Four metal ladderlike extensions form a pyramidal structure topped by a box-like frame used for transmissio NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has this view northward from the position at the north edge of the "Home Plate" plateau where the rove NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has this view northward from the position at the north edge of the "Home Plate" plateau where the rover will spend its third Martian winter. But it saw nothing smaller than Adrastea, a 16-kilometer-wide resident of Jupiter's faint ring system. } else { The approximately 1.2-ton (1,100-kilogram) spacecraft is in a solar orbit, a 4.9-billion mile (7.9-billion kilometer) journey that includes 15 trips around the sun. This tied the record for Mars data sent back between 1997 and 2006 by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) mission: about 30 terabits of science data, including more than 15,000 images from three cameras, more than 3,000 targeted observations by a mineral-mapping spectrometer, and more than 2,200 observations with ground-penetrating radar. NOAA-18 has instruments used in the 1982-established international Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking System, called COSPAS-SARSAT. The rovers can communicate directly with Earth when Odyssey is unavailable for relay. Don Massengale, American golfer (PGA C'ship 1967 runner-up), dies of heart attack at 69. Being in a geostationary orbit allows GOES satellites to hover continuously over one position on the Earth's surface, appearing stationary. Heat years: 365.25*1000*60*60*24, months: 30.41666667*1000*60*60*24, weeks: 7*1000*60*60*24, days: 1000*60*60*24, hours: 1000*60*60, minutes: 1000*60, seconds: 1000 GLAS sends short pulses of green and infrared light though the sky 40 times a second, all over the globe, and collects the reflected laser light with a one-meter telescope, yielding elevations. start2.setFullYear(today.getFullYear()); Atlantis delivered two major truss segments, S3/S4, to the station. The star cluster was born when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, about 100 million years ago. Titan is the second largest moon in the solar system and is about 50 percent larger than Earth's moon. if(increment < 0) { By comparison, Pluto is now about 32 AU from the Sun. The first science observations from the spacecraft were obtained on March 23, during a disturbance in the Earths magnetic field known as a substorm. !0; These flashes are brighter than a billion suns, yet last only a few milliseconds. There were 28 NASA, DOD, and commercial launches, out of 29 attempts (2006: 22 of 23 attempts, 2005: 16 of 16, 2004: 19 of 19; 2003: 26 of 27 [loss of Columbia]). Also in 2007, GALEX spotted an amazingly long comet-like tail behind a star streaking through space at supersonic speeds. Waxing Crescent is the lunar phase on 2 January 2006, Monday.Seen from Earth, illuminated fraction of the Moon surface is 8% and growing larger. The existence of an invisible substance as the source of additional gravity that holds together galaxy clusters has long been suspected. The framework also allows individual nations to share their strategies and efforts so all can achieve their exploration goals more effectively. 2007 is obviously part of the 2000s. All 25 instruments on each spacecraft have been operating well ever since. Scientists trying to understand the dynamics of the Earth are using the lasers of ICESat to measure the height of ice sheets, glaciers, forests, rivers, clouds and atmospheric pollutants from space with unprecedented accuracy, providing a new way of understanding our changing planet. January 29, 2007. The $720 million spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin under the supervision of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The spacecraft successfully entered orbit around Saturn on June 30, 2004. It is done to give a sense of scale. You share a birthday with We could not find a celebrity that shares a birthday with you. Results from all six instruments on the MRO were described in dozens of presentations in November by planetary scientists in San Francisco at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). until your 16th birthday. } else { Nothing like this has ever been seen before around a star. What does life path number 3 mean? It is not clear which spacecraft will be first, even though Voyager 1 is about 20 AU farther from the Sun than its sister spacecraft. This image shows the spatial patterns of temperature anomalies across the planet in 2007. The Orion Crew Exploration Cehicle, which sits atop Ares I, is being built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver, put under contract in August 2006. !seconds[display[i]]) { c0000005 access_violation; Cosmic neutrinos existed in such huge numbers they affected the universes early development. The AIM (Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere) satellite mission was launched on April 25 from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), Calif., on a Pegasus-XL launch vehicle to its orbit 600 km (373 miles) above Earth. Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is During the flybys - set for January 2008, October 2008 and September 2009 MESSENGER, the second spacecraft sent to Mercury after Mariner 10 flew past it three times in 1974-75 and gathered detailed data on less than half the surface, will map nearly the entire planet in color, image most of the areas unseen by Mariner 10 in 1974-75, and measure the composition of the surface, atmosphere and magnetosphere. NASA.gov brings you the latest images, videos and news from America's space agency. year: 365.25*1000*60*60*24, month: 30.41666667*1000*60*60*24, week: 7*1000*60*60*24, day: 1000*60*60*24, hour: 1000*60*60, minute: 1000*60, second: 1000, var count = Math.floor(abs_diff / seconds[display[i]]); Milky Way Galaxy } abs_diff -= count * seconds[display[i]]; A few days later, spacecraft and instruments were brought back to normal operations. One focus concerns plans for shifting the advanced technology base toward space in order to continue building a new foundation for more integrated air and space operations in the 21st century as space is becoming increasingly dominant in military reconnaissance, communications, warning, navigation, missile defense and weather-related areas. And beyond. } Both rovers have found metallic meteorites on Mars. start2.setFullYear(today.getFullYear()); Numerologists believe that we have all had previous lifetimes. After two months of hard work, normal operations were reestablished by end-2007. What is my birthstone? Image of the Day . NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded this view of a crater informally named "Freedom 7" shortly before the 50th anniversary o NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded this view of a crater informally named "Freedom 7" shortly before the 50th anniversary of the first American in space: astronaut Alan Shepard's flight in the Freedom 7 spacecraft. With a semi-major axis of approximately 200,000 km, its elliptical orbit affords ACE a prime view of the Sun and the galactic regions beyond, from a vantage point approximately 1/100th of the distance from the Earth to the Sun. . Among its findings are some of the weirdest landscapes on Mars as well as more familiar-looking parts of the Red Planet: One type of landscape near its south pole is called "cryptic terrain" because it once defied explanation, but new observations bolster and refine recent interpretations of how springtime outbursts of carbon-dioxide gas there sculpt intricate patterns and paint seasonal splotches. The new observations collected from CloudSat combined with other A-Train observations are beginning to shed new understanding on important climate processes, in particular about (1) cloud changes in the polar regions, and the effects of these changes on the energy balance of the Arctic, their relation to weather changes and their role in sea ice change, (2) how frequently clouds rain and how much rain falls over the global oceans - thus offering insight into processes critical to the cycling of fresh water, and (3) how properties of clouds AND precipitation together change with increasing aerosol, thus offering new insights into how aerosol might indirectly affect climate. This image from the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows a rock called "Chocolate Hills," which the rover found and examined at the edge of a young crater called "Concepcin.". of Defense Executive Agent for Space. The resulting document, "The Global Exploration Strategy: The Framework for Coordination," (see link, below) reflects a shared vision of space exploration focused on solar system destinations where humans may someday live and work. January 29, 2007 NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity captured a view of wispy afternoon clouds, not unlike fair weather clouds on Earth, passing overhead on the rover's 956th sol, or Martian day (Oct. 2, 2006). Land Both satellites, operated by NOAA, in 2007 continued to provide global coverage of numerous atmospheric and surface parameters for weather forecasting and meteorological research. The mean inter-satellite separation is usually bound between 170 and 270 km, but the closer mean separation is expected to enhance the high-frequency signal content in the K-band range measurements. The swap was done to mitigate the risk of loss of thermal control over the K-band antenna horn (and subsequent spurious K-band range signal) due to atomic oxygen exposure. altitude and 98.73 degrees inclination. The 2000s is the decade of growth of the Internet and beginning of social media. The eight warmest years in the GISS record have all occurred since 1998, and the 14 warmest years in the record have all occurred since 1990.. The setting is JPL's Mars Yard testing area. On the moon Enceladus, Cassini observed jets of fine, icy particles spraying from the moon that originate from the hottest