News Archive
News for 2007
Tor Hagfors, astronomy professor and Arecibo pioneer, dies at age 76
January 26, 2007
(Cornell Chronicle) -- Tor Hagfors, Cornell professor emeritus of astronomy and electrical engineering, died Jan. 17 in Puerto Rico of a heart attack. He was 76....
Prediction Proved: Light Speeds Up an Asteroid as it Spins
March 13, 2007
by Kenneth Lang (NY Times) -- Although entirely without mass, particles of light have enough force to push an asteroid around and possibly to spin it so fast that it breaks apart...
Asteroids spin at YORP speed, thanks to the effects of sunlight, Cornell and Belfast astronomers discover
March 16, 2007
By Lauren Gold (Cornell Chronicle) -- Sunlight alone can change the way an asteroid and other small bodies spin in space, suggests a new study led by astronomers at Cornell and Queen's University Belfast...
Upgrade makes aging Mars rovers smarter
January 5, 2007
By Alicia Chang (Associated Press) -- The twin Mars rovers are getting wiser with age...
Saving Arecibo: Observatory's radar and unique precision make it a vital resource, argues NAIC director
January 26, 2007
by Lauren Gold (Cornel Chronicle) -- On Nov. 3 the Senior Review, an advisory panel to the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Astronomical Sciences, issued recommendations for the future of the Arecibo Observatory, which Cornell manages for the agency through the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC)...
Asteroids spin at YORP speed, thanks to the effects of sunlight, Cornell and Belfast astronomers discover
March 16, 2007
By Lauren Gold (Cornell Chronicle) -- Sunlight alone can change the way an asteroid and other small bodies spin in space, suggests a new study led by astronomers at Cornell and Queen's University Belfast...
Squyres receives Benjamin Franklin Medal for Mars Rover leadership; meanwhile, rovers keep proving their mettle
March 26, 2007
by Lauren Gold (Cornell Chronicle) -- Steve Squyres, the principal investigator for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission and Cornell's Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy, has been awarded the 2007 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science by the Franklin Institute...
Squyres receives Benjamin Franklin Medal for Mars Rover leadership; meanwhile, rovers keep proving their mettle
March 26, 2007
by Lauren Gold (Cornell Chronicle) -- Steve Squyres, the principal investigator for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission and Cornell's Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy, has been awarded the 2007 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth and Environmental Science by the Franklin Institute...
SOFIA Airborne Observatory Completes First Test Flight
May 1, 2007
New York, NY -- L-3 Communications announced today that NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), completed its first test flight following extensive aircraft modification and telescope integration at the company's L-3 Integrated Systems (L-3 IS) Waco,Texas facility.....
Mercury's spin reveals molten core
May 8, 2007
Chicago, Illinois (Reuters) -- Using a fancy version of a common chef's trick, scientists have discovered that Mercury's core may be partially molten, making it a little more Earth-like than once thought...
NASA Rover Finds Surprising Evidence for Mars' Watery Past
May 22, 2007
The strongest evidence yet that ancient Mars was much wetter than it is now has been unearthed by NASA's Spirit rover...
Two more institutions sign agreement to advance Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope project
May 22, 2007
by Lauren Gold (Cornell Chronicle) -- In a major step forward for the Cornell Caltech Atacama Telescope (CCAT), a proposed 25-meter aperture telescope that will be the largest, most precise and highest astronomical facility in the world, participants announced this week that two more institutions have signed an interim agreement to join the CCAT consortium...
Image of Saturn System by Cassini Spacecraft
January 3, 2007
The image of the Saturn system taken by the Cassini spacecraft has received a lot of press recently. It appears as the cover of the December National Geographic magazine and the January issue of Discover magazine; in the latter case it was also selected as one of the top hundred Science Discoveries of this year. It is a finalist for the science picture of the year in the MSNBC/TODAY poll. -- Joe Burns (CU Astronomy) Image Caption by NASA-JPL: This marvelous panoramic view was created by combining a total of 165 images taken by the Cassini wide-angle camera over nearly three hours on Sept. 15, 2006. The mosaic images were acquired as the spacecraft drifted in the darkness of Saturn's shadow for about 12 hours, allowing a multitude of unique observations of the microscopic particles that compose Saturn's faint rings. Color in the view was created by digitally compositing ultraviolet, infrared and clear filter images and was then adjusted to resemble natural color. The image was planned by members of the imaging team at Cornell University. It formed the cover of the December National Geographic and the January Discover magazines. Ring structures containing these tiny particles brighten substantially at high phase angles: i.e., viewing angles where the sun is almost directly behind the objects being imaged. During this period of observation Cassini detected two new faint rings: one coincident with the shared orbit of the moons Janus and Epimetheus, and another coincident with Pallene's orbit. The narrowly confined G ring is easily seen here, outside the bright main rings. Encircling the entire system is the much more extended E ring. The icy plumes of Enceladus, whose eruptions supply the E ring particles, betray the moon's position in the E ring's left-side edge. Interior to the G ring and above the brighter main rings is the pale dot of Earth. Cassini views its point of origin from over a billion kilometers (and close to a billion miles) away in the icy depths of the outer solar system. This view looks toward the unlit side of the rings from about 15 degrees above the ringplane. Cassini was approximately 2.2 million kilometers (1.3 million miles) from Saturn when the images in this mosaic were taken. Image scale on Saturn is about 260 kilometers (162 miles) per pixel.
