Saturn's New Moon

A new moon orbitting saturn has been discovered. The moon, quite small, only about a half kilometer across, orbits on saturn's sixth ring. This moon was discovered by the Cassini spacecraft's camera, and the spacecraft is expected to follow up a mission for closer picture taking in early 2010. It was not announced whether the moon has been named. To the right are some pictures of the moon as it is seen at some distance, which appears to be a little speck of light.

Nasa's Lost Toolkit Seen in the Sky

A few days ago an amateur astronomer saw something fly across the sky. Since he's got some background knowledge about celestial projectiles, he knew that this was not a shooting star, comet, or meteor. A UFO was just as unlikely. What it was, was Nasa's toolkit which astronomer Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper lost during a spacewalk to lubricatethe station's malfunctioning starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, or SARJ, which is designed to allow the solar panels on the left side of the station to rotate and track the sun. The cost of the bag is an estimated $100,000. Kevin Fetter of Brockville, Ontario, the amateur astronaut, saw it with his own home telescope. He followed the coordinates from the U.S. military, according the Toronto Star. Luckily he filmed the kit which is now considered space debris.

The video can be seen here or go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRW4ibfaZHI