Phoenix Spacecraft about to land on Mars.

Something in the sky...

I really feel good, even though I'm not involved in this in any way. It's just that, an object, a small part of the whole humanity (or maybe just NASA), is about to land on a planet, millions of miles away. I wonder, what's the feeling, when you land on an another planet? I guess we should ask Neil Armstrong about that, as the robots that are sent to Mars can not exactly feel. But now, on to the more technical part.

The phoenix spacecraft was launched on August 4, 2007 and is scheduled to land... today! May 25, 2008. It will approach Mars at about 12,750 miles per hour, and will have to land perfectly on three legs with the help of parachutes and pulsing retrorockets, similar to the ones hover jets use. Oh, and all this will have to happen in under 7 minutes. 11 spacecrafts have been launched to Mars since the 1976 Viking, but only 5 have landed successfully. Hopefully, Phoenix will be the sixth. I don't know the history of each spacecraft, but 5 out of 11 concerns me a bit. What if the debris from failed projects will destroy some kind of primitive life form that may make Mars its home. On the other hand, the inactive probes or their parts may remind aliens, that there was intelligent life in this system, providing we nuke ourselves first. But, none of that is likely to happen.

The Phoenix is going to land in the far north of Mars. Scientists believe that the frozen northern lands are the only place where water could be found. That's what the 2.35 meter-long robotic hand (with a camera attached to it) is for -- it'll dig through Mars' surface and check the layers, which may tell us more about the history of Mars. And, of course, it'll check for any carbon-containing chemicals, that are said to be the essence of life.

Now here's something that's really interesting. Apparently, scientists created a so-called "Phoenix DVD". It contains a collection of discoveries and other literature about Mars. Also, 250.000 names have been collected and placed in the DVD, for the future visitors of Mars. It is made from a material called silica glass, and will last hundreds, maybe even thousands of years, until it's discovered by someone. Be that future Mars colonizers of aliens.

Even though this isn't such a huge step forward, as many spacecrafts have already reached and researched Mars' surface and atmosphere, I'd still like to throw in the quote "One small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind"

Well, thank your for your attention, hope you enjoyed it. Know, that as much as I try, I can not give you really good articles, so, I encourage you to read the Wikipedia article about Phoenix and the history of Mars landings. Article On Wikipedia

Law-enforcement gear.

You can never be too safe these days.

Gear, made for the police department or the army, is much better than what we, casual people, get in stores. I once bought a swiss army knife, known worldwide for it's quality, and I can only confirm that its really good. It serves me until today.

That's exactly why you should turn to quality equipment. Police gear, for example. You can buy anything from clothes and footwear, to flashlights and rifle slings online, from the comfort of your own home. Regular people might not find much use for rifle slings, as I doubt you have a MP-5 handy in your closet. On the other hand, if you're an ex-SWAT member, you may have one. So if you need a flashlight, don't buy child-labuor from China.

The full progress of a Supernova seen

We were in the right place, at the right time...

... said a space observer, Alicia Soderberg. Apparently, she and her co-worker Edo Berger noticed a strong blast of x-rays somewhere in space. Well, not "somewhere", they were observing an another object at the galaxy, identified as NGC 2770, prior to noticing the explosion. The team promptly alerted 8 other telescopes to turn their attention towards the peculiar x-ray blast. The event was a one-of-a-kind experience -- a supernova, just starting. Scientists were able to observe the entire progress of the dying star. Actually, it is said that the supernova was born. It sounds a bit strange to me, because supernovae are the explosions of massive stars, that run out of nuclear fuel and collapse, leaving either a black hole or a brown dwarf behind them. So the birth of a supernova is the death of a star. The beggining of an end. But after the end, something is still left from the star. So the end is not the end, but the beggining... I won't go deeper into that.

The first supernova, witnessed from the very beggining. Luckily, a theory that a powerfull x-ray blast is the sign of a beginning supernova, has been made over 4 decades ago. Thanks to that, the scientists were able to effectively react and properly document the supernova. Hopefully, the accumulated material will provide insight on the properties of massive stars. In addition, now scientists will know how strong approximately does the x-ray blast have to be, and maybe they'll spot even more supernovae. One discovery always leads to an another one...

