Το αστεροσκοπείο στην κορυφή του κόσμου

Χρειάζονται δέκα ώρες οδήγησης σε δύσβατο δρόμο των Ιμαλαΐων για να φτάσει κανείς στο Αστεροσκοπείο του Hanle, ένα τελευταίας τεχνολογίας ουράνιο παρατηρητήριο, που κόστισε 8 εκατομμύρια δολ. στην ινδική κυβέρνηση και φιλοδοξεί να γίνει διεθνές σημείο συνάντησης αστρονόμων και άλλων επιστημόνων.
Το Indian Astronomical Observatory, έχοντας συμπληρώσει μόλις λίγους μήνες λειτουργίας, έχει ήδη στο ενεργητικό του ένα ρεκόρ: είναι το υψηλότερα τοποθετημένο αστεροσκοπείο στον κόσμο, (4.517 μέτρα από την θαλάσσια επιφάνεια), με το τηλεσκόπιο του, το Chandra (προς τιμήν του Ινδού νομπελίστα αστροφυσικού Chandrashekhar) να στέκεται 200 μέτρα ψηλότερα από το τηλεσκόπιο του αστεροσκοπείου Meyer Womble, στα Βραχώδη Ορη, και πρώην κάτοχο του τίτλου...
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Search for Mars water goes underground

The revelation in 2000 that gully features have been spotted on Mars sparked numerous ideas as to how the geological features were formed.

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Hubble Tracks Asteroid's Sky Trek

Hubble Tracks Asteroid's Sky Trek

While analyzing NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of the Sagittarius dwarf irregular galaxy (SagDIG), an international team of astronomers led by Simone Marchi, Yazan Momany, and Luigi Bedin discovered 13 sucessive faint trails left by a tiny asteroid. The trails are seen as a series of reddish arcs on the right in this August 2003 Advanced Camera for Surveys image.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and Y. Momany (University of Padua)