q_sharon
12/30/09, 02:25 PM
:itshere:
3. Hubble Telescope Peers Deeper Into the Universe
NASA's beloved Hubble Space Telescope survived deep-space surgery and emerged in better shape than ever in 2009. The 19-year-old telescope then celebrated its rebirth by spotting what might be the oldest, most distant galaxies ever discovered.
Hubble's new Wide Field Camera 3 peered into the infrared wavelengths – about twice as long and "redder" than visible light – to spot galaxies that formed 600 million years after the theoretical Big Bang, or roughly 13.1 billion years ago. If confirmed, the find may replace the current titleholders for earliest known galaxies and most distant object in the universe.
Records aside, Hubble also found time to scope out an unexpected impact on Jupiter.
2. Jupiter Under Fire
What an amateur astronomer first reported as a new dark spot on Jupiter turned out to be a huge planetary bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean, left by a wayward asteroid or comet in the summer of 2009. The massive cosmic impact easily rivaled another from 15 years ago, when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 walloped the king of the planets.
Astronomers estimated the culprit behind the impact as being no bigger than half a kilometer (0.3 miles) in size. Yet such a cosmic object would have contained thousands of times the energy of the Tunguska impact on Earth, which exploded over Siberia in 1908 and flattened an area as big as a city.
An impact of similar size on Earth would have likely proved catastrophic. But Earth observers can count their lucky stars this year and every year for Jupiter, which attracts dangerous space rocks with its massive size and gravitational pull.
1. Water on the Moon
Perhaps no other space science revelation this year proved as significant as the discovery of water on the moon. A moon long described as a barren, dry environment now dangles the tantalizing possibility of lunar colonies, not to mention a launching point for more distant space exploration.
Scientists first confirmed the traces of water in the uppermost layers of the lunar surface, based on detections of either water or a hydroxyl group (oxygen and hydrogen chemically bonded) made by India's Chandrayaan-1, NASA's Cassini spacecraft and NASA's Deep Impact probe. But their findings, detailed in a paper that came out in the Sept. 25 issue of the journal Science, had only just scratched the surface.
Then NASA's LCROSS probe slammed into the lunar south pole in October, and everything changed once more. The plume of debris thrown up by the probe's impact revealed water ice, and lots of it. Such ice could either become drinking water for future astronauts and colonists, or could provide hydrogen for rocket fuel.
Knowing that water awaits humans on the moon provides a validation of sorts for NASA's goal of putting boots back on the lunar surface. And it may also provide a much-needed boost for new generations of scientists and space explorers to continue pushing into the unknown for 2010 and beyond.
:idea::idea:
3. Hubble Telescope Peers Deeper Into the Universe
NASA's beloved Hubble Space Telescope survived deep-space surgery and emerged in better shape than ever in 2009. The 19-year-old telescope then celebrated its rebirth by spotting what might be the oldest, most distant galaxies ever discovered.
Hubble's new Wide Field Camera 3 peered into the infrared wavelengths – about twice as long and "redder" than visible light – to spot galaxies that formed 600 million years after the theoretical Big Bang, or roughly 13.1 billion years ago. If confirmed, the find may replace the current titleholders for earliest known galaxies and most distant object in the universe.
Records aside, Hubble also found time to scope out an unexpected impact on Jupiter.
2. Jupiter Under Fire
What an amateur astronomer first reported as a new dark spot on Jupiter turned out to be a huge planetary bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean, left by a wayward asteroid or comet in the summer of 2009. The massive cosmic impact easily rivaled another from 15 years ago, when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 walloped the king of the planets.
Astronomers estimated the culprit behind the impact as being no bigger than half a kilometer (0.3 miles) in size. Yet such a cosmic object would have contained thousands of times the energy of the Tunguska impact on Earth, which exploded over Siberia in 1908 and flattened an area as big as a city.
An impact of similar size on Earth would have likely proved catastrophic. But Earth observers can count their lucky stars this year and every year for Jupiter, which attracts dangerous space rocks with its massive size and gravitational pull.
1. Water on the Moon
Perhaps no other space science revelation this year proved as significant as the discovery of water on the moon. A moon long described as a barren, dry environment now dangles the tantalizing possibility of lunar colonies, not to mention a launching point for more distant space exploration.
Scientists first confirmed the traces of water in the uppermost layers of the lunar surface, based on detections of either water or a hydroxyl group (oxygen and hydrogen chemically bonded) made by India's Chandrayaan-1, NASA's Cassini spacecraft and NASA's Deep Impact probe. But their findings, detailed in a paper that came out in the Sept. 25 issue of the journal Science, had only just scratched the surface.
Then NASA's LCROSS probe slammed into the lunar south pole in October, and everything changed once more. The plume of debris thrown up by the probe's impact revealed water ice, and lots of it. Such ice could either become drinking water for future astronauts and colonists, or could provide hydrogen for rocket fuel.
Knowing that water awaits humans on the moon provides a validation of sorts for NASA's goal of putting boots back on the lunar surface. And it may also provide a much-needed boost for new generations of scientists and space explorers to continue pushing into the unknown for 2010 and beyond.
:idea::idea: