Spaceflight Now Headlines

Satellite reveals universe's first trillionth second - March 17, 2006

Scientists peering back to the oldest light in the universe have new evidence for what happened within its first trillionth of a second, when the universe suddenly grew from submicroscopic to astronomical size in far less than a wink of the eye.
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0603/16wmap/

Galaxy on fire! Spitzer reveals stellar smoke - March 17, 2006

Where there's smoke, there's fire -- even in outer space. A new infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a burning hot galaxy whose fiery stars appear to be blowing out giant billows of smoky dust. The galaxy, called Messier 82, or the "Cigar galaxy," was previously known to host a hotbed of young, massive stars. Spitzer reveals, for the first time, the "smoke" surrounding those stellar fires.
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0603/16galaxyfire/

Weird Saturn ring spokes may return in July - March 17, 2006

Unusual spokes up to 6,000 miles long and 1,500 miles in width that appear fleetingly on the rings of Saturn only to disappear for years at a time may become visible again by July, according to a new study spearheaded by the University of Colorado at Boulder.
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0603/16ringspokes/

Astronomers get a chance to size up a brown dwarf - March 17, 2006

Brown dwarfs -- failed stars that fall somewhere between the smallest stars and the largest planets on the spectrum of heavenly objects -- have always been viewed by astronomers as a critical link in the understanding of how both stars and planets form. The trouble with brown dwarfs, however, is that they are hard to find and, so far, they have defied nearly all attempts to accurately assess their size.
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0603/15browndwarfs/

Double helix nebula found in center of the Milky Way - March 17, 2006

Astronomers report an unprecedented elongated double helix nebula near the center of our Milky Way galaxy, using observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The part of the nebula the astronomers observed stretches 80 light years in length.
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0603/15doublehelix/

Pegasus rocket launch delayed to next week - March 17, 2006

Delivery of three miniaturized technology demonstration satellites into orbit to prepare for future constellations of space weather probes was aborted Wednesday because of problems readying their air-launch rocket booster.
http://spaceflightnow.com/pegasus/st5/status.html

River of stars streams across the northern sky - March 17, 2006

Astronomers have discovered a narrow stream of stars extending at least 45 degrees across the northern sky. The stream is about 76,000 light-years distant from Earth and forms a giant arc over the disk of the Milky Way galaxy.
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0603/15riverofstars/

Shuttle launch delayed to July 1 for tank sensor swap - March 17, 2006

The shuttle Discovery's launch on the second post-Columbia mission has been delayed to at least July 1 because of work to replace suspect engine cutoff sensors in the ship's external tank. Shuttle program manager Wayne Hale made the decision Tuesday, after two days of detailed engineering discussions, even though the issue was not an open-and-shut case and even though the sensor in question may be good enough to fly. "This was not an easy decision," Hale told reporters.
http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts121/060314delay/

New planet discovered: An icy super-Earth - March 17, 2006

Astronomers have discovered a "super-Earth" orbiting in the cold outer regions of a distant solar system about 9,000 light-years away. The planet weighs 13 times as much as Earth, and at -330 degrees Fahrenheit, it's one of the coldest planets ever discovered outside our solar system.
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0603/14superearth/

Comet from the cold has material from hottest places - March 17, 2006

Scientists analyzing recent samples of comet dust have discovered minerals that formed near the sun or other stars. That means materials from the innermost part of the solar system could have traveled to the outer reaches, where comets formed.
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0603/14stardust/