Scientists develop new tool to visualize past and future lunar eclipses

September 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Chinese experts have announced that the country's space scientists had completed the world's highest-resolution three-dimensional map of the moon. The map, covering the whole surface of the moon, was made based on image data obtained by a highly technical stereo camera carried by the Chang'e-1, China's first lunar probe.

September 28th, 2009 BEIJING - Chinese experts Monday announced that the country's space scientists have completed the world's highest-resolution three-dimensional map of the moon. The map, covering the whole surface of the moon, is based on image data obtained by a charge-coupled device (CCD) stereo camera carried by Chang'e-1, China's first lunar probe vehicle, launched Oct 2007.

September 26th, 2009 LONDON - With an instrument aboard India's Chandryaan discovering water molecules on the Moon, scientists are now all the more confident of harvesting water from the lunar surface in the future, which could help sustain lunar astronauts and even propel missions to Mars. Three spacecraft - India's Chandrayaan-1 and NASA's Cassini and Deep Impact probes - have detected the absorption of infrared light at a wavelength that indicates the presence of either water or hydroxyl, a molecule made up of a hydrogen and an oxygen atom.

September 24th, 2009 LONDON - The discovery of water on the moon by Indian maiden lunar craft Chandrayaan-1 is just the breakthrough international space scientists were waiting for in order to kick start the moon exploration programme again, the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) said Thursday. This is a massively impressive accomplishment, RAS Secretary Martin Barstow, a leading British astronomer, told IANS after American scientists made the stunning announcement that the Indian mooncraft had sent evidence of water on the lunar surface.

September 24th, 2009 CHENNAI - India's first lunar mission is perhaps the only space project that has raised many eyebrows. But the sensational finding of water on moon has vindicated Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials' faith in the Rs.386-crore mission.

September 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have developed a new computing tool that could help scientists predict how plants will react to different environmental conditions in order to create better crops, such as tastier and longer lasting tomatoes. The tool will form part of a new 1.7 million pounds Syngenta University Centre at Imperial College London, which will see researchers from Imperial and Syngenta working together to improve agricultural products.

September 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The element hydrogen - a key ingredient in water - is more widespread than expected at the moon's south pole, scientists said Thursday. NASA scientists announced the first data sent back to Earth from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a satellite that will spend the next year making the most detailed maps yet of the moon's surface to prepare for man's eventual return.

July 21st, 2009 MUMBAI - Did you know animals and birds often prepare for sleep or behave confusedly during total solar eclipse? Well, here are some other little known facts about solar eclipse. - The longest recorded duration for a total solar eclipse is 7.5 minutes.

July 17th, 2009 BANGALORE - A malfunctioning star sensor of India's first lunar mission spacecraft Chandrayaan-I was set right by space scientists to ensure correct orientation, an official said here friday. "One of the star sensors, which gives the orientation of the spacecraft, was malfunctioning but our scientists have overcome this problem with innovative techniques of using antenna pointing mechanism and gyroscope on board the spacecraft to get the orientation information," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) direcvtor S.

July 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Commencing Tuesday, three eclipses - a lunar eclipse, a solar eclipse and another lunar - will take over the skies, a phenomenon which although experts say is not rare, will nevertheless be nature's grand spectacle. On July 7, a penumbral lunar eclipse will occur as the moon rises over Australia and sets in western north and south America in the early pre-dawn hours, said C.B.

June 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of scientists has found the first conclusive signature for the presence of uranium on the lunar surface, an element not seen in previous Moon-mapping efforts. The uranium signatures were detected by Robert C.

June 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has successfully entered orbit around the moon after a four and a half day journey from the Earth. Engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, confirmed the spacecraft's lunar orbit insertion at 6:27 a.m.

June 19th, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA scientists have created a new lunar topography map with the highest resolution of the Moon's rugged south polar region, which provides new information on some of out natural satellite's darkest craters. The map was created by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, who collected the data using the Deep Space Network's Goldstone Solar System Radar located in California's Mojave Desert.

June 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, scientists have found that electrostatic forces that make lunar dust stick to surfaces vary with solar elevation angle. The research was conducted by Brian O'Brien and colleagues from Brian J.

May 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - US space agency NASA has said it is ready to send two missions to the moon in a launch next month that will set the course for the resumption of human lunar exploration. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) are to launch aboard a single rocket June 17.