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Summer is set to kick-off with a series of beautiful Venus related events, from an astronomical point of view at least. This week, the planet will appear at its brightest in the night sky, as it nears almost ideal observational circumstances – close distance to Earth and sun phase. Also, at the beginning of June, […]
Astronomers classify galaxies into three basic types: elliptical (flat, elongated shape), spiral (most easily recognizable and common – described by their disk shape and outward spiraling arms) and irregular (usually described by a irregular shape, typical to very young galaxies). One of the most fascinating galaxies known to man is the Sombrero galaxy, shaped like a hat […]
There’s gold in the asteroids – and there’s also platinum, cobalt, iridium, and many, many other precious or industrial metals; for this reason, they have been irresistible for a long time not only for scientists, but also for engineers, futurists, and more recently – tech billionaires. Who wants to mine the solar system’s asteroids People […]
In a knitted spacesuit and a tight fitting helmet, Camilla, the rubber chicken bravely flew towards the edge of the atmosphere as the Sun unleashed the most intense radiation storm since 2003. The mascot of Nasa’s Solar Dynamics Observatory lofted towards the stratosphere on a helium balloon that also carried a thermometer, two GPS trackers […]
A moonless night might offer the best setting for the best view of the upcoming Lyrid meteor shower in years this very weekend. The best time to catch it on display will be on Saturday night, although the skyline fireball display is set to rage on well into the following morning. The Lyrids are somewhat […]
The mystery of how the most powerful cosmic rays in the Universe are created deepens, as new clues showed that gamma ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the Universe, are most likely not the culprits. Cosmic rays are basically charged subatomic particles that streak to Earth from deep in outer space. Every once in […]
Some time ago we told you about one of the most fascinating facts this blog has ever published, namely how there are “nomad” or “rogue” planets outside our solar system, which travel aimlessly through interstellar space without having to circle a certain star. It’s estimated that there are actually more such nomad planets haunting through […]
NASA is equivalent to innovation and cutting edge technology, and this was made possible by the creative flow of whole generations of brilliant scientists. The same philosophy is in place today, as well, and even though the agency has been faced with drastic budget cuts in the past few years, it has kept an open […]
It seems we’ve been privileged with yet another time-lapse video showing our marvelous blue marble planet in all its splendor as seen daily by astronauts stationed at the International Space Station. This time, the whole video was shut from the ISS cupola, a dome-shaped structure fitted with seven specially developed windows, which astronauts use for observations, amplifying the sense of […]
When the administration gives you budget cut lemons, make a different scientific lemonade – that’s pretty much what NASA is trying to do in light of these decisions. Less money, more problems Citing lack of funds, the Obama administration is cutting healthy chunks of the NASA budget, placing a big question mark on many important […]
The whole world had its eyes on North Korea yesterday, when the nation proceeded on its third attempt to launch an object into space, this time a weather satellite, despite intense political pressure against such action due to concern of it actually being a covert long-range missile test and numerous U.N. treaty violations. Like North […]
When Voyager 2 made its flyby near the planet of Uranus, astronomers got their first direct glimpse of what an aurora might look on the cold planet. However, such lights have never been observed from Earth – that is, until last year, when a team of scientists used careful planning and the Hubble Telescope to […]
Our solar system is special for two reasons: the first one, obviously – is us. Our solar system is the only one we know of so far that hosts life. The second one is the number of planets – no other solar system that we’ve seen until now had as many planets as ours, but […]
Encompassing years worth of work, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) has now precisely measured the distance between over a quarter of a million galaxies. As part of the project, called the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, or BOSS, scientists built a massive map of all the studied galaxies so far, some more than six billion years ago […]
Backed by an international consortium, ten years from now the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the world will be built – the Square Kilometer Array (SKA). The project will consist in thousands of antennas displaced across thousands of miles, with a collecting area equivalent to one square kilometer (hence the name), that […]
Solar tornadoes several times bigger than the Earth are generated in the solar atmosphere, researchers claim, after such a tornado was discovered using the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly telescope on board the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO) satellite. “This is perhaps the first time that such a huge solar tornado is filmed by an imager. Previously much […]
