A meteor — estimated to be about 10 tons — entered the Earth’s atmosphere about 9:20 a.m. Russian local time at a speed of at least 33,000 mph and shattered at an altitude estimated at 18-32 miles above the ground.

In Chelyabinsk, 985 people in the city asked for medical assistance — 43 were hospitalized. It is estimated over one million square feet of glass has been shattered in the city. Most of the injuries were caused by shattered glass. A roof collapsed at a zinc commercial plant.

Chelyabinsk is about 930 miles east of Moscow.

Meteor exploding in the skies is quite an unusual wakeup call – many people in the Russian Urals region woke up to this sight on Friday morning. The powerful blast smashed windows and rattled houses, causing widespread panic.

The February 14, 2013 meteor hit less than a day before the asteroid 2012 DA14 is forecast to make the closest recorded pass of an asteroid to the Earth (17,150 miles). 20125 DA14 was discovered only a year ago (February 23, 2012) by a Spanish dentist and amateur astronomer Jaime Nomen. NASA has stressed that ‘no Earth impact is possible’ but with some communications satellites out about 22,236 miles above the earth’s surface,

Unbelievably spectacular smoke trail from meteor over Ural mountain region in Russia, and terrifying boom — either sonic boom or impact and shockwave boom.

Multiple videos show a cloud trail, followed by a large boom, and then multiple smaller booms — setting off car alarms.

Another video showing trail and multiple explosions.

Scientists unveiled on December 5, 2012, an unprecedented look at planet Earth at night. A global composite image, constructed using cloud-free night images from a new NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite, shows the glow of natural and human-built phenomena across the planet in greater detail than ever before. The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership or Suomi NPP, previously known as the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) and NPP-Bridge is a weather satellite operated by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The satellite is named after Verner E. Suomi, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The name was announced on January 24, 2012, three months after the satellite’s launch. The satellite was launched from Space Launch Complex 2W at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California by a United Launch Alliance Delta II 7920-10C on October 28, 2011, and was subsequently was placed into a sun-synchronous orbit 824 km (512 miles) above the Earth. The Sun-synchronous orbit is mostly selected for Earth observation satellites that should be operated at a relatively constant altitude suitable for its Earth observation instruments.

This new global view and animation of Earth’s city lights is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite.

The data from Sumoi NPP was acquired over nine days in April 2012 and 13 days in October 2012 — taking 312 orbits to get a clear shot of every parcel of Earth’s land surface and islands. This new data was then mapped over existing Blue Marble imagery of Earth to provide a realistic view of the planet.
Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/NOAA NGDC

The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

The Mountain by TSO Photography

This time-laps video was filmed between April 4th and April 11th, 2011.
The publisher had the pleasure of visiting El Teide — Spain´s highest mountain (12,198 ft, 3718m), which is one of the best places in the world to photograph the stars and is also the location of Teide Observatories, considered to be one of the world´s best observatories.

The goal was to capture the beautiful Milky Way galaxy along with one of the most amazing mountains known — El Teide.

Even thought ta sandstorm prevented the camera operator Terje Sørgjerd from seeing what was happening, the camera managed to capture a sandstorm over the Sahara desert, which was backlit by Grand Canary Island. That’s what produced the golden clouds in the images. The Milky Way was shining through the clouds, making the stars sparkle in an interesting way.

Midway up the mountain are the telescopes of the Observatorio del Teide. Opened in 1964, Observatorio del Teide became one of the first major international observatories, attracting telescopes from different countries around the world because of the good astronomical seeing conditions. Two professional observatories, Teide Observatory on the island of Tenerife and Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, have been built on the islands.

The Canary Islands is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries is one of Spain’s 17 autonomous communities and an outermost region of the European Union. The islands include (from largest to smallest): Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, El Hierro, La Graciosa, Alegranza, Isla de Lobos, Montaña Clara, Roque del Este and Roque del Oeste. The islands have a subtropical climate, with long warm summers and moderately warm winters.

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A Blue Moon is defined as a Full Moon that occurs a second time in a single month. During August 2012, there are two Full Moons — one on August 1, 2012 and one on August 31, 2012.

Blue Moons are not necessarily the color blue, however. A blue-colored Moon occurs following volcanoes that emit particles that block red light. Some forest fires sometimes emit particles that block red light. These conditions can make the Moon look blue.

In Chicago most particles, such as smaller dust, pollen and air pollution particles block the blue color with its shorter wavelength.

