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The Robonaut 2, an autonomous NASA robot commissioned to ease the lives of astronauts on board the International Space Station by taking over some complex tasks and, also, cure boredom, has finally been booted to move a limb, although he’s been on the station since February 2011 – a whole year. The Robonaut recently went […]
Around 1843, on the night sky all of a sudden a new luminous star made its appearance. That luminous star, which at the time was actually the 2nd brightest star, after Sirius, was actually the result of a explosion in Eta Carinae system – the brightest star in the Milky Way. The eruption spewed a […]
Perhaps the most famous thing left behind on the Moon is a footprint, a boot-shaped impression in the moon dust, photographed and viewed by millions of people. If everything goes according to plan, in the future, many people visiting the Moon will look at it and refer to it as ‘the first’. But about 100 […]
After two decades of drilling in the frozen wastelands of Antarctica, Russian researchers have finally managed to drill down to lake Vostok, which has been sealed under kilometers of ice for over 15 million years. When they first announced they reached the water, biologists were ecstatic; not only did they get a unique chance to […]
Some black holes are just meant to survive, regardless of what they go through. This is probably the case with the HLX-1 black hole, 20.000 times more massive than the Sun, which is practically floating on the outskirts of a galaxy. The problem with this supermassive black hole is that judging by its size, should […]
When we started putting satellites on orbit, few could have pondered the idea of space junk, and even fewer would have guessed that a time will come when we will have to clean up after our spatial enterprises. But the time came, and really soon, and space junk is a real problem. This is why […]
NASA is trying to push an idea that has been around for quite a while: a “human-tended waypoint” near the far side of the moon, a mission perfect for an international partnership and with a huge scientific value. I really, really recommend going to NASA’s page for a lovely inside scoop. NASA declared that they […]
The financial problems for NASA continue to deepen, as the Obama budget slashes another $226 million from the US space agency’s Mars exploration program, relying on a possible but uncertain partnership with Europe; and this is not the worst news. The biggest budget cuts are aimed at robotic exploration. The budget stated that “support for […]
Night is quick to sound the alarm for most of us that it’s time to hit he sack. While you’re peacefully sleeping and dreaming away, up stairs things are a bit different. For the brave men and women stationed at the International Space Station there is no night or day, and considering the station orbits […]
This incredible photo of the Carina Nebuna, a massive star formation , was taken by the The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), in the infrared spectrum. Even the astronomers from the ESO, who are privileged enough to witness some of the most amazing sights in the Universe, claim in a recent press release that […]
Space offers incredibly fascinating experimental conditions for various scientific studies, otherwise very hard or practically impossible to replicate on Earth. Microgravity is something of great interest to scientists, and even simple experiments with fire are extremely insightful. Combustion in space occurs at much lower temperatures and with a lower amount of required oxygen, and to […]
Whenever a massive object, with an equally massive gravitational pull, like black holes or galaxy clusters, falls between an observer, say a telescope, and a distant target in the background to be observed, than a gravitational lens is formed. Light emitted from the distant object gets twisted by the massive object, and ends up distorted […]
The Russian space agency recently announced that they’ll be soon launching a campaign to recruit cosmonauts for upcoming missions to the Moon, slated for the next ten years. Interestingly enough, the announcement comes just one day before the much expected February full moon, called Snow Moon – yes there’s actually snow on the moon this time of […]
For the past three years, scientists have been analyzing data fed back by the 2008 NASA Phoenix mission to Mars, which touch landed on the planet’s northern poles. Even though there was ice, soil analysis showed that the planet has been suffering from a massive, 600 million years long drought, providing inhospitable life supporting conditions on its […]
The hunt for finding another Earth is making progress every day, as scientists are constantly adding new viable candidates to the list. It’s estimated that in our galaxy alone, the Milky Way, there are between 200 and 400 billion stars – out of all of these, from a statistical point of view, the chances of […]
Have you ever seen a model of the solar system? They’re just great! But most of them have one big fault – they’re not to scale. But that’s not the case with the biggest model in the world, located in Sweden, which stretches around the entire country and represents everything to scale. The Sun is […]
For the first time, a NASA spacecraft has detected matter from outside our solar system – matter that drifted from some other part of our galaxy right to us. This interstellar material was spotted by Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), a spacecraft with the purpose of studying the outskirts of our solar system from its orbit […]
