Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, How I Wonder Where You Are

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University Park, Pa. – Whether viewed dimly through the haze and lights of a city or in all their glory in a pristine wilderness, the stars that surround the Earth are magnificent, and one day Earthlings will travel to some of the new planets that astronomers are locating. However, the stars we see are not necessarily where we think they are, according to an international research team.

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Rocks Tell Stories In Reports Of Spirit's First 90 Martian Days

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Scientific findings from the NASA rover Spirit's first three months on Mars will be published Friday, marking the start of a flood of peer-reviewed discoveries in scientific journals from the continuing two-rover adventure.

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Henry

Cornell Astronomers Report How Rover Spirit's Cameras Have Detected Variations In Martian Soil

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ITHACA, N.Y. -- The eyes aboard the Mars rover Spirit are delivering ground truth.

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Instrument Aboard Hubble Space Telescope Suspends Operation

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One of four science instruments aboard NASA's Hubble's Space Telescope suspended operations earlier this week, and engineers are now looking into possible recovery options.

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Henry

Japan Deploys Solar Sail Film In Space

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Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science succeeded in deploying a big thin film for solar sail in space for the first time in the world.

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Dying Star Goes Out With A Ring

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A new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the shimmering embers of a dying star, and in their midst a mysterious doughnut-shaped ring.

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Relays From Mars Show International Interplanetary Networking

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One of NASA's Mars rovers has sent pictures relayed by the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter for the first time, demonstrating that the orbiter could serve as a communications link if needed.

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NASA Team Successfully Deploys Two Solar Sail Systems

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NASA engineers and their industry partners have successfully deployed two solar sails — each nearly 33 feet in length along one side — reaching a critical milestone in the development of a unique propulsion technology that could enable future deep space missions.

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Henry

Busy Year Ahead For Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Team

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With one very busy year remaining before launch, the team preparing NASA's next mission to Mars has begun integrating and testing the spacecraft's versatile payload.

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Trajectory Maneuver Brings Spacecraft Closer To Home

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Thirty days before its historic return to Earth with NASA's first samples from space since the Apollo missions, the Genesis spacecraft successfully completed its twentieth trajectory maneuver.

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What Is A Comet Made Of?

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A new method for looking at the composition of comets using ground-based telescopes has been developed by chemists at UC Davis.

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Water On Mars Not Easy To Find, Says Texas A&M Researcher

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COLLEGE STATION, Aug. 10, 2004 – Suspected large lakebeds that once were scattered on the planet Mars have not yet been found, say the research team that operated the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

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Henry

Hubble Peers Inside A Celestial Geode

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In this unusual image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures a rare view of the celestial equivalent of a geode - a gas cavity carved by the stellar wind and intense ultraviolet radiation from a young hot star.

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Henry

Cluster Finds Giant Gas Vortices At The Edge Of Earth’s Magnetic Bubble

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ESA’s quartet of space-weather watchers, Cluster, has discovered vortices of ejected solar material high above the Earth. The superheated gases trapped in these structures are probably tunnelling their way into the Earth’s magnetic ‘bubble’, the magnetosphere.

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("Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble...")

Scientists Discover Ganymede Has A Lumpy Interior

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Scientists have discovered irregular lumps beneath the icy surface of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede. These irregular masses may be rock formations, supported by Ganymede's icy shell for billions of years.

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("The ice was here, the ice was there...")

Out From The Shadows: Two New Saturnian Moons

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With eyes sharper than any that have peered at Saturn before, the Cassini spacecraft has uncovered two moons, which may be the smallest bodies so far seen around the ringed planet.

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(More moons? Why is this planet mooning us?)

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Henry

How Special Is The Solar System?

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On the evidence to date, our solar system could be fundamentally different from the majority of planetary systems around stars because it formed in a different way. If that is the case, Earth-like planets will be very rare.

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(Well, special or not, I kind of like it. )

Henry

Chandra Catches Early Phase Of Cosmic Assembly

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A NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory image has revealed a complex of several intergalactic hot gas clouds in the process of merging. The superb Chandra spatial resolution made it possible to distinguish individual galaxies from the massive clouds of hot gas.

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(Gas? Must be something they ate...)

