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This Monday (June 27), an asteroid the size of a bus just buzzed our planet after a flyby which brought it closer to Earth than most satellites. Dubbed asteroid 2011 MD, it was first spotted by MIT’s Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) program just last week on June 22, but there never was any […]
Launched in 1997 on a mission to study Saturn and its satellites, the Casisni spacecraft reached the system in 2004. Since then it has provided numerous invaluable scientific findings regarding the second largest planet in our solar system, and other important scientific findings alike. One such finding was detailed in a recently published study, which […]
We previously reported about an incredible gamma ray burst triggered by a black hole, so powerful that nothing like this was observed before, or even dimmed possible. A recently published paper in the journal Science sheds more light on the subject. A typical gamma ray burst commonly occurs when massive stars explode due to collisions […]
Last year, Iran successfully launched a rocket that carried a mouse, a turtle and worms into space. This summer, the Iranian Space Organization is planning on taking its space program one step further by sending a monkey into orbit this summer. This was revealed this Thursday by Iran’s top space official at a press conference […]
The brilliant image from above was captured by Spitzer space telescope and depicts a ring shaped region formed by hot gas and glowing dust. Dubbed RCW 120, the nebula lies about 4,300 light-years away from Earth, and is located in the constellation Scorpius, just above the plane of the galaxy. The wavelength emited by the […]
Launched in in the late 1970’s in a mission to study the planets Jupiter, Saturn and their respective satellites, the two Voyager probes have been most certainly put to a more pioneering goal and sent into outer space after having completed their last missions. Currently, Voyager-1 is the most distant human-made object from Earth and […]
Last year, in October, China launched its second moon orbiter, as part of the country’s rapidly growing reformed space program . The Chang’e 2, as it was dubbed, has seen a great deal of improvements compared to its predecessor, including a more powerful rocket that delivered the probe to the moon more quickly. Today, after […]
In a relevant display of NASA’s fireball-observing network capabilities, a set of automatic robotic cameras caught a man-sized meteor as it blasted though Earth’s atmosphere causing a fireball spectacle. The event took place on May 20, when the 6-foot-wide (1.8-meter) space rock entered the atmosphere at about 66 miles (106 kilometers) above the city of […]
Project Icarus is an extremely fascinating initiative which aims to bring humanity closer to the stars. The latest theory proposed by scientists there is related to the development of system which could allow the harvesting of helium-3 gas from Uranus to fuel a possible interstellar mission. Uranus, then, seems to be a very resourceful planet, […]
Captioned above is the very last piece of transmitted imagery by the now defunct Mars Spirit Rover (rest its soul; HA!), before the harsh Martian winter forced it into submission; and it’s quite the vista as well – the Columbia Hills. This was transmitted during Spirit’s 2,175th sol on Mars, when it got stuck in […]
Two years ago, NASA’s LCROSS probe was looking for signs of water when it smashed into Cabeus crater at the moon’s south pole. It turned out to be one of those incredible fail moments, since not only did researchers found there was water from the data transmitted back, but that the surface was actually wetter […]
While a 3D map of the Universe using the light from 14,000 quasars has been previously released to the public by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which is considered the largest map of the known Universe, another version has been recently unveiled which scientists claim to be the most complete map. Called the 2MASS Redshift […]
This Wednesday morning, Andrew Feustel and Mike Fincke floated out on a spectacular 6 hour long spacewalk outside the International Space Station – the third spacewalk since Endeavour launched into space for its last mission before retirement. “It’s great to be back outside. It’s the most beautiful planet in the universe,” said Fincke as he […]
NASA announced that it will launch an unmaned ship to a nearby asteroid, in an attempt to figure out more about both the asteroid itself, and how life started on our planet. The mission, named Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer – or, as always, with an easier more manageable name, Osiris-Rex was chosen to take place […]
There are still many things we still don’t understand about the electron; only recently, a team from the Imperial College London concluded that the electron is actually incredibly round, thus making the most accurate estimate of its shape. The experiments, which spanned more than a decade, suggest that the electron differs from being round by […]
A recent NASA operation (who knew they do this stuff ?) busted a woman who was trying to sell what she claimed was a piece of the Moon for the meager price of 1.7 million dollars. This came as a result of months of targeting her, after rumour spread that she was selling such […]
