The Week in Space

September 19-25, 2011

International Sunrise  An example of the increasingly international nature of space science, the Japanese Hinode (“Sunrise”) spacecraft was launched five years ago this week. Hinode is a solar observing spacecraft built with the cooperation of the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe. Part of NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Probes program, Hinode carries a suite of instruments to study the Sun in optical, extreme ultraviolet, and x-ray wavelengths. Scientists around the world are using data from Hinode to study the interaction between the Sun’s magnetic field and its corona, or high-energy atmosphere. In this Hinode image, a solar flare near the bottom sunspot offers clues about high-energy particle acceleration within the Sun. The Earth is slightly bigger than the black part of the large sunspot.

Image credit: NASA / JAXA

Weekly Calendar

September 19-25, 2011

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Monday 19

Tuesday 20

Last Quarter Moon 9:39 AM ET

1945: Wernher von Braun arrives in United States
1966: Surveyor 2 launched
1970: Luna 16 lands on Moon
1979: HEAO-3 launched
1988: Israel launches its first satellite

Wednesday 21

1866: H. G. Wells born
1874: Gustav Holst born
1974: Mariner 10 flies by Mercury for second time
2003: Galileo mission ends

Thursday 22

1990: Pioneer 10 reaches 50 AU from Sun
2006: Hinode spacecraft launched

Friday 23

Fall Equinox 5:05 AM ET
Mars 5° north of Moon

Saturday 24

1930: John Young born
1962: MOOSE astronaut rescue system proposed
1970: Luna 16 returns lunar soil samples
1999: IKONOS-1 launched

Sunday 25

Uranus at opposition

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