News Headlines for September 1999

Lost probe won't alter NASA's Mars plans See also: NASA concentrating on what went wrong with Climate Orbiter and Lost Mars Orbiter NASA declared its Mars Climate Orbiter dead Friday while engineers raced to find out why the $125-million craft accidentally was sent into a fatal dive at the Red Planet. Search for Probe Abandoned See also: Lost probe was model of NASA's faster, cheaper space missions , Scientist fights Mars setback, What the loss of Mars Climate Orbiter means , Mars Climate Orbiter presumed lost and Human error blamed for Orbiter loss Mission controllers have given up hope of finding the Mars Climate Orbiter and are trying to determine what caused the $125 million NASA spacecraft — NASA’s first interplanetary weather satellite — to disappear. NASA Thinks Commercial See also: NASA considers turning over space station to private enterprise The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the agency that put man on the moon and made shuttle flights almost as common as airline journeys, wants to hand over its Earth-orbiting adventures to private enterprise. 'FLORIDA TODAY' to publish 'Contact' section in newspaper, on the Web; experts to discuss search for alien life On Sunday, Oct. 17, FLORIDA TODAY will publish a special 40-page section called CONTACT that will examine the question "Is there life elsewhere in the universe?" Hilton considers building hotel in space See also: Building hotels on the final frontier As NASA assembles the International Space Station high above the Earth, private lodging and travel companies are taking a serious look at orbiting hotels and other projects that could make space the final frontier of tourism. Sterilisation of planets Could our Sun suddenly experience a so-called "superflare" on its surface that could wipe out all life on Earth? Cosmonaut camp is open for business Looking for something different to do on your next vacation? How about sitting at the controls during a simulated docking of a Russian Soyuz-TM spacecraft? A group leaving the United States in October for a weeklong vacation will get a chance to do just that at the formerly top-secret Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. Delays Haunt Space Station It may be the biggest comeback in space history. Or the biggest space bluff ever. Russian and American space officials keep insisting that the long-delayed Zvezda Service Module — Russia’s critical contribution to the International Space Station — remains on schedule. Now you see it - now you don't A prodigious eruption of X-rays from near the center of our Milky Way announces the latest round of activity in a binary star system containing a variable star and a compact object. Space yardstick may be slightly off The celestial yardstick most commonly used for measuring the universe may have to be recalibrated. That’s the upshot of an analysis by a team of astronomers, who worked with new, more precise measurements of the distance to a far-off galaxy. Uranus Gains 3 New Moons A telescope in Hawaii spotted three new, distant, weirdly-orbitting moons around Uranus, bringing that planet’s satellite total to 21, the most in our solar system. Can Martian Life Survive First Contact A new era is about to begin in space exploration: an era in which samples of material from worlds more distant than the Moon are returned to Earth by unmanned spacecraft. Moondust Price Set To Collapse Applied Space Resources' robotic Lunar Retriever I mission is designed to return over 10 kilograms of lunar rock for sale to scientists and consumers alike in 2002. Martian weather satellite nears orbit See also: NASA's next Mars orbiter arrives at planet Thursday and Mars Climate Orbiter: First Martian weather satellite A key event in NASA's first effort to look directly for water on Mars will come Thursday when a spacecraft enters the red planet's orbit to ready itself for contact with two upcoming lander missions. Chandra's Supernova Portrait Gallery Images from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory reveal previously unobserved features in the remnants of three different supernova explosions. Cosmic collection under the hammer Space buffs have been buying pieces of history at an auction of more than 300 artefacts in New York. UK Shuttle Plan Awaits Green Light Britain could soon overtake America in the race to build a next-generation space shuttle — if the government provides finance. All indications are that Russians are good to go on Service Module NASA's stalled International Space Station construction project soon will get a major jump-start with the long-delayed launch of a crucial Russian command and control module. NASA: Shuttles to stay on ground longer than thought Wiring inspections and a meteor storm have conspired to extend the grounding of NASA's space shuttles, delaying the agency's next flight until mid-November at the earliest. Tides May Flow on Europa See also: How the ice cracks on Europa A 20-year-old mystery about one of Jupiter’s moons may lead mankind closer to the first ocean of liquid water outside Earth and perhaps to extraterrestrial life. Recent VLT Progress Work is progressing well at ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) project, both at the Paranal Observatory and in Europe. Here is a brief summary with recent news from this major project, illustrated with photos from the construction. Io or Bust NASA's Galileo spacecraft flew by Callisto on Sept.16 in an orbital maneuver designed to send the craft hurtling towards an encounter with the volcanic moon Io. Getting there won't be easy. The spacecraft has to survive extreme radiation from Jupiter's inner magnetosphere before it can rendezvous with Io later this year. Small but deadly comets identified A "small" comet impact on Earth is the most likely extraterrestrial object to kill