Ripasu: 2011

Thursday, December 29, 2011

The Last Lift Off Of Space Shuttle Atlantis

On July 8, space shuttle Atlantis was the last to blast off from launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., marking the end of the 30-year-old space shuttle program.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-104) is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter in the Space Shuttle fleet belonging to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. Atlantis was the fourth operational (and the next-to-the-last) Space Shuttle to be constructed by the Rockwell International company in Southern California, and it was delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center in eastern Florida in April 1985. Atlantis was the only orbiter which lacked the ability to draw power from the International Space Station while docked there; it had to continue to provide its own power through fuel cells.

The last mission of Atlantis was STS-135, the last flight before the Shuttle program ended. This final flight was authorized by President Barack Obama in October 2010, to bring additional supplies to the International Space Station and take advantage of the processing performed for the Launch on Need mission, which would only have been flown in the event that Endeavour's STS-134 crew required rescue. Atlantis launched successfully for the final time on 8 July 2011 at 16:29 UTC, landing at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on 21 July 2011 at 09:57 UTC. By the end of its final mission, Atlantis had orbited the Earth 4,848 times, traveling nearly 126 million miles in space or more than 525 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.

Atlantis was named after RV Atlantis, a two-masted sailing ship that operated as the primary research vessel for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution from 1930 to 1966. The 460-ton ketch carried a crew of 17 and had room for 5 scientists.

Streams of smoke trail from the main landing gear tires as space shuttle Atlantis touches down on Runway 33 at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida after 11 days in space, completing the 4.5-million-mile STS-129 mission on orbit 171. On STS-129, the crew delivered 14 tons of cargo to the International Space Station, including two ExPRESS Logistics Carriers containing spare parts to sustain station operations.

Atlantis departs Edwards on cross-country journey

The Space Shuttle Atlantis, mounted on top of NASA's 747 Shuttle Aircraft Carrier, takes off from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. early Sunday morning. The shuttle ferry flight ends Atlantis' nine-day visit to Edwards after landing on June 22. (NASA photo by Carla Thomas)

The Tungurahua Volcano Erupts

The Tungurahua Volcano erupts as seen from the town of Juive Grande, Ecuador, on November 28, 2011. Authorities in Ecuador upgraded a possible eruption warning from yellow to orange, as the activity of the volcano raised suddenly.

Tungurahua (5,023 m) is located in the Cordillera Oriental of the Andes of central Ecuador, 140 kilometres (87 mi) south of the capital Quito. Nearby notable mountains are Chimborazo (6,267 m) and El Altar (5,319 m). It rises above the small thermal springs town of Baños de Agua Santa (1,800 m) which is located at its foot 8 km to the north. Other nearby towns are Ambato (30 km to the northwest) and Riobamba (30 km to the southwest). Tungurahua is part of the Sangay National Park.

Recent volcanic activity

In 1999, after a long period of quiescence, the volcano entered an eruptive phase that continues to this day (as of December 2011).

The renewed activity in October 1999 produced major ashfall and led to the temporary evacuation of more than 25,000 inhabitants from Baños and the surrounding area (El Comercio 1999). Activity continued at a medium level until May 2006, when activity increased dramatically, culminating in violent eruptions on 14 July 2006 and 16 August 2006. The 16 August 2006 eruption has been the most violent since activity commenced in 1999. This eruption was accompanied by a 10 km high ash plume which spread over an area of 740 by 180 km (IG-EPN 2006, [4]), depositing ash and tephra to the southwest of the volcano. Several pyroclastic flows were generated that killed seven people, and destroyed a number of hamlets and roads on the eastern and northwestern slopes of the volcano (El Comercio 2006). The seven people who died were a family of five and two scientists.

A further eruption and evacuation occurred on 4 December 2010. Ecuador's National Agency of Risk Control issued a "red alert", later downgraded to orange. The Ecuadorean Institute for Geophysics reported a rapid increase in seismic activity, a number of explosions and an ash cloud reaching 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) in height. Article source: wikipedia

Steve Jobs Biography Hits Shelves

An employee arranges the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, at a Barnes & Noble in New York City on Oct. 24, 2011.

Jobs, who co-founded Apple Inc. and died Oct. 5, told Isaacson his opinions on competitors, including Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp., and of his struggles with cancer.

New Island Rising from Earth's Red Sea

Satellite Photo Shows New Island Rising from Earth's Red Sea

A plume rises from a new island in the Red Sea on Dec. 23, 2011 in this satellite view.

The Red Sea has a new inhabitant: a smoking island.

The island was created by a wild eruption that occurred in the Red Sea earlier this month. It is made of loose volcanic debris from the eruption, so it may not stick around long.

According to news reports, fishermen witnessed lava fountains reaching up to 90 feet (30 meters) tall on Dec. 19, which is probably the day the eruption began, said Erik Klemetti, a volcanologist at Denison University in Granville, Ohio.

Ash plumes were seen emanating from the spot Dec. 20 and Dec. 22 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites. The Ozone Monitoring Instrument on NASA's Aura satellite detected elevated levels of sulfur dioxide, further indicating an eruption. By Dec. 23, what looked like a new island had appeared in the Red Sea off the west coast of Yemen.

"I am surprised about how quickly the island has grown," Klemetti, who writes Wired's Eruptions Blog, told OurAmazingPlanet.

The volcanic activity occurred along the Zubair Group, a collection of small islands that run in a roughly northwest-southeast line. The islands rise from a shield volcano (a kind of volcano built from fluid lava flows) and poke above the sea surface.

Scientists will keep a close eye on the new island to see if it has staying power.

"Many times the islands are ephemeral as they are usually made of loose volcanic debris, so they get destroyed by wave action quite quickly," Klemetti said. But the volcanic activity could outpace the erosion due to the wave action.

Newly emerging islands aren't unheard of. Other newly emerged islands include Surtsey off of Iceland, Anak Krakatau in the caldera of Krakatoa in Indonesia, and Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha`apai in Tonga in the South Pacific.

This story was provided by OurAmazingPlanet, a sister site to SPACE.com. It was posted in yahoo