Orbital debris from Chinese satelite tops 3,000 pieces

Image: A view of the Chinese orbital debris problem. Only China's space debris plotted

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Three and a half years after China intentionally blew up a satellite as part of a weapons test, 97 percent of the debris remains in orbit, posing “distinct hazards to hundreds of operational satellites,” writes NASA in its October issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News.

The number of pieces of debris from the Fengyun-1C spacecraft surpassed the 3,000 mark last month. The tally as of mid-September was 3,037 objects -- roughly 22 percent of all the cataloged objects in low-Earth orbit, reports the Orbital Debris Program Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston

More space debris news:

• China Top of Orbital Garbage Heap, Study Shows
• CubeSails to Drag Space Junk from Orbit
• Laser System to Monitor Space Junk
• Space Junk Tracker to Orbit Earth
• Mexican Meteorite: Was it Russian Space Junk?
  
  
  Source: DiscoveryNews

NASA: Dress rehearsal for Shuttle Discovery's last launch

With mixed feelings, the shuttle Discovery crew and the NASA launch team on Friday wrapped up a dress rehearsal for the planned Nov. 1 liftoff on Discovery's last space voyage, an 11-day mission to delivery a storage pod and spare parts to the International Space Station.

SLIDE SHOW: For Space Shuttle Atlantis, The End Is Here

Discovery, which will be making its 39th flight, has been NASA's fleet leader in terms of number of missions and also for making both return-to-flight test runs following the Challenger and Columbia accidents in 1986 and 2003, respectively. Now it's fleet leader into retirement, with sisterships Endeavour and Atlantis expected to make their swan songs in February and June 2011.

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Deep space drama: Top 10 views of the southern skies

The birth of stars

This colour composite image of the nebula RCW120 shows an expanding bubble of ionised gas 10 light years across. It causes surrounding material to collapse into dense clumps from which stars are born. The original images taken with the LABOCA camera on the 12-metre Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope.

(Image: ESO/APEX/DSS2/SuperCosmos/Deharveng (LAM)/Zavagno (LAM))

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) operates some of the world's most advanced ground-based telescopes, including the Very Large Telescope array (VLT) and the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at Paranal Observatory in the Atacama desert, Chile. They recently posted their top 100 images: 

• Visit the top 10
  
• Visit the Top 100

Pyramid of Venus

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Photograph by Tunc Tezel, TWAN

The path of Venus seems to stitch together the sky over Bolu, Turkey, in a recently released composite picture spanning seven months. The interval between each frame ranges from 4 to 11 days.

Because it orbits closer to the sun, Venus overtakes Earth every 584 days. This means that, over time, the bright planet changes from the "evening star," visible after sunset, to the "morning star," visible before sunrise.

Published October 13, 2010

Source:  National Geographic

Rover nears 24 km of driving on Mars

 MERB total odometry now reads in excess of 23,991.43 meters (23.99 kilometers, or 14.91 miles).

Source: MarsDaily

by Staff WritersPasadena CA (JPL) Oct 15, 2010 Opportunity drove only once this past week, nearing the 24-kilometer (15-mile) odometry mark.

On Sol 2382 (Oct. 6, 2010), the rover covered over 94 meters (308 feet) on her trek to Endeavour crater. With the use of autonomous navigation, the rover collects many more data products which fill the available flash memory.

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For First Time Ever, Asteroid Collision Photographed

Astronomers now have the first confirmed snapshots of what appears to be the aftermath of an asteroid collision in space.

When scientists first discovered the object dubbed P/2010 A2 in the asteroid belt in January using the Rosetta spacecraft, the fact that it trailed a tail made them think it was a comet. A closer look, however, suggested it was something more peculiar -- images from the Hubble Space Telescope revealed it had a bizarre X-shape nucleus, for instance. [Photo of the odd X-shape in space.]

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Astronomer captures asteroid's close pass

 Click here for movie. Credit: Patrick Wiggins, NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador to Utah.

Amateur astronomer Patrick Wiggins from Utah captured impressive images of asteroid 2010 TD54 that passed the Earth with just 46,000 kilometres to spare on Tuesday. 

The asteroid, estimated to be around seven metres in diameter, was discovered on 9 October by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona as part of routine monitoring of the skies. 

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Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas

Astronomy:  Observation help

A must for every amateur astronomer.

Sky & Telescope developed this atlas for the amateur astronomer. 

Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas by Roger W. Sinnott (c) 2006 Sky Publishing Corporation, Cambridge, Mass, USA. ISBN 1-931559-31-7

• Full review in Cloudy Nights Telescope Reviews

Summary

Pros:

• Small and light, easy to hold with one hand while observing. (16 X 23 cm)
• Printed on thick heavy stock with smooth, glare-free finish.
• Generous amounts of overlap between adjacent charts.
• Easy to lay flat or fold back on itself.
• Charts are well thought out and well laid out.
• Green stick figures of constellations provide additional context for individual charts.
• Chart key is easy to find on inside of back cover.
• Commonly used information (chart key and legend) is repeated at regular intervals.
• Close up charts show further detail in areas of particular interest to amateurs.
• Excellent for starhopping in light polluted skies
• Vir die Noordelike halfrond ontwerp - Alles omgekeer in die Suide, maar steeds `n winskoop. (Hannes)

Cons:

• Not sure of durability after repeated exposure to dew
• May not have enough detail for effective starhopping under dark rural skies

Available from local online suppliers

Loot  (R142 + R22 delivery)  (Goedkoopste!)

Take Two (R142 + delivery cost)

Kalahari.net (R176.76 + delivery cost)

Also from Sky & Telescope  $19 +  $9.99 delivery cost)

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Small Asteroid to Pass Within Earth-Moon System Tuesday

A newly-discovered car-sized asteroid will fly past Earth early Tuesday. The asteroid, 2010 TD54, will make its closest approach to Earth at 6:51 EDT a.m. (3:51 a.m. PDT). Image credit: NASA/JPL 

October 11, 2010

PASADENA, Calif. -- A small asteroid will fly past Earth early Tuesday within the Earth-moon system. The asteroid, 2010 TD54, will have its closest approach to Earth's surface at an altitude of about 45,000 kilometers (27,960 miles) at 6:50 EDT a.m. (3:50 a.m. PDT). At that time, the asteroid will be over southeastern Asia in the vicinity of Singapore. During its flyby, Asteroid 2010 TD54 has zero probability of impacting Earth. A telescope of the NASA-sponsored Catalina Sky Survey north of Tucson, Arizona discovered 2010 TD54 on Oct. 9 at (12:55 a.m. PDT) during routine monitoring of the skies.

2010 TD54 is estimated to be about 5 to 10 meters (16 to 33 feet) wide. Due to its small size, the asteroid would require a telescope of moderate size to be viewed. A five-meter-sized near-Earth asteroid from the undiscovered population of about 30 million would be expected to pass daily within a lunar distance, and one might strike Earth's atmosphere about every 2 years on average. If an asteroid of the size of 2010 TD54 were to enter Earth's atmosphere, it would be expected to burn up high in the atmosphere and cause no damage to Earth's surface.
More info on car-sized asteroid

Russian manned spacecraft docks with ISS

A newly-modernized Russian Soyuz spacecraft (pictured before launch) carrying three astronauts on Sunday docked with the International Space Station (ISS) to double its crew to six, mission control said. The Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft is a modernised version of the ship used by Russia to put humans into the space and the first of a new series to have fully digital systems.

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