Space hunt for new Earths

NASA's Kepler spacecraft is embarking on the first mission equipped with a new space telescope capable of detecting earth-like planets outside our solar system.
Kepler carries array of 42 charge-coupled devices largest camera ever launched into space.

ISS to receive final power-up

The space shuttle Discovery's STS-119 mission is due to deliver to the International Space (ISS) the last set of power-generating solar arrays, enabling the orbiting faility's crew to expand from three to six during 2009.

Strongest-ever gamma ray explosion reorded

Astronomers have disovered the "strongest-ever" gamma ray explosion , exceeding the power of some 9,000 exploding stars, in the deep space constellation Carina.
The blast was discovered by Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, a collaboration among NASA, the U.S Department of Energy and international partners, and its other instrument, the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, record the event.
Together, the two instruments have provided a view of blast's gamma-ray emission from energies ranging from 3,000 to more than five billion times that of visible light.The blast occured 12.2 billion light years.

A step closer to Earth-like planets

Earth- like planets with life-sustaining conditions are spining around stars in the galaxy of our neighbourhood but they have not been found yet, told by US astrophysics.
There are few dozen solar-type stars whih are 30 light years of the sun- half of them have Earth-like-planets.One light year equals the distance light travels in one year at the speed of 300,000 kms per sec.
US astrophysics are convinced that the Earth-sized planets could be found either by the Kepler space telescope US space agency NASA plans to launch on March 5, or by the French-European telescope equipment COROT satellite that has been in orbit since 2006.

Over the moon- Chandrayaan pictures

Image by Moon Impact Probe gives a closer view of moon's surface

American, Russian satellites collide

An American and a Russian communications satellite collided with each other hundreds of kms above the Earth and the scientists are monitoring on orbital debris created.
The collision occured over Serbia on 10th February, 2009 was of high impact said NASA officials and it will take weeks to determine the full magnitude of the crash and threat if any to other satellites.
However NASA believes that there is low threat to International Space Station and its three astronauts.
There has been four other cases in which space objects have collided accidentally in orbit NASA said but those were considered minor and involved parts of spent rockets or small satellites.

Scientist sees use of resources on Moon in future

Scientists around the world have come to understand that the Moon is the stepping stone for the future of human species beyond the Earth.
Moon Mineralogy Mapper , one of the 11 instruments on Chandrayaan-I has detected iron-bearing minerals in a lunar crater.
The crater is rich in olivine, which contains iron. Olivine can tell us about Moon and the Earth.
The current expectation is that water-ice is buried in lunar poles.

Spitzer telescope detects dust around carbon star

Dust plays an important role in the evolution of galaxies like our Milky Way.

With the help of NASA's Spitzer space telescope researchers have observed dust forming around the carbon star MAG 29, located 280,000 light years away from a smaller galaxy called the Sculptor Dwarf . Stars more massive than the sun end their lives as carbon stars, which in our galaxy are a rich source of dust.

The Sculptor Dwarf contains only 4% of the carbon and other heavy elements in our own galaxy.

The more we can understand the quantity and composition of the dust , the more we can understand how stars and galaxies evolve.