Megha-Tropiques

ISRO and French National Space Centre (CNES) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2004-05 for the development and implementation of Megha-Tropiques (Megha meaning cloud in Sanskrit and Tropiques meaning tropics in French).

The launch of Megha-Tropiques is planned by 2009-2010.Megha-Tropiques is aimed at understanding the life cycle of convective systems and to understand their role in the associated energy and moisture budget of the atmosphere in the tropical regions. The satellite will carry an Imaging Radiometer, a six channel Humidity Sounder and GPS Radio Occultation System.

India and Russia to launch Youthsat

YOUTHSAT is a joint scientific mission between India and Russia with participation of youth from both the countries to celebrate the golden Jubilee of the satellite era.

The second satellite in the micro satellite series proposed is YOUTHSAT which will carry payloads of scientific interest with participation of youths from Universities at graduate, post graduate and research scholar level. Youth from universities will participate from testing of the payloads in laboratory up to utilization of the data from payloads. Participation of youth will inculcate interest in space related activities and provide opportunities for realization of future payloads for scientific experiments. The micro satellite bus is planned and designed to carry different kinds of payloads like earth imaging, atmospheric applications, weather monitoring, stellar observations, scientific experiments etc.

YOUTHSAT is planned to be launched as auxiliary satellite along with any remote sensing satellite planned for launch during 2009-10 in a polar sun-synchronous orbit of local time of around 0900 to 1030 hrs.

ISRO to launch geo-stationary satellite

The understanding of basic sciences is essential to excel in application sciences, whether it is electronics or photonics," said Prof vice-chancellor, Choudhary Charan Singh in Meerut University during the valedictory function of the three-day international conference on emerging trends in electronics and photonic devices and systems (Electro-2009) that concluded at Banaras Hindu University on Thursday

As a chief guest of the function, Prof Kak stressed on the need for collaborative and multi-disciplinary approach in physical and basic sciences. While emphasizing on stem cell revolution and use of nano- technology, he said: "A number of emerging fields in science demand connectivity and integration of system, development biology and synergy of various streams of science can do wonders in this direction."

Focusing on the fundamentals of basic sciences, scientist Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI) Pilani (Rajasthan) Dr SN Joshi said the future of electronic and photonic devices lie in synergy of semi conductors and vacuum technology that demand strong knowledge of basic sciences.

On the occasion, coordinator of the programme Prof P Chakrabarti of department of Electronics Engineering Institute of Technology (IT), BHU said the department along with other departments of life sciences has started collaborative research to enrich knowledge in the university.

Director Development Education and Communication Unit Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Dr KS Dasgupta streamlined the importance of information and communication technology (ICT). He too focussed on the need for innovation through cross connectivity in application sciences.

Later, talking to reporters Dasgupta said ISRO was all set to launch a new geo-stationary experimental satellite in the first quarter of 2010. It would be a communication and propagation based experimental satellite that would use KA band frequency. A number of experts in electronics and photonics from different parts of the country and abroad were present on the occasion.

NASA releases first-ever photo of liquid on another world

NASA scientists released a first-of-its-kind image from space showing reflecting sunlight from a lake on Saturn's largest moon, Titan on 24^th December 09.

·         NASA photo from Cassini probe is first-ever of liquid on another world, says scientist

·         Image shows sun reflecting from a lake on Saturn's moon, Titan

·         Planets with liquid are thought to be more likely to develop life

·         Scientists have been studying Titan because of its similarities to Earth

It's the first visual "smoking gun" evidence of liquid on the northern hemisphere of the moon, scientists said, and the first-ever photo from another world showing a " specular reflection" -- which is reflection of light from an extremely smooth surface and in this case, a liquid one.

"This is the first time outside Earth we've seen specular reflection from another liquid from another body," said Ralf Jaumann, a scientist analyzing data from the Cassini unmanned space probe.

Jaumann said he was surprised when he first saw the photos transmitting from Cassini, orbiting Saturn about a billion miles from Earth.

"It was great because if you look at photos of planets, you mostly see nothing is happening. But in two hours we saw a glint of light getting brighter."

Titan's similarities to Earth have attracted NASA's attention for decades. It's the only body besides our own in the solar system that is believed to have liquid on its surface. Like Earth, Titan has an atmosphere which is mostly nitrogen.

Space facing parking problem with 12,000 satellites

Not everyone is lucky enough to experience the excitement inside the control room at Sriharikota when Chandrayaan-I was launched, but the students of Dikshant International School got the chance to relive history. They were lucky enough not just to see the video, but meet the Group Director of the Indian Space Research Organization.

Suresh Naik, former Group Director of ISRO, interacted with the students and staff of the Dikshant International School at the school’s media centre on Sunday. Naik showed a presentation carrying the facts and pictures related to Chandrayaan-I. He also showed students the different stages of making of a rocket and a satellite. He showed the video of the launching of Chandrayaan-I and the visuals of the research centre.

He said a satellite had a life of 15 to 20 years, after which it gets lost in the space. “There are around 12,000 satellites in the space, of which only 20 per cent are working. The others, along with some other unwanted material, comprise space debris, which is causing a parking problem in space. This debris causes a lot of problem in the launch of new satellites,” he said.

Replying to a question, he said the Indian Space and Science Technology Centre was situated at Thiruvantpuram and that he had worked under the ISRO scientists with former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, being the Chancellor of the university.

Answering another question, he said scientists were seeing Mars as an alternative habitat for humans. He said that by 2035, the first human should be able to reach Mars. He said that according to plans, two years prior to this robot would land on Mars. He also educated students about Chandrayaan-II and Chandrayaan-III, the upcoming projects of the ISRO. Chandrayaan-II, which would carry two rovers for the further exploration of the moon, is scheduled for 2013 while Chandrayaan-III is scheduled for 2015.

Large Hadron Collider is ready to exploring secrets of the universe

The Large Hadron Collider has taken a step closer to unlocking the secrets of dark matter as the atom smasher recorded its first high-energy collisions of protons.

The collisions happened as the collider was put through test runs in preparation for full operations next year, said Christine Sutton of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, or CERN. He also said, they recorded a handful of collisions, and one of them looks quite nice, so it's on their web site. The collisions occurred when the machine was ramped up briefly to 1.18 TeV.

Physicists hope those collisions will help them understand suspected phenomena such as dark matter, antimatter and ultimately the Big Bang thought to have created the universe billions of years ago. Two beams of circulating particles traveling in opposite directions at 1.18 trillion electron volts (TeV) produced the collisions.

The Atlas, one of four major detectors in cathedral-sized rooms in the collider's underground tunnel at Geneva, had part of its equipment turned on and could register collisions.

That same level set a world record for proton acceleration in November, when Geneva's particle beams traveled with 20 percent more power than Fermilab near Chicago, which previously held the record.

The operators plan many more collisions at lower energies so the experiments can calibrate their equipment and prepare for more advances ahead.

CERN then plans more collisions at 1.18 TeV to give all experiments the opportunity to record data at that level, but new scientific discoveries are not expected before next year when the beams are ramped up still higher, to 3.5 TeV. That will be 3.5 times more energy that has been reached at Fermilab, previously the most powerful collider.

Best Space Finds Of 2009

1 The year 2009 will go down in history as the watershed year in field of space. From starling revelations like the next ice-age phase to other spectacular discoveries like the water on moon and Martian shorelines, it has been a prolific year of space findings. Now, National Geographic has listed the best space explorations of the year 2009.

2 A new computer model has suggested that the outer crusts of so-called neutron stars are ten billion times stronger than steel, and is in fact, the strongest known material in the universe.

3 Another space discovery of the yr is that Jupiter's moon Europa may harbor fish-sized life in its oceans. A provocative new research suggested that the amount of oxygen in the ocean would be enough to support more than just microscopic life-forms, with at least three million tons of fishlike creatures theoretically living and breathing on Europa.

4. The discovery of 32 new planets outside our solar system, bringing the massive haul of new worlds to more than 400.

5. Another space discovery of the year is that pictures taken in summer 2008 showed strange globs on the leg of the Phoenix Mars Lander that seemed to behave like liquid water, which could be the first proof that modern Mars hosts liquid water

This substance is probably saline mud that splashed up as the craft landed; study leader and Phoenix co-investigator Nilton Renno of the University of Michigan had told National Geographic News. Salt in the mud then absorbed water vapor from the atmosphere, forming the watery drops, according to Renno.

6. This finding of Gliese 581d, the most Earthlike planet yet found, may have liquid oceans.

7. Exploration of the oldest of the subatomic particles called neutrinos might each encompass a space larger than thousands of galaxies.

8. The other space discovery of the year is that high-resolution pictures of a Martian valley revealed three-billion-year-old shorelines along what was once a body of water about the size of Lake Champlain, which is the first proof of ancient Mars lakeshores.

9. Finding of water on the Moon, when NASA crashed a two-ton rocket into a permanently shadowed crater on the moon's South Pole in October.

10. finding of a green 'two-tailed' comet that buzzed by Earth on a one-time visit in late February.

11. This is top space discovery of the year is that the Sun's oddly quiet phase might be indicative of the next 'little ice age'.

Introducing the new Nokia N900

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India launches spy satellite RISAT-2 and ANUSAT

The Indian Space Research Organisation on Monday successfully launched a revolutionary spy satellite that will help security agencies monitor the hundreds of mountain valleys that connect India with Pakistan and terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan further north.

The PSLV-C12, carrying the 300-kg spy satellite Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-2) and the 40-kg Micro Satellite ANUSAT lifted off from ISRO's Satish Dhawan space Centre on Monday morning.

At the end of a 48-hour countdown, the 44-meter tall four-stage PSLV-C12 blasted off from the second launch pad with the ignition of the core first stage.

India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C12, in its 15th Mission will launch 300 kg Radar imaging Satellite (RISAT-2) and 40 kg micro satellite named ANUSAT built by Anna University, Chennai. The intended orbit of the satellites is at 550 km with an inclination of 41 degree.

PSLV is a four-stage launch vehicle employing both solid and liquid propulsion stages. PSLV is the trusted workhorse launch Vehicle of ISRO. During 1993-2008 period, PSLV had fourteen launches of which thirteen were consecutively successful. PSLV has repeatedly proved its reliability and versatility by launching 30 spacecraft (14 Indian and 16 for international customers) into a variety of orbits so far. It may be recalled that during its previous mission on October 22, 2008, PSLV had successfully launched Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, which is now exploring the Moon from lunar orbit.

