A Whole New World

•August 2, 2011 • Leave a Comment

This is Vesta and it’s a whole new world.

We never saw Vesta in such details before. The best we get before this is an image from Hubble Space Telescope, and it is a blur. Only last month, when a spacecraft called Dawn enters orbit around this second largest asteroid in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, do we get a good look at it, and wow!

This asteroid is big (in asteroid sense), roughly 500 km across and clearly it’s not a sphere. That is the reason why it is not qualified as a dwarf planet. The image shows a lot of details such as craters, grooves and dark streaks. Also can be seen is the different distribution of craters on the surface, with more cratering on the upper left (north) and smoother region on the bottom right (south). This mystery and many others to come, will definitely keeps scientist busy for years.

Here is a cool video showing full rotation of Vesta. Clearly visible and a mystery, is the parallel grooves near the equator.

Personally, I’ve quite a feeling on this mission, because I’ll been following it since its launch in 2007 (and even reported on it – on another forum since this blog has not been born yet). After 4 years of sailing in space, it finally reached its destination. Think back, in these 4 years, what have I achieved on Earth?

Posted in Asteroids, Beautiful Photos

Solar Eclipse As Seen by SDO and Choose Your Favourite Video

•May 4, 2011 • Leave a Comment

Last month (April 21) marks the one-year anniversary of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Over the past year, SDO has captured every moment of the Sun in details that we had never seen before. The mission has returned unprecedented images of solar flares, prominences, filaments, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and towering loops of magnetic plasma.

The mission has put together some of the most beautiful, interesting, and mesmerising events seen by SDO during its first year, and they would like you to vote for your favourite video from this collection. The voting ends tomorrow (May 5), so it still not too late to choose your favourite.

Posted in Beautiful Photos, Satellites & Spacecrafts, Sun
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Amazing Camera Views of the Space Shuttle Launch

•January 9, 2011 • Leave a Comment

This video of the space shuttle launch is just amazing! The video is long – about 45 minutes – but is totally worth the time to watch. Each shuttle launch is documented by over 125 cameras providing spectacular imagery of the event. Here is a look at some of the footage from different angles in slow motion, with narration to let you know what you’re seeing.

I strongly recommend you not to miss this. If you can’t finish watching it in one go, then split it into few times, just like what I did. Make sure you watch it till the end, you definitely will enjoy it and learn a few things about the launch.

Posted in Human Space Explorations, Satellites & Spacecrafts
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Carnival of Space #179

•December 3, 2010 • Leave a Comment

There you go, Carnival of Space #179 to keep you busy with astro stuffs for the weekend.

Posted in Carnival of Space

Sidewalk Astronomy Night – 20 Nov 2010

•November 19, 2010 • 1 Comment

Sidewalk Astronomy Night is a programme where amateur astronomers get together and setup their telescopes at public areas to provide the public an opportunity to see, with their own eyes, celestial objects through telescopes. At the same time, the public will also be provided with information of what they are seeing, with the hope that it could raise public interest in astronomy and space science.

This year, our National Space Agency (ANGKASA) will be organising a Sidewalk Astronomy Night on November 20. Details of the programme are as follow:

Date: 20 Nov 2010 (Saturday)
Time: 8 – 10 pm
Venue: Taman Tasik Titiwangsa (Site of Eye On Malaysia) Kuala Lumpur

All are invited to join this programme. Admission is free.

“Bringing Astronomy to the Public”

Apart from ANGKASA, other astronomical bodies around Klang Valley, i.e. Starhunter Astronomy Society, Starfield Instruments Supply, Starfinder Astronomy Society and Falak Online will also be joining in the programme.

You can contact Ms Asmidar (asmidarz@angkasa.gov.my) if you have any enquiries regarding this programme.

Posted in Astronomy Activities
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Top 100 Images from ESO

•November 10, 2010 • 1 Comment

This has been around for more than a month now, but it’s too good not to share it here, just in case some of you are not aware. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) had put together a collection of their top 100 images and they are just beautiful! Most of them are now in my queuing list to be wallpaper…

Just some background, ESO operates three world-class observing sites in the Atacama Desert region of Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor, with telescopes including the Very Large Telescope (VLT), APEX, ALMA etc. You can get more information here.

Posted in Beautiful Photos
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Observe Comet Hartley 2 now!

•October 12, 2010 • 1 Comment

Comet Hartley 2 is making a visit to the inner solar system, approaching us for a close encounter on October 20. I’ve no time to write a detail post, so I’ll just link you to Sky & Telescope for more information. Basically, it’ll glide through Cassiopeia, Perseus and into Auriga.

If you think Comet Hartley 2 sounds a bit familiar, it may be you heard it from the extended mission for Deep Impact. After part of Deep Impact slammed into Comet Tempel 1 and completed its mission there, it was renamed to EPOXI and change course to encounter Comet Hartley 2 on November 4, in the meantime, its instruments is used to perform follow-up studies of extrasolar planets (that how the new mission got its name – Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI) and Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization (EPOCh)).

So if your sky is clear, head out with a binoculars or telescope and see if you can spot this greenish icy visitor.

Posted in Comets, Observations & Tips

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