Astronomy
Earth Will Die a Hot Horrible Death when the Sun Expands and Swallows Us, and Now We Know What That Looks Like
Astronomers caught a red giant star swallowing one of its planets, a vision of Earth's own potential fate
August 21, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
The Sun is Just 0.0007% Away From Being a Perfect Sphere
The Sun is the most perfectly round natural object known in the universe
August 17, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Good Morning Curiosity – Wake up With the Same Songs as a Mars Rover
Every Martian morning, the Curiosity rover gets a wakeup song
August 17, 2012 |
By Rose Eveleth
Click Around This High Definition 360° Panorama of Mars
NASA’s Curiosity rover has been on the surface of the red planet for a week today, and this interactive panorama makes you feel like you’re actually there. We know that saying gets bandied about a lot, but it really, really does. As space writer Amy Shira Teitel notes, “how are these things popping up so fast!” By [...]
August 13, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
What if All 2,299 Exoplanets Orbited One Star?
For the past two years, NASA's planet-hunting Kepler satellite has consistently challenged our view of just how many planets there are out there.
August 13, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
This Weekend Is Prime Time for Meteor Watching
Between midnight and dawn on any night this coming weekend (for those in the US, times vary for others), look up, turn to the northeast, and admire the annual show of the Perseid meteor shower.
August 10, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Fly Through a Gigantic 3D Model of the Universe
Reminiscent of the early 90's Windows screensaver that whisked you through space with a field of zooming stars, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's A Flight Through the Universe takes you on a trip around the universe.
August 09, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Sir Bernard Lovell, The Man The Soviets Tried to Poison With Uranium, Dies at 98
Lovell, of the Lovell telescope, made several advances in radio astronomy and physics.
August 07, 2012 |
By Rose Eveleth
Landing Curiosity on Mars was Way Harder and Way Less Expensive than the Olympics
Landing a car-sized rover on a distant planet using a sky crane is really hard, and really awesome.
August 06, 2012 |
By Rose Eveleth
India Wants to go to Mars Too, And Other Upcoming Space Missions
Though all eyes are on Curiosity, space agencies from around the world have by no means been resting on their laurels.
August 03, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
If Humans Are Ever Going to See Alien Life, Here’s Where It Will Happen
Scientists are all atwitter over Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons and one of the most likely places in our solar system to harbor life.
July 30, 2012 |
By Rose Eveleth
How Sally Ride Was Even Tougher Than Ripley in Alien
If you think battling evil in the bowels of a defunct space freighter is hard, try being the closeted, often-patronized poster child for womankind’s capacity to compete in a notoriously male-dominated field
July 24, 2012 |
By Rose Eveleth
What Does Space Smell Like?
Astronauts have consistently reported the same strange odour after lengthy space walks, bringing it back in on their suits, helmets, gloves and tools, according to Science in a Can.
July 18, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
NASA (and XBox Gamers) Prepare for Terrifyingly Hard Mars Landing
Though NASA's video shows the intricate and disaster-prone landing sequence, there is also a free Xbox 360 video game that lets you see if you can make it safely down to the surface.
July 17, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Super-Strong Solar Flare Bringing Northern Lights South
Solar researchers expect a moderate geomagnetic storm to follow and strike Earth this weekend, causing satellite glitches, power disruptions and colorful auroras possibly as far south as Washington D.C.
July 13, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Astronomers Find Pluto’s Fifth Moon
Scientists found a small object in orbit around Pluto that they had never seen before: a new moon called P5. The finding adds to last year's discovery of the small moon P4, bringing Pluto's total to five.
July 12, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Beautiful New Earth-From-Space Footage from NASA
Take a couple minutes between the barbecue and fireworks to put things into the larger context by appreciating “that we are all riding through the universe together on this spaceship we call Earth, that we are all interconnected, that we are all in this together, that we are all family.” The Atlantic points us to this beautiful [...]
July 05, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Navy Wants to Thwart Space Debris By Releasing More Space Debris
Floating hunks of metal, left over from half a century of space exploration and satellite deployment, litter the near-Earth regions of space. As Smithsonian has reported: It’s [an] enormous cloud of nuts, bolts, shards of metal, satellite fragments and empty rocket thrusters that is floating invisibly above our planet. After decades of space exploration, there are [...]
June 22, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
As Voyager Exits Solar System, Sole Proof of Humanity a 70s Record
“The voyagers are now the most distant man-made objects in space. And their journey will go on, literally, forever. They will probably be the only evidence that we ever existed.” So heads off Penny Lane’s 2010 short film The Voyagers. In the summer of 1977, NASA sent Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 on [...]
June 18, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
China’s First Woman Astronaut: Progress or Propaganda?
At 2:30 am GMT on Monday, June 18, the Chinese spaceship Shenzhou-9 docked with the Tiangong-1 orbital space lab, the first time ever with a crew. Aboard the spacecraft was 33-year-old Liu Yang, the first female Chinese astronaut—or taikonaut—in space. The mission was only China’s fourth manned flight. The country’s space program got off to a [...]
June 18, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