In its standard configuration, the 44 m tall PSLV has a lift-off mass of 295 tonne. It is a four-stage launch vehicle with the first and the third stages as well as the six strap-ons surrounding the first stage using HTPB based solid propellant. PSLV’s first stage is one of the largest solid propellant boosters in the world. Its second and fourth stages use liquid propellants.

PSLV-C12 will be launched without the six strapons in its ‘core alone’ configuration. PSLV-C12 weighs about 230 tonnes at lift off. It may be recalled that PSLV in its core alone configuration had launched AGILE and TECSAR during 2007 and 2008 respectively.

RISAT -2

Satellite Specifications
Altitude 550 km
Inclination 41 deg
Orbit Period 90 minutes
Mass 300 kg

RISAT-2 is a Radar Imaging Satellite with all weather capability to take images of the earth. This Satellite will enhance ISRO’s capability for Disaster Management applications.

ANUSAT

Satellite Specifications
Altitude 550 km
Inclination 41 deg
Orbit Period 90 minutes
Mass 40 kg

ANUSAT (Anna University Satellite) is the first satellite built by an Indian University under the over all guidance of ISRO and will demonstrate the technologies related to message store and forward operations.

China launches second ‘Compass’ satellite for global navigation system

China successfully launched its second navigation satellite early Wednesday, as part of the country's independent global satellite navigation system. China plans to have global satellite navigation system by 2015.

The carrier rocket, Long March 3C, blasted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province at 0:16 a.m.

An official with the National Engineering Center of Satellite Navigation told Xinhua, the successful launch of the geostationary Earth orbit satellite was of great importance as it was the second one of the country's satellite navigation system independent from foreign technology.

The system, code named "COMPASS", is a crucial part of the country's space infrastructure for providing navigation and positioning services in transportation, meteorology, petroleum prospecting, forest fire monitoring, disaster forecast, telecommunications and public security among others. It can bring significant social and economic benefits, the official said.

The system can help clients know their location at any time and place with accurate longitude, latitude and altitude data, and will offer "safer" positioning, velocity, timing communications for authorized users.

Previous reports said China planed to complete its independent global satellite navigation system by launching about 30 more orbiters before 2015, with 10 navigation satellites into the space in 2009 and 2010. The current Compass system only provides regional navigation service within China and neighboring regions.

The second "Compass" satellite and its carrier rocket were respectively developed by the China Academy of Space Technology and the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology which are under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

It is the 116th flight for the country's Long March series of rockets.China launched the first "Compass" navigation satellite into geostationary orbit in April 2007 to build up its own positioning system following the United States' Global Positioning System (GPS), the Galileo Positioning System of Europe and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS).

U.S. Global Positioning System:
Global Positioning System is a global navigation satellite system developed by the United States Department of Defense and managed by the United States Air Force 50th Space Wing. It became fully operational in 1993. The system allows users to determine their positions within a few meters.

Russian Glonass:
Glonass, a Global Navigation Satellite System, is the Russian version of the U.S. Global Positioning System and is designed for both military and civilian use. Both systems allow users to determine their positions within a few meters.

EU's Galileo:
The Galileo project, launched in 1999, is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the European Space Agency. Under the agreement signed by the EU transport ministers in November 2007, Galileo will be put into operation by 2013.

Russia designing a new spaceship

The Russian space agency on 7th April ordered design work to start for a next-generation spaceship capable of flying missions to the moon, setting the ground for a potential new space race with the United States.

The space agency granted the state-controlled RKK Energiya Company the 800 million ruble (USD 23 million) contract for the initial work on a new, reusable craft to replace the 40-year-old Soyuz spacecraft.

The as-yet-unnamed Russian spaceship could emerge as a potential competitor to NASA's prospective Orion spacecraft.

Design requirements for the Russian craft appear similar to Orion's specification, prompting some experts to nickname it "Orionski." Orion is scheduled to begin carrying humans to the International Space Station from 2015 and to the moon from 2020.

Alexei Krasnov, the chief of manned space programmes for the Russian space agency, said last week that the prospective Russian spacecraft is set to make its maiden flight before 2020, without elaborating.

James Oberg, an experienced aerospace engineer who worked on NASA's space shuttle programme and is now a space consultant, wrote in a commentary that the new Russian space program could help NASA win funds for its plan to return astronauts to the moon.

U.S. military swears to track 800 satellites by October 1, 2009

Spurred by last month's collision of two satellites high above the Earth, the U.S. military plans to begin tracking all 800 maneuverable spacecraft currently operating in space by October 1, a senior U.S. Air Force official said on Monday.

U.S. Strategic Command and Air Force Space Command will work together to expand the number of satellites being tracked from about 300 currently, Air Force Colonel Dusty Tyson, chief of the Pentagon's National Security Space Office, told reporters at a space conference in Colorado Springs.

He said the decision was made at a high-level Pentagon meeting on March 24 attended by Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, General Kevin Chilton, head of Strategic Command, General Robert Kehler, who runs Air Force Space Command and John Grimes, the Pentagon's chief information officer.

"They're going to stand up a level of capability by 1 October. They hope to be able to provide conjunction analysis on all 800, plus or minus, maneuverable satellites," Tyson said at the Space Foundation's annual National Space Symposium.