Prediction Proved: Light Speeds Up an Asteroid as it Spins
March 13, 2007
by Kenneth Lang (NY Times) -- Although entirely without mass, particles of light have enough force to push an asteroid around and possibly to spin it so fast that it breaks apart...
NSF's Kerr is director of Arecibo Observatory
February 22, 2007
(Cornell Chronicle) -- Robert B. Kerr, a program director at the National Science Foundation (NSF), has been named director of Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico...
Scientists: Sunlight alters asteroids' spin
March 9, 2007
Wasington (Reuters) -- Sunlight can cause asteroids to spin more quickly, scientists said Wednesday, showing anew just how dynamic a place our solar system can be...
Scientists: Sunlight alters asteroids' spin
March 9, 2007
Wasington (Reuters) -- Sunlight can cause asteroids to spin more quickly, scientists said Wednesday, showing anew just how dynamic a place our solar system can be...
NSF's Kerr is director of Arecibo Observatory
February 22, 2007
(Cornell Chronicle) -- Robert B. Kerr, a program director at the National Science Foundation (NSF), has been named director of Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico...
Mars Rovers is Set to Enter Deep Crater
July 3, 2007
by K. Chang (NY Times) -- NASA's Mars rovers keep going, so NASA keeps finding new places for them to go...
Mars rover to make risky trip into crater
July 2, 2007
Los Angeles, CA (AP) -- NASA's aging but durable Mars rover Opportunity will make what could be a trip of no return into a deep impact crater as it tries to peer further back than ever into the Red Planet's geologic history...
Huge Dust Storm Beaks Out on Mars
June 28, 2007
by Dave Mosher (Space.com) -- A major dust storm has developed on the red planet, blocking sunlight and prompting Mars mission managers to keep a close eye on it, SPACE.com has learned....
Jim Houck and team celebrate fourth anniversary of Spitzer Space Telescope
August 24, 2007
By Thomas Oberst (Cornell Chronicle) -- The universe is full of dust, and it's not all on terrestrial bookshelves...
Cornell researchers mark Spitzer telescope's 4th year
August 27, 2007
By Topher Sanders (Ithaca Journal) -- Champagne bottles were popped and colleagues clapped Friday at Cornell University to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the launch of the Spitzer Space Telescope and the accomplishments of one of the project's principal researchers...
C.U. Team Discovers Ring Origin
August 24, 2007
By Seth Jacobson (Cornell Sun) -- The Cornell Cassini imaging team, in collaboration with other astronomers from around the world, had discovered the possible origin of the G ring around Saturn...
New images reveal threatening conditions that two rovers face in giant Martian dust storm
August 31, 2007
(Cornell Chronicle) -- The mighty Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity continue to persevere in brutal conditions, as revealed in images of the sun they are sending home...
Arecibo telescope's global users converge on nation's capital to plan threatened observatory's scientific future
September 14, 2007
Cornell Chronicle -- More than 70 astronomers gathered on Capital Hill this week, not to talk about the demise of a major national research facility, but to plan for its scientific future...
NASA rover begins drive into huge crater
September 13, 2007
Los Angeles (AP) -- Two months after surviving a giant dust storm, one of NASA's robotic rovers on Mars began a risky drive Tuesday into a crater blasted open by a meteor eons ago....
Congress gets bill to save Arecibo Observatory
October 9, 2007
Congressmen Luis Fortuno of Puerto Rico and Dana Rohrabacher of California have introduced legislation to the U. S. House of Representatives to ensure continued operation of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico...
Mars rover reaches first destination inside crater; experiments to begin
September 28, 2007
Ithaca Journal -- NASA's rover Opportunity has reached its first stop inside a huge Martian crater and was poised Thursday to carry out the first science experiments...
Mars Rover Finding Suggests Once Habitable Environment
December 12, 2007
by K. Chang (NY Times) -- The lame wheel on the NASA Mars rover Spirit has proved an invaluable science tool, turning up evidence of a once habitable environment, scientists said Monday...
A Hazy Future for a 'Jewel' of Space instruments
November 20, 2007
by K. Chang (NY Times) -- The next time an unexpected comet shows up in the inner solar system, Amy J. Lovell may not get time at the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico to observe it before it swings back out...
Carl Sagan and the Dalai Lama found deep connections in 1991-92 meetings, says Sagan's widow
October 9, 2007
by Melissa Rice (Cornell Chronicle) -- Religion and science do not have to be at odds. Science, said Ann Druyan, widow of Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan, can communicate with, learn from and even benefit from religion and vice cersa...
CU astronomer to testify regarding Arecibo telescope's ability
November 7, 2007
Ithaca Journal -- Cornell University astronomy professor Donald Campbell is headed to Washington Thursday to testify before a House subcommittee on the ability of the Cornell-managed Arecibo radio and radar telescope to track potentially dangerous asteroids....
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