Current Events In Astronomy
One of the best places to keep up with current events in astronomy is NASA’s web site. Not only does NASA make a lot of the news, but it constantly keeps its site updated with news of the latest and greatest about space and objects within it. A quick look at NASA’s web site in mid November revealed some pretty big current events in astronomy. One of the most important current events in astronomy NASA discussed in November was the late month launch of the shuttle Endeavour. It’s mission was to re-supply and repair the International Space Station. This included a number of space walks to perform routine maintenance on the outside of the station. Such space walks aren’t only immediately important for the goals they accomplish, but important in the development of techniques and experiences that apply to future missions. While some might argue that the space station is more space related than necessarily astronomy related, there is a lot of science going on there, including observations of outer space which definitely falls under the heading of astronomy. Another of the current events in astronomy discussed by NASA in November was a staggering discovery made by the Hubble Telescope. For the first time in history, a telescope took a visible light image of a planet orbiting another star. The effort dates way back to the 1980’s when NASA’s IRAS, an infrared telescope, discovered dust around the star. That was a tell tale sign that planets might orbit this star located about 25 light years away from our own little planet. This one, still one of the current events in astronomy, is all about the past. NASA announced details of a Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project designed to restore images of the moon taken by five Lunar Orbiter spacecraft that visited the moon in 1966 and 1967. Much of the data was removed from the tape drives in the 1980’s, but stored as analogue images and only partially restored. NASA has already released some of these restored historic images. Astronomy is a huge field. Current events in astronomy could cover volumes each day. Keep looking into the universe! If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
