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views:6882
00:02:08
07/01/2010
Water on Mars
For the last ten years, NASA has been looking for evidence of water on Mars. Now, it has been confirmed that water, in the form of ice, does exist the
re.
The ice is underground, which is where NASA was expecting to find it. Phoenix is a lander, not a rover, and thus does not move. It has a long robot arm which can dig into the ground. This arm has dug deep down into the soil for a sample, which has then been put into a tiny laboratory inside the Phoenix, and after tests it has been confirmed to be water. Within this water is a chemical that could possibly support life.
Related Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P-CkH51lHI
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Keywords:water on Mars, NASA, Phoenix lander, Mars rover, underground ice on Mars
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views:6119
00:05:03
06/12/2009
Saturn's Moon Titan
For three years, Cassini, the mother ship that brought the research probe Huygens to Titan, will continue to orbit this orange moon of Saturn and cont
inue to examine its secrets.
The purpose of Cassini was not to simply get the Huygens probe to Titan, but to be able to conduct research on its own.
Cassini has revealed that Titan’s surface is actively being transformed by geological processes. Methane rain continually causes erosion. Lava flows from cryovolcanos – they are cold volcanoes which erupt a “bizarre” form of water – water mixed with ammonia.
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Keywords:bbc titan moon universe planet space human exploration race station tracking saturn jupiter technology pictures life outer BBC BBCWorldwide Titan Saturn Space Probe Discovery Moons
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views:7523
00:02:50
01/12/2009
Planetary Life after Death
When a massive star dies, it becomes a super nova, in an explosion so bright that it briefly outshines everything else in the galaxy. Most of the heav
y elements that make up planets, are forged in the nuclear furnaces of such explosions. These elements are then blown back into the galaxy, where they mingle with interstellar gases – the next generation of baby stars forms from this material, now enriched with building blocks for growing new solar systems and planets.
The star that went super nova still remains in the form of a pulsar – as a core that is tiny and dense. Even these dead pulsars might play host to a whole new generation of planet formation.
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Keywords:NASA , astronomy Spitzer space telescope neutron star supernova planet
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views:6741
00:09:55
27/11/2009
James Webb Space Telescope
A telescope above our turbulent atmosphere can see much finer detail, and capture invisible colors of light that are blocked by the atmosphere. The de
sign of the James Webb Space Telescope is driven by the need of astronomers for a next-generation, infrared observatory. Infrared is key to penetrating dusty shrouds where stars and planets are born, and for capturing the light emitted by the earliest stars and galaxies.
Coated in gold that reflects infrared light, Webb’s light gathering mirror segments are made of beryllium, which maintains its shape at very low temperatures. A sunshield protects the telescope from the intense light and heat of the sun. The telescope must be kept at 40 degrees above absolute zero, or its own infrared glow will overwhelm the faint sources of light that astronomers are trying to observe.
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Keywords:esa, hst, hubble, james, jwst, nasa, sm4, space, spacevidcast, sts-125, stsi, telescope, webb
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views:7937
00:04:58
26/11/2009
Ion Propulsion Engine
NASA began the high-risk project Deep Space One in 1995. The team was given just three years to get from blueprint to launch pad. They created a space
craft with twelve new technologies - none had ever been tested before.
Of these, three were the most important, which would change space travel forever: a totally new type of engine, a smart navigation system, and the ability to repair itself.
The first challenge was to create a spacecraft that could propel the spacecraft over a billion miles away from earth. For that, they needed enormous power in a small package. They chose ion drive. The first ion drive was actually conceived during World War II, by rocket scientist Werner von Braun. When he came to the United States after the war, von Braun began to think of a rocket engine that would eventually become the ion drive - using electricity.
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Keywords:Ion Propulsion, smart navigation, RI drive, Deep Space One, Ion Drive, Werner Von Braun
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views:6829
00:03:21
24/11/2009
Mission Dawn
In the summer of 2007, a Delta II rocket carried the Dawn spacecraft beyond earth’s and out into the solar system. Its target, the asteroid belt betwe
en Mars and Jupiter. Specifically, the asteroid Vesta (arrival estimated between 2010-2011) and the asteroid Ceres (arrival estimated in 2015).
