Astro Blog

Source:  Lauren Sommer, NASA The new SOFIA observatory [Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy] isn't your average NASA project. Engineers took a 30-year old 747 airplane, cut a hole in the side and installed a 17-ton telescope. Most telescopes are either on the ground or somewhere in orbit, but SOFIA falls somewhere in the middle, flying around at about 40,000 feet. science.kqed.org/quest/audio/up-all-night-on-nasas-flying-telescope/

Source:   NASA RELEASE: 12-055 Excerpt: WASHINGTON -- New images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft show the moon's crust is being stretched, forming minute valleys in a few small areas on the lunar surface. Scientists propose this geologic activity occurred less than 50 million years ago, which is considered recent compared to the moon's age of more than 4.5 billion years. …"We think the moon is in a general state of global contraction because of cooling of a still hot interior," said Thomas Watters of the Center for Earth and Planetary Studies at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, …"This pulling apart tells us the moon is still active," said Richard Vondrak, LRO Project Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/feb/HQ_12-055_LRO_Moon_Images.html

Source:  Purdue University  An online interative that allows the user to input projectile diameter, density, angle of impact, velocity, type of target. www.purdue.edu/impactearth/