What's in deep space?

Attempts to find out what's beyond our galaxy

So, now we know that there are millions of other stars in various galaxies around us. What we don't know is whether the universe is limited or not. What lies beyond the marvelous nebula clouds, shiny stars, unexplored planets? NOTHING! Nothing is what it would seem to be at a glance. No galaxies, no stars, just blackness. No wonder some people are afraid of the dark -- you could say it's the ultimate end! But what I just said is only what's in the realm of our understanding. We found out that our Sun is not the only star in the galaxy, we found out that our galaxy is not the only one. Maybe now we'll found out that beyond the darkness, an another cluster of galaxies lies. Maybe an another big bang took place far far away. Come to think of it, maybe our big bang was a small part of a much bigger explosion, and planets the size of our solar system loom somewhere, behind the darkness. But now - onto the dark matter.

The image above shows dark matter(blue) that split from the luminous matter (red). This is the only way that dark matter can be seen, as it is not visible by any telescopes. Why is dark matter invisible? Because it's different from any other atomic matter, that we're used to seeing around us. Dark matter does not reflect light or emit heat. So how did it receive a color? Well, the observed galaxies were passing through one another at a speed of 10 million miles per hour. The luminous matter in both galaxies interacted with each other, and slowed down. The dark matter, on the other hand, did not react whatsoever, thus remaining at it's full speed. That's how the matters separated. Quite astonishing, as the chances of seeing this happen at one point are probably low.

Right then. One thing's clear: dark matter exists. But what is it exactly? It can't be nothing, can it? Scientists believe that the dark matter is a gas of extremely low density. Recently, an x-ray image of several galaxies was taken, in an attempt to find hot spots of dark matter. Only 5% of the known universe is made from matter we know (atoms with electrons and protons). The rest is taken by dark matter and dark energy. Despite the search field being potentially limitless, scientists managed to find a hot-spot of the dark matter. This was a groundbreaking discovery, as now we know what fills the huge empty voids between galaxies.

That's one more unknown thing crossed out of the list. As ancient people thought that lightning is the wrath of God, so we figured that the dark matter is nothing. Thanks to constant study and observation, now we're one step further in researching the universe. Who knows, maybe we'll find out that it has an end.

Sun to be explored from closer than ever before.

Telescopes aren't enough

Even little children know that sun emits light and warmth. Adults are aware about the dangerous ultraviolet rays that also come from the Sun. By looking at other stars, we know that Sun's light rays go far beyond our solar system. A lot of information is gathered about our Sun, but it's not enough, as a telescope, and possibly a sonar, were the most powerful tools in our possesion. Not anymore! NASA is preparing a spacecraft that would withstand the extreme conditions and fly closer to the Sun than any other probe has ever been. Eight times closer, in fact!

This unique probe's mission will be to study the streams of charged particles the sun hurls into space, also known as "Solar Wind". This phenomenon can be examined much more accurately closer to it's center. Such a mission has never been undertaken before, so the probe will have to be very well protected. Current design involves a nine-foot-diameter, six-inch-thick, carbon-foam-filled solar shield above the probe. The probe is expected to fly by Sun at 125 miles/second and withstand 2600 degrees Fahrenheit. It will expirience solar intensity up to 500 times larger than spacecraft just above Earth, and any other unforseen solar blasts have to be taken into account.

The solar probe will not fly in a straigt line, as some may think. Instead, it will orbit around Sun near Venus for 7 years, gradually shrinking the distance to 6.6 million kilometers. As the total distance between Earth and Sun is roughly 150 million kilometers, this is very close.

The probe will be lauched in 2015, assuming we haven't blown ourselves up with nuclear bombs by that time. Evolution is more important than war, sadly, no-one understands that. On the other hand, war sort of speeds-up evolution. Anyway, several other probes are allready inspecting Solar phenomenons. The APL’s MESSENGER spacecraft will soon begin orbiting Mercury, sending home information about the Sun. Slowly but surely, we're exploring space.