News, Thursday, 13 July 2006 Star Party Saturday A reminder that SLAS will be opening both buildings at SPOC this coming Saturday evening, the 15th for a free public star party. http://slas.us/displayevent.asp?EventID=845 +++++ Pre-Star Party Weeding? Anyone interested in doing a bit of pre-star party weeding this Saturday starting about 8:00 p.m.? Should not take more than an hour if we can get 4 or 5 folks to help out. If you can help, please reply to paw@wirelessbeehive.com. +++++ Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys Resumes Exploring the Universe After a brief hiatus, the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is back in business, probing the far reaches of space in a quest to understand the true nature of the universe’s most dominant constituent: dark energy. http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2006/36/ +++++ Controlling Robots that Search for Mars Life As part of ESA's ambitious, long-term Aurora exploration programme, ExoMars will search for traces of life on Mars. http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMOQEL8IOE_ind +++++ The SMART-1 Way - Giving the Moon Some Great New Looks During its 15-month science mission at the Moon, ESA's SMART-1 returned up to 1000 images per week, whose analysis is still keeping the scientists busy. http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMGA4XAIPE_index_0.html +++++ Getting Closer to 'Victoria Crater' Opportunity is healthy. This week, Opportunity continued uplinking its new flight software load and driving toward "Victoria Crater." http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol867 +++++ SMART-1 view of crater Sulpicius Gallus This mosaic of three images, taken by ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft, shows the area close to the Sulpicius Gallus crater on the Moon. http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMGV5XAIPE_index_0.html +++++ Rings Occulting Titan Titan shines beyond the rings like a brilliant ring of fire, its light gleaming here and there through the gaps in Saturn's magnificent plane of ice. http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=2195 +++++ Predicting Solar Eruptions Explosions from the Sun could be deadly for astronauts traveling to the Moon or Mars — and no one knows when they will blow. http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1754_1.asp +++++ Sub-Millimetre Astronomy in Full Swing on Southern Skies The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) 12-m sub-millimetre telescope lives up to the ambitions of the scientists by providing access to the "Cold Universe" with unprecedented sensitivity and image quality. http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2006/pr-24-06.html +++++ Flying Over the Cloudy World On 20 April 2006, after its first 9-day, elongated orbit around Venus, ESA’s Venus Express started to get closer to the planet, until it reached its final 24-hour long orbit on 7 May. During this time, and up to today, the spacecraft has been working relentlessly. http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM9A3XAIPE_index_0.html +++++ Should We Flood the Air With Sulphur? A soon-to-be-published paper by a Nobel laureate will seriously consider injecting sulphur into the stratosphere to combat climate change. http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060710/full/060710-9.html +++++ TV and Web Coverage of Shuttle Discovery NASA is providing round-the-clock coverage of Discovery's flight to the space station. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2006/jul/HQ_M06111_121_coverage.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 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