Space - really the final frontier?

NASA is teaming up with public health organizations to create a pollen alert system that could help people with maladies ranging from common hay fever to serious heart and lung diseases.

In a briefing today at NASA headquarters, solar physicists announced that the solar wind is losing power. This development has repercussions across the solar system.

Astronomers who count sunspots have announced that 2008 has become the "blankest year" of the Space Age. Sunspot counts are at a 50-year low, signifying a deep minimum in the 11-year cycle of solar activity.

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is returning to Mercury. On Monday, Oct. 6, 2008, the probe will conduct the second of three planned flybys and photograph most of Mercury's remaining unseen surface.

Scientists using NASA's RHESSI spacecraft have measured the roundness of the sun with unprecedented precision, and they find that it is not a perfect sphere. During years of high solar activity the sun develops a thin "cantaloupe skin" that significantly increases its apparent oblateness.

Although only 40 percent of the Space Shuttle Columbia and its contents were recovered, 37 pages of first-time Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon's diary were found mostly intact two months after the 2003 crash.

His was the only diary found. Yesterday, select pages went on display for the first time in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem as part of an exhibit to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the country.

The diary, a cardboard-covered, three-ring bound book, was found wet and crumpled in a field outside the small town of Palestine, Texas. The tracker recognized it from the NASA logo on its cover. NASA returned the diary to Ramon's wife, Rona, who asked Israeli experts to help restore the book.

Using image enhancement technology and infrared light, the scientists were able over four years to piece together much of what was on the 18 recovered pages of handwritten Hebrew. Ramon had written in the book with a NASA space pen, a pencil and a felt tip pen, however all of the felt tip notes washed away. The Sabbath kiddush, the blessing for wine, is still very clearly readable and it a center piece of the display. The prayer had been written into the diary so that Ramon could offer it during his space Sabbath which he read over the radio to Earth. Eight pages are his personal diary from before launch, six pages are of technical notes, and four pages are notes Ramon took during the 16 day mission.

On day six of the mission Ramon wrote:

"Today is maybe the first day that I really feel like I live in space. I turned out to be a man who lives and works in space, just like in the movies."

He also writes:

"We wake up in the morning with a light hovering and in a circular motion (we go) to the 'family room' - brushing my teeth, my face and to work. A little bit of coffee to go,"

"One experiment and then another… a little cleaning and storing. A few days later another experiment, a press conference with the prime minister, and the days of work continue."

"I have a beautiful view of a mighty lightning storm over India, Tibet, Nepal and Japan."

Ilan Ramon, 48, the son of Holocaust survivors, perished along with six other crew members when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentry just 16 minutes before they were expected to land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on February 1, 2003. He is survived by his wife, Rona, and their four children.

Rona Ramon agreed to have portions of the diary go on display saying, "This is a small miracle that needs to be shared."

Astronaut's Diary Goes on Display in Jerusalem [AP]
3D art to salvage astronaut's last words on life in space [Jerusalem Post]
Astronauts Ilan Ramon Diary Restored [Israel News Agency]
Israel Museum Documents Exciting 60th Anniversary With Ilan Ramon, Yitzhak Rabin [Israel News Agency]

Photo: Israel News Agency, NASA

A NASA probe made its second Mercury flyby early Monday as closes in on the closest planet to the sun.

A meteoroid around the size of a Smart Car is predicted to burn up in Earth's atmosphere over Sudan tonight, marking the first time scientists have made such a forecast. There's no danger from an object this size, but the burn-up could be spectacular for those who witness it.

"A typical meteor comes from an object the size of a grain of sand," Gareth Williams of the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, which made the prediction, said in a statement Monday. Objects this size are what cause the night-time streaks that many people think of as shooting stars. "This meteor will be a real humdinger in comparison!"

For perspective, the meteoroid that created Meteor Crater in Arizona was probably 150 feet across.

Astronomers at the Minor Planet Center are among the scientists working to keep track of any potentially dangerous asteroids, known as Near-Earth Objects. The Center is tasked with collecting all the observations from around the world, checking them, calculating orbits and then disseminating the information.

The small meteoroid was discovered earlier today by the Mt. Lemmon Observatory in Arizona, and quick calculations showed it was headed for Earth.

"We estimate objects this size enter Earth's atmosphere once every few months," Don Yeomans of the Near-Earth Object Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California said in a statement Monday. "The unique aspect of this event is that it is the first time we have observed an impacting object
during its final approach."

This will give professional and amateur astronomers alike the chance to catch a close-up view of the event with their telescopes. The burn, a very bright fireball streaking across the sky, should be visible from northern Africa, the Middle East and potentially southern Europe.

"We're eager for observations from astronomers near the asteroid's approach path," Williams said. "We really hope that someone will manage to photograph it."

Image: Kappa Cygnid meteor; NASA/Koen Miskotte, Dutch Meteor Society

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A biotech startup company promises to decipher the human genome for $5,000 -- a price tag that could literally change the world, making high-resolution genetic scans available to low-budget laboratories.

But is a $5,000 sequence, like cameras from a Times Square electronics store or a streetcorner Rolex, just too cheap to believe?

The New York Times covers the story today, and notes that the company -- Complete Genomics of Mountain View, California -- hasn't submitted its technology to independent testing. But the Times also sources Harvard gene sequencing pioneer George Church -- a founder of the Human Genome Project, the man responsible for the first commercial genome sequence, and a Complete Genomics adviser. On matters of genomic sequencing, Church's judgments are nearly gospel.

So if a cheapo Rolex keeps running, isn't it real? More to come....

Image: New York State Department of Health

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