Most of the aurora borealis videos we’ve featured on ZME Science, besides the fact they’re absolutely gorgeous, are time lapsed. Because of this, I’ve always thought the beautiful, wobbly dance of the Northern Lights is actually a tad slower, maybe not even perceivable. Photographer Alistair Chapman went all the way to Tromso, Norway for last […]
Last year NASA permanently retired the iconic shuttle program, since it became obsolete, too expensive, difficult to maintain and no longer resonated with the agency’s goals. Its successor is no other than the Orion capsule, a spacecraft capable of deep-space exploration missions developed by Lockheed Martin in collaboration with NASA. So far, it’s more or […]
We were telling you a few days ago about a solar storm set to hit Earth, but as it turns out, this isn’t all bad news. In its way towards our planet, the storm also hit Mars, with the NASA Mars rover, revealing some interesting information regarding the amount of radiation an astronaut would be […]
Canadian duo, Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, both only 17 years old, have managed to put the infamous Lego man, attached with the Canadian flag, into space. They managed to achieve this with extremely limited resources, using items bought off craiglist, and unlimited ingenuity. The plastic figurine was attached to a styrofoam box, which also contained […]
A while ago NASA launched its next generation weather satellite, the Suomi NPP satellite, into low-orbit, on a mission to collect critical data set to improve short-term weather forecasts and increase understanding of long-term climate change. Besides, valuable scientific measurements, the NPP satellite also provides some incredible glimpses of our planet in great detail. We showed you […]
The sun recently shout out an M3.2-class solar flare in our direction, which scientists expect to hit the Earth this Saturday. The coronal mass ejection however is too weak to cause any havoc like doomsday fanatics might hope, just an incredible “fireworks” display as the charged particles hit the Earth’s magnetic field resulting in spectacular aurora […]
Black Holes are the least understood entities, so far, in the Universe. However, if there’s one thing scientists know for sure about them, it’s that they’re the most extreme environment in cosmos. Black Holes have such a powerful, relentless gravity pull that it swallows absolutely everything in its vicinity, even light gets absorbed with zero […]
Using a technique called ‘gravitational lensing’, astronomers were able to spot a dwarf galaxy, some 10 billion light years away, which they believe is made out mostly of dark matter. It is only the second ‘black dwarf’ ever found – why there are so few of them is one of the biggest questions in astronomy. […]
A while ago, we were really excited to tell you about the first private space flight, which was supposed to head for the International Space Station – and so were the astronauts onboard the station. However, SpaceX, the company behind this initiative, announced that the Dragon capsule flight will be postponed, in order to better […]
In our very own Milky Way galaxy alone, astronomers estimate there are between 200 billion and 400 billion stars. Of these, there are many that exoplanets within their solar systems. Still, what are the odds planets, more or less similar to our one, capable of supporting life, microscopic or otherwise, exist? This is the exact […]
The Phobos Grunt probe, which was supposed to head for Phobos, a satellite of Mars but instead got stuck on Earth’s orbit, found its inglorious ending, crashing into the Pacific, marking an ill-fated bid of restoring the glory to the Russian space program. Russian officials declared they will find and punish the officials responsible for […]
The ever scientifically productive Hubble just came out with another gem that will help scientists unravel the mysteries of the Universe, after the telescope snapped a photo of a couple of galaxy far, far away, wrapped together in a cosmic dance which most likely led in in the forming of a galaxy cluster – the […]
Galaxy clusters are the biggest stable structures in our Universe that we know of, typically containing 50 to 1000 galaxies. El Gordo Seven billion light years away and two million billion times heavier than our Sun lies El Gordo – which is Spanish for ‘the fat one’. Astronomers reporting at the 219th American Astronomical Society […]
Astronomers have created the most accurate and comprehensive map yet of the universe’s dark matter, finding it spread in a spider web around areas which would otherwise seem not interesting. It has long been theoretized that the Universe is made out of 85% dark matter, because judging only by the amount of visible matter… the […]
There’s no bigger drag on a busy Monday morning than finding your car under a heap of snow in the driveway. Taking measures and parking it under some kind shelter, if possible, would be advised if you don’t plan on driving an ice truck. Take NASA for instance, which, like every year, has routed the […]
Life on the ISS has its ups and downs, its perks and downsides; but in February, something which seemed a fantasy two decades ago is about to happen: the first private spaceship will ‘visit’ the International Space Station, marking the start of a new era in spaceflight. The private spaceflight company SpaceX plans to launch […]
