Cassini has found Titan’s upper atmosphere to consist of a surprising number of layers of haze, as shown in this ultraviolet image of Titan’s night-side limb, colourised to look like true colour. The many fine haze layers extend several hundred kilometres above the surface. Although this is a night side view, with only a thin …
Unravelling the chemistry of Titan’s hazy atmosphere Read More »
A trip to Phobos comes with extras (Image: NASA/JPL) 16 September 2009 by David Shiga FORGET the risk of exploding rockets or getting sideswiped by a wayward bit of space junk. Radiation may be the biggest hurdle to human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and could put a damper on a recently proposed mission to Mars …
Too much radiation for astronauts to make it to Mars Read More »
ESO – The expanding shell around V445 Puppis Using the NACO adaptive optics instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope and its ability to obtain images as sharp as if taken from space, astronomers have made the first time-lapse movie of a bipolar shell ejected by a “vampire star”, which underwent an outburst after gulping down …
Brought to you by: Hermanus Times 01/10/2009 02:01 PM – (SA) South Africa and more particularly, the HMO (Hermanus Magnetic Observatory) have been engaged in an exciting space technology programme which resulted in the launch of the second SA satellite, Sumbandilasat, on 17 September from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Russia. This satellite was designed and built …
Hermanus Magnetic Observatory helps put micro-satellite in space Read More »
The solar system is protected from galactic cosmic rays by the heliosphere, a giant magnetic bubble around the sun (Illustration: Richard Mewaldt/Caltech) 29 September 2009 by David Shiga Like a wounded Starship Enterprise, our solar system’s natural shields are faltering, letting in a flood of cosmic rays. The sun’s recent listlessness is resulting in record-high …
