Space
Space includes outer space, the sun and planets in the solar system
A Moon That Might Have Had Its Own Moon
Saturn's moon Iapetus is just weird. When Giovanni Cassini discovered the moon in 1671, he found that he could see Iapetus only when it was on the west side of the planet; the moon, it turns out, is much darker on one side than the other and is tidally locked with Saturn so that one side always fac...
December 14, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Glorious Sun: An Idea for Christmas Ornaments
I was looking at images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, the latest satellite to study our star, and was struck by their beauty. SDO records the Sun in several wavelengths, producing gorgeous images of its ever-changing surface. And then I had a great idea: wouldn't these make fabulous ornam...
December 10, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Ready for Contact
Humans have searched for extraterrestrial life for more than a century. What will we do when we find it?
December 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Caroline Herschel: Assistant or Astronomer?
After a recent visit to the National Air and Space Museum's "Explore the Universe" exhibit, a local astronomy post-doc, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, wrote the following about one of the displays:magine my dismay when I got to the section about Caroline and William Herschel, a sister-brother team of a...
December 08, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
More Stars in the Universe
There may be as many as three times more stars in the universe as astronomers previously though, according to new study published by Nature.Pieter G. van Dokkum of Yale University and Charlie Conroy of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics looked for red dwarf stars—which are about 10 to ...
December 02, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Who Would You Send on a One-Way Trip to Mars?
Here's something to ponder over Thanksgiving dinner: who among your fellow diners would you send on a one-way trip to Mars? Or would you choose to go yourself and leave all you know behind for an uncertain future as a bold explorer?Two scientists, astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch of Washington St...
November 23, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Stars on the Move
Two thousand years ago Ptolemy listed Omega Centauri in his catalogue of stars. In 1677, Edmund Halley (of comet fame) named it a nebula. But we now know that Omega Centauri is actually a globular cluster, a swarm of almost 10 million stars that all orbit around a common point. (That point may be a...
November 05, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Picture of the Week: The Witch Head Nebula
The Witch Head Nebula—formally named IC 2118—sits in the constellation Orion about 1,000 light years from Earth. (In case you're having a hard time seeing the witch, her face is in profile facing to the right.) That bright blue star in the center of the image is Rigel, Orion's brightest star and th...
October 29, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
The Georgian Planet: A Case of Clever Marketing
On March 31, 1781, William Herschel, a German musician and composer, looked through a homemade 7-foot-long telescope in his back garden in Bath, England and saw something odd. He thought it was a comet, but it didn't act quite like other comets. And when scientists of the time calculated the object...
October 26, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Royal Observatory Photography Prize
The Royal Observatory, in Greenwich, England, has announced its 2010 Astronomy Photographer of the Year. Tom Lowe won with this photo, Blazing Bristlecone. Though he won, Lowe wasn't perfectly satisified with his photo. He said:If I could change anything about this photo, it would be the artificial...
September 17, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
NASA to Fly Mission Into the Sun
NASA and other space agencies have a host of satellites aimed at the Sun, taking pictures and gathering data that scientists are using to better understand how the star we depend on works. None have ever gotten close to the Sun, though. A 1958 National Academy of Science panel recommended that NASA...
September 07, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
A Solar System Rich in Planets
If you're looking for life outside of our solar system, it makes sense to look for solar systems and planets like our own. You'd want a solar system with a Sun like ours, with lots of planets orbiting around it. One of those planets should be the size of Earth and traveling at a distance around its...
August 26, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Richard Branson on Space Travel
The billionaire entertainment mogul talks about the future of transportation and clean energy
August 2010 |
By Megan Gambino
What's Next in Space?
Probes and landers sent into the final frontier will bring us closer to answering cosmic mysteries
August 2010 |
By Mark Strauss
Asteroid Hunters
Astronomers are determined to protect human beings from inanimate outer space invaders
August 2010 |
By Robert Irion
A Spanish Breakthrough in Harnessing Solar Power
Solar technologies being pioneered in Spain show even greater promise for the United States
August 2010 |
By Richard Covington
Happy Mars Day!
The National Air and Space Museum is holding its annual Mars Day today. Visitors can learn about current and upcoming Mars missions from NASA scientists, compete in a Red Planet Quiz Show and view a Martian meteorite. (Check out Around the Mall's Five Reasons Why You Need to be at Mars Day.)For tho...
July 16, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Music of the Heavenly Spheres (Part 2) — Holst, Haydn, Handel and More…
Apollo with his famous lyre is the Greek god of music. This son of Zeus was also closely associated with the Sun and is often assumed to be the Sun god Helios by a different name. In other polytheistic circles, none of the gods of music in Hindu, Norse, Japanese or Egyptian mythologies were associa...
June 23, 2010 |
By Brandon Springer
Music of the Heavenly Spheres (Part 1)
From time immemorial, humans have looked in wonder at the cosmos and attempted to express their awe through art. Astronomers, from Ptolemy to Kepler, commented on the great dance of the heavenly spheres and the harmonies of the celestial bodies of Sun, Moon and Earth. Musicians and composers have s...
June 22, 2010 |
By Brandon Springer
The Birth of Saturn's Moonlets
Saturn has two main types of moons: the first are regular moons, like Enceladus, that are similar to moons around other giant planets and orbit in Saturn's equatorial plane. The others are tiny, icy moonlets that reside on the outer edges of Saturn's rings. They weren't discovered until about six y...
June 14, 2010 |
By Sarah Zielinski
