UAR Satellite Found in South Pacific

The dead NASA satellite fell into what might be the ideal spot — part of the southern Pacific Ocean about as far from large land masses as you can get, U.S. space officials said Tuesday.

New U.S. Air Force calculations put the 6-ton (5.4-metric ton) satellite's death plunge early Saturday thousands of miles (kilometers) from northwestern North America, where there were reports of sightings. Instead, it plunged into areas where remote islands dot a vast ocean.

NASA says those new calculations show the 20-year-old satellite entered Earth's atmosphere generally above American Samoa. But falling debris as it broke apart did not start hitting the water for another 300 miles (480 kilometers) to the northeast, southwest of Christmas Island, just after midnight EDT Saturday.

Experts believe about two dozen metal pieces from the bus-sized satellite fell over a 500-mile (800 kilometer) span.

"It's a relatively uninhabited portion of the world, very remote," NASA orbital debris scientist Mark Matney said. "This is certainly a good spot in terms of risk."

Scientists who track space junk couldn't be happier with the result.

"That's the way it should be. I think that's perfect," said Bill Ailor, director of the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies at the Aerospace Corp. "It's just as good as it gets."

On Saturday, scientists said it was possible some pieces could have reached northwestern Canada and claims of sightings in Canada spread on the Internet. But NASA said Tuesday that new calculations show it landed several minutes earlier than they thought, changing the debris field to an entirely different hemisphere.

"It just shows you the difference that 10 or 15 minutes can make," said Harvard University astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who tracks man-made space objects. On Saturday, he noted, "We were talking about, 'Wow, did it hit Seattle?'"

NASA won't say how it knows the climate research satellite came in earlier, referring questions to the U.S. Air Force space operations center. Air Force spokeswoman Julie Ziegenhorn said better computer model reconstruction after the satellite fell helped pinpoint where the satellite — called the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite returned to Earth — returned to Earth

After UARS was launched in 1991, NASA and other space agencies adopted new procedures to lessen space junk and satellites falling back to Earth. So NASA has no more satellites as large as this one that will fall back to Earth uncontrolled in the next 25 years, according to NASA orbital debris chief scientist Nicholas Johnson.

But other satellites will continue to fall. Late in October, or early in November, a German astronomy satellite is set to plunge uncontrolled back to Earth. While slightly smaller than UARS, the German satellite is expected to have more pieces survive re-entry, said McDowell, who worked on one of the instruments for it.

The German ROSAT satellite was launched in 1990, died in 1998 and weighs 2 ½ tons (1.8 metric tons). The German space agency figures 30 pieces weighing less than 2 tons will survive re-entry. Debris may include sharp mirror shards.

The German space agency puts the odds of somebody somewhere on Earth being hurt by its satellite at 1-in-2,000 — a slightly higher level of risk than was calculated for the NASA satellite. But any one individual's odds of being struck are 1-in-14 trillion, given there are 7 billion people on the planet.

The man, who has not made a mistake, probably never did anything new! A E.

The Particle of Change. Nuetrino

Path breaking Particle..

UAR Satellite debris Lay scatter all around

UARS 

NASA's dead 6-ton satellite plunged to Earth early Saturday, but more than eight hours later, U.S. space officials didn't know just where it hit. They thought the fiery fall was largely over water and the debris probably hurt no one.

The agency did not give a more specific location in a midday update on its website, which also said officials were not aware of any reports of injuries or property damage. Most of the spacecraft was believed to have burned up.

The bus-sized satellite first penetrated Earth's atmosphere somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, according to NASA and the U.S. Air Force's Joint Space Operations Center. But that doesn't necessarily mean it all fell into the sea.

NASA's earlier calculations had predicted that the 20-year-old former climate research satellite would fall over a 500-mile (800-kilometer) swath and could include land.

Because the plummet began over the ocean and given the lack of any reports of people being hit, that "gives us a good feeling that no one was hurt," but officials didn't know for certain, NASA spokesman Steve Cole told The Associated Press.

The two government agencies said the 35-foot (11-meter) satellite fell sometime between 11:23 p.m. EDT Friday (0323 GMT Saturday) and 1:09 a.m. EDT (0509 GMT) Saturday, but with no precise time or location.

There was rampant speculation on the Internet and Twitter, much of it focusing on unconfirmed reports and even video of debris from the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite over Alberta, Canada.

Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said the spacecraft entered the atmosphere around 12:15 a.m. EDT (1615 GMT) over the coast of Washington state. He said much of the debris likely fell over the Pacific Ocean, though its trajectory suggests some of it could have fallen over more heavily populated areas in the U.S. and Canada, including Portland, Oregon; Seattle; Calgary, Alberta; and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

"Pieces are falling off of this flaming fire ball, and some of it has enough momentum to go hundreds of miles," he said.

Cole said that was possible because the last track for the satellite included Canada, starting north of Seattle and then in a large arc north then south. From there, the track continued through the Atlantic south toward Africa, but it was unlikely the satellite got that far if it started falling over the Pacific.

Cole said NASA was hoping for more details from the Air Force, which was responsible for tracking debris.

But given where the satellite may have fallen, officials may never quite know precisely.

"Most space debris is in the ocean. It'll be hard to confirm," Cole said.

Some 26 pieces of the satellite representing 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms) of heavy metal had been expected to rain down somewhere. The biggest surviving chunk should be no more than 300 pounds (136 kilograms).

UARS is the biggest NASA spacecraft to crash back to Earth, uncontrolled, since the post-Apollo 75-ton Skylab space station and the more than 10-ton Pegasus 2 satellite, both in 1979.

Russia's 135-ton Mir space station slammed through the atmosphere in 2001, but it was a controlled dive into the Pacific.

Before UARS fell, no one had ever been hit by falling space junk and NASA expected that not to change.

NASA put the chances that somebody somewhere on Earth would get hurt at 1-in-3,200. But any one person's odds of being struck were estimated at 1-in-22 trillion, given there are 7 billion people on the planet.

The satellite ran out of fuel and died in 2005. UARS was built and launched before NASA and other nations started new programs that prevent this type of uncontrolled crashes of satellite.

___The man, who has not made a mistake, probably never did anything new! A E.

UAR Satellite to Fall In US ? Watch from Australia

UARS Track as shown by the latest calculations from CalSky.

A quick update on the re-entry of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). CalSky is currently predicting that around September 24, 0 UT (that's 10 am AEST) the satellite will hit the atmosphere and burn up, producing a bright meteor-like train as it does.

The current ground track suggests that the satellite will burn up over the Atlantic Ocean. However, the uncertainty in it's orbit is still high, and its orbit is still evolving. You can check its progress on CalSky or Heavens Above from your site, just in case it burns up over your skies. Southern Australians might see it flash through the dawn sky around 6:00 am.

An another report shows that the debris may fall in US










The man, who has not made a mistake, probably never did anything new! A E.

Neutrinos broke the Speed of Light..? E=MC2..?

Neutrinos beamed from CERN in Switzerland to the INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy appear to have travelled faster than the speed of light in a vacuum, known as c, breaking the rules laid down by Einstein's theory of relativity. The discovery has been made as part of the OPERA experiment and is based on the observation of over 15,000 neutrino events measured at Gran Sasso. The neutrinos were clocked travelling at a velocity 20 parts per million above c, hitherto believed to be nature's ultimate speed limit. They completed the journey in roughly three milliseconds, passing straight through the Earth's crust. No measurement artefacts have been found to account for the result, described by CERN research director Sergio Bertolucci as "apparently unbelievable." The implications for this could be enormous: The constant c turns up in many key physics equations - not least of which is the famous statement of mass-energy equivalence, E=mc². Given the potentially far-reaching consequences of the finding, further independent measurements are now being called for before the effect can be either refuted or firmly established, and the OPERA collaboration has therefore decided to open up the result to broader scrutiny from the scientific community.

The man, who has not made a mistake, probably never did anything new! A E.