One of the most outstanding dreams astronomers and other scientists hope to accomplish is to someday encounter proof that extraterestrial life exists. Intelligent life might be extremely far off, however microbiological life should without a doubt be present elsewhere other than our planet or solar system. For life to blossom, however, the right conditions have […]
Astronomers at Nottingham Trent University have presented evidence that a 4000-year-old stone monolith, located at Gardom’s Edge less than an hour’s drive from Manchester, was used by Neolithic locals at the time as an astronomical marker. The monolith is 7.2-foot tall (2.2-meter), triangular in shape, angles up toward geographic south, and features packing stones arranged around […]
This Friday, ground mission control ordered the current stationed astronaut crew at the International Space Station to head for the escape capsules as a safety precaution in light of a threatening space junk flyby. This is the third time in 12 years an ISS crew had to take this extreme measure. The space debris in […]
You might have thought I made a typo and that I was probably meaning to say $500 million, but truth be told I’m only citing SpaceX founder Elon Musk word for word, and while most of you might view the man insane, what great visionary wasn’t cast under the same shadow in the beginning, only […]
Supernovae are one of the most energetic and brightest events in the cosmos, often so powerful they outshine whole galaxies. They’re considered to play a major role in our understanding of the Universe, which is why scientists have invested so much time and effort into studying them. A recent study of X-ray and ultraviolet observations from […]
Images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have enabled scientists for the first time to create a correlation between spraying of jets of water vapor from fissures on Saturn’s moon Enceladus with Saturn’s gravity and the way it creates stress on the fissure. “This new work gives scientists insight into the mechanics of these picturesque jets at […]
Gas giants might just be the most whimsical planets of all: they don’t just settle at any old point on the orbit – instead, they only choose certain regions and stay clear of others – at least according to a new supercomputer simulation. A new study recently revealed that the orbital deserts and pile-ups caused […]
July 20th, 1969 marked the day man first set foot on the moon, as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin gracefully stepped out of their lunar lander and made history. A recent photo snapped by NASA‘s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured the most detailed view of the monumental landing site – it even shows remnants of Neil […]
It’s equinox time again, and this March 2012 equinox will take place at precisely 5:14 a.m. GMT, or Universal Time. That’s the time of Greenwich, England, which basically gives the standard time for the entire world. But the thing is, our clocks say different times, depending on where we are. If you’re in the United […]
The plot of the Hollywood blockbuster flick Armageddon is fairly simple – a giant asteroid is hurling towards Earth, threatening to obliterate all life on the planet as we know it. A team of brave oil-drillers is sent on the space rock to diffuse the threat by detonating a nuclear warhead placed inside the asteroid itself. Apparently, a group […]
If you happen to be on the East Coast tonight, preferably between North Carolina and New Jersey, you’ll be in for a dazzling late night show. NASA will be launching five rockets consecutively in five minutes time, part of its ATREX mission, which aims to study high-altitude jet streams. The five suborbital rockets will release chemical tracers as they sore […]
An emotional video collage of talks made by Neil Degrasse Tyson dissing the current poor attention NASA has been receiving, financially-wise, from the US government has recently hit YouTube, which can also be seen embedded above. His speeches on the subject are powerful, to say the least, and addresses the concerning issue that once with […]
It’s been quite a week for space exploration and some truly remarkable pictures were taken, here’s the best ones. The solar flare in 3D Earth was struck by a major solar flare, the biggest one in years, and this fantastic 3D image shows sunspots and “wonderful active regions in exquisite detail,” according to NASA’s Solar […]
It’s really not too late to catch the spectacular show offered by Venus and Jupiter; on Monday and Tuesday evening, the two planets will appear in the sky at a distance of only three degrees – a distance which has been narrowing since early March, and is now reaching its minimum values. The two planets […]
The largest solar flare since 2006 occurred Tuesday, when a massive amount of plasma was ejected at a speed of over 4 million miles per hour, causing some significant problems on Earth, forcing planes to reroute, knocking out power grids and blacking out a number of radios. “Super Tuesday? You bet!” joked Joseph Kunches, a […]
A recently published study suggests that the Earth might have been visited by a giant space rock 13,000 years ago, an event which might have sparked an unusual cold period in the planet’s climate history. The Younger Dryas, also known as the Big Freeze, was a brief period of cold climatic conditions and drought which occurred […]
A lot of people were left disheartened when the iconic space shuttle program was canceled last year. Though it’s now been turned into a museum exhibit, the shuttle has remained in the minds and hearts of millions as a symbol of man’s journey towards the stars. Romanian Raul Oaida made his own tribute, and put a […]
