»» Volcanoes on Io Spew Salt Into Moon's Atmosphere
[Wednesday, January 01, 2003] Astronomers have solved a nearly 30-year-old mystery surrounding Jupiter's moon Io, showing that volcanoes there appear to be shooting gaseous salt into the moon's thin atmosphere.
»» Earth and an Asteroid Play "Orbital Cat and Mouse"[Thursday, January 02, 2003] The first asteroid discovered to orbit the Sun in nearly the same path as Earth will make its closest approach to our planet this month before scurrying away for 95 years.
»» GAO Report: "Relocating Space Shuttle Modification Work"[Thursday, January 02, 2003] At the request of Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) the GAO assessed the NASA's rationale and documentation to support its decision to relocate Space Shuttle Orbiter Major Modification work from Palmdale, California, to Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
»» 'Dark energy' Dominates the Universe[Thursday, January 02, 2003] A Dartmouth researcher is building a case for a "dark energy"-dominated universe. Dark energy, the mysterious energy with unusual anti-gravitational properties, has been the subject of great debate among cosmologists.
»» Life Found 1,000 Feet Beneath Ocean Floor[Thursday, January 02, 2003] A new study has discovered an abundance of microbial life deep beneath the ocean floor in ancient basalt that forms part of the Earth's crust - yet another seemingly hostile environment in which living organisms can thrive.
»» Giant Black Holes and Disks on the Balance[Thursday, January 02, 2003] Quasars and active galactic nuclei are likely powered by matter accretion onto a super-massive black hole located at their center. Before being swallowed by the black hole, matter spirals towards the center, while forming an accretion disc.
»» Solar Supergranule Mystery Solved[Friday, January 03, 2003] The mystery of why large features called supergranules move across the Sun's surface faster than the Sun rotates has been solved, according to a team of scientists using the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft.
»» Water Worlds[Friday, January 03, 2003] Some extrasolar planets have water in their atmospheres, an Italian astronomer recently announced at the Second European Workshop on Exo/Astrobiology in Austria.
»» Final Ariane 4 Arrives in French Guiana[Friday, January 03, 2003] The main launcher components for Arianespace's final Ariane 4 are now in French Guiana as the result of two sea voyages from Europe to South America aboard the MN Colibri transport ship.
»» Space Law Presentations Online[Saturday, January 04, 2003] Presentations from the United Nations/International Institute of Air and Space Law Workshop on Capacity Building in Space Law, 18-21 November 2002, The Hague, Netherlands are now online.
»» India's President Addresses Space Summit[Saturday, January 04, 2003] President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam recently addressed a Space Summit held during the 90th Session of the Indian Science Congress. His address covered a wide range of topics - including Indian missions to the Moon.
»» Global Warming Linked to Increase in Earth's Tropopause[Saturday, January 04, 2003] Recent research has shown that increases in the height of the tropopause over the past two decades are directly linked to ozone depletion and increased greenhouse gases.
»» Shenzhou IV Returns to Earth[Sunday, January 05, 2003] After a 6 day, 18 hour mission, Shenzhou IV's command module returned to Earth and landed in a pre-designated landing site in the middle of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in northern China.
»» Giant Stellar Structure Surrounds the Milky Way Galaxy[Monday, January 06, 2003] A vast, but previously unknown structure has been discovered around our own Milky Way galaxy by an international team of astronomers.
»» New Rosetta Launch Date to be Announced This Weekend[Monday, January 06, 2003] The launch date for Rosetta, ESA's mission to a comet, has been delayed by a few days.
»» Ancient Fossils – or Just Plain Rocks?[Monday, January 06, 2003] A dispute over the identification of extremely ancient fossils is threatening to revise how scientists write the history of early life on Earth.
»» New Method for Detecting Extrasolar Planets[Monday, January 06, 2003] Astronomers announced today they have detected the most distant extrasolar planet ever found using a new method that could lead to the discovery of Earth-like worlds around nearby stars.
»» Medical Issue Bumps Cosmonaut from Space Walk[Tuesday, January 07, 2003] Cosmonaut and ISS Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin has been replaced as a participant on a previously scheduled EVA aboard the International Space Station.
»» Arianespace to Continue with Launches of the Baseline Ariane 5[Tuesday, January 07, 2003] Arianespace is developing its return-to-flight plan for Ariane 5 after receiving an independent inquiry board's findings on the anomaly encountered during Flight 157 in December.
