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July 9, 2018 - Slowpoke Pulsar

Slowpoke Pulsar  Combined data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton helped discover a young pulsar in the remains of a supernova in a nearby galaxy. This is the first time a pulsar—a spinning, ultra-dense star—has been found in a supernova remnant in the Small Magellanic Cloud. In this composite image, X-ray data are colored blue and optical data from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile are colored red and green. The pulsar, SXP 1062, is the bright white source in the bottom of the image, in the middle of the diffuse blue emission inside a red shell of a supernova remnant. SXP 1062 spins slowly for a pulsar, only once every 18 minutes. Spectacular formations of gas and dust of a nearby star-forming region appear on the top of the image.

Image credit: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Potsdam/L. Oskinova et al.

Weekly Calendar

July 9 - 15, 2018

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

 

Moon phase Monday 9

Venus 1.1° north of Regulus

1945: White Sands Missile Range opens
1979: Voyager 2 flies past Jupiter

Moon phase Tuesday 10

Aldebaran 1.1° south of Moon

1962: Telstar 1 launched, allowing transatlantic transmission of TV signals
1992: Giotto spacecraft flies past comet Grigg-Skjellerup

Moon phase Wednesday 11

Jupiter appears stationary

1962: NASA selects lunar orbit rendezvous method for lunar landings
1969: X-24A lifting body rolled out for first time
1979: Skylab reenters atmosphere

Moon phase Thursday 12

Mercury at greatest elong (26° E)
Pluto at opposition
New Moon 10:48 PM ET

1966: First glide test of M2-F2 lifting body
2000: Zvezda Service Module launched to ISS
2001: STS-104 Atlantis launched

Moon phase Friday 13

Moon at perigee

1995: STS-70 Discovery launched

Moon phase Saturday 14

Mercury 2° south of Moon

1965: Mariner 4 completes first successful flyby of Mars
1967: Surveyor 4 launched
2015: New Horizons makes first ever Pluto flyby

Moon phase Sunday 15

1943: Jocelyn Bell Burnell born
1975:
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (Apollo 18) launched, last Apollo mission
2004: Aura satellite launched
2009: STS-127 Endeavour launched
2012: Soyuz TMA-05M launched carrying ISS Expedition 32/33 crew

Suggestions for new history dates or better links? Corrections for errors on this page? Please e-mail me.