Mapex

Archive for January, 2010

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden participates in a wreath laying ceremony as part of NASA’s Day of Remembrance, Friday, Jan. 29, 2010, at Arlington National Cemetery. Wreathes were laid in memory of those men and women who lost their lives in the quest for space exploration. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will brief reporters about the agency’s fiscal year 2011 budget at 3 p.m. EST on Monday, Feb. 1.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will brief reporters about the agency’s fiscal year 2011 budget at 3 p.m. EST on Monday, Feb. 1.

Though they are the largest and most widely scattered objects in the universe, galaxies do go bump in the night. The Hubble Space Telescope has photographed many pairs of galaxies colliding. Like snowflakes, no two examples look exactly alike. This is one of the most arresting galaxy smash-up images to date. At first glance, it looks as if a smaller galaxy has been caught in a tug-of-war between a Sumo-wrestler pair of elliptical galaxies. The hapless, mangled galaxy may have once looked more like our Milky Way, a pinwheel-shaped galaxy. Now that it’s caught in a cosmic blender, its dust lanes are being stretched and warped by the tug of gravity. Unlike the elliptical galaxies, the spiral is rich in dust and gas for the formation of new stars. It is the fate of the spiral galaxy to be pulled like taffy and then swallowed by the pair of elliptical galaxies, which will trigger a firestorm of new stellar creation. If there are astronomers on any planets in this galaxy group, they will have a ringside seat to seeing a flurry of star birth unfolding over many millions of years to come. Eventually, the elliptical galaxies should merge, creating one single super-galaxy many times larger than our Milky Way. This trio is part of a tight cluster of 16 galaxies, many of them being dwarf galaxies. This particular galaxy cluster is called the Hickson Compact Group 90 and lies about 100 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish. Image Credit: NASA, ESA and R. Sharples (University of Durham)

NASA’s Mars exploration rover Opportunity is allowing scientists to get a glimpse deep inside Mars.

People across Africa and Asia marvelled at the solar eclipse that took place on 15 January. At the same time it was being recorded from orbit – by ESA’s Sun-watching Proba-2.

Members of the STS-129 shuttle mission present a specially minted silver medallion to National Football League officials on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010, at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. The coin, which was flown in space during the November flight of Atlantis, will be used for the official coin toss prior to the kickoff of Super Bowl XLIV on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010. One member of Atlantis’ crew, Leland Melvin, was drafted by the NFL’s Detroit Lions in 1986. The crew also flew other NFL-related memorabilia, including jerseys and a football inscribed with the name of every member of the Hall of Fame. From left: Astronauts Bobby Satcher, Randy Bresnik, and Charlie Hobaugh; Joe Horrigan, Vice President of Communications/Exhibits for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Steve Perry, President/Executive Director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame; astronauts Berry Wilmore, Michael Foreman and Leland Melvin. Photo Credit: NASA/Marv Smith

NASA and the Israel Space Agency have signed a joint statement that recognizes the Israel Network for Lunar Science and Exploration, or INLSE, as an affiliate partner with the NASA Lunar Science Institute at the agency’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

Space shuttle Endeavour is set to begin a 13-day flight to the International Space Station with a Feb. 7 launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Liftoff is planned for 4:39 a.m. EST, making this the final scheduled space shuttle night launch.

Yesterday, Mr René Oosterlinck, ESA’s Director of the Galileo Programme and Navigation-related Activities, signed the first three contracts for the Galileo full operational capability phase. This event marks the start of building the Galileo operational infrastructure.