Space news digest

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Tue 08/19	NASA fixes moonship shaking with shock absorbers WASHINGTON (AP) -- A space-age version of the rusty springs under old pickup trucks will help NASA fix the most pressing technical problem with its high-tech new rocket to send astronauts back to the moon....
Tue 08/19	Shock absorbers to quell NASA rocket's vibrations Astronauts on NASA's future Ares I rocket should get a smooth ride to space thanks to a two-tiered system of shock-absorbing springs
Tue 08/19	How NASA plans to quell Ares 1 rocket vibrations The last thing you want on a flight to the moon is a headache. [More]
Tue 08/19	NASA to announce GLAST's new name If you took a stab at renaming NASA's gamma-ray telescope earlier this year, now's your chance to see whether the agency took your suggestion seriously. After asking the public to suggest a new name for GLAST, NASA is set to...
Tue 08/19	A thermostat for mini-spacecraft A new technology has been demonstrated that can regulate the temperature of miniature satellites and spacecraft
Mon 08/18	Obama Suggests $2 Billion In New Funding for NASA Sen. Barack Obama has detailed a comprehensive space plan that includes $2 billion in new funding to reinvigorate NASA and a promise to make space exploration and science a significantly higher priority if he is elected president.
Mon 08/18	Pursuing a Crucial Cosmic Number Astronomers have made the most precise measurements yet of the Hubble constant, which measures how fast the universe is growing.
Mon 08/18	NASA contractors battling it out over space suits, shuttle The battle for juicy NASA contracts is heating up as the space shuttle nears retirement in 2010 and work continues on the Constellation program to replace it. [More]
Mon 08/18	Cassini spots source of geysers on Saturn moon The vents from which icy geysers erupt on Enceladus are revealed in new images – the vents' position changes over time
Mon 08/18	Milky Way's halo loaded with star streams A new map of the halo of stars that surrounds our Milky Way Galaxy has revealed a complicated structure of crisscrossing stellar streams, many of which have never been detected before.
Mon 08/18	Huge comet-like object takes 22,500-year journey around the sun A huge comet-like object has been spotted inside the orbit of Neptune. The object, at least 30 miles wide, is on the return leg of a 22,500-year journey around the sun, astronomers announced today.
Mon 08/18	The Web Ushers In New Weapons of War and Terrorism In the early days of the Internet, optimists projected that it would usher in an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity. Maybe this will happen yet, but currently the net is proving to be a powerful tool in the hands of criminals and terrorists. On top of the rising number of globally based online thieves bent on stealing our identities and money, a growing cadre of state and nonstate actors are adding Internet weapons to their traditional arsenals that can be unleashed in cyber attacks. The appropriation of cyber weapons emerged in the 1980&os;s when hackers began using computer viruses and worms as platforms of protest. One of the most damaging attacks was the infection of NASA&os;s computer network with the WANK (Worms Against Nuclear Killers) worm in 1989. At the time of the attack, antinuclear activists were protesting the launch of a space shuttle that carried the Galileo spacecraft--the Jupiter-bound space probe was powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator fueled with radioactive plutonium. The protestors failed to stop the launch, but it took a month to eradicate the worm from NASA&os;s computers, costing the space agency an estimated half million dollars in wasted time and resources. [More]
Sun 08/17	The winding Milky Way A new map reveals a complicated outer halo in our galaxy.
Sun 08/17	Saturn's geyser-spewing moon Enceladus stumps science Frozen iceball or hidden ocean? NASA's Cassini spacecraft has renewed debate among planetary scientists over Saturn's geyser-spewing mystery moon, Enceladus.
Sat 08/16	NASA backs troubled rocket design Officials say NASA will stick with the Ares I design despite rumours that it is considering an alternative
Fri 08/15	NASA Has Its Closest Look at Geysers on Saturn Moon The NASA spacecraft Cassini has taken razor sharp close-ups of Enceladus, which has jumped to near the top of the list of potential places for life in the solar system.
Fri 08/15	Could the Russia-Georgia conflict jeopardize U.S. space plans? Here&os;s a scenario that might be going through the minds of NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff and his two fellow Russian crew members on the International Space Station (ISS). [More]
Fri 08/15	Biggest 3D galaxy map to probe dark energy's history The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has entered a new phase, probing to greater distances to study the universe's expansion history
