Venus Express spacecraft investigation finds atmospheric loss of hydrogen

It has long been known that Venus is hot with clouds high above in the atmosphere producing a greenhouse effect which traps heat . But underneath Venus' clouds, were there hot oceans or deserts / dry land? Then radar showed the landscape to be dry and arid with no water. Scientists understood that Venus had water, once like Earth but then lost its water. But the mystery was how ? Now the Venus Express spacecraft has made the first detection of an atmospheric loss process on Venus's day-side. The spacecraft has yielded data that revealed that most of the lostatmosphere escapes from the night-side. Planetary scientists are closer to understanding what happened to the water on Venus and all the processes that caused the water to disappear from Venus.

More at:
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM8MYSTGOF_index_0.html

The dynamic Saturn's small moon Enceladus

Scientists, using the Cassini spacecraft diving low to the surface oft the moon, finds even more evidence on Saturn's small moon Enceladus of a world which is even more dynamic.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0812/15enceladus/

Biggest, brightest and closest Moon of the year

Tonights Moon is 14% wider and 30% brighter than lesser Moons earlier in 2008. This occurs at perigee, the side of the Moon's elliptical orbit closest to Earth. Here is my picture of the event with my Canon Rebel taken through the trees with a nice moon halo surrounding it.

try to look for bright Geminid meteors starting tonight until this weekend

Yes that moon is bright over in the West near sunrise. It is located near the radiant (Gemini) before sunrise washing out everything in the sky particularly in the West but....

I stepped outside 6:10 Central am to get the newspaper. Well I happened to look up at the right time and saw a nice fat, yellow, zero magnitude Geminid flying across the Big Dipper.

Remember the brightest ones might be coming around 9 pm Earthgrazers so watch for them Dec 12- 14) Friday, Sat (Maxiumum) and Sunday night. These can appear all over the sky and are usually very long, very bright and can appear even in the areas that areas that are washed ouot by the moon. I am more interested in seeing the bright ones any way because those are the ones to remember this (and other showers ) yearly event.

Hope you see some. Please report any you see.

A spectacular (Perseid ) earthgrazer skimmed across the atmosphere near the Grand Tetons in August , 1972. Luckily it was caught on film.
Here is the link to see the video.
If you have not seen it before , the time has come

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=503_1215418331

Globular cluster: Hubble sees many stars

This very popular globular cluster has some of the oldest stars in a tight bunch. More here

http://news.aol.com/article/hubble-spots-celestial-snow-globe/270504

VENUS' GLOBAL CLOUD PATTERNS

It has sulphuric acid clouds and is very hot. The Venus Express spacecraft has found that  light on the atmospheric
 conditions that are responsible for the characteristic ultraviolet features in the Venusian
cloud deck
http://sci.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=43792

Students discover unique planet

Students discover unique planet
This extraordinary find is about 5 tim
also in the photo of the 3 students showing off their data, it looks they are showing it off on an Apple ibook
http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=7711

This week, Astronomy.com reported some intriguing comet research at Lowell Observatory in Arizona. A Lowell scientist, Dave Schleicher, studies the chemistry of comets. He and his colleagues recently found that Comet 96P/Machholz 1 has a weird chemistry. Machholz is extremely low in a chemical called cyanogen compared to other comets. The Lowell researchers think it may be a totally new class of comets, possibly cooked up billions of years ago in...
http://cs.astronomy.com/asycs/blogs/astronomy/2008/12/05/so-what-does-comet-96p-machholz-smell-like.aspx


Scientists find meteor debris in Canada
PHOTOS
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/28/AR2008112801930.html

University of Calgary graduate student Ellen Milley poses with a fragment of a meteorite in a small pond near Lloydminster, Sask., Canada Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. Scientists said Friday they had found remains of a meteor that illuminated the sky before falling to earth in western Canada earlier this month. University of Calgary scientist Alan Hildebrand and Milley found several meteor fragments near the Battle River along the rural Alberta-Saskatchewan border, near the city of Lloydminster late Thursday. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Geoff Howe)
University of Calgary graduate student Ellen Milley poses with a fragment of a meteorite in a small pond near Lloydminster, Sask., Canada Friday, Nov. 28, 2008. Scientists said Friday they had found remains of a meteor that illuminated the sky before falling to earth in western Canada earlier this month. University of Calgary scientist Alan Hildebrand and Milley found several meteor fragments near the Battle River along the rural Alberta-Saskatchewan border, near the city of Lloydminster late Thursday. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Geoff Howe) (Geoff Howe - AP)


other solar system news
http://webmail.aol.com/39997/aol/en-us/Suite.aspx

blog archives on right very nice

JETS ON THE MOON ENCELADUS what makes them work?

Scientists continue to search for the cause of the geysers on Saturn's small
moon Enceladus. Geysers are visible as a large plume like stream of water vapor
and ice particles escaping the moon. Inside the plume are jets of dust and
gas. What actually causes/controls the jets is enigma. The Cassini
spacecraft continues to collect new data to look for ideas and actual conclusions.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0812/02enceladus/

Great looking trio in the sky 12/1/2008

The forecast for Monday night was clear near Kansas City.

It started cloudy then started to get partly cloudy.

I drove down to Louisbourg, KS (south of Kansas City ) to take a picture at the observatory. The trio was remarkably pretty. I hope you all were able to take a peak

Here is one of my pics

Scientists find meteor debris in Canada after that huge fireball

The many videos floating on the youtube about this brilliant fireball now has another part to the story. Meteorites have been recovered.
see PHOTOS
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/28/AR2008112801930.html

Arkansas earthquakes portend a bigger one

Arkansas Quakes Could Offer Warning in the future. More investigation is needed to gauge possibly when a future earthquake may take place.
By JON GAMBRELL

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Nov. 28) - A series of small earthquakes that rattled central Arkansas in recent weeks could be a sign of something much bigger to come.
http://news.aol.com/article/arkansas-quakes-could-offer-warning/262244

3 out of 4 possible telltale signs now detected on planets beyond our own

Now Carbon Dioxide is detected in planets beyond our own. The next one to investigate and find is .... (look at the article)
By Robert Roy Britt
Editorial Director
posted: 23 November 2008
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/081123-planet-carbon-dioxide.html

Leonids and Light pillars

The Leonid meteor shower peaked on the morning of 11/17/2008. While many in Asia and Europe saw significant higher then average meteoric rates, in Kansas I saw nothing due to clouds. I did however see one nice Leonid the morning before.
While that phenomenon was in the atmosphere, Light pillars danced in the sky lower to the Earth. They appear like ice crystal laden auroras but they are not.
http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=22&month=11&year=2008

Closeup view of Saturn's moon shows special structures

This moon has been discovered to have unusual features. Here are the lastest pictures and closeups.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081119.html

Auroras over Saturn

Auroras can be seen over the Earth, both hemispheres. They are also seen above the atmospheres of other planets.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081119.html

Blach holes imaged

Black holes are amazing but seeing the regions where they are being imaged more and more.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081119.html

Asteroid Destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah?

I thought this was rather interesting. Some simulated research after finding an ancient rock with writings and drawing possibly depicts an small asteroid fall in the Austrian alps many years ago. However the title does not say that but refers more that such an asteroidal fall may have destroyed the bilblical Sodom and Gomorrah. I would have preferred that they stick the facts and the rock they found then trying to make assumptions to a Sodom and Gomorrah destructive. If there were more evidence in a Middle Eastern land about such an asteroid fall , I would find it more plausible. However I go congratulate them on finding the stone and decoding it.

Researchers: Asteroid Destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

By Lewis Smith
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,343674,00.html?sPage=fnc/scitech/space

Little creature reappears in an Indonesian rainforest

Tiny Primates Found Alive Again in Indonesian Rainforest

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

By Jeanna Bryner

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,454664,00.html

Leonids meteor shower 11/16 and 11/17 may be stronger then average

The famous Leonid meteor shower will peak Sunday starting 9 PM. While it is not supposed to be a meteor storm like 1966, 1999-2001, the rates are mentioned to be higher. At that time you can start to see earthgrazers which are usually brilliant and long meteors that skim the surface of the atmosphere. Just seeing one can be an awesome sight. More none earthgrazers will appear later on in the morning as the Leo constellation (looks like a big question mark in the south) rises higher and higher. We'll see what happens.

New possible extrasolar planet imaged

Here is a photo of a possible imaged planet beyond our solar system. Time will tell whether it is really called a planet (like a big Jupiter) or very small dwarf star.

photo of Fomalhaut b
Credit: NASA, ESA, P. Kalas, J. Graham, E. Chiang, E. Kite (Univ. California, Berkeley),
M. Clampin (NASA/Goddard), M. Fitzgerald (Lawrence Livermore NL),
K. Stapelfeldt, J. Krist (NASA/JPL)

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap081114.html

Fomalhaut is a bright, young, star, a short 25 light-years from planet Earth in the direction of the constellation Piscis Austrinus. The Hubble data represent the first visible-light image of a planet circling another star.

Has Pheonix lander demise end the mission?

Possibly the end has come to the Phoenix mission, five months after the spacecraft first landed 0n Mars' in the arctic plains and found water on another planet.

Mars Mission Ends for Phoenix Spacecraft
By ALICIA CHANG

http://news.aol.com/article/nasa-says-phoenix-mars-mission-is-over/180473

All sky camera photograhs many bright meteors

I've watched meteors for many years and seen some real bright ones. However this camera does things better by capturing them in a 360 view. Look at all of them captured over a period of time.
11/08/2008
http://www.spaceweather.com/
can't find it? use the archives and go to earlier date other then this one

Photo of trail from asteroid that came through atmosphere

A small asteroid that was detected and came through the atmosphere left a big trail over the skies in Africa. This was the first time such a detection was found and watched as it came through the atmosphere.
November 8,2008
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
can't find it? use the archives and go to earlier date other then this one

European Taurid fireball lights up the sky

The low file Taurid meteor shower is putting out some fireballs for the next few days after midnight. Here is several photos of one that lit up the sky. It was about as bright as the moon.
http://spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Roman-Piffl-tau_20081105_204238_5D_1225929890.jpg

Spaceweather variety of phenomenon photos

Float /click onto the little ball like tick marks to see some nice photos that will float up
http://spaceweather.com/submissions/map.php