Bedrock In Mars' Gusev Crater Hints At Watery Past

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Now that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is finally examining bedrock in the "Columbia Hills," it is finding evidence that water thoroughly altered some rocks in Mars' Gusev Crater.

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("Nor any drop to drink...")

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Henry

NASA Mission Returns With A Piece Of The Sun

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In a dramatic ending that marks a beginning in scientific research, NASA's Genesis spacecraft is set to swing by Earth and jettison a sample return capsule filled with particles of the Sun that may ultimately tell us more about the genesis of our solar system.

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(A piece of the sun? That could be hot stuff!)

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Henry

Deepest Image Of Exploded Star Uncovers Bipolar Jets

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A spectacular new image of Cassiopeia A released today from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has nearly 200 times more data than the "First Light" Chandra image of this object made five years ago. The new image reveals clues that the initial explosion, caused by the collapse of a massive star, was far more complicated than suspected.

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Periodic Dimming Of Bright Starlight Reveals Distant Planet

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BOULDER -- Scientists have made their first direct discovery of a planet orbiting a bright star using a network of small telescopes and the “transit method” of detection. A periodic dimming of light from a bright star 500 light years away revealed the planet’s presence. The star’s intense light will allow scientists to explore the chemical makeup of the planet’s atmosphere in future observations.

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Henry

Mars Odyssey Begins Overtime After Successful Mission

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NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter begins working overtime today after completing a prime mission that discovered vast supplies of frozen water, ran a safety check for future astronauts, and mapped surface textures and minerals all over Mars, among other feats.

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Tiny "David" Telescope Finds "Goliath" Planet

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Cambridge, MA -- Fifteen years ago, the largest telescopes in the world had yet to locate a planet orbiting another star. Today telescopes no larger than those available in department stores are proving capable of spotting previously unknown worlds.

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Henry

Guinness World Records Recognizes NASA Speed Record

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Guinness World Records has recognized the world speed record set by NASA's hypersonic X-43A aircraft earlier this year in an experimental flight over the Pacific Ocean. Using a scramjet engine, the unpiloted, 12 foot-long aircraft achieved Mach 6.83 -- almost seven times the speed of sound -- or nearly 5,000 mph, in a March 27 flight.

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(De plane! De plane!)

Scientists Discover First Of A New Class Of Extrasolar Planets

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August 31, 2004 -- Astronomers announced today the first discovery of a new class of planets beyond our solar system about 10 to 20 times the size of Earth - far smaller than any previously detected.

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(De planet! De planet!)

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Henry

The Rocks Of Mars: Opportunity Tool Back At Work

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NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has resumed using its rock abrasion tool after a pebble fell out that had jammed the tool's rotors two weeks ago.

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Cassini Reveals Saturn's Cool Rings

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The Cassini spacecraft has taken the most detailed temperature measurements to date of Saturn's rings. Data taken by the composite infrared spectrometer instrument on the spacecraft while entering Saturn's orbit show the cool and relatively warm regions of the rings.

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Henry

NASA A 'Go' For Midair Capture Of Samples From The Sun
(Catch it if you can.)

Genesis Sample Return Capsule Crashes
(Chute didn't open )

Spitzer Arrives At Scene Of Galactic Collision

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NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has set its infrared sight on a major galactic collision

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Our own Milky Way galaxy, for example, will eventually collide with our closest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy.

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(Eek.)

Henry

Genesis Team Begins Inventory Of Science Canister

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Genesis team specialists are beginning the process of conducting inventory of the contents of the craft's science canister.

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(Humpty Dumpty?)

NASA Gravity Probe B Mission Enters Science Phase, Ready To Test Einstein's Theory

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Gravity Probe B (GP-B), a NASA spacecraft to test two predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, achieved a major milestone this past week with the completion of the Initialization and Orbit Calibration (IOC) phase of its mission and the transition into the science phase. The GP-B mission is now one step closer to shedding new light on the fundamental properties of our universe.

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(But will it tell us if Warp drive is possible or not? )

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Henry

Genesis Scientists Bouncing Back From Hard Landing

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Scientists who conducted the preliminary assessment of the Genesis canister are encouraged by what they see. They believe it may be possible to achieve the most important portions of their science objectives.

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(Not as bad as it could'a been!)