Chicago’s Blue Moon is likely to be more reddish than blue tonight.

Moon Rise is at 7:10 p.m. CDT. The Moon will set on Saturday 6:22 a.m. CDT.

Cloud cover over Arlington Heights is expected to be about 47% at Moon Rise with a chance of precipitation at 64%. Cloud cover forecast ranges from 47% to 76% between Moon Rise and Moon Set (10:03 a.m. forecast).

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The MSL spacecraft—with its payload Curiosity—was launched on November 26, 2011 and successfully landed on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012 at 12:32 a.m. CDT. Curiosity carries the most advanced payload of scientific equipment ever used on the surface of Mars.

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft that carried Curiosity succeeded in every step of the most complex landing ever attempted on Mars, including the final severing of the bridle cords and flyaway maneuver of the rocket backpack.

NASA Scientists are giving the Curiousity Mars Rover’s landing two thumbs up. Scientists displayed the Rover’s first two photos, saying it appears to have landed in a flat area.

CBS video before the landing: The most complex and expensive robot ever sent to Mars is expected to arrive on the surface of the Red Planet early Monday morning. As John Blackstone reports, NASA scientists will be on the edge of their seats as the spacecraft makes its landing.

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The last twilight after sunset darkens after 11:00 p.m. in St. Cloud, Minnesota. This Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) display began just before midnight and lasted for about 30 minutes.

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A transit only occurs about once or twice every 100 years. The next transit of Venus is 2117. What this means now about Venus, is that the planet is changing from an ‘Evening Star’ to a ‘Morning Star.’ For the past several months Venus as been a brilliant ‘Evening Star’ — setting after the Sun. It is rare that this change is ever accompanied by a transit across the Sun. Venus usually quietly disappears for awhile as it is too close to the Sun to see. Before the June 5, 2012 transit, Venus was setting after the sun. After June 5, 2012, Venus is setting before the Sun, or in the morning — rising before the Sun. In fact, both Jupiter and Venus rise just before the Sun in June 2012.

Eventually Venus will appear in morning twilight. Venus will gradually become more and more visible as the ‘Morning Star.’ On June 14, 2012 Venus rises about 4:42 a.m. CDT, while the Sun rises at about 5:16 a.m. CDT. Venus is also visible in brighter skies with the Sun in the sky. Venus is even reported to be visible in broad daylight with a photograph at 2:30 p.m. PT in 1988 (See Viewing Venus in broad daylight). To see Venus in broad daylight, an observer has to know the approximate angle of Venus from the Sun and then stand in a position in shade where the Sun’s direct light is blocked.

Terms to know about Venus, Earth and Sun …
Inferior Conjunction. The Venus cycle begins with the Inferior Conjunction — when Venus is exactly between the Earth and the Sun, and is changing from an ‘Evening Star’ to a ‘Morning Star.’ The ‘reappearance’ of Venus as a ‘Morning Star’ occurs about one week after Inferior Conjunction’ when the Sun and Venus are about 10 degrees apart. The rare transit occurs during Inferior Conjunction. Venus is brightest about 36 days either side of the Inferior Conjunction. Ironically, Venus is in a crescent phase when it is brightest. Venus has phases like the Moon has phases. However, when Venus is in full phase and fuller phases, it is in orbit much further away on the opposite side of the Sun. Venus was observed to be especially bright at the end of April and the beginning of May in 2012.

Superior Conjunction. Venus is on the exact far side of the sun at ‘Superior Conjunction,’ and is changing from a ‘Morning Star’ to an ‘Evening Star.’ Venus is in full phase during Superior Conjunction.

The cycle from one Inferior Conjunction to the next takes 584 days.

Entire transit, but why does ‘black dot” appear translucent at edge of sun?

Astronomers will witness a transit of a distant Exo-planet around it’s sun about the same time Venus transits our Sun.

See also …
EarthSky Why was Venus so bright in late April and early May 2012?

Khaldea Venus Morning Star Evening Star Venue (Astrology)

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The Strawberry Moon appears in Late Spring (June). The Strawberry Moon is also known as the Flower Moon, the Honey Moon, Rose Moon, Hot Moon, Planting Moon. The Hindu name is Wat Poornima. The Sinhala name (Sri Lanka) is Poson.

Chicago missed the partial eclipse of the Moon because of clouds this morning before sunrise and during moonset, but Monday night’s moonrise was spectacular. There was a tint of strawberry.

Full Moon rising over Recreation Park pool (Photoshop composite).

