News, Saturday, 24 June 2006 SLAS Meeting Tuesday SLAS's June meeting will be held this coming Tuesday evening (the 27th) and will include a discussion with hands-on demonstrations about spectroscopy and diffraction gratings by Associate Professor of Astronomy & Physics at Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Brent A. Sorensen. http://slas.us/displayevent.asp?EventID=810 +++++ Space Shuttle Web and Television Coverage NASA Television and the agency's home on the Internet, http://www.nasa.gov, will provide extensive pre-launch and launch day coverage of the space shuttle Discovery's mission STS-121 to the International Space Station, currently scheduled for a July 1 launch. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/jun/HQ_06246_121_web_TV.html +++++ Shuttle's Launch Countdown Begins June 28 NASA will begin the countdown for the launch of space shuttle Discovery at 3 p.m. MDT June 28. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/jun/HQ_M06106_121_countdown.html +++++ Pluto's Newly Found Moons Named Meet the newest kids in the solar system: Nix and Hydra. http://www.comcast.net/news/science/index.jsp?cat=SCIENCE&fn=/2006/06/21/418... http://utahastro.info/files/SSFACTS.TXT +++++ NASA's Cassini Spacecraft Captures Saturnian Moon Ballet The cold, icy orbs of the Saturn system come to life in a slew of new movie clips from the Cassini spacecraft showing the ringed planet's moons in motion. http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press-release-details.cfm?newsID=668 +++++ A Tale of Two Moons Many denizens of the Saturn system wear a uniformly gray mantle of darkened ice, but not these two moons. http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2172 +++++ SMART-1 Mission Operations Until Moon Impact This is the final operational report for the SMART-1 mission and covers all the activities up to the end of the mission and a controlled impact with the lunar surface. http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=39395 http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMQFHL8IOE_index_0.html +++++ Three Sols of Driving Gain 138 Meters Opportunity is healthy. The rover has started receiving a new flight software load. It also advanced 138.1 meters toward "Victoria Crater" in three sols of driving and observed outcrop targets. http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol852 +++++ A Peek into 'Alamogordo Creek' On its 825th Martian day, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity stopped for the weekend to place its instrument arm onto the soil target pictured here, dubbed "Alamogordo Creek." http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20060615a.html +++++ Spirit "Warms up the Engines," Continues Work on Mars Since the beginning of Spirit's winter science campaign, the science and engineering teams have held joint meetings every few weeks to track campaign progress and come up with a strategic plan that balances engineering resources with science productivity. http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_spiritAll.html#sol874 +++++ The Clearest Skies on Earth Telescopes are perched at the tops of mountains because the air up there is thinner, drier and clearer than the view from sea level. But the best views of all are near the south pole in Antarctica... http://www.universetoday.com/2006/06/21/the-clearest-skies-on-earth/ +++++ Minor Planets Stick Together In January 2006, astronomers focused the Hubble Space Telescope on an icy rock near the orbit of Uranus — and found twins. http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1746_1.asp +++++ World’s First 100+ Million Pixel CCD The CCD device has a total resolution of over 111 million pixels (10,560 pixels x 10,560 pixels at 9µm). It is the world’s first imager to break the 100 million pixel barrier. http://www.dalsa.com/news/news.asp?itemID=252 +++++ MESSENGER Flips Sunshade Toward Sun On June 21, the MESSENGER spacecraft performed its final “flip" maneuver for the mission. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/status_report_06_21_06.html +++++ Pluto's Status To Be Determined There is only one thing that everyone seems to agree on: there are no longer nine planets in the Solar System. http://www.bnsc.gov.uk/content.aspx?nid=6113 +++++ Earth Hottest It's Been in 400 Years or More, Report Says The last two decades of the 20th century were the hottest in 400 years and quite likely the warmest for several millennia, a leading U.S. scientific body concludes in a new report. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060623-global-warming.html +++++ Video: Viking, Mars Trailblazer Thirty years ago, the Viking mission arrived at Mars http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/mars/viking-062206/ +++++ Hubble’s Main Camera Inop Cause is unknown, but managers are ‘very optimistic’ about fix. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13507599/ +++++ STS Update http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/news/status-20060623.html +++++ USS Update http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/jun/HQ_SS06029_ISS_status_report.html +++++ Cassini Update http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/sig-event-details.cfm?newsID=669 +++++ "Superman Returns" Science: Decoding the movie hero's powers. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060622-superman-movie.html +++++ ************************************************** ************************************************** Images and Data From Cassini-Huygens At: 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 asked to be subscribed. 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://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/ 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://users.wirelessbeehive.com/~paw/ 435.882.1209 801.918.9092