News, Thursday, 14 SEP 2006 Star Party Saturday Weather permitting SLAS will host a public star party Saturday evening at SPOC. SLAS's very own walking/talking encyclopedia of astronomy Dave Bernson will speak on constellations and mythology starting at 7:00. Observing to start at 8:00. http://slas.us/displayevent.asp?EventID=849 +++++ SPOC News SPOC director Bruce Grim reports the observatory will be closed for the winter from 1 November through 28 February. +++++ Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Reaches Planned Flight Path NASA's newest spacecraft at Mars has completed the challenging half-year task of shaping its orbit to the nearly circular, low-altitude pattern from which it will scrutinize the planet. http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/newsroom/pressreleases/20060912a.html +++++ A "Genetic Study" of the Galaxy Galactic bulge and disc stars shown to have different oxygen abundances. http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2006/pr-34-06.html +++++ Electric Ice Imagine looking inside a million clouds. That's what NASA researchers have done using the TRMM satellite to explore the strange connection between lightning and ice. http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/13sep_electricice.htm?list864576 +++++ Finishing Up Scuff Work and Heading for 'Emma Dean' Opportunity is healthy and just over 100 meters from "Victoria Crater." The rover completed robotic arm work on a scuff mark it made on sol 919. http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol928 +++++ Spirit Monitors Dust and Searches for Clouds Spirit is healthy and continues to make progress on the rover's winter science campaign. http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_spiritAll.html#sol950 +++++ Pluto Gets an Asteroid Number Without fanfare, the September 7th batch of circulars from the Minor Planet Center assigns number 134340 to Pluto. http://skytonight.com/news/home/3888097.html +++++ Puny Black Holes Can Eject Milky Way's Stars New calculations suggest the giant black hole at the heart of the galaxy is not the only bully flinging stars out into space. http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn10020-puny-black-holes-can-eject-... +++++ NASA Sees Rapid Changes in Arctic Sea Ice NASA data shows that Arctic perennial sea ice, which normally survives the summer melt season and remains year-round, shrunk abruptly by 14 percent between 2004 and 2005. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/sep/HQ_06315_sea_ice.html +++++ Changes in Solar Brightness Too Weak to Explain Global Warming Changes in the Sun's brightness over the past millennium have had only a small effect on Earth's climate... http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2006/brightness.shtml +++++ Astronomers Trace the Evolution of the First Galaxies in the Universe A systematic search for the first bright galaxies to form in the early universe has revealed a dramatic jump in the number of such galaxies around 13 billion years ago. http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/press_releases/text.asp?pid=939 http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2006/44/ +++++ New Superlens Opens Door to Nanoscale Optical Imaging... (Thanks to Siegfried Jachmann for passing this on.) A group of scientists is giving new relevance to the term "sharper image" by creating a superlens... http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/04/21_superlens.shtml +++++ Cosmic Archeology Uncovers the Universe's Dark Ages Astronomers using the Subaru telescope in Hawaii have looked 60 million years further back in time than any other astronomers, to find the most distant known galaxy in the universe. http://www.subarutelescope.org/Pressrelease/2006/09/13/index.html +++++ ESA Experiments With Spaceflight Participant Ansari to ISS Scheduled to lift off on 18 September entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari will be the test subject for four ESA experiments during her stay on board the International Space Station. http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEMQRH7LURE_research_0.html +++++ Clouds Over Titan This image depicts Saturn's moon Titan as seen by the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer after closest approach on a July 22, 2006, flyby. http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2268 +++++ Of Craters and Erosion: Opportunity Examines "Beagle" This 360-degree view shows one of Opportunity's last stops on the now-familiar surface of Meridiani Planum before reaching different terrains associated with the very large "Victoria Crater." http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20060913a.html +++++ Stereo Version of Spirit's 'Everest' Panorama NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit used its panoramic camera (Pancam) to record a 360-degree vista, dubbed the "Everest" panorama, from the top of "Husband Hill" in early October 2005. http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20060911b.html +++++ NASA Lands A Space On Monopoly Rent, own or build a community at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Deed title price: $1.8 million. http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA_Lands_A_Space_On_Monopoly_999.html +++++ Russian Duma Rejects Madonna Space Holiday Russia's parliament voted Wednesday against a motion to send Madonna to the International Space Station in 2008. http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Russian_Duma_Rejects_Madonna_Space_Holiday... +++++ Burning Man 2006 From Space http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/press_releases/text.asp?pid=939 +++++ ************************************************** ************************************************** Free Telescopes For SLAS Members SLAS has several scopes available for free, long term loan to current SLAS members who have belonged to SLAS for at least 30 days. http://slas.us/membership_benefits.htm +++++ Images and Data From Cassini-Huygens At:s http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/latest/index.cfm http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-releases.cfm +++++ Information On The Mars Rovers At: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html +++++ SLAS 2006 Star Party Schedule http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/LOCAL.HTML +++++ SSA / UMNH 2006 Southern Utah Public Star Party Schedule http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/STARPARTIES.HTML +++++ ************************************************** News is being sent to you because of your affiliation with the Salt Lake Astronomical Society or because you are subscribed to the Utah Astronomy Listserve. To unsubscribe please send your request to paw at wirelessbeehive dot com. Check out my NASA Solar System Ambassador web site at: http://www.umnh.utah.edu/utahsky and mirrored at http://utahastro.info/ For astronomy clubs in Utah see: http://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/UTAHCLUBS.HTML For the Utah Astronomy Listserve see: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy ************************************************** -- Patrick Wiggins NASA Solar System Ambassador to Utah & NE Nevada paw at wirelessbeehive dot com http://www.umnh.utah.edu/utahsky http://utahastro.info/ 435.882.1209 801.918.9092