Star Shrinking

A massive star in Orion, has been shrinking for the past 15 years and astronomers do not know why.The star is a red super giant and named Betelgeuse. When massive stars are nearing the end of their lives, they swell to 100 times their original size before they explode as supernova or collapse to form black holes. The star's brightness has not dimmed over the past years. The study of the red supergaint is important to understanding of space because astronomers are not clear over how red supergaints end their lives.

Planet in Threat?

The future of our solar system could be violet according to some experts. In a new computer simulation, a disruption of the planetary orbits could lead to a collision of Earth with Mercury, Mars, or Venus in the next few billion years. Mercury would be the greatest risk despite it's smaller size. The computer model shows that there is a once percent chance that the elongation of Mercury's orbit will increase so that the planet's path around the sun will crosses Venus path. This would cause Mercury to be ejected from the solar system where it could collide with the sun or even Earth. The idea is remote but still a possibility. This is just one scenario of 2,501 that were stimulated by the computer model. Most do not involve a crash but 25 led to a disruption in Mercury's orbit.

Meteorite Hits Teen Boy?

A 14 year old boy from Germany claims he was hit by a small meteorite that left a scar. The boy claims the meteorite hit him so hard that he fell to the ground. Astronomers have analyzed the rock and have discovered it is from outer space. Other experts claim the boy is lying because it's impossible for a meteorite to move the way the boy claims. Most meteors vaporize in the atmosphere creating "shooting stars". They usually never reach the ground. The ones that do are mostly metal.

Moon Water Debate

There has been raging debates over the years over the occurrence of frozen water on the moon. The new NASA lunar orbiter will help to cease the debates by the new picturing. All moon rocks suggest the surface is dry and that water is baked off by the sun. However there may be water in the deep craters at the moon's poles that have not seen sunlight for over 2 billion years. Evidence of potential water on the moon begin in 1996 with radar scans of the moon that reflected back signals that would be expected of ice. Doubters claim the reflections are from piles of rocks, not ice. The results from the new orbiter are crucial in future planning of space travel.

Moon Orbiter

NASA's first robotic lunar scout has made it safely to the moon on early Tuesday. It's mission is to seek our potential landing sites and hidden water ice for future expeditions. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter started it's 40 minutes maneuver to begin orbiting the moon. These will be the first unmanned moon shots since 1998. A LRO project scientist leader said that they are here to stay on the moon and not to look past it. The orbiter cost around 504 million dollars and was launched on June 18th. The probe will spend at least a year mapping the moon. This is huge new for people wishing for more Mars focus because a lot of money and time is being invested in even more lunar travels.

Killing of Spy Satellites

The Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, plans to kills the program that was begun by the Bush administration to use U.S. spy satellites for domestic security and law enforcement missions. The program was announced in 2007 and has not begun to run because of privacy and civil liberty issues. U.S. agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Interior Department will have access to the satellites but the Homeland Security Department will no longer be involved.

Disaggrement in the Future

The European government and industry officials are disputing over the best and most efficient way to contract and deploy the 30-satellite Galileo navigation and timing constellation. Industry and government officials have openly disputing their disagreement over Galileo's direction on June 15th. The European Space Agency wants to launch the 28 Galileo satellites two at a time with Russian Soyuz rockets. This would cost up to 70 million dollars. However the head officer at Astrium Space Transportation wants several Ariane 5 vehicle to be used to launch Galileo. He disagrees with using Russian hardware because it shoes a dependence on Russia. The two point of views will continue to disagree until a reasonable solution is found. This is just a display of the politics involved with launching into space.