascent and possibly from other long-term sources. This experiment was designed to measure this dust layer deposition and was performed on Apollo 11, 12, 14, and 15. It was housed in the ALSEP central station and measured the power output from a set of solar cells. The dust accumulation proved to be much lower than expected, and the results from this experiment were also used to monitor the long-term degradation of solar cells from radiation and thermal effects. This was considered to be an engineering rather than a scientific experiment. MORE »


» Related Online Resources

The Apollo 15 spacecraft on its way to the Moon, photographed by a passing satellite. Photo Credit NASA


• Photos / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10
From Moon: "God bless you. Good night from Apollo 11." / All Apollo 11 Photos • www.raumfahrer.net

On July 23, the three astronauts made a television broadcast on the last night before splashdown. Collins commented, "...The Saturn V rocket which put us in orbit is an incredibly complicated piece of machinery, every piece of which worked flawlessly...We have always had confidence that this equipment will work properly. All this is possible only through the blood, sweat, and tears of a number of a people...All you see is the three of us, but beneath the surface are thousands and thousands of others, and to all of those, I would like to say, 'Thank you very much.'" Aldrin said, "...This has been far more than three men on a mission to the Moon; more, still, than the efforts of a government and industry team; more, even, than the efforts of one nation. We feel that this stands as a symbol of the insatiable curiosity of all mankind to explore the unknown...Personally, in reflecting on the events of the past several days, a verse from Psalms comes to mind. 'When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the Moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man that Thou art mindful of him?'" Armstrong concluded. MORE »


• Photo

The astronauts had left behind scientific instruments such as a retroreflector array used for the Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment. They also left an American flag and a plaque (mounted on the LM Descent Stage ladder) bearing two drawings of Earth (of the Western and Eastern Hemispheres), an inscription, and signatures of the astronauts and Richard Nixon. The inscription read: 'Here Men From The Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We Came in Peace For All Mankind.' MORE »
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On the Net:



The Apollo Lunar Module: www.sln.org/schutte
Apollo Missions: www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions
The Lunar Rover: www.juliantrubin.com/lunar_lander
NASA Images Archive: www.nasaimages.org/luna » nasa-statistik.de
NOAA In Space Collection, Catalog of Images: www.photolib.noaa.gov

» NASA History: The First Lunar Landing


» The Lunar landing sites


Planetary Society: Projects: International Lunar Decade - The International Lunar Network: Exploring the Moon, Together
- The venture, known as the "International Lunar Network," or ILN for short, seeks to place between 4 and 8 such bases at selected locations on the Moon in the next decade. Each of the nodes will be launched and operated by different national space agencies, but all will work together as a unified monitoring network. According to Jim Green, director of NASA's Division of Planetary Science, this model of international cooperation could then serve as a template for a similar venture on Mars. MORE »




- Engineers working in the Launch Control Center preparing for the launch of Apollo 11, July 16, 1969


Planetary Society: This is an extraordinary time for lunar exploration. India, has just launched its first mission to the Moon, and lunar missions are in development in China, Japan, and the United States. Italy and Europe recently completed the successful SMART-1 mission. With so many nations, and perhaps private groups, focused on going to the Moon, The Planetary Society has proposed an International Lunar Decade to help coordinate these disparate efforts and to share the results with the world.

The International Lunar Decade commenced in 2007 with the launches of Japan's Kaguya mission (formerly known as SELENE) and China's Chang'E, and continued with the launch of India's Chandrayaan-1 in 2008. It will end when humans return to the Moon -- by 2018, we hope, but at least by 2020. MORE »
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On the Net:
Planetary Society, Space Exploration News: http://planetary.org

Planetary.org

Discovery of Extrasolar Planets


• Sciencenews.org • Fomalhaut b: Papers, Graphics, and Animations (Science Links)

- After eight years and repeated photographs of a nearby star in hopes of finding planets, University of California, Berkeley, astronomer Paul Kalas finally has his prize: the first visible-light snapshots of a planet outside our solar system. (more)


Humans are a planetary race. All of human history took place upon our home planet, and all of human knowledge - religious, philosophical and scientific alike - has been based on our experiences on Earth. Since the dawn of human consciousness, our planet had encompassed the limits of our universe, the boundary of all that we could ever hope to know or have. But is our world unique? Is it the only one in existence, or are there others – perhaps many others – out there? Do other beings – maybe even intelligent ones – call these worlds their home, and live out their lives completely unbeknownst to us?