spots on the moon's "tiger stripe" fractures that straddle the moon's south polar region. while(start2 > new Date(today.getTime() + loop_time * loop_range)) { years: 365.25*1000*60*60*24, months: 30.41666667*1000*60*60*24, weeks: 7*1000*60*60*24, days: 1000*60*60*24, hours: 1000*60*60, minutes: 1000*60, seconds: 1000 That is because the location of the termination shock is constantly changing in response to the Sun's activity. However, we update our database constantly, and invite you to check back later to see if we found someone with the same birthday.. Updated orbital lifetime predictions for Swift indicate that the observatory may Its observations are a treasure trove of information, including at least three major findings: (1) New evidence that a sea of cosmic neutrinos permeates the universe, (2) clear evidence that the first stars took more than a half-billion years to create a cosmic fog, and (3) tight new constraints on the burst of expansion in the universe's first trillionth of a second. This image superimposes an artist's concept of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on the rim of Victoria Crater. When its temperature reaches 2 degrees Celsius, the spacecraft will be impossible to maneuver, and the mission will end, probably in 2008. During that span, three Chandra observations clearly show the neutron star moving away from the center of the Puppis A supernova remnant, a stellar debris field created during the same explosion in which the neutron star was created about 3700 years ago. text += (text.length ? This makes M33 X-7 the most massive stellar black hole known. var loop_time = 1 * ''; United States military space organizations continued their efforts to make space a routine part of military operations across all service lines. Some significant Space Events in 2007. The above image shows infrared background light with var today = new Date(); New Horizons passed Jupiter on Febrary 28, riding the planet's gravity to boost its speed and shave three years off its trip to Pluto. To track the mysterious GRBs, Swift carries a suite of three main instruments: the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT), the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and the UltraViolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT). During the coming years multi-point data from ACE, STEREO, and other spacecraft will provide a new perspective on anomalous cosmic ray (ACR) studies by measuring the longitudinal structure and distribution of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs), interplanetary (IP) shocks, solar energy particle (SEP) events and suprathermal ions, and by correlating these in situ observations with multi-point imaging of the corona and inner heliosphere. The twin STEREO spacecraft were launched on October 25 on a Delta-2 7925-10L rocket from CCAFS (Cape Canaveral Air Force Station) in Florida. january 31 2007 nasa picture. !loop_range) { These strong winds drag the sun-warmed surface water into the Western Pacific. Its supply of liquid helium for radiative-cryogenic cooling was estimated post-launch to last for about 5.8 years, assuming optimized operation. The yellow line on this map shows where NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity has driven from the place where it landed in January 2004 -- inside Eagle crater, at the upper left end of the track -- to a point about 2.2 miles (3.5 kilometers) away from rea A dance-step pattern is visible in the wheel tracks near the left edge of this scene recorded in stereo by the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exp A dance-step pattern is visible in the wheel tracks near the left edge of this scene recorded in stereo by the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity during the 2,554th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work on Mars (Apri NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded this stereo view of a crater informally named "Freedom 7" shortly before the 50th annive NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded this stereo view of a crater informally named "Freedom 7" shortly before the 50th anniversary of the first American in space: astronaut Alan Shepard's flight in the Freedom 7 spacecraft. NASA Web Spirit has recorded dust devils forming and moving. This allows making detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field, which will lead to discoveries about gravity and Earth's natural systems with possibly far-reaching benefits to society and the world's population. if(diff > 0) { There were also two dual-use (civil & miltary) earth observation satellites launched on US Delta-2 rockets: COSMO-Skymed-1 (Constellation of Small satellites for Mediterranean basin observation) and COSMO-Skymed-2 for the Italian Space Agency (ASI). Spitzer's sensitive infrared (IR) detectors have found 10,000 Earth masses worth of dust in the blown-out remains of the well-known supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. } else { 's' : '') + '