December 2009
40 posts
MESSENGER team releases first global map of... →
NASA’s MESSENGER mission team and cartographic experts from the U. S. Geological Survey have created a critical tool for planning the first orbital observations of the planet Mercury - a global mosaic of the planet that will help scientists pinpoint craters, faults and other features for observation. The map was created from images taken during the MESSENGER spacecraft’s three flybys...
SPACE PHOTOS THIS WEEK: Geminids, Two-Faced Moon,... →
Like a silver spear cast from the heavens, the bright streak of a Geminid meteor pierces the night sky over California’s Mojave Desert during the annual meteor shower’s 2009 peak.
NASA Buys Additional Space Shuttle Reusable Solid... →
NASA has purchased two reusable solid rocket motors from ATK Launch Systems Inc. of Brigham City, Utah, to provide a “launch on need” rescue capability for the final planned space shuttle mission, targeted for September 2010.
Hubble Captures Birth, Annihilation of Young Solar... →
[quote] Looking deep inside the Orion Nebula, the Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning collection of protoplanetary disks – or proplyds – which are embryonic solar systems in the making. Using Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), researchers have discovered 42 protoplanetary blobs, which are being illuminated by a bright star cluster. These disks, which sometimes appear like...
Mars orbiter lines up both Martian moons in one... →
Unlike the gas giants Saturn and Jupiter, both of which have dozens of moons, and Earth, which boasts a massive moon relative to its size that helps stabilize the planet, Mars doesn’t have much in the way of lunar companions. Its two moons, Phobos and Deimos, are small, odd-shaped lumps that may be asteroids captured by Mars’s gravity. Phobos, the larger of the two, is just 27...
NASA Launches Web Site for Teenagers That Want... →
NASA has launched a new Web site created specifically for teenagers that provides teens access to current NASA spacecraft data for use in school science projects, allows them to conduct real experiments with NASA scientists, and helps them locate space-related summer internships.
Mars Express Captures Phobos and Deimos →
The 'sci' behind the 'fi' →
As the voyagers of the Starship Enterprise boldly went to explore new worlds week after week on Star Trek, they used a host of futuristic technologies — including tricorders, holodecks, teleportation systems and warp drives — that may have seemed almost beyond possibility to many of the shows’ (and movies’) legion of devoted viewers. But, say many scientists interviewed on a new program airing on...
Wow! Astronauts on EVA, As Seen From Earth →
Remember when it was a big deal when amateur astronomers starting imaging the International Space Station as seen from Earth, showing individual modules and other parts of the space station? One of the most proficient astrophotographers in that department has now just upped the game: Ralf Vandebergh has captured images of astronauts working outside the ISS during an EVA. Vandebergh, who lives in...
Galaxy Collision Switches on Black Hole →
Astronomers think that supermassive black holes exist at the center of most galaxies. Not only do the galaxies and black holes seem to co-exist, they are apparently inextricably linked in their evolution. To better understand this symbiotic relationship, scientists have turned to rapidly growing black holes - so-called active galactic nucleus (AGN) - to study how they are affected by their...
Our Atmosphere Came From Space Gases, Study Says →
The gases that make up Earth’s atmosphere came from a swarm of comets, not from bubbling volcanoes as long thought, a new study says.
NASA Tests Flying Airbag →
“NASA is looking to reduce the deadly impact of helicopter crashes on their pilots and passengers with what the agency calls a high-tech honeycomb airbag known as a deployable energy absorber. So in order to test out its technology NASA dropped a small helicopter from a height of 35 feet to see whether its deployable energy absorber, made up of an expandable honeycomb cushion, could handle...
Saturn's Hexagon Endures! →
The Cassini spacecraft was able to take another look at one of Saturn’s strangest features – a bizarre six-sided cloud structure circling the entire north pole. This structure was hinted at when the Voyager spacecraft first visited the planet nearly 30 years ago, and Cassini was able to take a brief look a few years ago with Cassini’s infrared camera. But these latest images provide...
'Monster' iceberg shedding hundreds of offshoots →
An island-sized iceberg is breaking up as it drifts closer to Australia, producing hundreds of smaller slabs spread over a massive area of ocean, experts said Monday.
WISE, NASA's infrared surveyor, launches... →
After a series of delays, NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) began its mission Monday morning, rocketing toward orbit at 9:09 A.M. (Eastern Standard Time). WISE’s launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California was initially delayed because of a scheduling conflict with a satellite launch on the East Coast, then twice pushed back due to an anomaly in a steering...