Faster than light travel is not only an exciting SciFi concept which has spurred the imagination of countless geek generations since the first Star Trek season aired on television, it’s also a necessity if mankind is ever to surpass its condition and truly aim for the stars. Warp-drive technology has been on the forefront of […]
NASA admitted to something pretty scary: they were hacked 13 times last year alone, and several times hackers had “full, functional control” of the space agency’s information. According to Inspector General Paul K. Martin, the most powerful attack came from an IP in China, which broke into the network of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, one […]
For almost 100 years it carried the blame of sinking the world’s most famous ship, but now, the ill-famed iceberg may be cleared, after some researchers claim they’ve found the true culprit – the Moon. Now don’t get the wrong idea, it was the collision with the ice mass that ultimately brought the demise of […]
Cassini has sent some new remarkable pictures which brilliantly illustrate the difference in size between Saturn and Titan, its largest moon. Saturn dwarfs its moon easily, even though Titan, at 3,200 miles across, is bigger than Earth’s moon, which has a diameter of only 2159 miles. If you look really closely above Saturn’s rings, there […]
Strange, huge explosions apparently fueled by solar energy are detonating just above the surface of Venus, a surprising new study concludes. Explosive Venus This is not the first time this unusual phenomenon, called ‘hot flow anomaly’ (of HFA) was observed; such events have been previously spotted above Earth, and possibly Saturn and Mars – but […]
It’s been less than a month since we published the last thing about the Cassini probe, and the amazing spacecraft has done it again; this time it detected a thin, oxygen atmosphere, on a moon of Saturn – Dione. The study was published in the Geophysical Research Letters At 1122 km in diameter, Dione is […]
The term Mars opposition basically refers to a geometric event. Thus on the 3rd of March, Mars will appear exactly opposite the sun in Earth’s sky, 180 degrees away from it, as well as come at one of the closest distances to Earth, making it easy observable even with the naked eye. This event takes […]
Located beneath the three stars that form the belt of Orion the Hunter, the Orion Nebula is one of the dearest sights for amateur astronomers in the night sky, due to its great visibility, being one of the few nebulae visible with the naked eye. Also known under the name of the Sword of Orion, […]
So we heard you like the International Space Station, so we made an ISS inside the ISS. Humor aside, I was pleasantly surprised this morning to read that Lego teamed up with NASA to assemble a scale model of the International Space Station in space. Flight engineer Satoshi Furukawa, which we featured earlier on ZME […]
According to a recent study published by researchers from the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), our galaxy may be ‘infested’ with nomad planets, which wander aimlessly instead of orbiting a star. Furthermore, the study concluded there may actually be 100,000 times more “nomad planets” in the Milky Way than stars. If this […]
NASA recently issued a call-out to all those interested in joining a special, four-month long study, in which a stay on a Martian outpost would be simulated. The main objective is that of assessing space food, namely whether it’s better if astronauts are provided with meals made out of “shelf-stable” ingredients such as flour, beans, rice […]
Last week, the U.S. Air Force released a report in which it outlines its technological and energy plans for the forthcoming 15 years. Among others, the Air Force means to deploy a space-based solar power station, which would serve energy wirelessly to both Earth and space satellites, as well as a new generation of spacecraft […]
This is the kind of engineering feat that sounds so preposterous, so crazy, so … foolish, that it might actually work. A Japanese construction company plans to build an elevator that can lift tourists in space, up to a quarter the distance between Earth and the moon. While entrepreneurs like Richard Branson or Paul Allen […]
The hunt for the second Earth, a similar life-bearing paradise like our own, rages on, and while no candidate came any close so far, scientists have made some extraordinary discoveries in the process. The latest exciting find is a super-Earth, a planet larger than Earth, but no bigger than Neptune, that represents the first of […]
Astronomers at NASA‘s Chandra X-ray Observatory have come across a true astronomical oddity at the outskirts of the Milky Way, a stellar-mass black hole which exerts the fastest winds ever observed so far in its class – so fast that it rivals those blown by supermassive black holes, which often are billion times more massive. […]
There are currently an estimated 19,000 individual space debris swirling around Earth’s orbit at 17,000 miles/hour, posing great threat to current active satellites, telescopes, future launches in orbit, the International Space Station and even astronauts out on space walks. It’s very clear that something must be done, before the Earth gets one of its own […]
Exactly two years ago, NASA launched a $850 million spacecraft, called the Solar Dynamics Observatory, on a five-year long mission to record high-definition videos of the sun, which should help astronomers better understand its weather cycle and how and how it might affect life on Earth. To celebrate SDO’s 2nd anniversary, NASA has released a […]