millions of people and it could happen at any moment, according to a British expert. Puzzle of the Pendulum A mystery that has stumped scientists for half a century may have moved one step closer to being solved during August’s total eclipse. Mir: The end Russia is bowing to the inevitable and is giving up all hope of keeping the Mir space station in orbit beyond the middle of next year. Is the 2-in-1 burster a masquerade? A NASA scientist finds a peculiar, rapidly rotating neutron star - a pulsar - is acting quite a bit differently than it did in 1995, and is trying to understand why. Eclipse provides unique solar image Astronomer Fred Espenak has produced a stunning composite picture of the Sun's atmosphere seen during August's total eclipse. Why Is the Night Sky So Dark Despite the Billions of Stars? Until recently the entire cosmos was thought to be like God, infinite and eternal — a three dimensional glass palace with countless chambers and chandeliers. Thus in any direction, noble eyes would ultimately encounter a luminous bulb. Likewise, for an infinite number of stars uniformly sprinkled in space, ordinary eyes should encounter a star everywhere they turn. Why, then, isn't the sky bright at night? Merger mania in early Universe A new simulation of the early Universe suggests that titanic collisions formed the galaxies we see today. Mars Climate Orbiter On Final Approach NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft completed its final maneuver this morning to adjust its flight path for arrival at Mars next week. A Lab-Created Black Hole? The hubris of trying to replicate the universe just after the Big Bang could have catastrophic consequences. Hubble Spies Giant Star Clusters Near Galactic Center See also: Hubble's hot stuff Penetrating 25,000 light-years of obscuring dust and myriad stars, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has provided the clearest view yet of a pair of the largest young clusters of stars inside our Milky Way galaxy, located less than 100 light-years from the very center of the Galaxy. Chandra peers into the Large Magellanic Cloud The X-ray Observatory's High Resolution Camera catches its first light - resulting in extraordinary pictures of a distant supernova remnant. XMM classroom competitions: reaching for the stars! Penetrating 25,000 light-years of obscuring dust and myriad stars, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has provided the clearest view yet of a pair of the largest young clusters of stars inside our Milky Way galaxy, located less than 100 light-years from the very center of the Galaxy. NASA developing autonomous robot for future space missions To celebrate the December launch of XMM, its new X-ray space observatory, the European Space Agency is challenging young Europeans to reach for the stars! New theory: Gamma-ray blast spawned planets A violent blast of gamma-rays may have sparked the formation of our solar system's rocky planets within minutes, two Irish astrophysicists say. Fading embers hold clues to puzzle of gamma-ray bursts Sometimes the big fireworks aren't the whole show. Watching the embers fade away can help you understand what was hidden by a blinding flash of light - or gamma rays. In a paper accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters, astrophysicists report that an afterglow can start during a gamma-ray burst, thus suggesting that more than one activity is causing what appears to be a chaotic explosion. Distant Supernova Remnant Imaged By Chandra's High Resolution Camera The High Resolution Camera (HRC), one of the two X-ray cameras on NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, was placed into the focus for the first time on Monday, August 30. The first target was LMC X-1, a point-like source of X rays in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Large Magellanic Cloud, a companion galaxy to the Milky Way, is 180,000 light years from Earth. After checking the focus with LMC X-1, Chandra observed N132D, a remnant of an exploded star in the Large Magellanic Cloud. New orbiter snaps its first Mars shot See also: Mars Climate Orbiter MARCI Approach Image With less than two weeks to go before entering Martian orbit, NASA’s Climate Orbiter has snapped its first picture of its destination: a tiny red thumbnail against the blackness of space. Black holes could be source of half of universe's energy See also: Feel the Power Black holes, those invisible matter-sucking drains thought to lurk in galaxies' hearts, may be the force behind half the energy released since the universe began. Black Hole Born in a Blast A violent blast of gamma-rays may have sparked the formation of our solar system's rocky planets within minutes, two Irish astrophysicists say. Divining Water on Europa Evidence for water on Europa continues to mount as JPL scientists try an ingenious experiment to find hexagonal water-ice crystals on the frigid surface of Jupiter's moon. Magnetic Fields Crucial To Star Formation Observations by a University of Illinois astronomer have shown that magnetic fields are a critical component controlling when and how stars form. New Type Of Proto-Planetary Nebula Hints At Stellar Superwind The discovery of a new type of low-surface-brightness reflection nebula around aging stars has provided important clues about how stars lose mass and form planetary nebulae. Deep Space One Keeps Ion Burning Deep Space 1 has been spending most of its time recently with its ion propulsion system gently but relentlessly pushing it along to bring it to its appointments with Comet Wilson-Harrington in January 2001 and Comet Borrelly in September 2001. UI Team To Search For Martian Water University of Iowa professor and space physicist Don Gurnett has won a $4 million NASA contract in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. to develop and use radar in