»» Coronal Activity May Be 'Buried Alive' in Red Giant Stars[Tuesday, January 07, 2003] When Earth's sun expands into a red giant star in roughly five billion years, long after Earth has become uninhabitable, the hydrogen core will be burned out and the bloated outer shell will be cool and murky.
»» Eta Carinae Might be Two Stars, Not One[Tuesday, January 07, 2003] Eta Carinae, an enigmatic star that has mystified astronomers for 160 years may in fact be two stars with clashing stellar winds generating varying amounts of X rays as the stars come closer to each other during a five-year orbit.
»» Natural Zoom Lens Allows Hubble to See Deep into the Cosmos[Tuesday, January 07, 2003] The Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard Hubble Space Telescope has used a natural "zoom lens" in space to boost its view of the distant universe. The results promise to shed light on galaxy evolution and dark matter in space.
»» Next-generation Solar Cells Could Put Power Stations in Space[Tuesday, January 07, 2003] Someday, large-scale solar power stations in space could beam electricity to the surface of the moon, the earth and other planets, decreasing our dependence on a dwindling fossil-fuel supply.
»» Finding Life Away From Earth Will be Tough[Tuesday, January 07, 2003] "It will be a tough chore for astrobiologists to turn their field into a self-sustaining endeavor because for so long science fiction has made the idea of life away from Earth a fanciful notion of all sorts of intelligent aliens" according to Roger Buick
»» Hypergiant Star Erupts[Wednesday, January 08, 2003] Astronomers have observed a huge eruption by a hypergiant star that blasted nearly 10,000 times the mass of the Earth into space. During this spectacular event Rho Cassiopeiae lost more mass than in any other stellar eruption observed by astronomers.
»» Faint Debris Trail Detected in the Andromeda Galaxy[Wednesday, January 08, 2003] The discovery of a faint trail of stars in the nearby Andromeda galaxy offers new evidence that large spiral galaxies have grown by gobbling up smaller satellite galaxies.
»» Astronomers Identify New Type of Star[Wednesday, January 08, 2003] A new type of star has been discovered lurking as a low mass component in a very compact binary star system.
»» Earth Likley to be Spared From One Form of Cosmic Gloom[Wednesday, January 08, 2003] While the cosmic debris from a nearby massive star explosion, called a supernova, could destroy the Earth's protective ozone layer and cause mass extinction, such an explosion would have to be much closer than previously thought, new calculations show.
»» Giant Radio Jet Coming From Wrong Kind of Galaxy[Wednesday, January 08, 2003] Giant jets of subatomic particles moving at nearly the speed of light have been found coming from thousands of galaxies across the Universe, but always from elliptical galaxies or galaxies in the process of merging -- until now.
»» ICESAT To map Earth's Ice Sheets[Wednesday, January 08, 2003] The lidar system of the ICESat satellite, will measure the size of ice sheets in the polar regions to determine if they are growing or shrinking.
»» Moon's Early History May Have Been Interrupted by Big Burp[Wednesday, January 08, 2003] Using a state-of-the-art computer model of the lunar interior, geophysicists have shown that a mighty burp early in the moon's history could account for some of its geologic mysteries.
»» Black Holes Form First, Galaxies Follow[Wednesday, January 08, 2003] A study at Ohio State University has uncovered more evidence that black holes form before the galaxies that contain them.
»» Stellar Cocoons in Surprisingly Harsh Environments[Wednesday, January 08, 2003] Astronomers have discovered what they believe to be dozens of potential stellar cocoons within a giant star-forming region that may harbor disks of dust and gas that could one day form planetary systems.
»» Astronomers Glimpse Feeding of a Galactic Dragon[Thursday, January 09, 2003] The most detailed view yet of the fuel that feeds a monstrous black hole in the center of a remote quasar galaxy has recently been obtained.
»» Surprising Image Revises Understanding Of Dwarf Galaxies[Thursday, January 09, 2003] An intensive study of a neighboring dwarf galaxy has surprised astronomers by showing that most of its molecular gas -- the raw material for new stars -- is scattered among clumps in the galaxy's outskirts, not near its center as they expected.
