15 Nov 2003, 05:00 UTC:
Last week (8 Nov / 9 Nov ), a full Lunar Eclipse was visible from most of the
Earth's surface. Many Earthlings hoped for a chance to see the International
Space Station( ISS ) pass across the lunar
surface
during the eclipse. At lease one person got to see the International Space
Station as it quickly traversed the Moon just before the Lunar Eclipse
began. Ed
Morana of Tracy, California, captured the image to the right. The photograph
is a composite photograph.
Click on Image to enlarge it. Image courtesy of Ed Morana and spaceweather.com
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24 April 2003, 19:45 UTC:
In honor the 13th Anniversary of the Hubble
Telescope Launch (24 Apr 1990), the European Space Agency released a photograph
of Messier 17 (M17), a portion of
the
Omega or Swan Nebula. The image displays what looks to be the perfect vacation
place. A little like the Grand Canyon - but not so crowded.
The area in the spot shown on this Hubble Image is 5.5 thousand light years away (maybe a little farther if you live in the U.S.). It is a wonderful anniversary picture. Courtesy ESA
10 Mar 2003 : "The existence of the impact crater known as Chicxulub (Chik-sah-loob) was first proposed in 1980. In the 1990s, satellite data and ground studies allowed it to gain prominence among many scientists as the long sought-after "smoking gun" responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs and more than 70 percent of Earth's living species 65 million years ago. Now, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission has provided the most telling visible evidence to date of a 180-kilometer (112-mile) wide, 900-meter (3,000-foot) deep impact crater, the result of a collision with a giant comet or asteroid on one of Earth's all-time worst days".
-
Original
Caption Released with Image - "This shaded relief image of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula show a subtle, but
unmistakable, indication of the Chicxulub impact crater. Most scientists now
agree that this impact was the cause of the Cretatious-Tertiary Extinction,
the event 65 million years ago that marked the sudden extinction of the
dinosaurs as well as the majority of life then on Earth".
IMAGE: Click on image to see an enlarged annotated view (1.5 MB)
"Most of the peninsula is visible here, along with the island of Cozumel off the east coast. The Yucatan is a plateau composed mostly of limestone and is an area of very low relief with elevations varying by less than a few hundred meters (about 500 feet.) In this computer-enhanced image the topography has been greatly exaggerated to highlight a semicircular trough, the darker green arcing line at the upper left corner of the peninsula. This trough is only about 3 to 5 meters (10 to 15 feet) deep and is about 5 km. wide (3 miles), so subtle that if you walked across it you probably would not notice it, and is a surface expression of the crater's outer boundary. Scientists believe the impact, which was centered just off the coast in the Caribbean, altered the subsurface rocks such that the overlying limestone sediments, which formed later and erode very easily, would preferentially erode on the vicinity of the crater rim. This formed the trough as well as numerous sinkholes (called cenotes) which are visible as small circular depressions".
- Text and Image Courtesy of JPL / NASA
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Click
on Image to Enlarge
NASA's Next Galaxy
Quest
The Galaxy Evolution Explorer, scheduled to launch March 25,
will observe a million galaxies across 10 billion years of cosmic history. This
will help astronomers determine the origins of the stars and elements we see
today.
Visit mission
home page
See launch
prep images from Kennedy Space Center
Aerogel The miracle substance that is being used aboard the Stardust Space Craft to catch particles from the coma of the Comet Wild 2. Aerogel is manufactured by JPL. See article on Aerogel.
"Though with a ghostly appearance like an hologram, Aerogel is very solid. It feels like hard Styrofoam to the touch."
18 Jan 2003
Click on Image to enlarge NASA
Columbia Launch : 16 Jan 2003, 15:39 UTC. Several secrets were let out of the bag leading up to the launch of Mission STS-107, aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. One secret was that the crew would include Israeli air force Col. Ilan Ramon. We published that fact last spring. There being no reason why it should be secret and those that might feel threatened to have an Israeli in space - already knew of Ramon's position on the crew. NASA
Note: It is the policy of this web site to sit on and not release many news items that we know or strongly feel threaten the security of the U.S., allied countries or individuals.
Note From the Webmaster: There were over 1-million searches on the name "Ilan Ramon" conducted during the year 2003.