The asteroid belt is the “bone yard” of material, fragments of explosions of planetary embryos, perhaps, or material that has come in to the solar system and been captured. Vesta is the brightest asteroid in the solar system, and the only one visible to the naked eye. It’s got an iron core, like the earth does, and it may have had many of the processes that the earth has.
The three science instruments on Dawn will work together to tell scientists about the surfaces of the body, which will enable scientists to extrapolate back to their creation. Scientists believe Ceres represents a transition from the rocky terrestrial planets of the inner solar system, to the gaseous icy worlds of the outer solar system. To accomplish this journey, Dawn is powered by an ion engine. With this propulsion, Dawn will be the first spacecraft ever to orbit two distant bodies.
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Keywords:NASA, Project Dawn, Planet X, Niburu, Ceres, liquid water, ion engines, Vesta, Marc Rayman
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views:6144
00:01:58
19/11/2009
How to Deflect a Killer Asteroid
If an asteroid is predicted to hit the earth, how could it be affected in such a way so that the path of asteroid on this collision course could be de
flected away? If one has ten year’s advance notice that an asteroid is on a collision course with earth, scientists can set off an explosion close to the asteroid, but not quite on it, and maximize the radiation from the explosion, this would deflect it a few centimeters per second in velocity.
But would a change in speed of a few centimeters per second be enough to save the world? The minimum safe distance the scientists came up with is 6,000 km – the earth’s approximate radius. With the advance warning of ten years, an increase in the speed of the asteroid by a couple of centimeters per second would save the planet.
Related Video 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-ReuLZ2quc
Related Video 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcqFy1zjdys
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Keywords:killer asteroid, Armageddon, space collision
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views:5733
00:02:21
01/11/2009
Breach of Earth's Magnetosphere
NASA’s THEMIS mission has overturned a long-standing belief about the interaction between solar particles and the earth’s magnetic field. The earth’s
magnetic field forms a protective field around the earth, shielding us from the solar wind that is constantly streaming towards the planet. This shield is called the magnetosphere.
But the sun has a magnetic field of its own, as well, which the solar wind carries toward earth. The THEMIS spacecraft fleet recently observed that 20 times more solar particles get into the earth’s magnetosphere when the sun’s magnet field aligns with that of the earth, than when it is pointed in opposite direction.
In the past, researchers found that the energy from the sun gets into the earth’s magnetic field during periods when the sun’s magnetic field points southward. Now it has been found that the particles get into the earth’s magnetic field when it points northward. These solar wind particles that get into the earth’s magnetic field, are energized, and become the earth radiation belts, which can damage spacecraft and harm astronauts.
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Keywords:THEMIS project, solar wind, magnetosphere, radiation, solar storm
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views:6299
00:03:27
18/10/2009
Saturn's Rings
Galileo discovered Saturn’s Rings in 1610 and since then it has been a long and intriguing journey of discovering newer and interesting things about t
hem. Saturn’s Rings stretch over a 150000 miles across and they are composed of countless chunks of ice. These chunks range in sizes and they constantly collide gently with each other. Different theories exist regarding the origin of these rings. The Saturn is orbited by a retinue of moons. One of them, Mimas, orbits just outside the rings. Over a period of millions of years, the gravity of Mimas has carved out a gap in the rings called the Casssini division. The Casssini spacecraft has been orbiting Saturn since 2004 and it has returned the best images of Saturn and its ring system.
Scientists discover massive ring around Saturn: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/10/07/space.saturn.ring/
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Keywords:solar system, galaxy, planets, Earth, Saturn, Mars, Galileo, Saturn’s Rings, Mimas, Casssini division
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views:5878
00:04:38
07/10/2009
Earth-like Planet in Habitable Zone
Astronomers and scientists across the world continue relentlessly in their quest to find life on other planets in the universe. In one such attempt, a
team of French, Portuguese and Swiss scientists have discovered a planet that is said to be the most earth-like planet discovered till date. It is an exo-planet with liquid on its surface and with a radius only 50% larger than the earth. The planet completes a full orbit in 13 days and it is located 20 light years from the Earth. The planet orbits a red dwarf and is in the habitable zone. Astronomers use methods such as the radio velocity method since such planets are difficult to detect in the glare of the stars.
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Keywords:stars, planets, galaxies, Sun, universe, Astronomers, space science, Earth, Moon, radio velocity
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