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Thursday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting on space related activities from around the world. 2011 left a record bill for recovery from an assortment of global natural disasters. Russia targets Jan. 15 for the re-entry of a failed Mars probe locked in Earth orbit since its launching in early November. January marks the eighth anniversary on Mars for NASA’s Opportunity rover and its now sidelined twin, Spirit. Astronomers announced the discovery of four new alien worlds, the first of 2012. Physicist Stephen Hawking defies a debilitating illness to mark his 70th birthday this weekend. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station look to the February arrival of the first U. S. commercial re-supply craft. Scientists establish a weightless realm for fruit flies with magnetism. Stunning views of a lunar crater from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. A new IMAX feature promises to spread the word about the growing hazard posed by space debris.
1. From USA Today: 2011 was a costly year for national disasters. The bill from Earthquakes, droughts, wildfires, storms and floods reached a global record $380 billion, according to Munich Re, a re-insurance firm. More than half the disaster cost was attributed to the earthquake and tsunami damage to Japan in March. However, none of the Earth’s major continents was spared.
http://usat.ly/ymPLud
2. From Itar-Tass of Russia: Russian experts target Jan. 15 for the demise of the Mars Phobos Grunt mission, a spacecraft launched in early November. Locked in Earth orbit, the spacecraft was unable to attempt flight to the Martian moon Phobos to collect samples of the soil and return them to Earth.
http://bit.ly/zL0ZsW
3. From Space.com: NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers are marking their 8th year on Mars this month. Though Spirit was sidelined in March 2010, the two robotic geologists far exceeded their 90-day lifetimes to develop evidence for a warmer, wetter Martian past. The findings suggest the now cold, dry planet was once suitable for some form of life.
http://bit.ly/wjje3q
4. From Discovery.com: Scientists add four alien planets, each in the Jupiter class, to the growing list of known worlds beyond the solar system. The first exo-planet finds of 2012 were made using ground-based observatories under the supervision of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
http://bit.ly/xFnRW3
5. From the Associated Press via The Washington Post: Famed physicist Stephen Hawking, known for unraveling some of the universe’s most puzzling mysteries, will turn 70 on Sunday. Hawking was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease when he was 21. The disease is considered fatal for most.
http://wapo.st/A1TnM9
6. From Florida Today: Astronauts aboard the International Space Station eagerly await the February launch of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which is poised to become the first U. S. commercial re-supply craft to reach the orbiting science laboratory.
http://on.flatoday.com/xAoPIb
7. From Discovery.com: Scientists use magnetism to create weightless fields for fruit flies. The techniques may offer a less expensive alternative to spaceflight to conduct experiments on the effects of weightlessness.
http://bit.ly/zQHs1i
8. From Space.com: NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Observer snaps pictures of the 25 mile wide moon crater Aristarchus. The depression was formed recently from an impact by a comet or asteroid, scientists believe.
http://bit.ly/yxaedp
9. From the Coalition for Space Exploration: The new IMAX film, Space Junk 3D, takes the viewer on a voyage of challenges: How best to face the increasingly crowded Earth orbits that are littered with speeding and dangerous debris.
http://bit.ly/wgm3iq
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