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To: Stan who wrote (1156)	11/8/2011 4:21:53 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 1203

thanks

To: Stan who wrote (1156)	11/8/2011 4:25:56 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 1203

Massive, unstoppable rock hurtles toward Earth Tuesday - 11/8/2011, 3:51pm ET I feel better already! (Photo courtesy of NASA) Gallery: (5 images) WASHINGTON -- You won't want to close your eyes, you won't want to fall asleep. If scientists are wrong, not even Ben Affleck can save you. An asteroid the size of the U.S.S. Nimitz is bearing down on Earth. NASA's Near-Earth Object Program says the impact of the rock, dubbed 2005 YU55, would equal a 4,000-megaton blast and create 70-foot high tsunami waves, CBS News reports. That's near 200,000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Fortunately for us, NASA predicts the murderous cosmic body will miss our planet by about 202,000 miles, passing around 6:28 p.m. on Tuesday. That's about 0.85 times the distance to the moon, NASA says. The last time an asteroid this size came this close to Earth was in 1976, and it shouldn't happen again until 2028 -- provided we're still here. Check out this explanation of this death star's approach: Scientists have learned a lot about 2005 YU55 since it was first discovered six years ago by a University of Arizona astronomer. It's surface is coal black, and it spins slowly while shooting through space. Antennas at the space agency's Deep Space Network in California have been monitoring the quarter-mile wide asteroid since late last week as it approaches from the direction of the sun. Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory will host a viewing Tuesday evening when the asteroid is at its closest. Scientists will analyze radar images to learn more about the surface of the object. You can try to see the asteroid for yourself. All you need is a good sky chart and a 6-inch telescope or larger. The asteroid will be too faint to detect with the naked eye, and the glare from the moon may make it difficult to spot.

To: Stan who wrote (1156)	11/10/2011 4:45:54 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 1203

NASA readies launch of 'dream machine' to Mars Nov 10 04:36 PM US/Eastern Comments (0) Email to a friend Share on Facebook Tweet this This artist concept shows NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a... The US space agency is getting ready to launch later this month the biggest, most expensive robotic vehicle ever built to explore Mars for signs that life may once have existed, NASA said Thursday. The Curiosity rover, known formally as the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), is a 2.5 billion dollar state-of-the-art vehicle equipped with video cameras and a sophisticated mobile tool kit for analyzing rocks and soil on the red planet. The launch of the 1,982-pound (899-kilogram) rover is set for November 25 at 10:21 am (1521 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. "This is a Mars scientist's dream machine," said Ashwin Vasavada, MSL deputy project scientist, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "This is the most capable scientific explorer we have ever sent out," he added. "We are super excited." The rover will explore the Gale Crater on Mars, just south of that planet's equator, where a range of soils exist and a small mountain gives the rover a chance to climb and analyze samples at different heights. But first it faces a long, 354 million mile (570 million kilometer) journey to get there, taking about eight and a half months before landing in August 2012. The landing itself is set to be a spectacular affair. A ravioli-shaped capsule will open to expose the rover suspended by a "rocket backpack" that will fire its engines to lower the MSL to the ground. The rover's six wheels and suspension system should "pop into place just before touchdown," NASA said. Then, the machine goes into "surface mode," using a series of cameras and a long robotic arm to investigate the Martian terrain. "It is not your father's rover," said Doug McCuistion, director, Mars Program at NASA headquarters in Washington, describing it as "truly a wonder in engineering... the best of US imagination, the best of US innovation." NASA sees the latest rover as a midway point in a long journey of Mars exploration that began with the landing of the Viking spacecraft in 1976 and may culminate with a human mission there in the 2030s. The venture is not meant to hunt for life on Mars, but rather for signs that it once may have existed there. Any clues it can send back about the habitability of Earth's neighbor, the fourth planet from the Sun, and about the radiation levels there will be important to NASA as it devises future exploration missions. Copyright AFP 2008, AFP stories and photos shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium