Category Archives: Solar System

Gamma-ray burst

Posted on April 5, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

Gamma-ray bursts were discovered in the late 1960s by the U.S. Vela nuclear test detection satellites. The Velas were built to detect gamma radiation pulses emitted by nuclear weapon tests in space. The United States suspected that the USSR might … Continue reading →

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Russian spaceship docks despite engine failure

Posted on March 29, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

The Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft approaches the International Space Station for docking under the manual control of Commander Gennady Padalka after a sensor monitoring the engines apparently malfunctioned in this image from NASA TV March 28, 2009. Astronauts on Russia’s Soyuz … Continue reading →

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Kuiper Belt

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

In 1950, Dutch astronomer Jan Oort hypothesized that comets came from a vast shell of icy bodies about 50,000 times farther from the Sun than Earth is. A year later astronomer Gerard Kuiper suggested that some comet-like debris from the … Continue reading →

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NASA Launches Telescope to Search for Earth Like Planents

Posted on March 7, 2009 by Rashid Faridi

NASA launched a pioneering telescope  to survey a corner of the galaxy in hopes of learning if other planets like Earth exist.The telescope, named Kepler, rode into a starry night sky aboard an unmanned Delta rocket that blasted off  from … Continue reading →

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