UAR Satellite to fall on Undisclosed destination

The sample capsule of Hayabusa spacecraft

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite i.e. UAR satellite destination to Earth is still undisclosed and is matter of intrigue for many sky watchers.

There is no mention of the event in the google earth or any other international tech enthusiast

Any such Fire ball in the sky is an event to watch









The man, who has not made a mistake, probably never did anything new! A E.

Typhoon Hit Fukushima, Japan http://ping.fm/I5cM8

6 Ton Satellite Debris to Fall in next 36 Hours http://ping.fm/ednqM

Typhoon Hit Fukushima, Japan

 

A powerful typhoon slammed into Japan on Wednesday, leaving 13 people dead or missing in south-central regions and halting trains in Tokyo before grazing a crippled nuclear plant in the tsunami-ravaged northeast.

Officials at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, where engineers are still struggling with small radiation leaks due to tsunami damage, expressed relief that Typhoon Roke's driving winds and rains caused no immediate problems there other than a broken security camera.

"The worst seems to be over," said Takeo Iwamoto, spokesman for plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., after the storm passed just west of the plant and then headed north.

More than 200,000 households in central Japan were without electricity late Wednesday. Police and local media reported 13 people dead or missing in southern and central regions, many of them believed swept away by rivers swollen with rains.

The storm, packing sustained winds of up to 100 mph (162 kph), made landfall in the early afternoon near the city of Hamamatsu, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) west of Tokyo. The fast-moving storm went past the capital in the evening and then headed into the Tohoku region, which was devastated by the March 11 earthquak tsunami.

In Tokyo, where many rush hour commuter trains were suspended, thousands of commuters trying to rush home were stuck at stations across the sprawling city.

"The hotels in the vicinity are all booked up, so I'm waiting for the bullet train to restart," Hiromu Harada, a 60-year-old businessman, said dejectedly at Tokyo Station.

Fire department officials reported three people injured in Tokyo. In the trendy shopping district of Shibuya, winds knocked a tree onto a sidewalk, but no one was hurt. Pedestrians struggled to walk straight in powerful winds that made umbrellas useless.

At the Fukushima plant, engineers are still working to stabilize the reactors six months after three of them melted down when the tsunami disabled the plant's power and back-up generators.

Iwamoto said the storm passed without damaging the reactors' cooling systems, which are crucial to keeping them under control. However, a closed-circuit camera that shows exteriors of the reactor buildings abruptly stopped, and plant workers were investigating, he said.

Workers were trying to prevent pools of contaminated water from flooding and leaking outside the complex, said Junichi Matsumoto, another power company spokesman.

"The contaminated water levels have been rising, and we are watching the situation very closely to make sure it stays there," Matsumoto told reporters.

As the storm headed further into the north, it triggered landslides in parts of Miyagi state that already were hit by the March disasters. Some 2,500 people, including 472 quake and tsunami survivors living in shelters in the town of Onagawa, were ordered to evacuate due to fear of flooding. The local government requested the help of defense troops. Dozens of schools canceled classes.

The disaster-struck region had a chilling reminder of its earlier disasters when a magnitude-5.3 earthquake struck late Wednesday just south of Fukushima in the Ibaraki state. Officials said the temblor posed no danger to the plant, and that it did not cause any damage or injuries in the region.

Heavy rains prompted floods and caused road damage earlier in dozens of locations in Nagoya and several other cities, the Aichi prefectural (state) government said.

Parts of Japan's central city of Nagoya, about 170 miles (270 kilometers) west of Tokyo, were flooded near swollen rivers where rescue workers helped residents evacuate in rubber boats.

Police in nearby Gifu prefecture said a 9-year-old boy and an 84-year-old man were missing after apparently falling into swollen rivers.

More than 200 domestic flights were canceled and some bullet train services were suspended.

Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's No. 1 automaker, shut down its plants as a precaution.

Machinery maker Mitsubishi Heavy Industries told workers at its five plants to stay home, company spokesman Hideo Ikuno said.

Nissan Motor Co. spokesman Chris Keeffe said workers at its Yokohama headquarters and nearby technical facilities were being told to go home early for safety reasons, and that two plants were not operating.

A typhoon that slammed Japan earlier this month left about 90 people dead or missing.




The man, who has not made a mistake, probably never did anything new! A E.

6 Ton Satellite Debris to Fall in next 36 Hours

 NASA scientists are doing their best to tell us where a plummeting six-ton satellite will fall later this week. It's just that if they're off a little bit, it could mean the difference between hitting Florida or landing on New York. Or, say, Iran or India.

Pinpointing where and when hurtling space debris will strike is an imprecise science. For now, scientists predict the earliest it will hit is Thursday U.S. time, the latest Saturday. The strike zone covers most of Earth.

Not that citizens need to take cover. The satellite will break into pieces, and scientists put the odds of it hitting someone at 1-in-3,200. As far as anyone knows, falling space debris has never injured anyone. Nor has significant property damage been reported. That's because most of the planet is covered in water and there are vast regions of empty land.

If you do come across what you suspect is a satellite piece, NASA doesn't want you to pick it up. The space agency says there are no toxic chemicals present, but there could be sharp edges. Also, it's government property. It's against the law to keep it as a souvenir or sell it on eBay. NASA's advice is to report it to the police.

The 20-year-old research satellite is expected to break into more than 100 pieces as it enters the atmosphere, most of it burning up. Twenty-six of the heaviest metal parts are expected to reach Earth, the biggest chunk weighing about 300 pounds (136 kilograms). The debris could be scattered over an area about 500 miles long.

Jonathan McDowell, for one, isn't worried. He is in the potential strike zone — along with most of the world's 7 billion citizens. McDowell is with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"There's stuff that's heavy that falls out of the sky almost every year," McDowell says. So far this year, he noted, two massive Russian rocket stages have taken the plunge.

As for the odds of the satellite hitting someone, "it's a small chance. We take much bigger chances all the time in our lives," McDowell says. "So I'm not putting my tin helmet on or hiding under a rock."

All told, 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms) of wreckage is expected to smack down — the heaviest pieces made of titanium, stainless steel or beryllium. That represents just one-tenth the mass of the satellite, which stretches 35 feet long and 15 feet in diameter.

The strike zone straddles all points between latitudes 57 degrees north and 57 degrees south. That's as far north as Edmonton and Alberta, Canada, and Aberdeen, Scotland, and as far south as Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America. Every continent but Antarctica is in the crosshairs.

Back when UARS, the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, was launched to study the ozone layer in 1991, NASA didn't always pay attention to the "what goes up must come down" rule. Nowadays, satellites must be designed either to burn up on re-entering the atmosphere or to have enough fuel to be steered into a watery grave or up into a higher, long-term orbit.

The International Space Station — the largest manmade structure ever to orbit the planet — is no exception. NASA has a plan to bring it down safely sometime after 2020.

Russia's old Mir station came down over the Pacific, in a controlled re-entry, in 2001. But one of its predecessors, Salyut 7, fell uncontrolled through the atmosphere in 1991. The most recent uncontrolled return of a large NASA satellite was in 2002.

The most sensational case of all was Skylab, the early U.S. space station whose impending demise three decades ago alarmed people around the world and touched off a guessing game as to where it might land. It plummeted harmlessly into the Indian Ocean and onto remote parts of Australia in July 1979.

The $740 million UARS was decommissioned in 2005, after NASA lowered its orbit with the little remaining fuel on board. NASA didn't want to keep it up longer than necessary, for fear of a collision or an exploding fuel tank, either of which would have left a lot of space litter.

Predicting where the satellite will strike is a little like predicting the weather several days out, says NASA orbital debris scientist Mark Matney.

Experts expect to have a good idea by Thursday of when and where UARS might fall, Matney says. They won't be able to pinpoint the exact time, but they should be able to narrow it to a few hours.

Given the spacecraft's orbital speed of 17,500 mph (28,160 kph), or 5 miles (8 kilometers) per second, a prediction that is off by just a few minutes could mean a 1,000-mile (1,610-kilometer) error. It probably won't be clear where it fell until afterward, Matney says.

If it happens in darkness, it should be visible.

"If someone is lucky enough to be near the re-entry at nighttime, they'll get quite a show," says Matney, who works at Johnson Space Center in Houston, also in the potential strike zone.

Space junk in general is on the rise, much of it destroyed or broken satellites and chunks of used rockets. More than 20,000 manmade objects at least 4 inches (10.16 centimeters) in diameter are being tracked in orbit.

It's mostly a threat to astronauts in space, rather than people on Earth. In June, the six residents of the International Space Station took shelter in their docked Soyuz lifeboats because of passing debris. The unidentified object came within 1,100 feet (335 meters) of the complex, the closest call yet.

___The man, who has not made a mistake, probably never did anything new! A E.

Typhoon Roke rampaging Nagoya, Japan

More than 1.3 million people were advised to evacuate on Tuesday as typhoon Roke approached Japan, threatening the industrial city of Nagoya with heavy rain and landslides.

In Nagoya in central Japan's Aichi prefecture about 1.1 million people were urged to evacuate, while other cities in western Japan also issued evacuation advisories on a smaller scale, public broadcaster NHK said.

No major disruptions to plant operations were reported.

The eye of the typhoon was 210 km (130 miles) east-southeast of the southern island of Tanegashima, moving east-northeast at 20 km (13 miles) per hour as of 5 p.m. (0800 GMT), the Meteorological Agency said.

"In Aichi, the heavy rain is causing some rivers to overflow. I would like to ask people to exercise the greatest caution against potential disasters from torrential rain, strong winds and high waves," an agency official told a news conference.

The city of Nagoya asked Japan's military, called the Self-Defense Forces, to send in troops for disaster prevention, a city official said.

Typhoon Roke follows on the heels of tropical storm Talas, which left about 100 people dead or missing in western Japan earlier this month.

Tokyo Electric Power Co said the typhoon had caused no damage to its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, where reactor cooling systems were knocked out by the March 11 earthquakes and tsunami, triggering a radiation crisis. The plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was unaffected by Talas.

The man, who has not made a mistake, probably never did anything new! A E.

Bird Flu in Nadia District West Bengal, India

inistry of Agriculture

20-September, 2011 13:16 IST

Bird Flu Confirmed in Poultry Samples of Tehatta 1 Block in Nadia District Culling Operations Ordered Virus Contained Within Poultry Farms of Affected Area

Bird flu has been confirmed in poultry samples collected from two villages of Tehatta I block in Nadia District of West Bengal. Samples forwarded to the ERDDL, Kolkata and High Security Animal Disease Laboratory (HSADL), Bhopal have tested positive for H5 strain of Avian Influenza. It has been decided to immediately commence the culling of birds and destruction of eggs and feed material to control further spread of the disease. It has also been decided that the entire poultry will be culled within a radius of 3 kms. of the foci of infection. In addition to the culling strategy, surveillance will be carried out over a further radius up to 10 kilometres. Apart from this, surveillance is being intensified throughout the State to monitor further spread of infection. West Bengal Government has been asked to furnish a daily report on the control and containment operations to the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries in the Ministry of Agriculture. The Centre has advised a series of strategic actions to be taken immediately in the area by the Animal Husbandry and Public Health Departments. These include declaration of infected and surveillance areas, ban on movement of poultry and its products in the infected area/closure of poultry and egg markets and shops within a radius of 10 kms. from the infected site, ban on movement of farm personnel, restricting access to wild and stray birds, restricting access to the infected premises, destruction of birds, disposal of dead birds and infected materials; clean-up and disinfection followed by sealing of the premises and issue of sanitization certificate, post operations surveillance, imposition of legislative measures etc. along with necessary measures laid down in the Contingency Plan (2005) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. As regards compensation for loss of poultry on account of culling and destruction of birds, the rate for payment of compensation has been indicated to the State Governments. The Government of India has conveyed the decision to share costs of compensation on 50:50 basis with the State Governments and authorized State Governments to utilize funds available with them under the programme of ‘Assistance to States for Control of Animal Disease’ (ASCAD), which is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme. The payment of compensation should be ensured immediately and simultaneously to culling. International Organizations will be notified by the Central Government at its level.

NASA twin space crafts fly to Moon

 A pair of spacecraft rocketed toward the moon Saturday on the first mission dedicated to measuring lunar gravity and determining what's inside Earth's orbiting companion — all the way down to the core.

"I could hardly be happier," said the lead scientist, Maria Zuber. After two days of delays and almost another, "I was trying to be as calm as I could be."

NASA launched the near identical probes — named Grail-A and Grail-B — aboard a relatively small Delta II rocket to save money. It will take close to four months for the spacecraft to reach the moon, a long, roundabout journey compared with the zippy three-day trip of the Apollo astronauts four decades ago.

Grail-A popped off the upper stage of the rocket exactly as planned 1½ hours after liftoff, followed eight minutes later by Grail-B. Both releases were seen live on NASA TV thanks to an on-board rocket camera, and generated loud applause in Launch Control.

The pair are traveling independently to the moon, with A arriving on New Year's Eve and B on New Year's Day.

"Grail, simply put, is a journey to the center of the moon," said Ed Weiler, head of NASA's science mission directorate, borrowing from the title of the Jules Verne science fiction classic, "Journey to the Center of the Earth."

The world has launched more than 100 missions to the moon since the Soviet Union's Luna probes in 1959. That includes NASA's six Apollo moon landings that put 12 men on the lunar surface.

NASA's Grail twins — each the size of a washing machine — won't land on the moon but will conduct their science survey from lunar orbit.

Beginning in March, once the spacecraft are orbiting just 34 miles above the moon's surface, scientists will monitor the slight variations in distance between the two to map the moon's entire gravitational field. The measurements will continue through May.

"It will probe the interior of the moon and map its gravity field 100 to 1,000 times better than ever before. We will learn more about the interior of the moon with Grail than all previous lunar missions combined," Weiler said.

At the same time, four cameras on each spacecraft will offer schoolchildren the opportunity to order up whatever pictures of the moon they want. The educational effort is spearheaded by Sally Ride, America's first spacewoman.

The entire Grail mission costs $496 million.

Zuber, the mission's principal investigator and a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the precise lunar gravity measurements will help her and other planetary scientists better understand how the moon evolved over the past 4 billion years. The findings also should help identify the composition of the moon's core: whether it's made of solid iron or possibly titanium oxide.

Another puzzle that Grail may help solve, Zuber said, is whether Earth indeed had a smaller second moon. Last month, astronomers suggested the two moons collided and the little one glommed onto the big one, a possible explanation for how the lunar highlands came to be.

Knowing where the moon's gravity is stronger will enable the United States and other countries to better pinpoint landing locations for future explorers, whether robot or human. The gravity on the moon is uneven and about one-sixth Earth's pull.

"If you want to land right next to a particular outcrop (of rock), you're going to be able to do it," Zuber said. "There will be no reason to do another gravity experiment of the moon in any of our lifetimes."

Zuber said the Grail findings should eliminate cliffhangers like the Apollo 11 landing in 1969 by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. They overshot their touchdown site in part because of the subtle gravity changes in the moon's surface below; they almost ran out of fuel before safely touching down on the Sea of Tranquility.

"It will be easier next time," Zuber promised.

For now, NASA has no plans to return astronauts to the moon, Earth's closest neighbor at approximately 240,000 miles away. That program, called Constellation, was canceled last year by President Barack Obama, who favors asteroids and Mars as potential destinations in America's future without the shuttle.

This is the second planetary mission for NASA since the space shuttle program ended in July, and attracted a large crowd to Cape Canaveral. NASA expected as many as 6,000 to 7,000 guests for the morning liftoff, about half the throng that jammed Kennedy Space Center for the Juno launch to Jupiter at the beginning of August.

