ASTRO - SPACE NEWS: A Division Of Astronomy Media Services

  ASTRO - SPACE NEWS 



                      


         Space & Astronomy News
   from around the World each Week


Here are a selection of Astronomy/Space related stories you may find interesting. Bookmark this page, keep the link that got you here OR let me know your email address and I'll send a copy to you each week. Your details are confidential - I won't disclose your address to anyone!


For the media: If you are interested, an interview with astronomer, public lecturer and News Editor of Sky and Space Magazine Dave Reneke,('Astro-Dave') can be arranged at any time by Phone/Fax(02) 65 85 2260  Mobile: 0400 636 363  or email dave for an instant reply to Dave.Reneke@SkyandSpace.com.au

David is well experienced talking to the media and presents information in an easy to understand, up to date and informative manner.

Feel free to forward this e-mail to your friends/colleagues for their use. There is no cost and no obligation for this service. Anyone can subscribe by sending the word 'SUBSCRIBE' in the subject line to me at:  Dave.Reneke@SkyandSpace.com.au




  

Hey, looking for astro/space DVDs and CD Roms you just can't get anywhere else?   Click here




 NEW ISSUE - Sky and Space Magazine in newsagents NOW

Sky and Space produces this great magazine for all those interested in astronomy and space exploration. Sky and Space Magazine is the Southern Hemisphere's only popular-level magazine of astronomy and space exploration. 

Published every second month, Sky and Space has 100 pages packed full of fascinating, easy-to-read articles and spectacular astrophotography. Sky and Space is essential reading for everyone with a thirst for knowledge about our incredible cosmos.

The new issue has been available on news-stands from Friday October 12 in NSW. Tons of great stories, and amazing photos.  Subscribe to the 'new look' Sky and Space Magazine.

                                                           In this issue:

*  We reveal the southern skies like never before by a talented NSW astro-photographer "   

*  We give you a 'primer' for taking your own 'Astro photos'  

*  A special feature on 50 years of spaceflight - How far have we come?

*  We take a look at the hotspot for astronomy - our capital Canberra "   

*  Is Mars a 'mission impossible?"

*  A big feature on a star party at Arkaroola…where's that?  Take a look…and there's much, much more!

Check out our contents page
   
Hey - Why not check out our web page as well? www.skyandspace.com.au If you know of any events, star parties or anything happening, astronomically, or would like to suggest a link, please email us at info@SkyandSpace.com.au

The Sky and Space Shop is situated at 23 Bronte Road in Bondi Junction, Sydney (Australia).  Why don't you drop in for a chat and a look around at the wonderful assortment of books, posters and all things astronomical.  We'd love to see you.


  


Please note: The news page you are on has been suspended due to massive time constraints and the fact that I've been constantly travelling NSW with our schools program.

Another new and exciting news service will be starting shortly to take its place and you'll be hearing from me as soon as that happens.

Many thanks and sorry for any inconvenience.





1 Nearly every astronaut experiences some space sickness, caused by the wildly confusing information reaching their inner ears.  In addition to nausea, symptoms include headaches and trouble locating your own limbs.  Just like college, really.

2 And those are the least of your worries.  In weightlessness, fluids shift upward, causing nasal congestion and a puffy face; bones lose calcium, forming kidney stones; and muscles atrophy, slowing the bowels and shrinking the heart.

3 At least you'll be puffy, constipated, and tall: The decreased pressure on the spine in zero-g causes most space travellers to grow about two inches.

4 Lab rats sent into space during mid-pregnancy, while their foetuses' inner ears are developing, spawn some seriously tipsy babies.

5 No humans have yet been conceived in space, so we can only imagine.

6 So that's what it takes: A 2001 study showed that astronauts who snored on Earth snoozed silently in space.

7 But astronauts sleep less soundly; 16 sunrises a day throws a major wrench into their circadian rhythms.

8 And Ziggy played guitar.  At the start of the workday on the space shuttle, mission control in Houston broadcasts wake-up music, usually selected with a particular astronaut in mind.  On the all-work, no-play International Space Station, crews wake to an alarm clock.

9 If you are ever exposed to the vacuum of space without a suit on, don't hold your breath: Sudden decompression would cause your lungs to rupture.

10 In addition, water on the tongue, in the nose, and in the eyes would boil away.  This actually happened in 1965, when a space suit failed during a NASA experiment and the tester was exposed to a near vacuum for 15 seconds.

11 Contrary to Hollywood, though, you wouldn't explode.  Lack of oxygen in the blood is what would kill you, but it would take about two minutes.

12 John Glenn found it hard to choke down his food, but not because of the lack of gravity: Early astronauts relied on aluminium tubes of semiliquid mush, food cubes, and dehydrated meals.

13 Today astronauts can spice up their meals with salt and pepper-in liquid form.  Sprinkled grains would float away, tickling noses and clogging vents.

14 Missing something?  Those vents on the space shuttle and International Space Station serve as the lost and found, sucking up anything that's floating about unsecured.

15 The shuttle commode requires that astronauts align themselves precisely in the dead centre of the seat.  A mock-up of the shuttle toilet, complete with built-in camera, is used to train them how to position themselves.

16 NASA tried building a bathroom into its space suits-a fitted condom attached to a bladder for men, a moulded gynaecological insert for women-but gave up and passed out nappies (diapers) to all.

17 Returning astronauts report extreme difficulty moving their arms and legs right after touchdown, one reason why they call landing "the second birth."

18 But some long-duration cosmonauts report that the hardest thing to readjust to about life on Earth is that when you let go of objects, they fall.

19 Better just to stay up there?  Eighteen people have died on space missions, but never in space-always on the way up or the way down.



PIC OF THE WEEK  

Mountains of Creation

This fantastic skyscape lies at the eastern edge of giant stellar nursery W5, about 7,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia.  An infrared view from the Spitzer Space Telescope, it features interstellar clouds of cold gas and dust sculpted by winds and radiation from a hot, massive star outside the picture (just above and to the right).

Still swaddled within the cosmic clouds, newborn stars are revealed by Spitzer's penetrating gaze, their formation also triggered by the massive star.  Fittingly dubbed "Mountains of Creation", these interstellar clouds are about 10 times the size of the analogous Pillars of Creation in M16, made famous in a 1995 Hubble Space Telescope view.

W5 is also known as IC 1848 and together with IC 1805 it is part of a complex region popularly dubbed the Heart and Soul Nebulae.  The Spitzer image spans about 70 light-years at the distance of W5.

Credit: Lori Allen (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) et al., JPL-Caltech, NASA





2009 - THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF ASTRONOMY

2009 will be a global celebration of astronomy and its contributions to society and culture, stimulating worldwide interest not only in astronomy, but in science in general, with a particular slant towards young people.

The International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) will mark the monumental leap forward that followed Galileo's first use of the telescope for astronomical observations, and portray astronomy as a peaceful global scientific endeavour that unites astronomers in an international, multicultural family of scientists working together to find answers to some of the most fundamental questions that humankind has ever asked.

IYA2009 is, first and foremost, an activity for the citizens of Planet Earth.  It aims to convey the excitement of personal discovery, the pleasure of sharing fundamental knowledge about the Universe and our place in it and the value of the scientific culture.

Sky and Space is the Southern Hemisphere's only popular-level magazine of astronomy and space exploration and will be playing an active part in the momentous celebration.


ASTRONOMY OUTREACH WEBSITE

We have a new website for the Astronomy Outreach Program: http://www.freewebs.com/daveren
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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED AUSTRALIAN SITE. Support it:
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