ANDROID FLYBYS: Our field-tested satellite tracker is now available for Android phones. Features: Global predictions and flyby alarms! Learn more. | | | SBSS LAUNCH DELAYED: The US Air Force's first Space Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) spacecraft will not launch on July 8th as planned. The Minotaur IV launch vehicle might have a software problem, just identified in a laboratory test of another Minotaur IV. When the SBSS does get off the ground, it will use a large onboard telescope to track space debris and other "potential future threats to the United States' space assets," according to prime contractor Boeing. A SUNSPOT APPROACHES: For several days, NASA's STEREO-B spacecraft has been monitoring an apparent sunspot on the far side of the sun. Just yesterday, it erupted and hurled a bright coronal mass ejection over the edge of the solar disk (movie). Now, the sunspot itself is approaching: The Solar and Dynamics Observatory took this extreme ultraviolet picture just hours ago. It shows the spot's magnetic canopy towering over the sun's eastern limb, heralding the appearance of the sunspot's core on July 9th or 10th. After that the active region will turn to face Earth and any further eruptions could be geo-effective. Stay tuned for space weather. PLUTO AND THE BLACK CLOUD: Pluto has nearly completed its week-long transit across Barnard 92, an inky black cloud of dust in the constellation Sagittarius. Tim Knauer sends this picture from the MacAdam Student Observatory at the University of Kentucky: "I used our 0.5-meter reflector to take this picture on July 7th," says Knauer. Such a large telescope is not required, however, to see the dwarf planet against the dust cloud's velvety backdrop. Amateur astronomers with 8- to 10-inch optics are having success as well. Browse the images below for more views of Pluto's lonely crossing. more images: from John G. McClung of San Marcos, Texas; from Dr Paolo Candy of Ci.A.O. Cimini Astronomical Observatory, Italy; from John Chumack of Yellow Springs, Ohio; from Anthony Ayiomamitis of Athens, Greece; from Bob Runyan of Shelton, Nebraska; from Terry Evans of Exmoor, Somerset, UK; from Alfredo Garcia Jr of Chuchupate Campground area, Lockwood Valley, CA; from Jim Tomaka of Alamogordo, NM; from Joao Porto of Azores, Ponta Delgada Lunar Eclipse Photo Gallery [Science@NASA: Big Lunar Eclipse] [astronomy alerts] May 2010 Aurora Gallery [previous Mays: 2008, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002] [aurora alerts] |