Spacewalking isn’t all fun and games – things can go bad at any moment, and in the latest spacewalk, this is exactly what happened: Mike Fincke, one of NASA’s most experienced spacemen, reported that while they were lubricating a joint in the life-sustaining solar power system of the International Space Station, they lost one bolt […]
Finding new planets is interesting an remarkable, but finding a whole new class of planets – that’s definitely something extraordinary. University of Notre Dame astronomer David Bennett described just that – a class of planets without stars or a solar system, just wandering around the galaxy all by themselves. The most likely theory is that […]
The stage seems finally set for the Endeavour launch that was delayed so long, and aside from the usual crew, the space shuttle will carry with it an unexpected passenger: a baby squid. All for the sake of science No, it’s not because astronauts have changed their menu, and it’s not just for the laughs […]
Discovered deep in the farthest reaches of our solar system, Haumea is a tiny dwarf planet which has been fascinating scientists for years now since its discovery in 2004, not only because of its peculiar rugby-ball shaped form, but also because of its surface structure. According to the European Southern Observatory, 75 per cent of […]
Since 1995, over 500 planets that don’t orbit our Sun have been discovered, with the numbers increasing more and more in the past years. But only recently did astrophysicists observe that in some of these cases, the star seems to be spinning in one direction, and the planet orbits it in the totally opposite direction […]
New analysis from NASA’s Galeileo spacecraft shows that there is an ocean of molten (or partially molten magma) beneath the surface of Io, one of Jupiter’s moons. The finding was published today, May 13, in Science magazine. Volcanic Io Io is the most active volcanic object in our solar system, and this confirmation of a […]
How’s your Mandarin? If it’s as rusty as mine, we’d do best and brush up on it since it seems we’re heading towards an age of Chinese domination. Capitalizing on its tremendous financial growth, China has some incredible programs which officials hope to catapult the people’s republic in front of the new space age. A […]
If you think that the recent outbreak of tornadoes are bad, boy are you in for a shocker. An international team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics has found that enormous storms of molecular gas are sweeping entire galaxies, destroying everything they come across until they wipe the galaxy clean. Galactic […]
Astronomers from the the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland declared that a recently discovered asteroid has been following our planet in the past 250.000 years, and it may be in fact closely related to Earth. Two months after it was discovered with the WISE survey satellite, the asteroid caught the attention of two scientists: Apostolos […]
Titan is one strange place; it’s a satellite, but it’s bigger than Mercury, and it’s also the only satellite known to have a dense atmosphere. Furthermore, aside from Earth, it’s the only place where evidence of liquid has been found on the surface. Now, after studying some abnormalities in the rotation of Saturn’s largest moon, […]
This Saturday the United States Military launched a new geosynchronous satellite into orbit as part of its Space-Based Infrared System project, which is intended to enhance the country’s ability to detect, track and counter enemy missiles. Part of an effort to enhance the country’s security, the satellite was launched into orbit by an unmanned Atlas […]
If you don’t remember Gliese, it is the long talked about earth like planet, located in the Goldilocks area. Last time we checked, there was a chance that this could be the first habitable planet encountered so far, at least according to research conducted by a team from the University of Paris. A super earth […]
An intriguing hypothesis was brought up by Professor Bernard Carr from Queen Mary University in London and Professor Alan Coley from Canada’s Dalhousie University, who claims that some of the black holes we see today may actually be remnants of a past universe that collapsed into itself after a Big Crunch. I don’t know about […]
It’s still unclear if it was all about a stellar meal or if it was simply gas, or some other relatively unimportant phenomena that awoken the sleeping giant, but for the first time, astronomers have observed the awakening of a sleeping supermassive black hole. The sleeping giant It appeared to be a day just like […]
Endeavour seems to be extremely reluctant to retire. NASA officials announced they found a minor electrical problem that will delay the launch until at least May 16. A minor glitch The nagging electrical problem has brought worries of a bigger malfunction, thus forcing the people involved in the project to rethink and reschedule the launch […]
The Halley comet, perhaps the most infamous of them all, will light the night sky in a dazzling display which will be visible for everybody, if the weather permits. The light in the sky The annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower will peak early tomorrow morning and will probably thrill nightgazers, if we will be lucky […]
Like i reckoned in some of my past articles, space tourism is getting more and more popular each year, as more aeronautical companies begin to see the high potential of catering for millionaires’ orbital ambitions. One of the most sought after and ambitious space taxi projects is the highly publicized civilian lunar trip, in the […]
