Archive for July, 2010

Earth’s Upper Atmosphere Collapses

July 18, 2010: NASA-funded researchers are monitoring a big event in our planet’s atmosphere. High above Earth’s surface where the atmosphere meets space, a rarefied layer of gas called “the thermosphere” recently collapsed and now is rebounding again.

Layers of Earth’s upper atmosphere. Credit: John Emmert/NRL.

“This is the biggest …

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AAVSO Alert Notice 422:
Observing Campaign on Hubble’s First Variable in M31: M31_V1
July 16, 2010

An observing campaign is being carried out on M31_V1, the first variable star discovered in M31 by Edwin Hubble. Dr. John Grunsfeld, Deputy Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, plans to observe M31_V1 …

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MESSENGER Reveals Something New About Mercury

The first spacecraft designed by NASA to orbit Mercury is giving scientists a new perspective on the planet’s atmosphere and evolution.

Launched in August 2004, the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging spacecraft, known as MESSENGER, conducted a third and final flyby of Mercury in September 2009. The probe …

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Rosetta Probe Encounters Asteroid Lutetia

Asteroid Lutetia has been revealed as a battered world of many craters. ESA’s Rosetta mission has returned the first close-up images of the asteroid showing it is most probably a primitive survivor from the violent birth of the Solar System.

The flyby was a spectacular success with Rosetta performing …

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Total Solar Eclipse: July 11, 2010

It’s every vacationer’s dream: You stretch out on a white sandy beach for a luxurious nap under the South Pacific sun. The caw of distant gulls wafts across the warm sea breeze while palm fronds rustle gently overhead. You take it all in through half-closed eyes.

Could Paradise get any …

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