»» X-38 Put in Storage at Johnson Space Center[Saturday, January 11, 2003] On Friday an X-38 demonstrator was moved from the location at NASA JSC where it had been undergoing testing to another location where it will be put into long term storage. Notice the skull and crossbones flag flying above the Hummer.
»» ICESAT/CHIPSAT Launched[Sunday, January 12, 2003] NASA's Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation satellite (ICESat) and Cosmic Hot Interstellar Spectrometer (CHIPS) satellite lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 4:45 p.m. PST aboard Boeing's Delta II rocket.
»» What Does ET Look Like from 40 Light Years Away?[Monday, January 13, 2003] The discovery of about 100 extrasolar planets over the past decade has placed a momentous task on the scientific agenda: finding planets that could harbor life.
»» Zooming-In on Star Formation[Monday, January 13, 2003] A team of astronomers is using one of the most advanced ground-based telescopes in the world to "zoom-in" on protostars in the Orion Nebula, revealing in unprecedented detail a variety of phenomena associated with star and planet formation.
»» Expanded Airpsace Restrictions Planned for Upcoming Space Shuttle Launch[Monday, January 13, 2003] The launch of Space Shuttle Columbia on mission STS-107 is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 16. All restricted areas surrounding the Kennedy Space Center will be active and the area covered by flight restrictions has once again been expanded for this laun
»» New Moons Found Around Neptune[Monday, January 13, 2003] A team of astronomers has discovered three previously unknown moons of Neptune. This boosts the number of known satellites of the gas giant to eleven.
»» Discovery of Nearest Known Brown Dwarf[Monday, January 13, 2003] A team of European astronomers has discovered a Brown Dwarf object (a 'failed' star) less than 12 light-years from the Sun. It is the nearest yet known.
»» European Science on Upcoming Shuttle Mission[Monday, January 13, 2003] European investigations will be among some 80 experiments covering medicine, advanced technology and science on the STS-107 Space Shuttle mission to be launched on 16 January 2003.
»» Rosetta Launch Postponed[Tuesday, January 14, 2003] Having considered the conclusions of the Review Board set up to advise on the launch of Rosetta, Arianespace and the European Space Agency have decided on a postponement.
»» Space Shuttle Ball Strut Tie Rod Assembly Issue Chronology[Tuesday, January 14, 2003] Over the past month NASA has been working to understand the cause of cracks found in a 2.25-inch diameter metal ball located inside Space Shuttle Discovery and what the implications are for the rest of the Orbiter fleet.
»» Mars Rover Landing Site Selection Continues[Tuesday, January 14, 2003] The launch dates for the two Mars Exploration Rovers are getting closer and so is the need to pick a place for them to land.
»» Moss in Space Project to Test How Plants Grow in Space[Tuesday, January 14, 2003] An experiment scheduled for the STS-107 mission may provide clues about just how plant growth is guided by gravity.
»» Dinosaurs Experienced Climate Changes Before K-T Collision[Tuesday, January 14, 2003] Climate change had little to do with the demise of the dinosaurs, but the last million years before their extinction had a complex pattern of warming and cooling events that are important to our understanding of the end of their reign.
»» Space Station EVA Underway[Wednesday, January 15, 2003] Expedition Six's only scheduled spacewalk began this morning at 6:50 CST (1250 GMT).
»» STS-107 Launch Time Announced for Jan 16[Wednesday, January 15, 2003] Managers today confirmed the launch of Space Shuttle Columbia for Thursday, Jan. 16 at 10:39 a.m. EST. The launch window extends for 2 hours and 30 minutes.
»» NASA Space Station Crews Visit the White House[Wednesday, January 15, 2003] President Bush received a visit in the Oval Office today from NASA's Administrator and eight astronauts. ISS Expedition 1 Commander Bill Shephard received the Congressional Space Medal of Honor from the President during the visit.
»» Space Shuttle Columbia Safely in Orbit[Thursday, January 16, 2003] Columbia lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center this morning on the first shuttle mission of the year, carrying the first Israeli astronaut into orbit along with six crewmates on a marathon international scientific research flight.
»» Looking for Earth-like Planets[Thursday, January 16, 2003] Detecting Earth-sized planets is hard enough but how does an astrobiologist decide which of them are inhabited?
