Russia's Progress M-06M space freighter to be launched to ISS

A Soyuz-U carrier rocket with space cargo ship Progress M-06M will be launched to the International Space Station at 19:35 Moscow time [15:35 GMT] today, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.



A Roscosmos spokesman said the launch will be made from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.

"The Progress M-06M space freighter will deliver to the ISS fuel, oxygen, scientific equipment, video and photo equipment, containers with food and water and parcels for the ISS crew," he said.

Th [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art21159/russia-s-progress-m-06m-space-freighter-to-be-launched-to-iss.html

Russia and Canada seek joint Arctic space monitoring project

Russia and Canada will start negotiations on the integration of their national space systems to monitor the Arctic, a Russian space official said on Tuesday.Anatoly Shilov, deputy head of the Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, said the first Russian-Canadian meeting was scheduled for August.

"We are currently discussing which services will be provided by Russian satellites and which by Canadian satellites," he said.

He said the Russian government had made a decision to create a multipur [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art21161/russia-and-canada-seek-joint-arctic-space-monitoring-project.html

R Coronae Australis: A Cosmic Watercolour

This magnificent view of the region around the star R Coronae Australis was created from images taken with the Wide Field Imager (WFI) at ESO?s La Silla Observatory in Chile. R Coronae Australis lies at the heart of a nearby star-forming region and is surrounded by a delicate bluish reflection nebula embedded in a huge dust cloud. The image reveals surprising new details in this dramatic area of sky.



The star R Coronae Australis lies in one of the nearest and most spectacular star-formin [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art21164/r-coronae-australis-a-cosmic-watercolour.html

Apparently, Black Widow knows me. And maybe Nick Fury, does, too.

[Warning: comic book nerdiness ensues. Be ye fairly warned, says I.]

I received an odd message from my friend Deric Hughes (who is totally cool and writes for "Warehouse 13" and is not a nerd at all, nossir) on Twitter. It said:

THIS was inside the latest issue of Ultimate Avengers2. I think Nick Fury paid you a special visit.

"THIS" was a blurry picture, but clear enough to show me that I had to immediately go to my local comic book store (Time Warp, cool place) and buy myself a copy of issue 4 of Avengers 2. Why? Here’s why:

HOLY FRAK MY NAME IS IN BLACK WIDOW’S PHONE BOOK!!

OK, backing up a bit:



In this part of the story, Black Widow (translation for the non-comic-book nerds^*: she was played by Scarlett Johansson in Iron Man 2) is recounting how she and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson in Iron Man 2) used to be a couple. She noticed something odd in her phone book one day: some of her friends and family had red dots next to their names. That last panel shows her phone book, with, for some reason, my name in it.

OK? OK. Now, there are several avenues my thinking is taking here.

1) Perhaps the writer, Mark Millar, is familiar with my writing. However, as cool as that is, it is perhaps eclipsed by the idea that…

2) I’m in Black Widow’s phone book. Now why would that be? I don’t know; perhaps she has a history of sudden astronomical emergencies and has me in speed dial as a lifeline. Or perhaps there are um, other reasons. I don’t feel a lengthy explanation is necessary here. However, I’ll note that while I don’t know if this book will in any way lead to this story getting up on the Big Screen, you never know.

3) I noticed there are no red dots by my name. [SPOILER ALERT!] In the story, people with dots by their name had been paid a visit by Fury. And the adjective generally associated with such a visit is conjugal.

4) … and it’s perhaps more relevant to say that there’s no red dot by my name yet. And there are two more issues in this story’s series.

Hmmmm.

Happily, I have a potential pathway to enlightenment here: Comic Con. I’ll be attending in late July, and perhaps someone there will be able to clear this up. I’ll seek out Mark Millar, of course, since that’s a good path to an explanation.

But maybe there’s a more direct route.

Black Widow, hon, if you’re reading this: you obviously have my number. Let’s work this out.

---

^* I urge you to buy and read the entire series of the comic, which is to help you understand the context here, and is in no way a supplication to Marvel or whomever is the responsible party.

Full story at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BadAstronomyBlog/~3/E_KzfDDRRZs/

Rocky mounds and a plateau on Mars

When Mars Express set sail for the crater named after Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, it found a windblown plateau and mysterious rocky mounds nearby.


One possibility is that the top layer of rock was shattered by the shockwaves from an impact. Another possible explanation would be from a process called subrosion. On Mars, subrosion is widely observed when rising magma heats frozen ground water, which melts and removes subsurface material as it flows away. This leads to a honeycomb [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art21129/rocky-mounds-and-a-plateau-on-mars.html

Oil still entering Loop Current

This Envisat radar image acquired over the Gulf of Mexico on 22 June 2010 shows that the oil spill (outlined in white) has radiated all over the Gulf of Mexico basin and is also continuing to feed into the Loop Current (red arrow).



"This is a new piece of evidence of the seemingly strong attracting power of the intense Loop Current in this area," said Dr Bertrand Chapron of Ifremer, the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea. "Based on the striking analogy between different  [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art21135/oil-still-entering-loop-current.html

GOCE giving new insights into Earth?s gravity

The first global gravity model based on GOCE satellite data has been presented at ESA?s Living Planet Symposium. ESA launched GOCE in March 2009 to map Earth's gravity with unprecedented accuracy and resolution.


"Over major parts of the oceans, the situation is even clearer, as the marine gravity field at high spatial resolution is for the first time independently determined by an instrument of such quality."

New GOCE models are already yielding a wealth of new information that is usef [...]

Full story at http://spacefellowship.com/news/art21138/goce-giving-new-insights-into-earth-s-gravity.html