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Back in 2008, Hubble released a stunning image of a very bright star called Fomalhaut which spanned a huge disk of matter around it. The whole picture bared an uncanny resemblance to the eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings movies. Also at the time, scientists caught the glimpse of a tiny speck of light […]
The Apophis meteorite was named after an Egyptian demon of destruction, and for good reason – every now and then, it keeps buzzing our planet, a little to close for comfort. The 275 meter object will pass at about 15 million km away from the Earth – the Moon, for example is much closer, at […]
Another instrument was been successfully tested and used by the Curiosity rover: the dust sweeper. The mission team has successfully cleared a five-centimeter patch from a flat rock to give a clearer view of its texture and chemistry and to avoid additional sample contaminants. The tool is relatively simple, consisting of a motorized, wire-bristle brush […]
After almost ten years, the team of astronomers at NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have released a second video featuring the Vela pulsar – a neutron star that was formed when a massive star collapsed – complete with its fast swirling jet of matter. The Vela pulsar is about 1,000 light-years from Earth, about 12 miles in diameter, […]
Launched just last year, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) is almost fully tweaked and ready to supply mankind with valuable scientific insight. Recently, NASA showcased a few finds made with the NuSTAR including this stunning imagery of a far away galaxy that showcases two unusually bright black holes. NuSTAR is the first orbiting telescope with […]
An ambitious project is currently being considered by NASA consisting of capturing and dragging a small-scale asteroid into the moon’s orbit. This would allow for a valuable footing where asteroid research might become a lot more accessible, one of NASA’s main objectives for the upcoming decades. The proposition has been made by the Keck Institute for […]
In case you didn’t know, there was a big pretend manned mission to Mars going on in 2010 and 2011, organized by the Russian Academy of Science in conjunction with the European and Chinese space agencies. The experiment, Mars500, placed six people in a simulated spaceship en route to Mars for 520 days, in order […]
Astronomers working on the Kepler telescope believe that every 1 in 6 stars hosts at least an Earth-sized planet in a close orbit, raising the number of such planets in our galaxy to 17 billion. Finding planets Astrophysicists also announced 461 new planet candidates discovered by the telescope; this raises the number of planets discovered […]
While important scientific experiments, studies and research are conducted on a daily basis on-board the International Space Station, the astronauts stationed there sometimes have to unwind. Microgravity, radiation, upside down exercising, the constant racket from air pumps and fans …well they all take a toll. Sure the view helps, but sometimes people feel the need to […]
Alien planets located in binary star systems are at the risk of being ejected into interstellar space, an international team of astrophysicists concluded. The orbits of binary stars can potentially cause violent disruptions in their planetary systems, potentially ejecting the planets out of the system. All planets in such systems are subjected to gravitational shifts […]
There seems to be consisting evidence supplied both by past and recent rover missions – like the ever sturdy Opportunity, the eager newcomer Curiosity – and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter – a spacecraft currently hovering over Mars – that our neighboring red planet was once most likely covered by oceans and lakes and was layered by a thick […]
Astronomers have discovered five planets orbiting Tau Ceti, the closest single star that resembles our Sun in terms of temperature and luminosity. Finding our cosmic neighbors If the planets are indeed there and no error was involved in the study, then there’s a good chance one of them is the right distance from the star […]
In a novel and highly praised research, a team of astronomers have managed to estimate the mass of our host galaxy with unprecedented accuracy, findings suggesting it is in the order of 1,6 trillion suns. Astronomers estimate there are between 200 and 400 billion stars in the milky way. Estimating the mass of the Milky […]
I have to say I’m a little sad writing this – engineers working at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have received confirmation that the twin probes used to create the most accurate and detailed gravity map of the Moon have successfully crashed into the surface of our planet’s satellite. I say successfully because this is […]
A rather frustrating issue for astronomers and astrophysicists is space turbulence. Like in the air, when for instance an airplane meets unfavorable jets of wind, so too a spacecraft or satellite can be jolted a bit by the high energy of gusty winds in space. What’s aggravating however is that while in the first case […]
Space flight insomnia is quite a common issue, one for which space agencies don’t have a definite answer yet – but they’re working on it; one thing NASA plans to do is swap a fluorescent panel with a solid-state lighting module (SSLM) containing LEDs which produces a blue, whitish or red-coloured light depending on the […]
