iceman
30-06-2014, 04:49 PM
Updates in this Newsletter
Have you voted yet? Over 600 people have!
The Southern Cross (Crux)
Rosetta Closing In!
Cassini Celebrates 10 Years at Saturn
* Have you voted yet? Over 600 people have!
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/scripts/calendar-competition/voting/2015-voting-selection-300px.jpg
Over 600 people have voted for their favourite images in the IceInSpace Calendar Competition for 2015. Have you voted yet? (http://iceinspace-calendar-2015.questionpro.com/)
Voting is free, will only take 5-10 minutes of your time, and you'll get to choose from some amazing astrophotography and nightscape photography by IceInSpace members. And just by voting, you'll go in the draw to win 5 free calendars!
So get voting, and please share the link with your friends.
http://iceinspace-calendar-2015.questionpro.com
* The Southern Cross (Crux)
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/newsletter/images/20140630-crux.jpg
The Southern Cross is positioned high in the evening sky as the colder months are now upon us. In Australia, it is seen in a number of different ways by the various Aboriginal Groups. However, we often forget that the cross is also visible to many other southern hemisphere cultures, who have their own interpretations of the celestial cross. For example, in New Zealand, or Aotearoa, many Māori tribes or iwi, see it as an anchor in the sky called Te Punga. When it is low in the sky some South African groups see it as a group of Giraffes feeding on trees. And in South America the descendants of the Inca, see the Southern Cross along with the pointer stars as part of a giant Llama constellation. (Image source: Akira Fuji)
via Aboriginal Skies FB page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aboriginal-Skies/156305897720881).
* Rosetta Closing In!
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/newsletter/images/20140630-rosetta.jpg
Take your seats because the show is about to begin!
The European Space Agency's Rosetta probe is edging ever closer to the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for what is expected to be one of the most daring space encounters in history. Wednesday saw the satellite successfully complete the fourth of its 10 planned thruster manoeuvres. These are designed to get the mission into orbit around the 4km-wide comet on 6 August.
Last Thursday, the separation between Rosetta and its icy quarry is about 165,000km.
"We're now less than half the Earth-Moon distance. That's how close we are now," explained Prof Holger Sierks, who leads the Osiris camera team on Rosetta.
"I think anybody on the street will understand that - it's actually really close-by in space."
Read more on BBC Science (http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27926614).
* Cassini Celebrates 10 Years at Saturn
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/newsletter/images/20140630-10yrsaturn.jpg
I can't believe it's been 10 years since Cassini arrived at Saturn. I remember the time fondly, because it was my very early days in Astronomy. I was just getting into the hobby, playing around with a 10" dobsonian in my backyard, and only a few months after Cassini arrived, I started IceInSpace! What a wild 10 years it's been.
June 30 is the official date when Cassini celebrates 10 years of exploring Saturn, its rings and moons. Originally designed for a 4 year primary mission, NASA has granted Cassini 3 extensions.
"Having a healthy, long-lived spacecraft at Saturn has afforded us a precious opportunity," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "By having a decade there with Cassini, we have been privileged to witness never-before-seen events that are changing our understanding of how planetary systems form and what conditions might lead to habitats for life."
Cassini has made some amazing discoveries and sent back hundreds of GB's of scientific data. Some of the best include:
* The Huygens probe makes first landing on a moon in the outer solar system (Titan)
* Discovery of active, icy plumes on the Saturnian moon Enceladus
* Titan revealed as an Earth-like world with rain, rivers, lakes and seas
* Studies of Saturn's great northern storm of 2010-2011
Read more on NASA.gov (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/display.cfm?News_ID=47694), including viewing the amazing image gallery.
Thanks for reading! Keep looking up!
Have you voted yet? Over 600 people have!
The Southern Cross (Crux)
Rosetta Closing In!
Cassini Celebrates 10 Years at Saturn
* Have you voted yet? Over 600 people have!
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/scripts/calendar-competition/voting/2015-voting-selection-300px.jpg
Over 600 people have voted for their favourite images in the IceInSpace Calendar Competition for 2015. Have you voted yet? (http://iceinspace-calendar-2015.questionpro.com/)
Voting is free, will only take 5-10 minutes of your time, and you'll get to choose from some amazing astrophotography and nightscape photography by IceInSpace members. And just by voting, you'll go in the draw to win 5 free calendars!
So get voting, and please share the link with your friends.
http://iceinspace-calendar-2015.questionpro.com
* The Southern Cross (Crux)
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/newsletter/images/20140630-crux.jpg
The Southern Cross is positioned high in the evening sky as the colder months are now upon us. In Australia, it is seen in a number of different ways by the various Aboriginal Groups. However, we often forget that the cross is also visible to many other southern hemisphere cultures, who have their own interpretations of the celestial cross. For example, in New Zealand, or Aotearoa, many Māori tribes or iwi, see it as an anchor in the sky called Te Punga. When it is low in the sky some South African groups see it as a group of Giraffes feeding on trees. And in South America the descendants of the Inca, see the Southern Cross along with the pointer stars as part of a giant Llama constellation. (Image source: Akira Fuji)
via Aboriginal Skies FB page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aboriginal-Skies/156305897720881).
* Rosetta Closing In!
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/newsletter/images/20140630-rosetta.jpg
Take your seats because the show is about to begin!
The European Space Agency's Rosetta probe is edging ever closer to the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for what is expected to be one of the most daring space encounters in history. Wednesday saw the satellite successfully complete the fourth of its 10 planned thruster manoeuvres. These are designed to get the mission into orbit around the 4km-wide comet on 6 August.
Last Thursday, the separation between Rosetta and its icy quarry is about 165,000km.
"We're now less than half the Earth-Moon distance. That's how close we are now," explained Prof Holger Sierks, who leads the Osiris camera team on Rosetta.
"I think anybody on the street will understand that - it's actually really close-by in space."
Read more on BBC Science (http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27926614).
* Cassini Celebrates 10 Years at Saturn
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/newsletter/images/20140630-10yrsaturn.jpg
I can't believe it's been 10 years since Cassini arrived at Saturn. I remember the time fondly, because it was my very early days in Astronomy. I was just getting into the hobby, playing around with a 10" dobsonian in my backyard, and only a few months after Cassini arrived, I started IceInSpace! What a wild 10 years it's been.
June 30 is the official date when Cassini celebrates 10 years of exploring Saturn, its rings and moons. Originally designed for a 4 year primary mission, NASA has granted Cassini 3 extensions.
"Having a healthy, long-lived spacecraft at Saturn has afforded us a precious opportunity," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "By having a decade there with Cassini, we have been privileged to witness never-before-seen events that are changing our understanding of how planetary systems form and what conditions might lead to habitats for life."
Cassini has made some amazing discoveries and sent back hundreds of GB's of scientific data. Some of the best include:
* The Huygens probe makes first landing on a moon in the outer solar system (Titan)
* Discovery of active, icy plumes on the Saturnian moon Enceladus
* Titan revealed as an Earth-like world with rain, rivers, lakes and seas
* Studies of Saturn's great northern storm of 2010-2011
Read more on NASA.gov (http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/display.cfm?News_ID=47694), including viewing the amazing image gallery.
Thanks for reading! Keep looking up!