Tyson said some officials had long believed a collision of satellites would eventually happen and had been pressing for better tracking of satellites and other objects in space.

But the February 10 collision of a dead Russian military communications satellite and a commercial U.S. satellite owned by Iridium had spurred the military into quicker action, he said.

"It was definitely an impetus to get out and get moving faster. Now that the event has happened, there is definitely movement afoot to try to prevent it from happening again," he said.

Tyson declined comment on whether better tracking by the U.S. government could have averted the incident.

US unveils Orion spacecraft to take crew to Mars

NASA gave visitors to the National Mall in Washington a peek at a full-size mock-up of the spacecraft designed to carry U.S. astronauts back to the moon and then on to Mars one day.

The U.S. Navy-built Orion crew exploration vehicle will replace the space shuttle NASA plans to retire in 2010, and become the cornerstone of the agency's Constellation Program to explore the moon, Mars and beyond.

"We're just very proud to build this, do some testing and demonstrate to America that we're moving beyond the space shuttle onto another generation of spacecraft," said Don Pearson, project manager for the Post-Landing Orion Recovery Test or PORT.

NASA plans to use Orion to carry astronauts to the International Space Station by 2015. The capsule will rotate the crew at the station every six months "to work out the kinks" before heading to the moon and Mars, Pearson said.

Trips to the moon are scheduled for 2020, while a journey to Mars is believed possible by the mid-2030s.

The design of Orion was based on the Apollo spacecraft, which first took Americans to the moon. Although similar in shape, Orion is larger, able to carry six crew members rather than three, and builds on 1960s technology to make it safer.

'WE WANT TO GO TO MARS'

Orion is named for a bright constellation that got its designation from a hunter in ancient Greek mythology.

"The reason we're doing all of this is because we want to go to Mars," Pearson said.

But a round trip to the red planet would require three years -- six to nine months to get there and much of the rest of the time waiting for the planets to realign to allow for entry back to Earth.

"We're not confident in our technology yet to be able to last for three years without things breaking that are unrepairable," Pearson said.

So NASA plans to first take several trips to the moon, a journey of just three days. Each visit will last six months while astronauts set up a campsite and practice the things they want to do on Mars.

"That's really the goal -- to put humans on Mars, and going to the moon is our testing ground in order to do it," Pearson explained.

The $2 million PORT project will make sure that crew members can be rescued from the choppy waters of the Atlantic in case of an emergency requiring an aborted launch, using the full-scale, 18,000-pound (8,000 kg) model of Orion.

On April 6, the capsule will be dumped into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida, using one of the ships that usually recover rocket boosters from shuttle launches. Instruments within the capsule will measure the acceleration and tilting astronauts would experience upon landing in waves

Mexico to Build Spaceport, builds Ties with Russia

Mexico plans to begin construction of a new space agency, Aexa, to build an equatorial satellite launch complex this year. The facility will be located in the southern state of Quintana Roo on the border with Belize. The location was chosen after extensive studies in part because of its proximity to the Equator.

It also looks as if Aexa will be getting assistance from the Russian space agency Roskosmos. Deputy Director Segrey Saveliev recently led a delegation to Mexico to discuss bilateral ties, the Russian news agency TASS reports:

Russian experts held negotiations with the Mexican Congress Senate Committee on Science and Technology, as well as with the initiative group on development of the national space agency.

The visit took place following the initiative of the Mexican party, Saveliev explained. Mexican space agency is to be established in a few months. After that, Roscosmos will negotiate the issues with the authorized state agency.

According to Saveliev, “reliable legal basis is required” to commence discussions of the space programs with Mexico. Mexican party is interested in cooperation in the satellite communication, remote sensing programs, as well as in the Russian Global Navigation System (GLONASS). Thus, prospective of bilateral cooperation are realistic.

Space smells funny- Discovery pilots

The space shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven have safely returned to Earth. But the one thing pilots can’t get out their noses is space’s “weird” smell.

"One thing I've heard people say before, but it wasn't so obvious, was the smell right when you open up that hatch," Live Science quoted Discovery pilot Dominic "Tony" Antonelli, as saying after a March 21 spacewalk.

"Space definitely has a smell that's different than anything else,” Antonelli added.

The scientist revealed that the “odd” odor could be smelled once spacewalkers locked the station airlock's outer hatch and reopened the inner door.

Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who launched to the station aboard Discovery, claimed that he too could smell the odd odor that wafted in from outside the station.

According to ex-NASA astronaut Thomas Jones, a veteran of three spacewalks, the odor could stem from atomic oxygen that clings to spacesuit fabric. When you repressurise the airlock and get out of your suit, there is a distinct odor of ozone, a faint acrid smell. He is adding that the smell is also similar to burnt gunpowder or the ozone smell of electrical equipment. It's not noticeable inside the suit. The suit smells like plastic inside.

Discovery's 13-day flight – which ended just as a new Russian-launched crew was settling into the space station –was highlighted by the installation and unfurling of the station's last pair of solar wings.

Astronomers found a shooting star for 1st time

A black rock found in the Sudanese desert in December 2008, part of the first asteroid tracked from space, into the atmosphere and then to Earth.

