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Sun, 19/12/2010 - 16:35 by Anter Prakash Singh
A celestial treat awaits the sky gazers as the total lunar eclipse slated for Monday night. Lunar eclipses are not so uncommon but this time the moon will be up high in the sky, visible to everyone across the United States.
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Fri, 10/12/2010 - 23:03 by harsheeb
Ithaca -- NASA says its new airborne astronomical observatory has flown its first complete science mission following five months of test flights.
A 17-ton telescope mounted in the fuselage of a modified 747 jumbo jet, the SOFIA observatory, for Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, will embark on a 20-year investigation of the infrared spectrum of the universe, an area not yet explored by satellite- or ground-based observatories.
An Ithaca College associate professor of physics on board for last week's science mission says he looks forward to the cosmic insights SOFIA will provide, a university release said.
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Fri, 10/12/2010 - 09:22 by harsheeb
ie-- The unchanging moon humans gaze up at every night may be slightly smaller than the one our ancestors saw, recent research by U.S. scientists suggests.
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Darren Williams, associate professor of astronomy at Penn State Erie, says new high-resolution images released by NASA show distinctive cliffs, called lobate scarps, all over the surface of the moon, evidence that the moon is getting gradually smaller, PhysOrg.com reported Thursday.
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Fri, 10/12/2010 - 09:20 by harsheeb
Pasadena -- NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter will have worked longer at Mars By the middle of next week than any other spacecraft in history, the space agency says.
Odyssey entered orbit around Mars Oct. 24, 2001. On Dec. 15 it will pass the Martian career longevity record set by its predecessor, Mars Global Surveyor - which operated in orbit from Sept. 11, 1997, to Nov. 2, 2006 -- a release Thursday from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said.
Odyssey made its most famous discovery, evidence of large amounts of water ice just below the dry surface of Mars, during the first few months of its prime mission that ended in 2004.
The additional years of operation have provided a bonus, scientists with the program said.
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Fri, 10/12/2010 - 07:05 by Prince damin
Ithaca, N.Y. -- NASA says its new airborne astronomical observatory has flown its first complete science mission following five months of test flights.
A 17-ton telescope mounted in the fuselage of a modified 747 jumbo jet, the SOFIA observatory, for Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, will embark on a 20-year investigation of the infrared spectrum of the universe, an area not yet explored by satellite- or ground-based observatories.
An Ithaca College associate professor of physics on board for last week's science mission says he looks forward to the cosmic insights SOFIA will provide, a university release said.
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Thu, 09/12/2010 - 11:14 by Prince damin
Pasadena, Calif. -- U.S. astronomers say a huge, searing-hot planet orbiting another star, and loaded with an unusual amount of carbon, is the first such world observed from Earth.
The discovery was made using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in tandem with ground-based observations, a release Wednesday from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said.
"This planet reveals the astounding diversity of worlds out there," Nikku Madhusudhan of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says. "Carbon-rich planets would be exotic in every way -- formation, interiors and atmospheres."
The distant planet, dubbed WASP-12b, might harbor graphite, diamond, or even a more exotic form of carbon in its interior, beneath its gaseous atmosphere, researchers say.
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Thu, 09/12/2010 - 08:23 by Prince damin
Cape Canaveral, Fla. -- Commercial U.S. spacecraft company SpaceX had a successful demonstration launch and recovery of its Falcon 9 rocket and Delta capsule Wednesday, NASA said.
The liftoff was at 10:43 EST from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and after a short orbital mission the capsule was recovered after a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, NASA said.
The successful launch, safe reentry and recovery is the first demonstration flight for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, which will provide cargo flights to the International Space Station, the space agency said.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former astronaut, issued congratulations to SpaceX.
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Fri, 03/12/2010 - 07:16 by harsheeb
Washington-- NASA announced schools and universities will be able to obtain 7,000 space shuttle heat shield tiles for only the shipping and handling price of $23.40.
The U.S. space agency said the tiles, which protected the shuttles from the extreme temperatures of re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, will be awarded to learning institutions on a first-come, first-served basis, Florida Today reported Thursday.
NASA said only organizations with Department of Education statistics tracking numbers will be considered.
Copyright 2010 United Press International
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Wed, 01/12/2010 - 16:07 by Anter Prakash Singh
The unmanned space craft of the U.S. Air force has completed its classified mission and will be returning to earth after a stay of more than seven months in Earth's orbit, the Air Force officials told in a brief statement released on 30th November.
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Sat, 27/11/2010 - 12:56 by Anter Prakash Singh
The three crew members of the International Space Station (ISS) landed safely on Earth after a five and a half month stay in the space.
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Sat, 27/11/2010 - 10:11 by Rakhi
Washington -- NASA says future airliners need to be quieter, greener and more fuel-efficient, and the agency is putting its money where its mouth is, officials say.
NASA awarded almost $6 million in contracts this week to two defense industry giants, Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp., to begin the journey toward those goals, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The technology goals NASA has set are for future aircraft to burn 50 percent less fuel than current models, cut harmful emissions in half and shrink the geographic areas affected by obnoxious airport noise by 83 percent, the newspaper said.
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Sat, 27/11/2010 - 09:38 by Prince damin
Pasadena, Calif. -- NASA's Cassini space probe orbiting Saturn has found evidence of an atmosphere on Rhea, one of the ringed planet's moons, U.S. researchers say.
The spacecraft has detected a very thin atmosphere containing oxygen and carbon dioxide around the icy moon, a NASA release said Friday.
This marks the first instance of a spacecraft directly capturing molecules of an oxygen atmosphere -- admittedly a very thin one -- at a world other than Earth, scientists said.
The formation of oxygen and carbon dioxide, as detected on Rhea, could possibly drive complex chemistry on the surfaces of many icy bodies in the universe, researchers say.
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