SpaceAware.org

How hot does the space shuttle get during launch?

After watching the preparation of the full tanks for the space shuttle launch today (8.24.09), a question came up that i could not find on here and now it goes to yahoo. I hope this can be answered. Thanks for your time.

Temperatures have been measured approaching 2000 degrees Kelvin in the immediate vicinity of the Shuttle engines with gasses exhausting at 3,500m/s. So REALLY HOT

How come they can’t bring the Hubble Space Telescope down and repair it?

I was watching a documentary the other day and it said that the Hubble Space Telescope is in danger of falling apart and just drifting off into space (or crashing on Earth) because it has long past its due date. But besides the obvious “there’s not enough money” what’s preventing NASA from just retrieving the telescope and repairing it on Earth and sending it back up?

Well, first things first: Hubble isn’t in danger of drifting away at all. In fact, sooner or later its orbit will decay and it will reenter and (mostly) burn up in the atmosphere, probably within our lifetimes. But it’s not in danger of doing that, either, in the near future.

I think what’s preventing what you describe is that it would cost too much to send up a shuttle to go get it and bring it down, then do work on it, then send it back up on another shuttle, and HOPE it doesn’t get damaged on the way up. It’s much more cost-effective to repair it in place, like we just did. And considering the age of its computers and other equipment, it’s more cost-effective to replace than to return it to Earth, refurbish, and replace in orbit.

What is a solar flare?What are the causes of aurora?

Plz sb help me. I am unknown about the solar flare and aurora, would readily award 11 points for a good answer!!!

All is explained here with pictures >

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/sun/flares.html

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/05may_solarmyth.htm?list164615

http://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_studio/auroras/aboutsun.html

http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast02jun99_1.htm

http://spaceweather.com/aurora/gallery.html

What is the purpose of various space probes, such as the Hubble, Pathfinder, or the Mars Rover, and the ISS?

I need some answers that are remotely specific, please…lol.

to find life

How was Saturns’ rings formed, and why is it a spiral?

I’ve recently discovered and seen in photographs that a few rings around Saturn is actually spiral, which brings me to the big question, how were the rings formed? There are rings that are almost 25 500 km wide but only 1 km thick.

Saturn was born an extremely large baby, with a condition known as ‘elephantism’. The result is that every part of his anatomy is substantially bigger than normal, and his ring is no exception. It isn’t nice to poke fun at the size of his ring. Spare a thought for his poor mother, who has to clean up everything that comes out of it due to a shortage in galactic-size nappies.

is planet niburu really going to strike against the earth in 2012 destroying us all?

I have been seeing some videos about the end of the world and I saw that a planet is going to strike against the earth in 2012! is this scientifically proven?

It has been scientifically proven that the planet Nibiru was invented in the 1960s by an overworked translator with no background in astronomy, but a vivid imagination when it comes to interpreting old documents.
However, in his story, Nibiru never hits Earth and never causes damages to Earth.

The video you saw was created by a totally different bunch of charlatans who had created Planet X that was going to cause destruction and death on Earth in… June 2003. They had a book for sale on how to survive the passage of Planet X.

After 2003, they combined the fictitious Nibiru with their fake Planet X in an attempt to make their story more believable to gullible people, they made more books and videos. They sold their idea to movie makers who are releasing the movie “2012″ in November 2009 (more people making money from a fake story).

It is scientifically proven that if there existed a planet like Nibiru, with such an eccentric orbit coming into the inner solar system every 3700 years (in the original story, it does not come back before 2085) or every 3600 years (the charlatans had to change the orbit parameters to make it come back in 2012 — but that is easy to do for a fake planet), then the four inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) would not be on such nice orbits. At least one would have been tossed out of the system and the remaining three would have more eccentricity.

That can be scientifically calculated.

So, no Nibiru. Sorry. Better chance next dream.

Orion Constellation Location?

I’m considering buying a star within the Orion Constellation but I want to know, living in Indiana, where I would have to look at the night sky and what time of the year to see it?

You might find a site that will sell you a fancy piece of paper that says something like that but it is NOT REAL and a COMPLETE HOAX to get you to give them your money. No one can name a star. This is only someones way to scam you out of your money. Do not do this.

Spend your money on a membership to a local astronomy club or Astronomical Society instead. You will get so much more for your money than just some stupid piece of paper.

If you join a club, you can attend a few of their star parties and try out members scopes as well as members will help teach you where the treasures in the sky are located. Most clubs have loaner scopes and extensive libraries that you can gather more information from too. Most clubs will have monthly membership meetings with informative presentations given by members and by guest speakers. You can really learn a lot from these clubs and an added plus is all the great new friends you make there too. Go to this site to find a club in your area. http://www.astroleague.org/societies/list
This only has clubs that belong to the National Astronomy League, so there are many more which do not appear on this list. Continue searching google if you don’t see one in your area here.

Our club hosts many public star parties every year and there is usually some poor schmuck who fell for this fake scheme and they will bring us their fancy looking piece of paper and ask us to show them their “star”. We have yet to be able to distinguish even one of these as a valid star coordinate with one distinguishable star. These hoax sites don’t even use real stars for the trash they sell. It makes me so mad that there are people out there who are getting rich on scamming people like this. Most that I have seen have tiny tiny print that says “for entertainment purposes only” so they can’t be arrested but I have even seen some that don’t say that.

Please do not give these crooks your money. If you must do something like this, then just print your own fancy piece of paper. If you must spend your money, then buy a membership to a club so that you can learn to enjoy the stars for years to come.

http://www.stellarium.org/
This is great freeware that you can download. Tell it where you are and it will tell you what you see. Ask it where something is and it will show you. This FREE program will show you where Orion is. It can help you for years to come.

Do you think Mayan prophesy proves that there will be a mantle shift from the north and south pole in 2012?

On the 21st of december in 2012 at 11:59 pm there will be a lunar and a possible solar eclipse that occurs naturally following the planetary alignment of all 7 planets that only occurs every 25,800 years within the milky way galaxy. Do you think this is going to create a gravitational pull to where there will be a mantle shift from the north pole and the south pole of the earth?

And also, mayan elders did say there will be astronomical changes, but they did NOT say this new movie of Doomsay 2012 was entirely true and accurate. But the question remains, how much of a mantle shift will there be if any in result of the planetary alignment?

Here are 6 pictures on this site that give a brief explanation as to what might start to happen at 11:59 on the 21st of december 2012:

http://www.temptingmagazine.com/2009/11/please-stop-saying-the-world-will-end-in-2012.html

the south pole will end up at the equator and we will all fall off (just kidding) no one knows what is going to happen if it does, lots of speculations but not enough proof yet.