For the first time scientists matched a meteorite found on Earth with a specific asteroid that became a fireball plunging through the sky. It gives them a glimpse into the past when planets formed and an idea how to avoid a future asteroid Armageddon.

Last October, astronomers tracked a small non-threatening asteroid heading toward Earth before it became a "shooting star," something they had not done before. It blew up in the sky and scientists thought there would be no space rocks left to examine.

But a painstaking search by dozens of students through the remote Sudan desert came up with 8.7 pounds of black jagged rocks, leftovers from the asteroid 2008 TC3. And those dark rocks were full of surprises and minuscule diamonds, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Nature.

"This was a meteorite that was not in our collection, a completely new material," said study lead author Peter Jenniskens of NASA's Ames Research Center in California. For years, astronomers have been lobbying to send a robot probe to an asteroid, grab a chunk of it and return it to Earth for labs to analyze the material. Instead a piece of an asteroid dropped in their laps and the researchers were able to track where it came from and where it landed.

The asteroid, which mostly burned in the atmosphere 23 miles above the ground, is likely a leftover from when chunks of rock tried and failed to become a planet, about 4.5 billion years ago, scientists said.

"This is a look back in time and it came to us," said University of Maryland astronomer Lucy McFadden.

"It's a beautiful example of looking at an earlier stage of planet development that was arrested, halted," said NASA cosmic mineralogist Michael Zolensky, a co-author of the study.

There are many different types of asteroids, all classified from afar based on color and light wavelengths. This type is called class F and turns out to be mostly porous and fragile. University of Maryland's McFadden said it's unlikely that a class F asteroid could be any danger to Earth, even if it's bigger, because of its porous makeup which would cause it to break up before hitting.

It was full of metals, such as iron and nickel, and organics such as graphite, Zolensky said. And most interesting is that it has "nanodiamonds." These diamonds are formed by collisions in space and high pressure and they are all over the rocks, making them glitter like geodes, he said. But they aren't big. If bacteria had engagement rings, these would be the right size for them.

India to work with USA on anti-satellite weapons

India, which is one of the few countries in the world to have significant space capabilities, is willing to work with the US to develop anti-satellite weapons, a top diplomat has said.

"This is an area of convergence on which we would be happy to work together with the US and contribute to a multilateral agreement," Shyam Saran, Prime Minister's Special Envoy, said in his address to the Brookings Institution.

Saran was referring to the recent announcements made by the US President, Barack Obama, about his intention to join multilateral efforts to prevent military conflict in space and to negotiate an agreement to prohibit the testing of anti-satellite weapons.

India welcomes this, he said. "We have a large number of communications and resource survey satellites currently in orbit. Although this does not fall strictly within the nuclear domain, the need to ensure the peaceful uses of outer space is important for nuclear stability and international security," Saran said.

In 2007, China had destroyed one of its own defunct satellites with a ballistic missile, sparking global concerns. In February last year, a US Navy ship too launched a missile that hit a dying spy satellite.

Scientists see largest ever exploding star

Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science and San Diego State University have observed the largest exploding star yet seen which is 50 times bigger than the sun.

While exploding stars, called supernovae, have been viewed with everything from the naked eye to high-tech research satellites, no one had directly observed what happens when a really huge star blows up.

Dr. Avishay Gal-Yam of the Weizmann Institute’s Faculty of Physics and Professor Douglas Leonard of San Diego State University recently located and calculated the mass of a gigantic star on the verge of exploding, following through with observations of the blast and its aftermath.

As they continued to track the spectacular event, they found that most of the star’s mass collapsed in on itself, resulting in a large black hole.

Their findings have lent support to the reigning theory that stars ranging from tens to hundreds of times the mass of our sun all end up as black holes.

Until now, none of the exploding stars scientists managed to observe had a mass of more than 20 suns. Gal-Yam and Leonard were looking at a specific region in space using the Keck Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii and the Hubble Space Telescope. Identifying the about-to-explode star, they calculated it’s mass to be equal to 50 to 100 suns. Continued observation revealed that only a small part of the star's mass was flung off in the explosion. Most of the material, said Gal-Yam, was drawn into the collapsing core. Indeed, in subsequent telescope images of that section of the sky, the star seems to have disappeared. In other words, the star has now become a black hole - so dense that light can't escape.

The death of a star is predetermined from birth by its size and by the "power plant" that keeps it burning during its lifetime. Stars, among them our sun, are fueled by hydrogen nuclei fusing together into helium in the intense heat and pressure of their inner cores. A helium nucleus is a bit lighter than the sum of the masses of the four hydrogen nuclei that went into making it and, from Einstein's theory of relativity (E=MC2) , we know that the missing mass is released as energy.

When stars like our sun finish off their hydrogen fuel, they burn out relatively quietly in a puff of expansion. But a star that's eight or more times larger than the sun makes a much more dramatic exit: Nuclear fusion continues after the hydrogen is exhausted, producing heavier elements in the star's different layers. When this process progresses to the point that the core of the star has turned to iron, another phenomenon takes over; in the enormous heat and pressure in the star's center, the iron nuclei break apart into their component protons and neutrons. At some point, this causes the core and the layer above it to collapse inward, firing the rest of the star's material rapidly out into space in a supernova flash.

According to Gal-Yam, a supernova releases more energy in a few days than our sun will release over its entire existence, and the explosion is so bright that one occurring hundreds of light years away can be seen from Earth even in the daytime. While a supernova's outer layers light up the universe with dazzling fireworks, the star's core collapses further and further inward. The gravitational forces involved in this collapse are so strong that the protons and electrons are squeezed together to form neutrons, and the star's spherical core is reduced from a circumference of 10,000 kilometers to only 10 kilometers. Just a crate-full of material from such a neutron star would weigh as much as the Earth.

But when a star 20 times the mass of our sun or more collapses, he continued, its gravitational pull is so powerful that even light waves can't escape it. Such a star is practically invisible.

ISRO to launch radar imaging satellite (RISAT)

India is all set to launch a radar imaging satellite (RISAT) built with "substantial inputs" from the Israel aerospace industry from Sriharikota spaceport, an ISRO official said on Friday.

Israel has supplied Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), which is in fact "heart" of the 1780-kg remote sensing satellite. Israel has supplied substantial systems," an ISRO official said.

The Israeli "inputs" are seen as a "return gesture" by the Jewish State to New Delhi for launching an Israeli spacecraft Techsar on board India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from Sriharikota last year. RISAT is likely to be launched in 5th or 6th April.

An active sensor, SAR operates in the microwave range of electromagnetic spectrum and provides the target parameters such as dielectric constant, roughness, and geometry.

NASA to send spacecraft to Venus

NASA is planning to send a future fleet of spacecraft to Venus. According to NASA, the USD 4-billion Venus mission, to be launched between 2020 or 2025, could reveal more about the planet's runaway greenhouse effect, any oceans it may have had, and the volcanic activity.

Two high-altitude balloons built to hover in sulphuric acid clouds could also be part of the fleet to Venus which has more in common with Earth than any other in terms of distance from the Sun, size and mass, the US space agency has said.

And, the mission's two balloons would each carry a gondola full of scientific instruments to sniff the atmosphere at an altitude of 55 kilometers.

In fact, in 2008, NASA tasked a group of scientists to formulate goals for the mission. The team's study outlines a plan to study the planet and the mission concept includes one orbiter, two balloons and two short-lived Landers, all of which would launch into space on two Atlas V rockets.

"Our understanding of Venus is so low, we really need this armada," team leader Mark Bullock of Southwest Research Institute in Colorado was quoted as saying.

Researchers believe water was once plentiful enough to have been able to cover the entire planet in a layer 100 meters deep. But Venus’s hothouse climate eventually dried up most of this water, a process that might have also slowed and eventually stopped plate tectonics on the planet. The landers, which would only last a few hours in the intense heat, could look for evidence of minerals formed by water.

Since such hydrated minerals have a limited lifetime, they could help reveal how long Venus’s oceans might have lasted, a question that could shed light on whether life might have arisen on the planet.

The mission’s two balloons would each carry a gondola full of scientific instruments to sniff the atmosphere at an altitude of 55 kilometers.

The mission could also help reveal more about the origin of Venus’s current carbon dioxide atmosphere, which produces crushing surface pressures 90 times those on Earth.

Indian scientists discover three New bacteria in Stratosphere

Three new species of bacteria, which are not found on earth and highly resistant to ultra violet radiation, have been discovered in the upper stratosphere by some Indian scientists.

One of the new species has been named as Janibacter Hoylei after the distinguished astrophysicist Fred Hoyle. The second bacteria has been named as Bacillus Isronensis recognizing the contribution of ISRO in balloon experiments which led to its discovery and the third bacterial bacillus Aryabhata after India's celebrated ancient astronomer Aryabhata and also the first satellite of ISRO.

According to ISRO, the balloon experiment was conducted using 26.7 million cubic feet balloon carrying a 459 kg scientific payload soaked in 38 kg of liquid neon which was flown from the national balloon facility in Hyderabad, operated by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).

The payload consisted of a cryosampler containing 16 evacuated and sterilized stainless steel probes. Throughout the flight, the probes remained immersed in the liquid neon to create a "cryopump effect". These cylinders after collecting air samples from different heights ranging from 20 to 41 km were parachuted down and safely retrieved, it said.

The samples were analyzed by the scientists at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, as well as the National Centre for Cell Sciences, Pune, for independent examination.

IAF men to be on India’s first manned space mission

India's first manned space mission is likely to takes off in 2017, it will have Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel on board.

The IAF is to train two of its personnel for the mission, in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), said a senior IAF official. The proposed manned space mission follows India's successful lunar probe launch last year.

The manned space mission will carry a two-member IAF crew - becoming the second Indians to go into space after Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma, who was part of the joint space programme between India and Russia in 1984.

Though the ISRO wanted one of its scientists on the mission along with an IAF pilot, the air force proposed that both should be IAF personnel.

"The crew will consist of two members. We had a meeting with the ISRO scientists and they insisted on sending one scientist and one air force pilot, but we have proposed to depute one of our engineers also with them for training till the mission happens," a senior IAF official said

Under the ambitious $2.5 billion plan, India's space agency has proposed to put two people into space orbit at 274 km above the earth for seven days.

For the Human Space Flight project, the IAF is also gearing up its infrastructure for training the astronauts.

