NASA Plans Largest Moon Rocket in History

According to Kathy Laurini of NASA, Ares V will not only be "the biggest rocket that's ever been built," but will hopefully enable enormous Hubble-dwarfing telescopes to be sent into orbit, as well as potential missions to the outer reaches of our solar system.

Ares V will stand at a proud 381 feet, with capabilities of carrying around 180 metric tons into orbit. To get an interesting perspective, the nosecone alone will have room for 8 schoolbuses, and it will have the power to carry 17 of them into orbit. Tests will most likely begin in 2018, with a possible moon mission in 2020.

The science and astronomy communities are very excited about what may result from larger than ever telescopes being launched into space. Astronomer Harley Thronson says it best. "It could revolutionize astronomy." Ares V may allow telescopes 3 times larger than Hubble to be used, improving sharpness of images dramatically and detecting objects 11 times fainter than Hubble can currently observe. A telescope twice that size could even be possible given a fold up mirror for the launch.

Besides launching giant telescopes, other missions that will benefit from Ares V include sending probes as far as the sun, Neptune, and the moon Titan. Earth-like planets around stars too distant to currently see might finally be visible.
Protostar and black hole research could drastically improve.

"I can't wait," says Thronson. He's not the only one.

Links of interest:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090121/sc_space/newmoonrocketcouldlaunchgiantspacetelescopes

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090121-aresv-space-telescopes.html

New Imaging Advance Might Help Heart Attack Victims

Doctors and many others have known that heart attacks cause bleeding inside the muscle's of the heart, and now have a way of determining the extent of damage caused in individual cases.

MRI technology has given us the first images of hearts bleeding following attacks, and has allowed doctors to determine that the amount of bleeding most likely correlates to the amount of damage. The images were possible thanks to the magnetic iron content in blood.

When a heart attack happens, blood and oxygen flow to the heart is extremely or completely limited due to blocked arteries, but excess bleeding into the muscle can occur after the arteries are clear again.

Scientists have not done much study on the significance of after-attack bleeding until the MRI images were released. Hopefully the discovery will be used in the future to determine severity of individual heart attacks, more accurate survival rates, and will allow doctors to provide better after care tailored to each case.

Links of interest:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090120/sc_livescience/firstimageofableedingheart

http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20090121/hl_hsn/mriscansrevealpostheartattackbleeding

http://www.americanheart.org

Strange Discovery Near Black Hole

Based on everything you know about black holes and the conditions surrounding them, would you think that it would be possible for new stars to form nearby such powerful forces? Scientists thought it was impossible, but have just discovered proof that it does happen when they caught infant stars in the act, only a few light years from the black hole at the center of our own galaxy.

Theories are still forming, but it's thought that maybe the high density of our galaxy's center helps the new stars and their "parent" clouds avoid the destructive pull of the black hole.

Astronomers are hopeful that by understanding the forces of our own strange galaxy, they'll be better prepared to understand the even stranger forces of foreign galaxies in the universe.

For the official article and some cool pictures, follow this link to Space.com
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090105-aas-stars-galactic-center.html