The questions have been asked repeatedly and persistently through the centuries, but apart from philosophical speculation, no answer was forthcoming. Then, in 1995, something changed: A group of astronomers headed by Michel Mayor of the Geneva Observatory announced that they had detected a planet orbiting the star 51 Pegasi. For the first time in history, scientists had discovered a new world in the wide expanses of space.

Suddenly, the question "are there other worlds out there?" was transformed from a topic for philosophical speculation, to the subject of intense scientific study. The planet around 51 Pegasi turned out to be a Gas Giant, much like our own neighbor, Jupiter. Indeed most of the "extrasolar" planets discovered since 1995 have been Gas Giants, for the simple reason that the more massive a planet is, the easier it is to detect. Gradually, however, astronomers have found smaller and smaller planets, including icy "Neptunes" and even, possibly, terrestrial-sized planets. Slowly but surely astronomers are closing in on the holy grail of extrasolar planet research: the discovery of another Earth orbiting a distant star.


» Demotemplate.camp26.com

- As of 11 November 2006, 209 extrasolar planets have been discovered. Known exoplanets are members of planetary systems that orbit a star. There have also been unconfirmed reports of free-floating planetary-mass objects (that is, ones that do not orbit any star). For centuries, extrasolar planets were a subject of speculation. Astronomers generally supposed that some existed, but it was a mystery how common they were and how similar they were to the planets of the Solar System. The first confirmed detections were finally made in the 1990s. Since 2002, more than twenty have been discovered every year. It is now estimated that at least 10% of sunlike stars have planets, and the true proportion may be much higher. The discovery of extrasolar planets raises the question of whether some might support extraterrestrial life.. (more)


» ESO finds 8 new exoplanets

- Discoveries of planets around other stars are becoming almost routine. The latest success comes from the ace team of planet-hunters at the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland, who claim to have found no less than eight new, very low mass companions to solar-type stars. The masses of these objects appear to range from less than that of Saturn to about 15 times that of Jupiter. MORE »

• Hubble News Extrasolar Planets: http://hubblesite.org
• Extrasolar Planets News: www.planetary.org/extrasolar_planets • Physorg.com
• Planetary News: Extrasolar Planets (2008) Scientists Lay Eyes on Distant Planets • More science links

ESO

Europe Unveils 20-Year Plan for Brilliant Future in Astronomy
By ESO, 25 November 2008


• Video: A Recap of Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-126 Mission


Astronomy is enjoying a golden age of fundamental, exciting discoveries. Europe is at the forefront, thanks to 50 years of progress in cooperation. To remain ahead over the next two to three decades, Europe must prioritise and coordinate the investment of its financial and human resources even more closely. The ASTRONET network, backed by the entire European scientific community, supported by the European Commission, and coordinated by the CNRS, today presents its Roadmap for a brilliant future for European astronomy. ESO's European Extremely Large Telescope is ranked as one of two top-priority large ground-based projects.

Europe is a leader in astronomy today, with the world's most successful optical observatory, ESO's Very Large Telescope, and cutting-edge facilities in radio astronomy and in space. In an unprecedented effort demonstrating the potential of European scientific cooperation, all of European astronomy is now joining forces to define the scientific challenges for the future and construct a common plan to address them in a cost-effective manner. MORE »


• ESO's very large telescopes

On the Net:
'The Cosmic Mirror': Monthly space news update from various sources on the Web: www.astro.uni-bonn.de

(high res.)

(16 Nov. 2008) --- Backdropped by a blue and white Earth, Space Shuttle Endeavour approaches the International Space Station during STS-126 rendezvous and docking operations. Docking occurred at 4:01 p.m. (CST) on Nov. 16, 2008. The Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module is visible in Endeavour's cargo bay with over 14,000 pounds of cargo for the space station. : NASA

(high.res.)