"We may have an IL-76 (Russian-built Illyushin-76 transport aircraft) modified to familiarize our crew with zero gravity situation. The mission will be unique as the spacecraft will also have an ejection capsule which would help the crew eject safely in time of emergency," the official added.

If the mission takes off, India will become the fourth country after US, Russia and China - to send a manned space mission. India is not the only Asian country in the new space race - Iran recently announced that it will attempt a manned space flight by 2021.

Dismissing the criticism of the huge costs involved in India's proposed manned mission, another senior IAF official listed its military advantages. He said the space mission will help India acquire ICBM (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile) capability.

"To place a spacecraft in orbit we will require a bigger rocket booster. This large rocket booster will help India acquire the ICBM (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile) capability," the senior official said requesting anonymity.

He also said it would boost the country's reconnaissance capability. "To be in constant touch with the astronauts as they revolve around the earth, we will need to interlink our satellites, which in turn will boost our reconnaissance capability. Presently we are able to get 15 minutes' feed daily from our satellites. The space mission will give us 90 minutes' feed," the official added.

The decision to send astronauts into space follows the launch last October of India's first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, which signaled the country's entry into an elite club of nations that have reached the moon.

Chandrayaan-1 is now orbiting the moon to compile a 3-D map of its surface among other things. India is planning to launch its second unmanned lunar mission - Chandrayaan-2 - in 2011.

India's decision to go for a manned mission into space comes in the wake of China making great strides in its space pursuits. China completed its first space walk last year, and also shot down one of its own satellites in 2007.

IAF men to be on India’s first manned space mission

India's first manned space mission is likely to takes off in 2017, it will have Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel on board.

The IAF is to train two of its personnel for the mission, in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), said a senior IAF official. The proposed manned space mission follows India's successful lunar probe launch last year.

The manned space mission will carry a two-member IAF crew - becoming the second Indians to go into space after Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma, who was part of the joint space programme between India and Russia in 1984.

Though the ISRO wanted one of its scientists on the mission along with an IAF pilot, the air force proposed that both should be IAF personnel.

"The crew will consist of two members. We had a meeting with the ISRO scientists and they insisted on sending one scientist and one air force pilot, but we have proposed to depute one of our engineers also with them for training till the mission happens," a senior IAF official said

Under the ambitious $2.5 billion plan, India's space agency has proposed to put two people into space orbit at 274 km above the earth for seven days.

For the Human Space Flight project, the IAF is also gearing up its infrastructure for training the astronauts.

"We may have an IL-76 (Russian-built Illyushin-76 transport aircraft) modified to familiarize our crew with zero gravity situation. The mission will be unique as the spacecraft will also have an ejection capsule which would help the crew eject safely in time of emergency," the official added.

If the mission takes off, India will become the fourth country after US, Russia and China - to send a manned space mission. India is not the only Asian country in the new space race - Iran recently announced that it will attempt a manned space flight by 2021.

Dismissing the criticism of the huge costs involved in India's proposed manned mission, another senior IAF official listed its military advantages. He said the space mission will help India acquire ICBM (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile) capability.

"To place a spacecraft in orbit we will require a bigger rocket booster. This large rocket booster will help India acquire the ICBM (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile) capability," the senior official said requesting anonymity.

He also said it would boost the country's reconnaissance capability. "To be in constant touch with the astronauts as they revolve around the earth, we will need to interlink our satellites, which in turn will boost our reconnaissance capability. Presently we are able to get 15 minutes' feed daily from our satellites. The space mission will give us 90 minutes' feed," the official added.

The decision to send astronauts into space follows the launch last October of India's first unmanned lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, which signaled the country's entry into an elite club of nations that have reached the moon.

Chandrayaan-1 is now orbiting the moon to compile a 3-D map of its surface among other things. India is planning to launch its second unmanned lunar mission - Chandrayaan-2 - in 2011.

India's decision to go for a manned mission into space comes in the wake of China making great strides in its space pursuits. China completed its first space walk last year, and also shot down one of its own satellites in 2007.

First full-fledged astronomical gallery in Kerala

A hi-tech astronomical gallery will soon come up at the Regional Science Centre and Planetarium here, the first of its kind in the country.

"With the U.N. declaring 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy, we have drawn up plans to set up the exclusive gallery, first of its kind in the country, in June 2009," planetarium project coordinator V.S. Ramachandran said.

Though Bangalore has a Space Science Gallery, none of the 28 planetariums in the country have a gallery dedicated to astronomy dealing with the science of celestial bodies.

He also said that the planetarium was among the first to construct a "Hall of Human Endurance" to showcase the inextricable role of science and technology in modern day sporting activities.

"The Rs 50-lakh 6,000 sq. ft. hall is designed to project the role of science in the field of sports with a gallery depicting various physiological functions in human body," he said.

"Several sports personalities, including former ace athlete P.T. Usha, now running an athletic school, are among the regular visitors to keep themselves fit," he said.

The centre recently set up a "Mirror Magic" gallery at a cost of Rs 22 lakh. "You can have several interesting experiences like floating in the air, vanishing image, seeing only a side or back of your body, rotating image or tunnel of infinite depth," Mr. Ramchandran said.

Other prime attractions at the centre here include a Science Park, 3-D fantasy shows and a Fun Science gallery which contains exhibits to elucidate various theorems and phenomena in physics, chemistry and astronomy.