Grail was supposed to soar Thursday, but high wind interfered. Then NASA needed an extra day to check the rocket after engine heaters stayed on too long. High wind almost stopped NASA again Saturday; the launch team had to skip the morning's first opportunity, but the wind dissipated just in time for the second.

The year's grand finale will be the launch of the biggest Mars rover ever the day after Thanksgiving.

"NASA is still doing business even though the shuttles stopped flying," Weiler told reporters earlier this week.

Grail is the 110th mission to target the moon, according to NASA records. Missions have been launched by the United States, Soviet Union, Japan, China and India.

The previous moonshot was two years ago: NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Just last month, the moon-circling probe beamed back the sharpest pictures yet of some of the Apollo artifacts left on the moon from 1969 through 1972 — and even moonwalkers' tracks. NASA released the photos earlier this week.

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/grail/main/index.html

Reliance press statement on CAG Report http://ping.fm/RaayH

China credit risk rising Fitch warns http://ping.fm/TAIaw

Delhi woke up with Bomb Blast and slept with Earthquake

 An earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter Scale shook the Indian capital for 5-6 seconds at around 11.30 p.m. Wednesday, the Met department said, scaling down its intensity from the initial 6.6. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage to property. 

The epicentre of the quake was in Sonepat in Haryana, about 90 km from Delhi, and its aftershocks were also felt in northern states like Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir. 

"It is not 6.6 intensity, it is 4.2 on the Richter," an IMD official told IANS. 

The IMD website described the quake as "slight" and the timing as 23:28:18 hours. 

Fire officials and Delhi Police said they had not received any report of damage or building collapse. 

The temblor was particularly felt in east Delhi where thousands of people left their homes and came out on the streets. 

"All the furniture in my house started shaking just as we finished dinner," said Vinod Kapoor, a resident of east Delhi. 

In other parts of the capital too, people ran out of their homes in fright when their furniture started rattling alarmingly and cupboards and fans started swaying. 

"A lot of panic here... my network is gone. People came out of their homes. Children started crying and everyone was on the roads," said an IANS correspondent who lives in a women's hostel in south Delhi. 

Throughout the city, people called up relatives and friends, and asked after their well-being. 

"At first I heard a muffled sound - like a subdued explosion in a tin - and then felt the quake for about 10 seconds," said Gurgaon resident Gulshan Luthra. 

The quake had residents in Faridabad running out of their homes too.

The man, who has not made a mistake, probably never did anything new! A E.

Typhoon Talas disaster in Japan

The report from catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide, notes that Typhoon Talas, which formed in the western Pacific on the 25th of August, is the  12th named storm of the 2011, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

The typhoon is located south of Osaka, Japan, moving at 12 km/h [4.5 mph] in a north-northwest direction. “Talas is a large storm, with tropical storm force winds extending up to 650 km [406 miles] from its center,” said AIR’s report. “Maximum 10-min sustained wind speeds are 120 km/h [75 mph] (with gusts up to 175 km/h [110 mph]), making it a weak Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale.”

Dr. Peter Sousounis, principal scientist at AIR Worldwide, indicated that the “storm is expected to maintain its present slow north-northwest movement toward the south coast of Japan. Little change in intensity is currently forecast prior to landfall, which is expected to occur late Friday or early Saturday, local time.

“Talas is currently forecast to make landfall on Shikoku Island and then cross into Honshu Island during the day on Saturday. Because of the storm’s large size, the duration of damaging winds will likely be more than 24 hours in many coastal locations.”

He then forecast that Talas would probably “exit into the Sea of Japan, where it will pick up speed as it interacts with an eastward moving trough and recurve towards the northeast as it crests the subtropical ridge, currently located east of Japan. A second landfall is possible on Sunday anywhere from the Primorsky Krai region of far eastern Russia to west coast of Hokkaido Island.”

