SPACE: WHERE ARE WE GOING? : ASTRONAUT CLASS APPLICATION DEADLINE

Monday, January 23, 2012

APPLICATION FOR ASTRONAUT CLASS IS ENDING SOON

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:

"HOUSTON -- Individuals interested in becoming America's future space 
explorers have until Friday to submit their applications. The 
deadline to apply for NASA's next astronaut class is Jan. 27.

The agency typically receives as many as 3,500 applicants for each 
astronaut class. Thus far, NASA has received more than 3,000 
applications since November for this class. 

"We are excited about the response we have received, and we want to 
encourage anyone contemplating this dynamic and exciting career to 
apply," said Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office. "We are 
entering a new phase in human spaceflight with amazing opportunities 
to live and work in space. We want the best, the brightest and the 
most talented mix of professionals to join our team."

Those interested in applying for the astronaut corps can submit their 
applications through the federal government's USAJobs.gov website. 
Qualifications include a bachelor's degree in engineering, science or 
math and three years of relevant professional experience. Educators 
teaching kindergarten through 12th grade also are encouraged to 
apply.

NASA expects to announce the final selections in 2013 with initial 
training to begin that summer.

For more information about the astronaut application and selection 
process and to follow the latest news via NASA accounts on Twitter, 
Facebook and YouTube, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/flynasa"

STAR FLASH

What caused this outburst of V838 Mon? For reasons unknown, star V838 Mon's outer surface suddenly greatly expanded with the result that it became the brightest star in the entire Milky Way Galaxy in January 2002. Then, just as suddenly, it faded. A stellar flash like this had never been seen before -- supernovas and novas expel matter out into space. Although the V838 Mon flash appears to expel material into space, what is seen in the above image from the Hubble Space Telescope is actually an outwardly moving light echo of the bright flash. In a light echo, light from the flash is reflected by successively more distant rings in the complex array of ambient interstellar dust that already surrounded the star. V838 Mon lies about 20,000 light years away toward the constellation of the unicorn (Monoceros), while the light echo above spans about six light years in diameter. Image Credit: NASA, ESA

THE SPIDERWEB GALAXY

Looking like a spider's web swirled into a spiral, Galaxy IC 342 presents its delicate pattern of dust in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Seen in infrared light, faint starlight gives way to the glowing bright patterns of dust found throughout the galaxy's disk. At a distance of about 10 million light-years, IC 342 is relatively close by galactic standards, however our vantage point places it directly behind the disk of our own Milky Way. The intervening dust makes it difficult to see in visible light, but infrared light penetrates this veil easily. IC 342 belongs to the same group as its even more obscured galactic neighbor, Maffei 2. IC 342 is nearly face-on to our view, giving a clear, top-down view of the structure of its disk. It has a low surface brightness compared to other spirals, indicating a lower density of stars (seen here as a blue haze). Its dust structures show up much more vividly (red). Blue dots are stars closer to us, in our own Milky Way. New stars are forming in the disk at a healthy rate. The very center glows especially brightly in the infrared, highlighting an enormous burst of star formation occurring in this tiny region. To either side of the center, a small bar of dust and gas is helping to fuel this central star formation. Data from Spitzer's infrared array camera are shown in blue (3.6 microns), green (4.5 microns) and red (5.8 and 8.0 microns). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

JUMPING TO WARP SPEED

This cockpit view of a hypothetical spacecraft traveling at eight-tenths the speed of light shows the visual distortions that would be experienced at such high speeds. The star field is actually being wrapped toward the front of the craft in addition to being significantly blue-shifted. NASA Glenn leads the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project, NASA's primary effort to produce near-term, credible, and measurable progress toward the technology breakthroughs needed to revolutionize space travel and enable interstellar voyages. NASA Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio.

OBSERVATION FROM THE SPACE STATION