Recreation Park pool staff were in awe of the Full Moon rising over the east end of the swimming pool Monday night as they prepared to close for the night.

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Visibility times of the Partial Eclipse of the Moon — weather permitting.

In Chicago a Partial Eclipse of the Moon will be visible as it begins at about 4:00 a.m. The Maximum Partial Eclipse occurs about 5:05 a.m., but the Moon sets at 4:26 a.m. Unfortunately, the weather forecast predicts mostly cloudy skies, and the Infrared Satellite image shows cloud cover as far west as east central and southern Iowa.

In Albany, New York, the Partial Eclipse will be visible as it begins about 5:00 a.m. The Maximum Partial Eclipse occurs at 6:03 a.m. and will not be visible because the Moon will have set.

In Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia, the Partial Eclipse will be visible as it begins about 4:00 a.m. The Maximum Partial Eclipse occurs at 5:05 a.m. and will not be visible because the Moon will have set.

In Dallas, Texas, the Partial Eclipse begins about 4:00 a.m. The Maximum Partial Eclipse will be visible at 5:04 a.m. in Dallas. Texas may offer the most spectacular view because the moon will be setting AND the maximum Partial Eclipse will be visible before it sets.

In Los Angeles, California, the Partial Eclipse begins about 2:00 a.m. The Maximum Partial Eclipse will be visible at 3:03 a.m. in Los Angeles.

In Honolulu, Hawaii, the Partial Eclipse begins about midnight. The Maximum Partial Eclipse will be visible at 1:03 a.m. in Honolulu.

More cities …
Portland, Oregon … Partial Eclipse starts at 2:00 a.m. max VISIBLE
Denver, Colorado … Partial Eclipse starts at 3:00 a.m. max VISIBLE
El Paso, Texas … Partial Eclipse starts at 3:00 a.m. max VISIBLE
Austin, Texas … Partial Eclipse starts at 4:00 a.m. max VISIBLE
Baton Rouge, Louisiana … Partial Eclipse starts at 4:00 a.m. max VISIBLE
New Orleans, Louisiana … Partial Eclipse starts at 4:00 a.m. — sets before max
Memphis, Tennessee … Partial Eclipse starts at 4:00 a.m. — sets before max
Minneapolis, Minnesota … Partial Eclipse starts at 4:00 a.m.– sets before max
Columbus, Ohio … Partial Eclipse starts at 5:00 a.m. — sets before max
Louisville, Kentucky … Partial Eclipse starts at 5:00 a.m. — sets before max.
Miami, Florida … Partial Eclipse starts at 5:00 a.m. — sets before max.

Based on the information above, you can figure the Partial Eclipse start time and maximum time from the respective time zones. You can also check the United States Naval Observatory website to find when the Moon sets in your area.

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php

Note: Monthly Skywatching is a new feature, and will normally be published in the first few days of each month.

Video explores sky events of May 2012. Planets, constellations and galaxies are highlighted.

Eta aquarid meteor shower peaks morning of May 6, 2012.

Annular solar eclipse in southern China, Japan and Western United Stated … annular solar eclipse on May 20, 2012. Partial eclipse in other parts of Asia.

A perigee is the point in orbit that an object makes its closest approach to earth. The Moon is full while in perigee about once every 412 days. The perigee doesn’t always happen at the same time as a full Moon. A supermoon, is the coincidence of a Full Moon (or a New Moon) with perigee. The actual time of the coincidence was at 11:35 p.m. Saturday, May 5, 2012.

The SuperMoon of May 5, 2012 (11:35 p.m. CDT) was 14% bigger and 30% brighter than regular Full Moon phases. The moon was 356,953 kilometers or 221,800 miles away.

On May 19, 2012 the moon is in apogee, which is the furthest approach in the period of the orbit. At apogee on May 19, the Moon is 406,450 kilometers or 252,556 miles away.

Next year there is a SuperMoon on June 23, 2012.

Over the northwest suburbs, moonrise was blocked by clouds. However, later in the middle of the night, the skies cleared, except for some foggy conditions with visibility down to five-to-eight miles. The foggy conditions caused a darkened Moon — still super-sized, but not super-bright. The fog thickened at sunrise (about 5:42 a.m.), which was eight minutes before moonset (5:50 a.m.). The Moon was totally obscured at moonset.

SuperMoon at about 4:00 a.m. CDT Sunday, May 6, 2012, just over four hours after the coincidence of perigee and a Full Moon phase occurred at 11:35 p.m. Saturday, May 5, 2012. The Moon was darkened by a thin layer of fog and haze.

A “supermoon” is the coincidence of a full moon (or a new moon) with the closest approach the Moon makes to the Earth on its elliptical orbit, or perigee, leading to the technical name for a supermoon of the perigee-syzygy of the Earth-Moon-Sun system. The association of the Moon with both oceanic and crustal tides has led to claims that the supermoon phenomenon may be associated with increased risk of events such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. However, the evidence of such a link is widely held to be unconvincing.

Full Moons are traditionally associated with temporal insomnia, insanity (hence the terms lunacy and lunatic) and various “magical phenomena” such as lycanthropy. Psychologists, however, have found that there is no strong evidence for effects on human behavior around the time of a full moon.

Moonrise is about 7:48 to 7:50 p.m. — slightly south of east 114.9°
7:50 p.m. is 19:50, 20:00 is 8:00 p.m.

TIME       ALTITUDE   DEG E OF N   1 = FULL
19:50       -0.0       114.9       1.00
20:00        1.4       116.5       1.00
20:10        2.8       118.2       1.00
20:20        4.3       119.9       1.00
20:30        5.8       121.6       1.00
20:40        7.2       123.3       1.00
20:50        8.7       125.1       1.00
21:00       10.1       126.9       1.00
21:10       11.5       128.8       1.00
21:20       12.8       130.7       1.00
21:30       14.1       132.6       1.00
21:40       15.4       134.6       1.00
21:50       16.6       136.6       1.00
22:00       17.8       138.6       1.00

United States Naval Observatory
Sun or Moon Altitude/Azimuth Table

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A bright green meteor was reported about 8:22 p.m. CDT by numerous sky watchers from Michigan to Wisconsin to Illinois to Iowa to Missouri. A Chicago police officer and others reported a plane down. The City of Chicago sent out a Chicago Fire Department helicopter and a Chicago Police Department helicopter to search for a downed aircraft near Wolf Lake on the south side of Chicago. No aircraft or debris were discovered.

Many witnesses reported the meteor as brilliant green with a tail.

The Lyrids Meteor Shower peaks April 21-22. More on the night sky of April 2012, including the Lyrids in the video below …

April 2012 witnesses Saturn at opposition, a crescent-phase Venus, the Lyrid Meteor Shower — where up 20 meteors per hour may be seen– and, for those with telescopes and dark skies, the Leo Triplet galaxies.

See also …
woodtv8 Meteor — if you saw it let us know with a comment

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A clear sky with visibility greater than 10 miles, and without the light of the Moon, created ideal conditions for seeing stars and planets Sunday night. Between 7:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. the ideal conditions were enhanced because of the heavenly bodies that were showing in the western sky.

Starting from the south (left) was Sirius, which is the brightest star of all stars in the night sky. The sun is brightest during daylight.

To the right of Sirius was Orion and the three-star Orion’s belt consisting of the stars Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. Betelgeuse and Rigel are also bright stars in Orion.

To the right of Orion was Taurus with the impressive red eye of “The Bull” known as the star of Aldebaran.

To the right of Taurus was Pleiades — a cluster of stars that twinkles like jewels in the night sky.

To the lower right of Pleiades was Jupiter — a planet about the same magnitude in brightness as Sirius.

To the lower right of Jupiter was Venus — the brightest planet in the sky.

You can check the night sky anytime by visiting the following planetarium link on The Cardinal — Arlingtoncardinal.com

Arlingtoncardinal.com/category/weather-blog/night-sky

You can set the date and time, latitude and longitude, and directional view to your specification. Try February 29, 2012 at 2012 (8:12 p.m.) from Chicago’s latitude and longitude (42°, -87°). Look southwest to see the view described above.

More beautiful Northern Lights from Europe. Birtavarre is a village in the municipality of Gáivuotna – Kåfjord in Troms county, Norway located at about 69° latitude. The population of the village and surrounding area was recorded about 283 in 2009.

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FB Entertainment fbentertainment FBF
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NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the “habitable zone,” the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. Kepler also has discovered more than 1,000 new planet candidates, nearly doubling its previously known count. Ten of these candidates are near-Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of their host star. Candidates require follow-up observations to verify they are actual planets.

The newly confirmed planet, Kepler-22b, is the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a star similar to our sun. The planet is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth. Scientists don’t yet know if Kepler-22b has a predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid composition, but its discovery is a step closer to finding Earth-like planets.

