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2.5 times the Earth's gravity.
Prolonged exposure to microgravity causes astronauts to lose bone and muscle, so they have to exercise for hours a day to stay healthy. NASA is working on a new strategy that could involve just laying down and going for a spin - in a short-radius centrifuge. 32 test subjects will spend 21 days in bed rest, simulating the effects of microgravity. Some will spend an hour a day in a centrifuge that simulates 2.5 times the Earth's gravity. It's hoped that this treatment can reverse the loss of bone and muscle mass.
Skywatchers are in for a treat tonight as the eta Aquarid meteors will be putting on a show. Observers in the southern hemisphere should be able to see 15-60 meteors an hour depending on the darkness of the skies. Those in the northern hemisphere won't be so lucky, seeing only about 10 meteors an hour. Look to the constellation of Aquarius, towards the East in the early morning of May 6, and you should see a more than a few meteors. Be patient, dress warmly, and bring a friend or two..
NASA salutes Space Day, observed this year on May 5, with a new dramatic image of the Sombrero galaxy. Space Day, held the first Thursday each May, is designed to inspire the next generation of explorers.
The galaxy, called Messier 104, is commonly known as the Sombrero Galaxy because in visible light it resembles a broad-brimmed Mexican hat called a sombrero. The new Sombrero picture combines a recent Infrared observation from NASA's Spitzer space telescope with a well-known visible light image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
The new Sombrero image is available at www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer.
The European Space Agency's Envisat satellite is building up the highest resolution map ever created of the entire Earth. Once complete, it will provide coverage of the every spot on Earth with three times the resolution of any previous survey. The final image set at a resolution of 300 metres will use up 20 terabytes of memory, and provide a resource for scientists, developers, and planners.
Geologists have built up a suite of tools and techniques that let them peer back in time to watch the formative stages of the Earth and how it's changed over time - by looking inside rocks. By analyzing trapped water and air in rocks, geologists are studying how our atmosphere changed 3.9 billion years ago, when the crust of the planet was just forming, and there wasn't any oxygen in the air.
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