As I was telling you in a previous article, researchers from NASA have created a high-res gravity map for the Moon, using two twin man-made satellites – Ebb and Flow. The satellites have done their mission well, shedding light on many of the Moon’s features, but NASA isn’t planning a safe return for them: they […]
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… at about 2 billion light years away from Earth lies radio-galaxy Hercules A, also known as 3C 348. At a first glance it looks just like another massive galaxy out there – at least when looking in the visible spectrum. In the radio wavelengths however, […]
Scientists operating the Cassini spacecraft have observed what seems to be a miniature, extraterrestrial replica of the Nile river on the surface of Titan, one of Saturn’s many moons. An extraterrestrial hydrocarbon river The valley stretches more than 400 kilometers from it’s “spring” to a large sea; this is the first time such a system […]
The Mars Curiosity rover is preparing to use its drilling tool for the first time, however as preparations for the operation are being carefully made, NASA engineers are frightened that a potential malfunction of the boring drill might cause an entire electrical disaster. This might mean that the entire rover could get irrecoverably fried. The issue lies […]
Determining when stars first started to form through out the early Universe is a matter of great importance for astronomers and astrophysicists looking to understand how the cosmos evolved from its incipient point of origin. Recently, researchers at MIT who have been studying the most distant quasar observed so far found no discernible trace of heavy […]
Hope you guys had a fantastic weekend. If the weather was on your side, maybe you even had the chance to catch some flinging meteors from the Geminids. One such meteor caused a spectacular fireball over Texas on Saturday and luckily the whole dazzling display was caught on tape by a NASA camera. The object […]
After a busy November in which both the Taurid and Leonid meteor showers graced star gazers from the around the world, this weekend’s night sky is set to become ablaze with one of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year – the Geminids. Like every year when Earth travels past the constellation of Gemini, […]
After the thrilling success of SpaceX, which is currently the best option to ship equipment and supplies in and out of the International Space Station, another company tries to fill in some big shoes: Golden Spike announces plans to offer manned space flights to the surface of the moon by 2020. The private US company […]
Astronomers have come across something truly amazing. Observations have surprised a protostar – a star in the making – in its earliest stage ever witnessed. The stellar fetus has only accreted about 20 percent of the matter surrounding it and has yet to begin nuclear fusion. Theories regarding star formation are rather well established, however […]
Scientists working at NASA and NOAA have released an unprecedented new look at our planet at night. A global composite image, constructed using cloud-free night images from a new NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite shows the firefly-like glow of the human built establishments across the planet in greater detail than ever before. […]
The Ebb and Flow satellites, known together as the Grail mission are mapping the slight differences in gravity across the Moon. The results show that the Moon received a much bigger battering than previous expected. A troubled past Beneath its surface, the Moon’s interior bears clues from the very early solar system – unlike the […]
The North Star (or Pole Star) has been a guiding light for generations of navigators. But a new study conducted on it claims that the distance from the star to Earth has been grossly overestimated – by 30 percent, actually. Polaris is about 323 light-years away from our solar system, an international team explained, 30 […]
The much discussed soil analysis samples taken by Curiosity have finally been made public by NASA at the recent American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco. The findings are indeed exciting, as scientists have read the presence of organic compounds – critical prerequisites for the both the present and past existence of life. However, scientists have yet to be […]
The Voyager probes have provided scientists with invaluable data for the past four decades as they circled our solar system’s outmost planets, and most importantly as they prepare to leave our solar system. Though expected to exit the solar system by the end of this year, Voyager-1 has yet to achieve this. The reason for […]
Debunking conspiracy theories Oh boy, it’s this time of the year again: grab your supplies and head on to the bunker, cause the world is ending – again. The popular Mayan conspiracy theory that the world is ending on December 21 has made a surprisingly high number of adept, and NASA had to step in. […]
Passionately considered by its founders as “the biggest breakthrough in propulsion technology since the jet engine”, a still in development reusable engine, which would allow commercial aircraft to travel at incredible speeds both in the atmosphere and sub-orbital space, promises to revolutionize the way we fly. A trip from London to Sydney could be made in under […]
The fist planet from the sun is the unlikeliest place you’d expect to find water ice, but new tantalizing evidence beamed back by the Messenger spacecraft orbiting Mercury suggests just so. On the surface of Mercury, temperatures can reach boiling 752º Fahrenheit (400ºC), clearly water in any state can not exist. At its poles, however, things take a […]