Previous research hinted at the existence of near-Earth-size planets in habitable zones, but clear confirmation proved elusive. Two other small planets orbiting stars smaller and cooler than our sun recently were confirmed on the very edges of the habitable zone, with orbits more closely resembling those of Venus and Mars.

“This is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth’s twin,” said Douglas Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Kepler’s results continue to demonstrate the importance of NASA’s science missions, which aim to answer some of the biggest questions about our place in the universe.”

Kepler discovers planets and planet candidates by measuring dips in the brightness of more than 150,000 stars to search for planets that cross in front, or “transit,” the stars. Kepler requires at least three transits to verify a signal as a planet.

The Kepler spacecraft is an American space observatory, the space-based portion of NASA’s Kepler Mission to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. The Kepler spacecraft is named in honor of the 17th-century German astronomer Johannes Kepler.[5] The spacecraft was launched on March 7, 2009, with a planned mission lifetime of at least 3.5 years.

“Fortune smiled upon us with the detection of this planet,” said William Borucki, Kepler principal investigator at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., who led the team that discovered Kepler-22b. “The first transit was captured just three days after we declared the spacecraft operationally ready. We witnessed the defining third transit over the 2010 holiday season.”

The Kepler science team uses ground-based telescopes and the Spitzer Space Telescope to review observations on planet candidates the spacecraft finds. The star field that Kepler observes in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra can only be seen from ground-based observatories in spring through early fall. The data from these other observations help determine which candidates can be validated as planets.

Diagram compares our own solar system to Kepler-22, a star system containing the first “habitable zone” planet discovered by NASA’s Kepler mission. Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech.

Kepler-22b is located 600 light-years away. While the planet is larger than Earth, its orbit of 290 days around a sun-like star resembles that of our world. The planet’s host star belongs to the same class as our sun, called G-type, although it is slightly smaller and cooler.

Of the 54 habitable zone planet candidates reported in February 2011, Kepler-22b is the first to be confirmed. This milestone will be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

The Kepler team is hosting its inaugural science conference at Ames Dec. 5-9, announcing 1,094 new planet candidate discoveries. Since the last catalog was released in February, the number of planet candidates identified by Kepler has increased by 89 percent and now totals 2,326. Of these, 207 are approximately Earth-size, 680 are super Earth-size, 1,181 are Neptune-size, 203 are Jupiter-size and 55 are larger than Jupiter.

The findings, based on observations conducted May 2009 to September 2010, show a dramatic increase in the numbers of smaller-size planet candidates.

Kepler observed many large planets in small orbits early in its mission, which were reflected in the February data release. Having had more time to observe three transits of planets with longer orbital periods, the new data suggest that planets one to four times the size of Earth may be abundant in the galaxy.

The number of Earth-size and super Earth-size candidates has increased by more than 200 and 140 percent since February, respectively.

There are 48 planet candidates in their star’s habitable zone. While this is a decrease from the 54 reported in February, the Kepler team has applied a stricter definition of what constitutes a habitable zone in the new catalog, to account for the warming effect of atmospheres, which would move the zone away from the star, out to longer orbital periods.

“The tremendous growth in the number of Earth-size candidates tells us that we’re honing in on the planets Kepler was designed to detect: those that are not only Earth-size, but also are potentially habitable,” said Natalie Batalha, Kepler deputy science team lead at San Jose State University in San Jose, Calif. “The more data we collect, the keener our eye for finding the smallest planets out at longer orbital periods.”

NASA’s Ames Research Center manages Kepler’s ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., managed Kepler mission development.

Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes the Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA’s 10th Discovery Mission and is funded by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters.

Michele Johnson
NASA Ames Research Center
michele.johnson@nasa.gov

On November 8, 2011 at 23:28 UT (5:28 p.m. CST) the asteroid safely passed 0.85 lunar distances (324,600 km or 201,700 miles) from the Earth. November 9, 2011 at 07:13 UT (1:13 a.m. CST) the asteroid is expected to pass 0.00160 AU (239,000 km; 149,000 mi) from the Moon. During the close approach the asteroid reached about apparent magnitude 11.

The asteroid would have been visible to experienced observers using high-end binoculars with an objective lens of 80+ mm if it were not for bright moonlight preventing a true dark sky. Since the gibbous moon did interfere with the viewing, observers trying to visually locate the asteroid required a telescope with an aperture of 6 inches (15 centimeters) or larger.