Cassini Discovers Ring And One, Possibly Two, Objects At Saturn

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Scientists examining Saturn's contorted F ring, which has baffled them since its discovery, have found one small body, possibly two, orbiting in the F ring region, and a ring of material associated with Saturn's moon Atlas.

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(It keeps ringing and ringing and ringing...)

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Henry

Is This Speck Of Light An Exoplanet?

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Is a newly discovered feeble point of light the long-sought bona-fide image of an exoplanet?

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Major Milestone For Detecting Life On Mars

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Washington, D.C. -- "To detect life on Mars, we have to devise instruments to recognize it and design them in such a way to get them to the Red Planet most efficiently," said Dr. Andrew Steele of the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory, a member of an international team* designing devices and techniques to find life on Mars. "We've passed a major milestone. We successfully tested an integrated Mars life-detection strategy for the first time and showed that if life on Mars resembles life on Earth at all, we'll be able to find even a single-cell," he remarked.

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(In search of Uncle Martin?)

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Henry

Motions In Nearby Galaxy Cluster Reveal Presence Of Hidden Superstructure

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A nearby galaxy cluster is facing an intergalactic headwind as it is pulled by an underlying superstructure of dark matter, according to new evidence from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Astronomers think that most of the matter in the universe is concentrated in long large filaments of dark matter and that galaxy clusters are formed where these filaments intersect.

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(Cosmic strings, anybody?)

Largest Window For Space Completed

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A ceremony to mark development phase completion of Cupola was held in Turin, Italy, on Monday 6 September. From inside Cupola, a dome-shaped structure fitted with seven specially developed windows, astronauts will have a panoramic view for observing and guiding operations on the outside of the International Space Station (ISS).

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(So, who left the window open?)

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Henry

Huygens Test Successful

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ESA’s Huygens probe, now orbiting Saturn on board the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini spacecraft, is in good health and successfully passed its fifteenth ‘In-Flight Checkout’ on 14 September 2004.

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(Titan: not my choice of vacation spot - cold and probably smelly.)

Strings Of Shadowy Rings Drape Saturn

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Saturn's ring shadows appear wrapped in a harmonious symphony with the planet in this color view from the Cassini spacecraft.

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(The planet is ringing... somebody answer it!)

Earth's Best View Of The Stars – Antarctica's Dome C

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September 15, 2004 -- A small unmanned observatory high on the Antarctic plateau provides the best star-viewing site on Earth, according to research published today in Nature.

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(Better than Titan, but still not much of a vacation spot! BRRR!)

World's Most Powerful Ground-based Telescope To Be Unveiled

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The LBT Corp. has announced it will hold a series of events to mark the dedication of the world's most technologically advanced ground-based optical telescope.

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Henry

NASA Selects Contractor For First Prometheus Mission To Jupiter

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NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., selected Northrop Grumman Space Technology, Redondo Beach, Calif., as the contractor for co-designing the proposed Prometheus Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) spacecraft.

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(Is Prometheus to be unbound?)

Water And Methane Maps Overlap On Mars: A New Clue?

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Recent analyses of ESA’s Mars Express data reveal that concentrations of water vapour and methane in the atmosphere of Mars significantly overlap.

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(Methane? As clues go, that one could be smelly.)

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Henry

What Genesis Solar Particles Can Tell Us

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The recent crash of NASA's Genesis space probe may have looked like bad news for scientists, but its cargo of particles captured from the sun should still yield useful information, according to Qing-Zhu Yin, a planetary scientist at UC Davis.

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Massive Merger Of Galaxies Is The Most Powerful On Record

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An international team of scientists, led by a NASA-funded researcher, announced today, they observed a nearby head-on collision of two galaxy clusters. The clusters smashed together thousands of galaxies and trillions of stars.

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Henry

Rover Missions Renewed As Mars Emerges From Behind Sun

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As NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers resumed reliable contact with Earth, after a period when Mars passed nearly behind the Sun, the space agency extended funding for an additional six months of rover operations, as long as they keep working.

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Genesis Mission: First Scientific Sample Salvaged

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The Genesis team has shipped its first scientific sample from the mission's specially constructed cleanroom at the U.S. Army Proving Ground in Dugway, Utah. The sample, containing what are known as "lid foils," was attached to the interior lid of the Genesis sample return capsule.

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