Astronomers using ESO‘s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have discovered the most powerful quasar outflow discovered to date – five times more energetic than the previous record holder. Dubbed SDSS J1106+1939, the quasar outflow is at least equivalent to two million million times the power output of the Sun or 100 times higher than the total power […]
The short answer is, no. Not with the naked eye at least, but if you use a highly potent set of binoculars or a telescope, this is indeed possible. There are a number of accounts, some dating back from ancient times, that tell of how star gazing is possible during the daytime. Various old wives’ tales speak […]
Tonight’s the last chance, for some of you, to experience an eclipse in 2012, and moreover a special kind of eclipse for that matter – a penumbral lunar eclipse. The event will start at 4:14 a.m. PST and end at 8:51 a.m. PST, according to timeanddate.com , and should be visible in East Asia, Australia, Hawaii and Alaska, […]
Scientists at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have successfully tested out the prototype for a nuclear-reactor engine, meant to serve in the future as an “a simple, reliable space power system.” Although the experiment, dubbed Demonstration Using Flattop Fissions (DUFF), rendered only 24 watts of power, barely enough to power a common household light bulb, the system […]
Last week we were all filled with enthusiasm at sight of recent rumors that had Curiosity on the brink of a monumental find worthy of “history books”, no less. Since a soil sample was being analyzed at the moment, people began speculating that something organic in nature may have been found. I personally didn’t have […]
Seems like Saturn and its moons make up for a veritable gamer’s paradise after infrared imaging of the moon’s Tethys surface revealed a pattern that bears an uncanny resemblance to the 1980s video arcade emblem. Actually, this is the second time the Pacman feature has been spotted in the Saturn system, which suggests Saturn and its […]
Of the hundreds of exoplanets discovered thus far, many of them are classed as super-Earths, planets with a mass up to ten times that of our planet. Due to their inherent different structure however, their cores would be far from being similar to that of the Earth, leading many scientist to claim that they might […]
After no less than 48 hours of negotiating in Naples, Italy, the 20 European nations that support the European Space Agency (ESA) have finally agreed on a budget for the agency and a set of priorities which, while not delightful, doesn’t disappoint, despite the tight economic situation Europe is in at the moment. ESA’s activities, […]
The Curiosity rover is spending Thanksgiving on Mars, but its plans don’t involve eating turkey or watching football. The rover will spend the day scouting for possible sites to begin its first time drilling. “Thanksgiving isn’t so different on Mars. I had a long drive & plan to take photos. No pie, though,” the Curiosity […]
NASA officials are flooded with media requests from journalists recently looking to find out exactly what all the fuss is all about. Oh, haven’t you heard? Well I’m getting ahead of myself. Well, apparently scientists onboard the Curiosity rover mission have come across data that’s right “for the history books.” A monumental find, nothing less, […]
Astronomers have for the first time confirmed a bridge of hot gas with a temperature of about 80 million degrees Kelvin connecting a pair of galaxy clusters 10 million light-years apart. The discovery is of particular importance since it might help shed light on the missing baryonic matter that has been puzzling scientists for decades. The […]
NASA scientists have announced they have discovered the farthest object discovered so far in the Universe, a 13.3 billion old galaxy or a mere 420 million years after the Big Bang. That’s not to say that its 13.3 billion light years away from Earth, since the Universe has expanded greatly since then and the actual […]
In a new monumental find, Curiosity data readings suggest that radiation levels on the surface of Mars are very much similar to those in sub-orbital Earth. This means that astronauts or marsonauts can indeed set foot on the red planet, albeit for a limited amount of time. The findings came after the Curiosity rover, still […]
Like in a scene from a Sci-fi novel, about 100 light years away, somewhere in the constellation Doradus, a planet is travelling around the galaxy by itself, without orbiting a parent star. This “rogue planet“, has a temperature of about 400C and a mass between 4 to 7 times that of Jupiter – close to […]
Scientists with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-II) have used a novel technique to peer through the nature of dark energy as far as ten billion years ago and measure the three-dimensional structure of the distant Universe. Tracing this 3-D map scientists were able to assess the influence of dark energy over time, which might help unravel […]
Right after midnight, the Taurid meteor shower are expected to peak, providing a delightful light show. The North Taurid meteors derive their name from the constellation Taurus the Bull. If you trace the paths of the Taurid meteors backward, you’ll see they appear to radiate from near the famous Pleiades star cluster of this constellation on […]
Ever increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere are not only hazardous to life on the planet’s surface, but also to human operations in space. A new study has found that an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere upper levels could push made-made objects orbiting the planet further away from their trajectories, resulting in a […]