In addition AIR explained that as Talas approaches landfall, Japan’s mountainous coast will enhance precipitation on the north and east sides of the storm, creating flood and landslide hazards. This occurs because “as the counterclockwise flow of air comes onshore, it is forced over the mountainous terrain, cooling in its ascent and forming clouds and precipitation. According to current measurements from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellites, total accumulated precipitation of 200–300 mm [app 0.78 to 1.18 inches] is likely in coastal locations, while higher amounts are expected in the mountains.”

AIR also pointed out that Japan has “strict and well-enforced construction codes and modern structures are expected to withstand Talas’ forecast wind speeds with minimal structural damage. More than 50% of residential structures and 95 percent of commercial and industrial structures are insured for wind damage in Japan.

“The primary concern from Typhoon Talas is flood damage, which is not automatically included in wind policies. In typical flood policies in Japan, a specified payout is made only when the actual damage falls within a specified range.

“Much like for wind, the vulnerability of buildings to flood damage varies by construction type. For a given flood depth, a residential wood-frame building is expected to sustain more damage than a residential masonry building. Concrete construction is less vulnerable to flood than steel (which may experience surface corrosion and rust-induced expansion) or masonry structures (whose weak connections between building elements makes it permeable to water). Concrete buildings have a strong frame structure, but may suffer from cracking and rebar expansion. Commercial and apartment buildings usually have stronger foundations than residential buildings, and are thus better able to resist flood loads.

“Furthermore, flood vulnerability varies by building height. Because damage is usually limited to the lower stories of a building, high-rise buildings will experience a lower damage ratio—the ratio of the repair cost and the total replacement value of the building—than low-rise buildings because a smaller proportion of the building is affected.”

Source: AIR Worldwide. man, who has not made a mistake, probably never did anything new! A E.

NASA brings Solar System on desk top

September 02, 2011

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA is giving the public the power to journey through the solar system using a new interactive Web-based tool.

The "Eyes on the Solar System" interface combines video game technology and NASA data to create an environment for users to ride along with agency spacecraft and explore the cosmos. Screen graphics and information such as planet locations and spacecraft maneuvers use actual space mission data.

"This is the first time the public has been able to see the entire solar system and our missions moving together in real time," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. "It demonstrates NASA's continued commitment to share our science with everyone."

The virtual environment uses the Unity game engine to display models of planets, moons, asteroids, comets and spacecraft as they move through our solar system. With keyboard and mouse controls, users cruise through space to explore anything that catches their interest. A free browser plug-in, available at the site, is required to run the Web application.

"You are now free to move about the solar system," said Blaine Baggett, executive manager in the Office of Communication and Education at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "See what NASA's spacecraft see -- and where they are right now -- all without leaving your computer."

Users may experience missions in real time, and "Eyes on the Solar System" also allows them to travel through time. The tool is populated with NASA data dating back to 1950 and projected to 2050.
The playback rate can be sped up or slowed down. When NASA's Juno spacecraft launched on Aug. 5, 2011, users could look ahead to see the mission's five-year journey to Jupiter in a matter of seconds.

Point of view can be switched from faraway to close-up to right "on board" spacecraft. Location, motion and appearance are based on predicted and reconstructed mission data. Dozens of controls on a series of pop-up menus allow users to fully customize what they see, and video and audio tutorials explain how to use the tool's many options. Users may choose from 2-D or 3-D modes, with the latter simply requiring a pair of red-cyan glasses to see.

"By basing our visualization primarily on mission data, this tool will help both NASA and the public better understand complex space science missions," said Kevin Hussey, manager of Visualization Technology Applications and Development at JPL, whose team developed "Eyes on the Solar System."

"Eyes on the Solar System" is in beta release. It has been demonstrated at science conferences, in classrooms and at the 2011 South by Southwest Interactive Conference in Austin, Texas.

Designers are updating "Eyes on the Solar System" to include NASA science missions launching during the coming months, including GRAIL to the moon and the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover.

"Eyes on the Solar System" and an introduction video are available at http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eyes .

Updates on new features are available through the tool's Twitter account: http://twitter.com/NASA_Eyes .

JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-277