Happy Halloween from Cassini spacecraft team

Cassini spacecraft team has wished every one Happy Halloween.

Cassini spacecraft would be flying to the moon of Saturn, Enceladus on Nov 2, 2009 .

Cassini will go deep into the moon of Saturn.

First ever close-up look of solar flare

NASA's spacecraft Messenger has recorded a closed-ever-look at the solar flare . It was the first time that the scientists have got a close-up look at neutron production during solar flare. The scientists were able to record neutrons from this flare over 6 to 10 hours.

The study of solar flare radiation is important for space flight programs as they can damage satellites and can endanger astronauts working in International Space Station.

Moon crash plume visible to spacecraft

The image of impact plume of "moon bombing" by NASA.

In my previous blog posts Moon bombing to probe water and Was NASA moon bombing a success i told you about "moon bombing" by NASA .

NASA had said that observers from Earth will be able to see the plume of " Moon bombing'' with their telescopes but no one was able to see that from Earth.

Acoording to NASA nine instruments on board the LCROSS spacecraft captured the entire crash sequence of the Centaur impactor before the spacecraft itself impacted the surface of the moon.

From images and data, the team was able to determine the extent of the plume at 15 seconds after impact was approximately 6-8 km in diameter. The data which which the spacecraft has gathered is of high quality.

Orionid meteor shower

For everyone who love to watch meteor shower.The Orionid shower peaks the night of October 20/21, with the best views coming before dawn on the 21st.We can expect to see 20 to 30 "shooting stars" per hour — an average of one every 2 to 3 minutes — at the Orionids' peak.

If there will be no Moon then people will be able to see what the shower has to offer.The best views will come in the hours before dawn starts to paint the sky, between about 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.

These meteors began life as tiny specks of dust ejected by Comet Halley during its innumerable trips around the Sun.

Image of Galaxy M31

NASA's Swift satellite acquired the highest-resolution view of a neighboring spiral galaxy ever attained in the ultraviolet. The galaxy, known as M31 in the constellation Andromeda, is the largest and closest spiral galaxy to our own.

The image was taken by Swift's Ultraviolet Telesecope.

NASA has released rare footage of Sun erupting

NASA spacecraft has captured a rare footage of Sun erupting for the first time.



The phenomenon came to an end and the cloud lifted up.



Enjoy the video .

Image of collison between two Milky- way like Galaxies

Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of collision between two Milky-Way like galaxies.

These two galaxies are known as NGC 2623 or Arp 243 are in the stages of emerging . The tail of NGC 2623 is richly populated with bright star clusters.

The galaxy NGC 2623 is an extensively studied galaxy and is bright in the infrared.

Was NASA "Moon bombing" a success ?

NASA's Lunar CRater Obsevation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) impacted the Moon's crater Cabeus on October 9, 2009 near the South Pole to find if the permanently shadowed crater might be hiding water.

NASA previously eatimated that the debris plume would be witnessed by viewers on Earth with a 12 inch or large telescope , but no one on Earth witnessed it and the images broadcasted by LCROSS also did not showed debris plume.

However, LCROSS captured some high quality data.

Moon "bombing" to probe water

On Friday that is today 9th September, 2009 a NASA spacecraft known as Centaur will crash on the South pole of Moon with a force that will throw 350 tonnes of lunar debris and create a 13-foot-deep-crater.

Soon four minutes after the crash another spacecraft Shepherding will fly through the debris and crashland on Moon's surface.

These Four minutes will decide about the preparation of 3 years , space travel of four months . A whopping $79 million has been invested on the preparation.

If LCROSS proves water resides on the Moon, it could be a boon for engineers in the early stages of planning for a human return to the lunar surface.

The impact will be observed by observatories all over the world.

Images by Herschel's camera of our Milky way

Two Herschel's camera has taken images simultaneously of our Milky way which has never been seen before.

The image reveals a cold and turbulent region where material is just beginning to condense into new stars. It is located in the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, 60 degrees from the center. Blue shows warmer material, red the coolest, while green represents intermediate temperatures.

Large areas of the Milky Way will be studied in a systematic way by Herschel , which will help astronomers to find the mysteries of star formation .

Northern lights a rare atmospheric phenomenon

Northern lights are the rare occuring faint atmospheric phenomenon seen in the nite sky at higher altitudes which are yellow-green lights.

Northern lights are also known as Aurora and are more visible in Central Europe and the UnitedStates.

Causes of Northern lights:

Northern lights are caused by the stream of particles constantly which are flowing from Sun that carries the Sun's magnetic field out into space. The solar wind is moving at a speed of 400km/sec flows past Earth's magnetic field and molds it into an elongated bubble.

Powerful events occurring on the Sun can drive enormous changes in the solar wind, increasing both its speed and density and enhancing its effect on Earth.

Northern lights do have an effect on our day to day lives. Here i would like to site some examples from the past.

During the aurora of September 2, 1859 the currents of electricity on the telegraph wires were so steady and powerful that, on several lines, the operators succeeded in using them for telegraphic purposes as a substitute for the battery and for some time messages were transmitted solely on auroral currents.

Northern lights are a beauty to watch.

Soyuz finally lifts off

Soyuz the Russian rocket soyuzreadyforliftoff was finally launched from from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009, on its way to the International Space Station.

It is carrying Expedition 21 flight engineers Jeffrey Williams and Maxim Suraev, as well as a spaceflight participant.