»» Magnetic 'Slinky Effect' May Power Aurora[Thursday, January 16, 2003] The spectacular aurora borealis displays that light up the northern nights could be powered by a gigantic "slinky" effect in Earth's magnetic field lines, according to new research.
»» Distant Quasars Found at Edge of the Universe[Thursday, January 16, 2003] An international team of scientists from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey has discovered three of the most distant quasars, including the most distant quasar known.
»» Space Medical Emergency Patient Simulator[Friday, January 17, 2003] A lifelike mannequin will be teaching astronauts, flight surgeons and other mission personnel how to effectively manage medical emergencies in space.
»» STS-107 Science Experiments Under Way[Sunday, January 19, 2003] Columbia's astronauts studied combustion properties and the response of their own bodies in weightlessness and the behavior of soot in space one-quarter of the way through their marathon scientific research mission.
»» Complex Life, By Jove![Monday, January 20, 2003] In an eerie echo of astrology, some scientists are now saying that the position of Jupiter in our solar system was very good luck for life on Earth.
»» Science Continues Aboard Columbia[Monday, January 20, 2003] Today, Columbia's astronauts conducted scientific studies ranging from the behavior of granular materials in weightlessness to the effects of microgravity on fungi, and filmed the sprites associated with thunderstorms across the globe.
»» Now Online at NASA: Going Where No One Has Gone Before[Tuesday, January 21, 2003] Among the items on the new NASA education website is a video designed to answer that perennial question asked for decades by children everywhere anytime an astronaut speaks.
»» ESA's new challenge with Rosetta[Tuesday, January 21, 2003] After the initial disappointment of postponing the Rosetta mission, ESA's Director of Science David Southwood expressed his firm determination to accept the delay and take it on as a galvanising challenge.
»» EU Space Policy Debate Begins[Tuesday, January 21, 2003] European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin has introduced the Green Paper on EU Space Policy. Prepared by the Commission, in co-operation with the European Space Agency (ESA), this paper looks into Europe's assets and weaknesses in this sector.
»» NASA Kicks Off New Teacher in Space Program[Tuesday, January 21, 2003] NASA announced today that it was once again soliciting teachers to fly in space. In so doing, the words of Christa McAuliffe, who died on her way to teach class in space, were heard once again: "I touch the future: I teach".
»» Giant Exoplanet Orbits Giant Star[Wednesday, January 22, 2003] When, in a distant future, the Sun begins to expand and evolves into a "giant" star, the surface temperature on the Earth will rise dramatically and our home planet will eventually be incinerated by that central body.
»» First Galaxies Found at Edge of Universe[Wednesday, January 22, 2003] Astronomers look back in time to when young galaxies were just beginning to coalesce and when the first generations of stars were forming -- stars without planets in a realm dominated by hydrogen and helium.
»» Starshine Satellite Reenters[Wednesday, January 22, 2003] Starshine 3 burned up in the the earth's upper atmosphere sometime between 0504 and 0534 UTC on January 21, 2003. It had made 7,434 revolutions around the earth between the date of its launch and its fiery end.
»» Mars May Be Much Older - or Younger - than Thought[Thursday, January 23, 2003] Research by a University at Buffalo planetary geologist suggests that generally accepted estimates about the geologic age of surfaces on Mars - which influence theories about its history and whether or not it once sustained life - could be way off.
»» NASA Assigns "Living With a Star Missions" to APL[Thursday, January 23, 2003] NASA has authorized the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Laurel, Md., to proceed with the implementation of the Geospace missions under NASA's existing "Living with a Star" contract with APL.
»» NASA’S SORCE Satellite Successfully Launched[Sunday, January 26, 2003] NASA’s Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE) successfully launched yesterday. The spacecraft will study the Sun’s influence on our Earth and will measure how the Sun affects the Earth's ozone layer, atmospheric circulation, clouds, and oceans.
»» Shuttle Experiments Head Into Homestretch[Sunday, January 26, 2003] Scientific research continued aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia today as the STS-107 mission headed into the homestretch with a variety of experiments in multiple disciplines.
»» On the Trail of the Earliest Stars[Monday, January 27, 2003] Somewhere in the distant, old Universe, a population of stars hide undetected. They were the first to form after the birth of the Universe and are supposed to be far bigger in mass than any star visible today.
