Science News from NASA HQ
NASA's twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatories (STEREO) were launched
October 25, 2006 and will dramatically improve our understanding of the
powerful solar eruptions that can send more than a billion tons of the sun's
outer atmosphere hurtling into space:
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/oct/HQ_06340_STEREO_launch.html
STEREO has already sent back incredible images:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/news/first_light.html
The Japanese Hinode, or 'Sunrise' satellite (formerly known as Solar-B) is
also returning extraordinary new images of our sun:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/solar-b/index.html
which only supports many scientists' prediction that the next solar cycle is
going to be a big one:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/21dec_cycle24.htm?list958533
And 2007 is the International Heliophysical Year. So expect more!
2006 was book-ended by news items from Stardust, NASA's comet sample return
mission. The capsule containing pristine samples of Comet Wild 2 returned to
Earth on January 15, 2006, and in December scientists revealed results about
a cosmic zoo of particles formed at different times and places within our
Solar System. For the full scoop (ha), run, don't walk, to
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stardust/main/index.html
Looking away from our neighborhood, the French/ESA COROT satellite began its
mission to peer into the blinding light of nearby stars in an attempt to
discover the first rocky planets outside our solar system:
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0612/27corot/index2.html
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/COROT/SEMYOPQJNVE_0.html
A newly-discovered hybrid gamma-ray burst observed by the NASA Swift mission
shows us we still have many fascinating things to learn about how these
energetic events create black holes and neutron stars:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/bursts/hybrid_grb.html
Fresh evidence of the very first objects to emerge after the Big Bang have
left scientists debating what they are - giant stars or black holes?
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2006-22/release.shtml
Working on matters biological, NASA's GeneSat-1 is performing flawlessly,
returning data on bacteria to Ames Research Center scientists:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2006/06_100AR.html
Data from NASA satellites is advancing efforts that may soon allow
scientists to predict when and where wildfires will occur:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/wildfire_threat.html
And finally, this just in: an international team of astronomers using the
Hubble Space Telescope has created a three-dimensional map that provides the
first direct look at the large-scale distribution of dark matter in the
universe!
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/01/full/
And that's it for now. We look forward to sharing the wonders of the
Universe with you in the months to come!
Alan & Priscilla