Weird Giant Spiral Seen in Sky over Norway →
Apparently, this is not a Photoshopped image, as there are several more just like it, taken from various locations. This morning in northern Norway, people saw a strange light in the sky which shocked residents and so far, the phenomenon has yet to be explained. This picture was taken from a pier, looking to the east, approximately at 07.50 am local time. “I can imagine that it went on for...
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Spacecraft Out of... →
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter today has been taken out of the precautionary ‘safe mode’ it had been in since August.
XMM-Newton celebrates decade of discovery →
ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory is celebrating its 10th anniversary. During its decade of operation, this remarkable space observatory has supplied new data for every aspect of astronomy. From our cosmic backyard to the further reaches of the Universe, XMM-Newton has changed the way we think of space.
Dark Rumors →
All the physics blogosphere is abuzz about rumors that the CDMS experiment might have collected evidence for the direct detection of dark matter, and is going to announce their results on December 18. The original source was Resonaances, where you can read the basic story; see also New Scientist. It’s to the point where it’s more suspicious if we don’t mention it than if we do, so here you are.
Intense Geminid Meteor Shower Peaks Sunday →
Late Sunday night is the peak of the year’s most prolific annual cosmic fireworks show—the Geminid meteor shower (Geminids picture). The meteor shower has been growing in intensity in recent decades and should be an even better holiday treat than usual this year, since it’s falling in a nearly moonless week.
Hubble Takes a New "Deep Field" Image with Wide... →
Hubble’s latest image is another stunner — and just look at all the galaxies! Hubble has produced a new version of the Ultra Deep Field, this time in near-infrared light and taken with the newly installed Wide Field Camera 3. This is the deepest image yet of the Universe in near-infrared, and so the faintest and reddest objects in the image are likely the oldest galaxies ever identified,...
What Would NASA Do with an Added Shuttle Flight? →
The end of the Space Shuttle Era is rapidly approaching and with it some urgent questions including, “How will the US support continued use of the ISS?” and “What would NASA do if granted an additional shuttle flight?”
Exoplanet claim bites the dust →
Ground-based astrometry dealt a blow as planet found not to exist.
Aussie galaxy survey to lead to 'new physics' →
Australian astronomers have released the first set of data from the first project to look at the effects of “dark energy” halfway back in the Universe’s lifetime.
Lukewarm →
At this very moment the nations of the world are meeting in Copenhagen to discuss the Earth’s climate. 192 countries are represented, and for the next two weeks they will try to come up with a strategy to deal with climate change. Obama will show up in 10 days, as will other heads-of-state. Unfortunately, much of the media coverage (at least in the US) includes discussion of what is being called...
SPACE PHOTOS THIS WEEK: Virgin Galactic Debut and... →
Butterflynauts Emerge from Cocoons on ISS →
Four “butterflynauts” have emerged on the International Space Station. They are part of a suitcase sized educational experiment that was rocketed to space on Nov. 16 on space shuttle Atlantis as part of the STS-129 mission. Students of all ages and the public are invited to follow the tiny crew’s development from larvae to adult butterflies in the microgravity of space.
Red Giant Brightness Variations Still Mysterious →
Like everything else in the Universe, stars get old. As they become older, stars like our own Sun “puff up”, becoming red giants for a period before finally settling down into white dwarfs. During this late period of their stellar lives, about 30% of low-mass red giants exhibit a curious variability in their brightness that remains unexplained to this day. A new survey of these types...
Japan's 'space beer' sparkles among drinkers →
A Japanese brewer has come up with a beer that’s truly out of this world — one made with barley grown from a line of seeds that once orbited the Earth aboard the International Space Station.
NASA to launch sky-mapping spacecraft →
NASA’s latest space telescope will scan the sky in search of never-before-seen asteroids, comets, stars and galaxies, with one of its main tasks to catalog objects posing a danger to Earth. The sky-mapping WISE, or Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, is scheduled to launch no earlier than before dawn Friday from Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central California coast aboard a Delta 2...
Keeping Mars Contained →
Top Ten Space Finds of 2009: Nat Geo News's Most... →
NASA puzzled why parachutes failed in rocket test →
Cool – Literally – Extrasolar Planet Imaged →
Yet another planet outside of our Solar System has been directly imaged, bumping the list up past ten. Given that the first visible light image of an extrasolar planet was taken a little more than a year ago, the list is growing pretty fast. The newest one, planet GJ 758 B is also the coolest directly imaged planet, measuring 600 degrees Kelvin, and it orbits a star that is much like our own...
Exploring to the Beat of Pulsars →
The LHC Will Discover the Higgs. Wanna Bet? →
Explore the Universe with Science@ESA →
STAR TRAK for December: Geminid meteors flash in... →
ISS Temporarily Down to Crew of 2 →
Hubble Sees Dazzling Dust in the Iris Nebula →