»» Astronomers Trace Microquasar's Path Back in Time[Monday, January 27, 2003] Astronomers have traced the orbit of a voracious neutron star and a companion star it is cannibalizing, and conclude that the pair joined more than 30 million years ago and probably were catapulted out of a cluster of stars far from our Galaxy's center.
»» Early Mars: Oceans Away?[Monday, January 27, 2003] Today, the Martian surface is cold and dry, and astronomers and climate modelers have struggled to explain such warm conditions in the early years, when the sun was considerably weaker.
»» Space Water Recycling Experiment Aboard Space Shuttle[Tuesday, January 28, 2003] In a remote, hostile, totally alien environment, every life-sustaining resource is precious. In space, other than air, none is more precious than water.
»» First Images from Midori-II[Tuesday, January 28, 2003] As part of the initial function verification test NASDA has acquired the first image from the Global Imager (GLI) aboard the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite-II, "Midori-II", which was launched on 14 December 2002.
»» New Progress Cargo Ship to Dock with ISS[Wednesday, January 29, 2003] The tenth Russian Progress resupply vehicle to the International Space Station is scheduled to dock at approximately 9:55 a.m. EST, Tuesday, Feb. 4.
»» NASA Set to Unveil 'Jupiter Tour' Mission[Wednesday, January 29, 2003] The Bush Adminstration has signed off on a multi-billion-dollar-class mission dubbed "Jupiter Tour' - a mission which embodies a radical departure from the past four decades of planetary exploration.
»» Israeli Astronaut Looks at the Middle East From Space[Wednesday, January 29, 2003] "The world looks marvelous from up here, so peaceful, so wonderful and so fragile," Ramon said. "The atmosphere is so thin and fragile, and I think all of us have to keep it clean and good. It saves our life and gives our life."
»» Landers feel the heat on space missions[Thursday, January 30, 2003] Space is certainly a cold place, but spacecraft have to face extremely high temperatures when they are exposed to the Sun's radiation. However, there are other extreme situations in which spacecraft are subject to tremendous heat.
»» Hawking muses on ultimate theory of the universe[Thursday, January 30, 2003] In a live broadcast from England to several classrooms at MIT, physicist Stephen Hawking described scientists' search for a complete theory of the universe, ultimately concluding that "maybe [such a theory] isn't possible."
»» Environmental Satellite Readied to Detect Solar Storms[Thursday, January 30, 2003] The nation's newest environmental satellite, GOES-12, is being readied for operations, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today.
»» Patrick AFB Honors 9/11 Victims Through Artwork[Thursday, January 30, 2003] For the first time in the 50-year launch history of Cape Canaveral, artwork appeared on a rocket launched from the Cape on Jan 29.
»» Building "Jules Verne"[Thursday, January 30, 2003] Today, about 90 percent of the hardware for Jules Verne, Europe's first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) spaceship that is to fly towards the International Space Station (ISS) in September 2004, is already built.
»» Sean O'Keefe: 9 Questions (Part 3)[Thursday, January 30, 2003] Editor's note: Several weeks ago I asked NASA Adminstrator Sean O'Keefe if he'd be willing to answer some questions. The occasion was his first anniversary on the job. He agreed to do so.
»» STA and SpaceRef to Sponsor Human Exploration Forum on Capitol Hill[Thursday, January 30, 2003] SpaceRef Interactive Inc and the Space Transportation Association (STA) are pleased to announce their sponsorship of a "Human Exploration Forum" to be held on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on March 4th, 2003.
»» Rho Cassiopeiae: Future Supernova?[Friday, January 31, 2003] An international team of astronomers has identified the bright star Rho Cassiopeiae as the best candidate to undergo a supernova explosion in the near future.
»» America Marks 45th Anniversary of First Space Satellite [Friday, January 31, 2003] At a mere 31 pounds, it was tiny by today's spacecraft standards. Yet, as it sprang skyward from Cape Canaveral 45 years ago today aboard a Jupiter-C rocket, the Explorer 1 satellite carried with it the enormous hopes and dreams of Cold War America.
»» Artemis has reached its operational orbit[Friday, January 31, 2003] Artemis was left in a lower than intended orbit when the Ariane 5 upper stage malfunctioned. It was even feared that the entire mission might be lost. But thanks to creative thinking both the satellite and its mission have now been recovered.