Fri 08/15	The great (and sometimes serious) debate about Pluto The entrance to the debate over Pluto's planet status said it all: With techno music blaring in the background, the two debaters and a moderator walked into the auditorium, cameras flashing and the audience clapping.
Fri 08/15	Great Planet Debate ends in stalemate What is a planet? As Pluto's lost status hangs in the balance, astronomers agree that we need a new way of looking at the solar system
Thu 08/14	Discord With Russia a Worry for NASA NASA's ability to send its astronauts to the $100 billion international space station is in danger of becoming a costly casualty of the Russia-Georgia war.
Thu 08/14	Source of jets found on Enceladus Cassini has pinpointed the site of eruption on Saturn's moon.
Thu 08/14	PHOTOS: Saturn Moon "Mother Lode": Icy Jets Located NASA's Cassini spacecraft has pinpointed the source of jets that explode from Enceladus's surface, experts say.
Thu 08/14	"Pluto Huggers" Fight to Renew Planet Status Two years after Pluto was ousted from the planet lineup, some Pluto supporters aren't giving up hope for restoring the now dwarf planet's title.
Thu 08/14	NASA delays Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter launch NASA has delayed the launch of an unmanned spacecraft to the moon to scout for potential landing sites for astronauts. The moon craft is the first step in NASA's program to send astronauts back to the moon and beyond. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was supposed to blast off from Cape Canaveral, in early December aboard an Atlas V rocket. But the launch was pushed back after NASA agreed to swap with the Air Force, which will fly a prototype space drone.
Thu 08/14	Discovery explains why asteroids and meteorites are different Meteorites that fall to Earth usually come directly from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, rather than from the population of larger space rocks that drifted in from the asteroid belt's innermost edge to hang around our planet's neighborhood.
Wed 08/13	Puzzle of meteorite-asteroid link solved New analysis makes it possible to 'know our enemy.'
Wed 08/13	Cassini returns close-up images of moon's 'tiger stripes' Images taken during the probe's recent flyby of Enceladus may contain clues about the moon's geysers, which spew from tiger stripe-like fractures
Tue 08/12	Cassini transmits data home from Enceladus The spacecraft has begun sending data back from Saturn's moon.
Tue 08/12	Phoenix uncovers history of liquid water on Mars The Mars Phoenix Lander's discovery of the chemical perchlorate has mixed implications for the possibility of life on the planet (full text available to subscribers)
Tue 08/12	Phoenix Mars lander bakes third soil sample A third soil sample is being analysed by an onboard instrument called TEGA; meanwhile, the lander has dug its deepest trench yet
Mon 08/11	Springs to dampen NASA rocket's vibrations NASA will incorporate springs into its future Ares I rocket to prevent potentially deadly vibrations from shaking its astronaut crew
Mon 08/11	Opalescent stellar nursery imaged by Hubble To celebrate the telescope's 100,000 th orbit of Earth, astronomers release an image of a star-forming nebula
Mon 08/11	Perseid meteor shower set to dazzle One of the year's best displays of 'shooting stars' will occur on Tuesday at the peak of the Perseid meteor shower
Sun 08/10	Cassini swoops by Enceladus The spacecraft prepares for a close encounter with Saturn's geyser-spewing moon.
Sun 08/10	Hubble unveils image of NGC 2074 This image commemorates the telescope's 100,000 orbit.
Fri 08/08	Cassini to search for source of Saturn moon's plumes On Monday, the spacecraft will fly within 50 km of Enceladus, searching for heat signatures that could reveal what powers the moon's icy jets
Thu 08/07	'Supernova impostor' begins to dim unexpectedly The star Eta Carinae, which at times brightens like a supernova, also dims every 5.5 years – it has begun the process earlier than expected
Wed 08/06	What the total solar eclipse looked like from China Correspondent Phil McKenna was at the Great Wall for the 1 August event – relive it with him in a new video
Wed 08/06	No interstellar dust yet found in Stardust samples NASA's Stardust probe may have collected 45 interstellar dust grains – but the first six studied come from much closer to home
Tue 08/05	Chemical Found on Mars Doesn't Rule Out Life With reports circulating on the Internet that the Phoenix lander had found a chemical in the Martian soil that made past or present life there highly unlikely, NASA officials quickly organized a teleconference yesterday to announce that although they had made an unexpected discovery, it had littl...
Tue 08/05	Phoenix soil results released after days of speculation After rumours of a discovery about the 'potential for life' on Mars, scientists say they may have found an oxidant called perchlorate - but it has little bearing on Mars's habitability

U.S. astronomical observatories:

International observatories: