SPACE
& SCIENCE NEWS: December 2006
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| NASA Mars team teaches old rovers
new tricks to kick off year four |
Dec 30, 2006 |
| Parrot's oratory stuns scientists |
Dec 29, 2006 |
| Orion hardware reviewed for human
asteroid flight |
Dec 28, 2006 |
| Planet hunter readies for launch |
Dec 26, 2006 |
| Space shuttle returns to Florida |
Dec 23, 2006 |
| White dwarf shreds and vaporizes
asteroid |
Dec 22, 2006 |
| 'Black sheep' gamma-ray bursts
refuse to conform |
Dec 21, 2006 |
| NASA and Google form cosmic union |
Dec 20, 2006 |
| ISS crew fix jammed solar panel |
Dec 19, 2006 |
| Solar storm disrupts spacecraft |
Dec 18, 2006 |
| New theory
behind 'cold faithful' on Saturnian moon |
Dec 18, 2006 |
| Astronauts
rewire space station |
Dec 17, 2006 |
| Comets hold
life chemistry clues |
Dec 15, 2006 |
| Mars rover
nears bathtub ring of blueberries |
Dec 15, 2006 |
| Final stage
for telescope design |
Dec 14, 2006 |
| Mountain range
spotted on Titan |
Dec 13, 2006 |
| Astronauts
make first spacewalk |
Dec 13, 2006 |
| Peak of Geminid
meteor shower set to dazzle |
Dec 12, 2006 |
| Preliminary
inspections show shuttle in good health |
Dec 11, 2006 |
| Shuttle lifts
off in night launch |
Dec 10, 2006 |
| Shuttle night
lift-off postponed |
Dec 8, 2006 |
| NASA telescope
sees black hole munch on a star |
Dec 7, 2006 |
| Water flowed
'recently' on Mars |
Dec 6, 2006 |
| Probe's powerful
camera spots Vikings on Mars |
Dec 6, 2006 |
| US plans permanent
base on Moon |
Dec 5, 2006 |
| Potential
danger: Moon hit by more space rocks than thought |
Dec 4, 2006 |
| Astronauts
sample haute cuisine |
Dec 3, 2006 |
| HiRISE team
begins releasing a flood of Mars images over the Internet |
Dec 2, 2006 |
| Carbon globules
in meteorite may have seeded Earth life |
Dec 1, 2006 |
NASA Mars team teaches old rovers new
tricks to kick off year four
(Dec 30, 2006)
NASA's twin Mars
rovers, nearing the third anniversary of their landings, are getting
smarter as they get older. The unexpected longevity of Spirit and
Opportunity is giving the space agency a chance to field-test on Mars
some new capabilities useful both to these missions and future rovers.
Spirit will begin its fourth year on Mars on Jan. 3 (PST); Opportunity
on Jan. 24. [Image: Spirit rover viewed by Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter]
Read
more. Source: NASA/JPL |
Parrot's oratory stuns scientists
(Dec 29, 2006)
The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate
with people has brought scientists up short. The bird, a captive African
grey called N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs
of a sense of humour. He invents his own words and phrases if he is
confronted with novel ideas with which his existing repertoire cannot
cope – just as a human child would do.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Orion hardware reviewed for human asteroid
flight
(Dec 28, 2006)
Progress is being made on defining a human mission to an asteroid.
Experts at several NASA centers are sketching out a prospective piloted
stopover at an asteroid – a trek that could return samples from
a targeted space rock as well as honing astronaut proficiency and
test needed equipment for other space destinations.
Read
more. Source: space.com |
Planet hunter readies for launch
(Dec 26, 2006)
A mission that will scour space for Earth-like planets is scheduled
for launch on Wednesday. COROT
will be the first spacecraft capable of detecting planets outside
of the Solar System that are just a few times larger than the Earth.
The French-led multinational mission will also help uncover the secrets
of stellar interiors.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Space shuttle returns to Florida
(Dec 23, 2006)
Space
shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew have landed safely
at the Kennedy Space Center
in Florida. Shuttle managers decided conditions in Florida were good
enough to bring the shuttle home at 1732 (2232 GMT), after days of
uncertainty about the weather. The shuttle has been on a 13-day mission
to rewire the International
Space Station (ISS).
Read
more. Source: BBC |
White dwarf shreds and vaporizes asteroid
(Dec 22, 2006)
An asteroid has been
ripped to shreds and vaporized after straying too close to a hot white
dwarf star, observations suggest. The asteroid was probably flung
towards the white dwarf by the gravity of one or more unseen planets,
astronomers say. Stars like the Sun become bloated red giants when
they age, then gradually blow off their outer layers until only a
dense, inactive core called a white dwarf is left.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
'Black sheep' gamma-ray bursts refuse
to conform
(Dec 21, 2006)
Two peculiar gamma-ray
bursts have been spotted that do not fit into the orderly classification
system that astronomers had previously developed. The discoveries
suggest that black holes
may be colliding with stellar corpses called neutron
stars much more often than thought, implying that gravitational
waves from the events may be detected within the next few years.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
NASA and Google form cosmic union
(Dec 20, 2006)
Detailed 3D images of the Moon
and Mars will soon be
just a click away for web users, following a deal between search giant
Google and US space agency NASA.
The Space Agreement Act, signed on Monday, will put "the most useful
of NASA's information on the internet". Real-time weather data and
the positions of the International
Space Station and Shuttle
could be included.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
ISS crew fix jammed solar panel
(Dec 19, 2006)
The crew of the space
shuttle Discovery have fixed a jammed solar panel at the International
Space Station (ISS). In a record-breaking fourth spacewalk on
a single mission, US astronaut Robert Curbeam, with Sweden's Christer
Fuglesang, folded the stuck panel away. The two astronauts returned
to the ISS at 0138 GMT on Tuesday after more than six and a half hours.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Solar storm disrupts spacecraft
(Dec 18, 2006)
An energetic storm which erupted on the Sun
has caused disruption to satellites and may have caused a glitch on
the International Space Station.
The solar flare
interrupted signals in space and forced mission controllers to shut
systems down to avoid damage to spacecraft orbiting Earth. The flare
set off a fast-moving stream of atomic particles towards Earth.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
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