"To popularize the activities of the centre we recently held a session for auto drivers who are the real messengers for tourists visiting the area and this concept was widely appreciated at the planetariums' meet held at Goa in January this year," he said.

Similarly, hotel managers and tourist operators' meets were also held regularly at the centre to popularize its activities. "We also conduct mobile exhibitions covering the entire Malabar region, comprising six districts," he said.

On the planetarium topping the list of receiving maximum number of visitors, a record five lakh this season, Ramachandran said "the phenomenal growth is due to the concerted effort of the team of officials striving hard".

The centre also proposes to set up a "Children's Park" by the year-end, besides having a fully-automated digital planetarium by the year 2010-11.

The planetarium will also have a 24-ft long "Foucault's Pendulum" to show that the Earth rotates on its own axis once in every 24 hours.

China plans to launch 16 satellites in 2009

China is planning to launch 15-16 satellites in 2009, Zhang Jianqi, deputy chief commander of the manned space project

"Though the global financial crisis is taking toll on world economy, it has no impact on China's space programs," said Zhang Jianqi, deputy chief commander of the manned space project.

China is at present "batch-producing" the three spacecraft, Shenzhou-8, Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10, according to Zhang, who is also a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature.

"This is the first time for the country to conduct researches and production on three spacecraft at the same time," he said.

China plans to launch Tiangong-1, an unmanned space module, into orbit by the end of 2010, informed Zhang.

The country plans to launch the Shenzhou-8 and Shenzhou-9 spacecraft in 2011, a former chief designer of the manned-space project said earlier.

According to Zhang, the country is selecting a new batch of taikonauts, which may include the country's first female taikonaut.

China has sent an average of eight satellites into space annually during the first two years of its 11th five-year-plan (2006-2010), and the number was 1.5 before its ninth five-year-plan (1996-2000), figures from the China Academy of Space Technology showed.

Laser beams to explore alien worlds

Scientists are planning to explore alien world conditions right here on Earth, by using laser beams to hit a tiny target, creating conditions momentarily similar to what exists in the cores of stars and giant planets and inside nuclear weapons.

According to a report in Discovery News, these experiments would be conducted in a new national laboratory in the US that has the power to compress hydrogen down to the density of copper.

"It's an extraordinary time for this type of science," said Gilbert Collins, a physicist with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, host to the new National Ignition Facility, which will use the power of 192 infrared lasers to demonstrate nuclear fusion.

Scientists plan to use the laser beams to hit a tiny target, creating conditions momentarily similar to what exists in the cores of stars and giant planets and inside nuclear weapons.

"Most of the planets we know about are outside our own solar system. They're large, they're in planetary systems that are weird, except well actually, it's perhaps our planetary system that stands out as being a little bit bizarre," said planetary scientist Raymond Jeanloz, with the University of California at Berkeley.

We've had a real breakthrough experimentally in being able to begin to reproduce these kinds of enormous pressures in the laboratory so we can actually study the properties of matter in these conditions.

Scientists'' first look at Mother Nature's planetary toolkit began with Earth, where interior pressures are about 3.5 million times higher than on the surface.

They then moved on to Jupiter, the solar system's largest world, with an interior pressure 70 million times stronger than Earth's.

Prodded by discoveries of extra-solar planets up to 10 times larger than Jupiter, physicists are beginning to explore how matter behaves at pressures that are millions or even a billion times greater than on Earth.

Japan to send robot to moon

Japan is considering putting a robot on the moon by 2020 and an astronaut by 2030, a report from a government office showed on Friday, amid fears that the country will be left behind in Asia's space race.

The plans follow China's first space walk and India's launch of their first unmanned moon mission last year. Beijing officials have said that China is looking to eventually put astronauts on the moon, though the government has not revealed any schedule.

The robot and the astronaut would probe the moon to see how its resources could be used, the report showed. A space development panel also discussed on Friday the possibility of Japan eventually starting its own manned space program, a government official said.

"Some experts are concerned that unless there is an independent program, then Japan may be left behind in terms of space development," said an official from the Strategic Headquarters for Space Policy (SHSP), under the Cabinet Office.

"If large scale space development projects, such as moon probes or space solar power system, are conducted, not only robots but also people will have to be there. The technology of manned space programs will certainly become the foundation in such cases," he said.

Japan's space program was in tatters in the late 1990s and early 2000s after unsuccessful rocket launches, but it successfully launched its first lunar explorer in 2007. It has sent six astronauts to space, all through international missions.

The Soviet Union, United States and China are the only countries that have put people in space with their own rockets.

Amid worries about a regional space race and North Korea's nuclear and missile capabilities, Japan introduced a new space law last year that allows military use of space, ending a decades-old pacifist policy.

The law, which allows the military to launch its own satellites for spying and warn of missile launches but rules out offensive weapons in space, opened ways for the nation's space industry to compete globally.

SHSP is set to announce in May its first comprehensive space strategy that will include ideas for military and diplomatic use of space, the official said.

While SHSP was founded last year to oversee the comprehensive space strategy, Japan's space program has been led for years by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

JAXA runs on an annual budget of 228 billion yen ($2.3 billion), just a fraction of NASA's $17 billion annual spending.