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Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Shuttle Reentry Streak from Orbit
NASA ^ | August 01, 2011 | (see photo credit)

Posted on 08/01/2011 3:53:31 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

Explanation: What's that strange bright streak? It is the last image ever of a space shuttle from orbit. A week and a half ago, after decoupling from the International Space Station, the Space Shuttle Atlantis fired its rockets for the last time, lost its orbital speed, and plummeted back to Earth. Within the next hour, however, the sophisticated space machine dropped its landing gear and did what used to be unprecedented -- landed like an airplane on a runway. Although the future of human space flight from the USA will enter a temporary lull, many robotic spacecraft continue to explore our Solar System and peer into our universe, including Cassini, Chandra, Chang'e 2, Dawn, Fermi, Hubble, Kepler, LRO, Mars Express, Messenger, MRO, New Horizons, Opportunity, Planck, Rosetta, SDO, SOHO, Spitzer, STEREO, Swift, Venus-Express, and WISE.

August 01, 2011


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; astronomy; science
[Credit: ISS Expedition 28 Crew, STS-135 Mission, NASA]

1 posted on 08/01/2011 3:53:38 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: brytlea; cripplecreek; decimon; bigheadfred; KoRn; Grammy; married21; steelyourfaith; Mmogamer; ...

2 posted on 08/01/2011 3:54:42 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Yes, as a matter of fact, it is that time again -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SunkenCiv

Flight Deck

http://360vr.com/2011/06/22-discovery-flight-deck-opf_6236/index.html


3 posted on 08/01/2011 4:00:08 PM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: SunkenCiv

I don’t understand how this picture was taken/put together. The shuttle must have taken several minutes at least to make the track in the photo, but the ISS, from where the photo/s were taken, had to have moved hundreds if not thousands of miles. Yet the earth under the shuttle’s track is sharp and clear, not blurred.

Is the picture the product of extensive manipulation/combination of many pictures taken from a moving vantage point?


4 posted on 08/01/2011 4:04:49 PM PDT by poindexter
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To: SunkenCiv

pinging me, so I can see it, when I get home


5 posted on 08/01/2011 4:32:01 PM PDT by razorback-bert (Some days it's not worth chewing through the straps.)
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To: poindexter

I think the picture is a single image with a short exposure time. The shuttle entered into view from the bottom leaving behind a lingering trail of smoke in the upper atmosphere. The shuttle itself is at the tip of the bright spot near the top of the image.


6 posted on 08/01/2011 4:35:15 PM PDT by Kirkwood (Zombie Hunter)
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To: SunkenCiv

Since the space shuttle does not have an ablative heat shield, I am not sure what leaves the smoke trail, unless it is an artifact of the ionization of the atmosphere around the shuttle as it passes through at high speed.


7 posted on 08/01/2011 4:54:57 PM PDT by magellan
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To: magellan

Just did a Google search. The Shuttle does leave a greenish trail of ionized atmosphere behind it. The trail persists for several minutes.


8 posted on 08/01/2011 4:58:33 PM PDT by magellan
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To: SunkenCiv

9 posted on 08/01/2011 5:01:47 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (Obama, eat your GOPeas.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Beautiful!


10 posted on 08/01/2011 5:28:50 PM PDT by left that other site (Psalm 122:6)
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To: SunkenCiv

Just thought you might find these interesting.

New photos of Vesta

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/feature_stories/spacecraft_begins_science_orbits.asp

Very interesting black crater in this one.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/multimedia/pia14317.html


11 posted on 08/01/2011 6:47:10 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
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To: cripplecreek

Thanks!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2757373/posts


12 posted on 08/02/2011 3:06:12 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Yes, as a matter of fact, it is that time again -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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