a search for underground water on Mars. Martian dust devils dissected Miniature dust storms could be responsible for spreading the red dust that covers much of the Martian surface. Scientists have long suspected that so-called “dust devils” — which kick up in fields and on dirt roads during a sunny day — churn across Mars. But until now, none had ever been seen in images from the Martian surface. La Silla Team Find Big ExoPlanet With 10 Day Orbit After the detection of 2 extra-solar planets in the Southern sky around Gl 86 and HD 75289 the high-resolution CORALIE spectrograph on the 1.2-m Euler Swiss telescope at La Silla Observatory is yielding its 3rd planetary candidate in less than 1 year. Stellar blast linked to a black hole Scientists have found some of the best evidence yet to support the theory that the cataclysmic explosions of giant stars can lead to black holes, some of the strangest and least understood objects in the universe. Building a Better Space Station Donuts are the perfect geometrical shape for space stations — so why are we building Cuban cigars? Shuttle astronaut taken off crew for ISS mission After an apparent falling out with NASA brass in Houston, astronaut Mark Lee has been removed from a space shuttle mission to the International Space Station next spring. Tiny water droplets may date to beginning of solar system See also: Space water discoveries enhance odds for early life Tiny water droplets that could be billions of years old were found in a meteorite, the second found with water. Plasma, Plasma, Everywhere As photographed from space, the Earth looks like it is floating in a black void. But, unseen by our eyes and most cameras, the Earth is actually surrounded by a complex system of interacting electric and magnetic fields, electric currents and charged particles called the magnetosphere. Mir drifts free See also: Mir Systems to Shut Down Mir has gone into "free drift" mode as a new onboard computer takes control of the unmanned space station. Space shuttles may fly till 2040 NASA's announcement that its fleet of space shuttles have been grounded due to wiring problems comes just shortly after Dana Rohrabacher, Chairman of the US House of Representatives Science Committee, stated that "NASA officials were planning to upgrade and operate a government-owned Space Shuttle for another 40 years." European astronomers see relics of ancient explosions in symbiotic stars One thousand years ago an explosion in the vicinity of a star created a huge bubble of gas, one of those objects that astronomers call a nebula. Some hundred years afterwards a second outburst followed and another nebula was born. Today, European astronomers have pictured the relics of both events with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope: two hourglass-shaped nebulae, one nestled inside the other like Russian dolls. The system, called 'Southern Crab Nebula' (He2-104) because it looks like the body and legs of a crab, is located a few thousand light years from Earth in the Southern Hemisphere. Fossil may aid search for Mars life Geologists in Australia have discovered a 3.46 billion-year-old fossil that they say provides the oldest solid evidence of biogenic structures in the world. Researchers say the fossil could provide new insights not only to life on Earth but to the evolution of life on Mars. The Case of the Missing Moon Water Lunar Prospector failed to kick up a visible dust cloud when it crashed into the Moon, but researchers are still sifting through their data for elusive signatures of water. Mars: the next generation's Apollo All the space glitterati will be there: Buzz Aldrin, James Cameron, Franklin Chiang-Diaz, Robert Zubrin, Jennifer Harris. You may not recognize every one of those names. But the folks at Mars Week, a conference this fall to generate enthusiasm for a business plan for a human mission to Mars, will be thrilled to see the Apollo 11 moonwalker, the filmmaker planning Mars-themed screenery, the shuttle astronaut, the Mars Society founder and the Pathfinder flight director. Shuttles Grounded See also: 64 cases of wiring problems found on shuttle fleet NASA has practically grounded its space shuttle fleet because inspections have uncovered a startling number of damaged wires that could endanger a mission. The Sun's Sizzling Corona Scientists continue to ponder one of our star's most closely guarded secrets - why does the solar corona get hotter farther from the Sun's surface? A Minuet of Galaxies The HST has photographed a troupe of four galaxies, known as Hickson Compact Group 87 (HCG 87), which is performing an intricate dance orchestrated by the mutual gravitational forces acting between them. The dance is a slow, graceful minuet, occurring over a time span of hundreds of millions of years. Cassini Images the Moon See also: Cassini Moon images show camera is in top form The high-tech camera system aboard the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft took test images of the Moon as Cassini approached the Earth on its closest fly-by of our planet on August 17, 1999. NEO Search Foundation Established The Space Frontier Foundation has announced a new program to make financial grants to astronomers involved in the search for Earth-orbit-crossing asteroids. X-ray study of the 'Winking Demon' reveals its flaring secrets An X-ray observation of the 'Winking Demon', one of the sky's nearest and X-ray brightest stars, has revealed that its huge X-ray explosions take place in structures similar in relative size to those of our own Sun - contrary to what had been previously suggested. When Black Holes Collide Scientists from the Albert Einstein Institute have simulated grazing collisions of two black holes hoping such results will ultimately improve the search for gravitational waves.

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