Map of the Universe

Scientists at University of California Santa Cruz have simulated a map of the universe using world's most powerful supercomputing facility at NASA AMES Research Center, in Mountain View, California. This simulation took four years to develop! It takes into the account the effects of dark matter and dark energy in formation and evolution of our universe and "is based on the latest version of a “map” of the early universe that was created nearly 10 years ago by a satellite called the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, or Wmap". Learn more here.

WMAP has mapped the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation (the oldest light in the universe), produced the first fine-resolution full-sky map of the microwave sky, and determined the age of the universe to be 13.73 billion years old to within 1% error, which is 0.12 billion years, among other findings!

References:
[1] http://www.mysanantonio.com/life/article/UC-scientists-map-out-the-universe-2195884.php#ixzz1ZSYrVW5a

[2] http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/

First Arab Astronaut

Did you know that the first Arab astronaut flew on shuttle Discovery in June 1985? and that he was officially representing ARABSAT of Saudi Arabia? This is an important part of history, especially for the Arab countries.  Why do not we hear about such history and accomplishments of theirs?

Reference:
http://onelessonaday.blogspot.com/2011/07/wise-eyes.html

The Largest and Farthest Ever Detected Reservoir of Water in Universe!!

Where do you think the largest ever detected reservoir of water exists? On our home planet, dear Earth? After all, that is what makes it habitable for us, and that is what we have been searching for everywhere. We got thrilled when we found buckets of water on moon, or some ice on Mars. But now we have found water "equivalent to 140 trillion times all the water in the world's ocean, surrounds a huge, feeding black hole, called a quasar, more than 12 billion light-years away."

Think about those amounts and distances. Now, only if we could send a probe there! But wait, it says it is close to "a black hole 20 billion times more massive than the sun and produces as much energy as a thousand trillion suns." Attractive and unattainable? Maybe so!

Reference:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/universe20110722.html

Juno!

Juno is the name of another cool mission scheduled to launch between August 5-26, 2011 to go on a five year cruise to Jupiter! Arriving there on July 2016! (yes, another eventful July). It will then orbit Jupiter for a year. To learn more about Juno click here.

Goddard's Network Integration Center

With the launch of shuttle Atlantis, the final shuttle mission, we are closing a chapter in man's space exploration in lower Earth orbit and graduating from the Shuttle program. It was only today, and embarrassingly so late, that I learned that the Goddard Space Flight Center has been responsible for all communications to and from the shuttles for every single shuttle that was launched for more than thirty years, and also for communications of the Apollo program thanks to the Goddard's Network Integration Center. Below are some pictures and a video from how the Goddard community observed the final space shuttle launch.

"We all know the words, “One small step for (a) man; one giant leap for mankind,” but no one on Earth would have heard Neil Armstrong say them on July 21, 1969, if not for Goddard."
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa_goddard/sets/72157627147772740/

"We aren't ending a journey, we are completing a chapter of a journey that will never end" - Commander of Atlantis before today's launch.