Unveiled this past weekend, astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey have created a 3D map of the Universe using the light from 14,000 quasars, some of the brightest bodies in the universe, to illuminate gas clouds in regions of space some 11 billion light years away. From the study‘s abstract: These features arise as […]
Space shuttle Endeavour was set to launch a few days ago, and everything seemd to go according to plan; however, technical difficulties are forcing the NASA engineers to delay the launch at least until the end of the week (probably more), which is bad news for everybody who had planned a visit to the launch […]
The planet in case is 55 Cancri e, and it’s 60 per cent larger in diameter than Earth but eight times as massive, which makes it twice as dense as Earth, and almost as dense as lead. Earth like rocky planets Generally speaking, planets come in two flavours: rocky earth-like planets, or gas giants […]
As I was telling you a few days ago, after Discovery, Endeavour is also preparing for its last trip, led by space veteran Mark Kelly. The weird thing is that Endeavour, which will be retired after today’s last mission, is at the moment also NASA‘s youngest orbiter, which kind of speaks a lot about NASA’s […]
Only a decade since China launched its first human being into orbit, and three years since the first space walk performed by China launched astronaut, Beijing has now unveiled to the world its plans of developing its version of the International Space Station by 2020. China’s space station will be relatively small at size, weighing […]
In what can be considered a highly ambitious project, but quite highly unlikely to get passed bill, Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., has introduced H.R. 1641, the “Reasserting American Leadership in Space Act” or the “REAL Space Act” or simply the “Back to the Moon Bill,” as its named in the vernacular. The key brief of […]
Carl Sagan must be twisting and twitching in his grave. SETI, the project which became synonymus with searching for extraterrestrial intelligent life, was unable to gether the $5 million it needed – which is just 0.0074% (!) of the United States military budget; talk about priorities… Anyway, SETI has shut down its telescope array, which […]
Endeavour will pretty soon begin its retirement, just like fellow space orbiter Discovery did just a while ago. However, Endeavour’s last flight will almost certainly be captain Mark Kelly’s last one too. Kelly, 47, showed his flying skills with twin brother Scott, and signed up for the Navy, then became pilots, and finally, became astronauts; […]
As the last two shuttle flights will mark the end of a thirty year long program, NASA is looking for alternatives to transport astronauts, cargo and equipment to and from outer space. The best alternative seems to come from the private sectore, and with this in mind NASA has awarded a total $269 million dived […]
In a move that should make amateur and professional astronomersecstatic, NASA has released a trove of data from its sky-mapping mission, allowing scientists or pretty much anybody with an internet connection to access information and pictures about millions of stars, galaxies, asteroids, etc. Much of the information here is just an update for previous data, […]
A few weeks ago I told you a bit about “First Orbit”, a marvelous documentary by Christopher Riley which practically visually recreates the same path Yuri Gagarin undertook exactly 50 years ago when he became the first man ever to go into space. Every six weeks, the International Space Station orbit matches the same arc […]
Everybody was eager to see where the four space ships who will soon be retired will go; the idea was to chose a museum which somehow has connections with the space program, and where a lot of people can see it. Well, what city has more connections with the space program than Houston ? It […]
Today, we celebrate 50 years since Yuri Gagarin went into outer space, thus becoming the first human being to do this. But there’s more to him than just that. Here’s a list of some of the things that make him awesome: 1. He was the first man to go into outer space, of course. 2. […]
On the 28th of March the Swift telescope observed a peculiar gamma-ray blast in a distant corner of the visible universe, some 3.8 billion light years away, bewildered astronomers around the world. The powerful blast is theoretically caused, scientists say, by a black hole located in the center of the distant galaxy whose gravity tore […]
Exactly 30 years ago, the first orbital space shuttle launch took place, marking the start of a slew of successful missions, with 135 successful launches, which provided important insights in space exploration, offered satellite deployment, space lab work and indispensable International Space Station service. The shuttle program however will be permanently retired soon, with only […]
Yuri Gagarin, a soviet astronaut was the first man to ever go into outer space, exactly 50 years ago, when his shuttle, Vostok, went into outer space and completed an orbit around the planet. Interestingly enough, Vostok 1 marked his only spaceflight, but what a spaceflight it was ! Many milestones were reached since spatial […]
Tuesday will mark the 50th year since human space flight, since the day Yuri Gagarin left Russia and became the first man to go in outer space, as well as the 30th anniversary of the launch of the shuttle Discovery, the legendary but already retired space shuttle. This is the day when NASA will announce […]
