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Filed under: Astronomy

Update: Giant NASA balloon lands in outback - ABC News

Giant NASA balloon lands in outback

By Chrissy Arthur

Updated Mon Apr 19, 2010 8:53am AEST

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The balloon is the size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground,

The balloon is the size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, (ABC News: ABC News)

Scientists are trying to recover a massive NASA balloon and several tonnes of equipment that drifted into outback Queensland over the weekend.

The 300-metre balloon was launched recently from Alice Springs in the Northern Territory to gather data about the universe.

The balloon is the size of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and carries two tonnes of equipment used to study outer space phenomena.

Launch director Associate Professor Ravi Sood says it landed without incident near Longreach in central western Queensland on Sunday afternoon.

"About 70 kilometres south of Longreach very close to a farm track, so we should have our recovery people there some time this morning," he said.

"The balloon landed separately - the balloon landed about 20 kilometres west of where the instrument and the parachute impacted."

Associate Professor Sood says overall the exercise was a success, considering its magnitude.

"The equipment was just about two tonnes - then there was about a tonne of ballast and the balloon weighed about two tonnes - we had a gross lift of about four or five tonnes," he said.

"It was spectacularly successful ... the whole flight was flawless and that's a great credit to the team that comes out from the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Texas."

He says some residents may have thought the balloon was a UFO.

Tags: astronomy, the-universe, space-exploration, research, australia, nt, alice-springs-0870, longreach-4730, mount-isa-4825

First posted Mon Apr 19, 2010 7:37am AEST

via abc.net.au

Just updating from a previous post.

And no, we didn't make it to the launch. Maybe next time!

Sylvestor

Jupiter has a "big gash" - apparently!

An image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 shows the sharpest visible-light picture taken of the impact feature (dark spot) and
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An image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 shows the sharpest visible-light picture taken of the impact feature (dark spot) and "backsplash" of material from anl object that plunged into Jupiter's atmosphere. Photo: NASA

An image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 shows the sharpest visible-light picture taken of the impact feature (dark spot) and This image, released by NASA, shows the large impact on Jupiter's south polar region spotted by Anthony Wesley, inset.Image captured by Anthony Wesley on July 19, 2009 at 1554UTC from Murrumbateman Australia. Preliminary image showing a black mark in Jupiters South Polar Region which is almost certainly the result of a large impact - either an asteroid or comet.Image released by NASA showing large impact on Jupiter's south polar region captured on Monday, July 20, 2009.A large impact on the left on Jupiter's south polar region captured on July 20, 2009, by NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility in Mauna Kea, Hawaii.An amateur Australian astronomer Anthony Wesley.Visible light image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope taken May 11, 2007, shows turbulent pattern generated by two plumes on the upper left part of Jupiter.Spectacular NASA Hubble Space Telescope close up view of an electric blue aurora that is eerily glowing one half billion miles away on the giant planet Jupiter.This infrared image shows two bright plume eruptions on Jupiter obtained by the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility on April 5, 2007.A montage of New Horizons images of Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io, taken during the spacecraft's Jupiter flyby in early 2007.Three moons cast shadows on Jupiter.New red spot appears on Jupiter in May 2008.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has recorded the most detailed images yet of the plume of atmospheric debris caused by an object that plunged into Jupiter in a rare collision with the planet.

via watoday.com.au

Honestly, who could resist a headline like "Jupiter's big gash" - but seriously, the recent upgrade to Hubble (HST) has provided new insights into, not only Jupiter, but the amazing extent of our universe.

But get a load of Jupter's gash! LOL

Sylvestor,
www.twitter.com/Sylvestor

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