An array formed by the greatest space telescopes in the world first discover, then photograph this ancient galaxy from the Universe’s dawn – the brightest such galaxy ever discovered by astronomers at such a distance. How far away you ask? Around 12,9 billion light years away, considering the Universe is estimated at 13.7 billion years […]
We’re at the dawn of a new exciting era – the private space age. More and more companies and influential businessmen have hopped on the bandwagon in the past decade, with the thought of building something truly incredible, while operating a profitable business at the same time. Richard Branson launched Virgin Galactic, Elon Musk (Paypal […]
There are people out there who predict that the entire life on Earth will be wiped out in 2012 – or at least significantly crippled. But if you stop just a second and think about it rationally, you understand that this is nothing else but jibber jabbar, and people like this will keep ‘announcing’ the […]
Researchers working at the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer have probably discovered what can be described as the heart beat of the smallest known black hole. This comes in less then a month after astrophysicists discovered the biggest known black hole in the Universe. An international team worked on this research, which relied on detecting X-rays […]
NASA has developed a harpoon that would make even the most pretentious pirate jealous: it can latch on to comets with surgical precision, without having to land on them. The harpoon, which measures six feet tall (almost two meters) was made out of pair of springs normally used to provide the suspension for trucks; the […]
An unprecedented observation of a supernova right after its explosion has offered scientists extremely valuable insight on these cosmic explosions of biblical proportions. PTF 11kly, a type Ia supernova, was spotted in August in the Pinwheel galaxy and is one of the closest to Earth ever found – but don’t worry just yet – at […]
After what can only be described has a frustrating, sleepless month for the Russian scientists involved in the Phobos grunt mission, which failed just after it escaped Earth’s atmosphere and became stranded into low-orbit, officials have announced that they have finally lost all hope and have abandoned any future efforts of re-salvaging the probe. Russia’s Phobos- […]
Heralded by NASA as the best meteor shower of the year, the annual Geminid skyline spectacle is set to peak tonight, part of a show that shouldn’t be missed. Passionate night gazers, however, will have to battle low temperatures and a bright sky, lit by the passing full moon. The Geminids are expected to streak across […]
Since NASA retired its space shuttle program this summer, the space agency has been left with no viable means of transporting astronauts to and from the International Space Station. As such, NASA is currently dependent on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft to fulfill this duty, whose services come at a hefty cost. Today, NASA announced that the […]
There’s been a lot of buzz around the planets discovered by the Kepler telescope, particularly about Kepler-22b – the planet which, outside Earth, has the biggest chances to host life (that we know of). Now, SETI will tune in and start listening to see if there are any aliens with something to say on those […]
NASA’s famous rover, Opportunity, seems to have stumbled upon clear evidence that water used to flow on Mars, a long long time ago. Opportunity was prowling around the Meridiani Planum on Mars, looking at hematite (an iron oxide) when it stumbled upon something which delighted researchers: gypsum. Why is this vein of gypsum so important […]
We recently wrote about Kepler-22b, which so far is the planet most likely to host life that we know of, other than Earth. This discovery made by the Kepler telescope sparkled the imagination of many, and people already started thinking about ‘contact’. However, even though it’s great to dream, and the planet has a decent […]
This rainbow map of the Vesta asteroid was obtained using NASA’s Dawn spacecraft and it shows that it has much more planet-like features than its mates from the asteroid belt. Vesta is a pretty special place, with lots of surprises; it has a weird history, a mountain 3 times bigger than the Everest, and now, […]
Don’t get too close – you might not be able to get away. Researchers have found and measured the biggest black holes discovered so far – abyssal surfaces 10 times bigger than our Solar system – and several billion times heavier. Yes, you read that right; these unimaginable giants likely devoured billions of Sun in […]
The race for finding habitable planets outside our solar system is definitely heating up. After we told you about Gliese, a planet which seems habitable enough, researchers have reported finding yet another planet, which is not too hot and not too cold either – Kepler-22b is just the right temperature for life as we know […]
Lunar eclipses are one of the most dazzling sights you’ll ever have the chance of experiencing, though unfortunately they are rather rare events. Next week, on December 10, North American western residents will be able to experience the rare beauty of a total lunar eclipse – for some just a one in a lifetime opportunity. A […]
Every NASA spacecraft sent to missions on other space bodies, like other planets, asteroids or moons, needs to adhere to a strict internal protoocl which needs to ensure that no biological contamination is brought in from Earth. This is a vital preparatory step before the launch of a spacecraft, especially if the later in cause […]