2005 YU55 traveled the closest known approach by an asteroid with an absolute magnitude this bright since 2010 XC15 approached within 0.5 lunar distances in 1976.

2005 YU55 is expected to return, but not get as close to earth, in 2041.

UPDATE: The satellite is reported to have fallen as it was traveling eastward over Canada, the Atlantic Ocean and Africa between 10:23 p.m. CDT Friday September 23, 2011 and 12:09 a.m. CDT Saturday September 24, 2011.

Video of a pass of UARS satellite 9 days before atmospheric reentry, at an altitude of only 250km, taken from the ground with a 14″ telescope (Thierry Legault – Emmanuel Rietsch).

Live, real time tracking of the UARS satellite was available at n2yo.com. Users occasionally had to wait while the server was too busy and response was sometimes slow. Now the web page shows screen shots of the region of Canada and Africa of the last known orbital track as the UARS satellite was falling. On Friday night about 8:30 p.m. one of the earlier orbital tracks traveled southwest to northeast over Missouri and Chicagoland.

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), an satellite in NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth, was launched from the Shuttle (STS 48) September 12, 1991 to provide data for better understanding of the Earth’s upper atmosphere and to understand the effects of natural and human interactions on the atmosphere. The objectives of the UARS mission were to conduct research in the atmosphere above the tropopause by measuring the global budget of constituent trace gases and their chemical, dynamic,and radiative behavior. The satellite was deployed from the Space Shuttle on September 15, 1991.

NASA Tracker Out of Service Until 2012
We apologize for the temporary service disruption of the J-Track Satellite tracker. This application was developed in the late 1990′s using technologies that are no longer supported. NASA is working to rebuild the satellite tracker with modern technology and hopes to have the tracker back on line by the start of 2012. In the interim, we would like to direct you to NASA SkyWatch

– NASA

NASA SkyWatch does not include coverage for UARS.

UARS was the first multi-instrumented satellite to observe numerous chemical components of the atmosphere for better understanding of photochemistry. UARS data marked the beginning of many long-term records for key chemicals in the atmosphere. The satellite also provided key data on the amount of light that comes from the sun at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths. UARS ceased its productive scientific life in 2005.

The UARS satellite is expected to fall from orbit during the afternoon of September 23, 2011, Eastern Daylight Time.

Screen shot of UARS tracking graphic from n2yo.com at about 9:08 a.m. CDT showing satellite headed over India (Chicago time). The satellite was tracked over China four minutes later.

Thousands of objects can be tracked in real time on n2yo.com, which is a website providing mainly satellite tracking Services. The software used for tracking is using mainly space surveillance data provided by “Space Track”, a website consisting of a partial catalog of observations collected by the US Space Surveillance Network, operated by US Air Force Space Command (AFSPC). AFSPC does not make any warranties as to the accuracy or completeness of the data provided and does not endorse any product or service that utilizes its data.

n2yo.com is an authorized redistributor and the license is renewed annually. In special circumstances for a few satellites the traking data (“keplerian elements”) are derived from public sources (monitoring or visual observation). Users can specify their own location in order to have a better tracking experience. Registration is required to customize locations. Otherwise default locations are assumed based on the user’s IP address.

Juno is a NASA New Frontiers mission to the planet Jupiter, and was originally proposed at a cost of approximately US$700 million (FY03) for a June 2009 launch. NASA budgetary restrictions resulted in Juno being re-scheduled to its August 2011 launch on board an Atlas V rocket in the 551 configuration — one of the heaviest payload configurations. As of June 2011, the mission was projected to cost $1.1 billion over its life.

Juno is set to study Jupiter’s composition, gravity field, magnetic field, and polar magnetosphere while in polar orbit. Juno will also search for clues about how Jupiter formed, including whether the planet has a rocky core. Juno is also set to study the amount of water present within the deep atmosphere of Jupiter, and how mass is distributed within the planet. Juno will also study Jupiter’s deep winds, which can reach speeds of 370 mph.

The Juno mission is set to conclude in October 2017, after 33 orbits around Jupiter. The probe will be de-orbited to crash into Jupiter.

International Space Station assembly mission which will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and the ELC-3 to the space station. This will be the final mission of Endeavour. Originally thought to be the last space shuttle program flight, one additional flight of Atlantis in June 2011 is now planned.

At 4:20 minutes into the flight Endeavor was traveling toward space at 5,500 miles per hour at an altitude of 63 miles or 35,000 feet.