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Universe Today
Universe Today (www.universetoday.com) has great NASA news, photos, videos and more
Friday, Jan 29
NASA’s Solar Crown Jewel Bolted atop Atlas Rocket
The “Crown Jewel” of NASA’s solar science research fleet, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, was transported from the Astrotech payload processing facility outside KSC to the Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) at Launch Complex 41 in the overnight hours of Jan 26. It’s standard...
Scientists Find Water Ice Creates the Spokes in Saturn's B Ring
The mysterious spokes that sometimes appear in Saturn’s largest ring, the B ring, have been unexplained. But new measurements from Cassini's Visual Infrared Mapping spectrometer (VIMS) suggests the radial spokes that sometimes form across the ring are entirely composed of water ice....
Thursday, Jan 28
President Can't Cut Constellation Without Congressional Approval
With all the speculation currently making the rounds about Obama axing the Constellation program and ending the possibilities of humans returning to the Moon anytime soon, it was brought to our attention by a reader that under the 2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act, H.R. 3288, passed...
Remembering Challenger
Mission Control: "Challenger, go with throttle up" Commander Dick Scobee: "Roger go with throttle up" Those were the last words heard from the Challenger crew on January 28, 1986. Then came an explosion, and the famous "Y" plume of smoke from the solid rocket boosters flying away aimless...
Wednesday, Jan 27
Where is NASA Going? Rumors Fly
Some speculate this could be the end of America's space agency as we know it — we might as well take the "S" out of NASA. © nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Ares, Constellation program, NASA
Kepler Goes Fishing and Reels in Two KOI
By now you've probably heard about the first results from the Kepler mission to find extrasolar planets. Five new exoplanet discoveries were announced recently at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C. Four of the five new planets are larger than Jupiter, about 1.4...
Tuesday, Jan 26
Path clear for STS 130 to attach Tranquility module
Teams up in space and on the ground completed crucial tasks over the weekend to clear the path for attachment of the new Tranquility module to the International Space Station (ISS). Astronauts aboard the ISS removed the last obstacle blocking the path to dock Tranquility to the orbiting o...
Could Mars Dust Be "Levitated" Away?
What could potentially be the biggest problem during a human mission to Mars? One NASA study says, surprisingly, that dust could be the number one risk for both humans and equipment. Human explorers could inhale the extremely fine but rough dust particles causing severe respiratory pro...
Monday, Jan 25
WISE Bags its First Near-Earth Asteroid
Well, that didn't take long: The WISE spacecraft (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) spotted its first near-Earth asteroid on January 12, 2010, two days before the official start of its all-sky survey. That's a pretty good catch, considering WISE just popped it lens cover a couple of...
Saturday, Jan 23
NASA advanced Solar Observatory nearing February launch; will send IMAX like movies daily
SDO and two piece payload fairing inside “clean room” at Astrotech Spaceflight facility near KSC on Jan 21. Fairing protects spacecraft during ascent through earths atmosphere. Credit: Ben Cooper/Spaceflight Now NASA SDO Website
Friday, Jan 22
Tweet Your Way Into Mission Control
Listen up Space Tweeps: you can now Tweet your way to personalized tour of Mission Control at Johnson Space Center during the upcoming STS-130 space shuttle mission. Well, personalized with 99 other Twitterers. NASA is hosting a unique Tweetup on Wednesday, Feb. 17 during Endeavour's STS...
Scientist Discusses Latest Report of Rising Global Temperatures
A new NASA report says the past decade was the warmest ever on Earth. The study analyzed global surface temperatures and also found that 2009 was the second-warmest year on record since modern temperature measurements began in 1880. Last year was only a small fraction of a degree cooler tha...
Cluster Satellite Detects Rifts in Earth's Magnetic Field
While Earth's magnetic field protects our planet from most of the permanent flow of particles from the solar wind, rifts or fissures in natural shield are known to occur, enabling the solar wind to penetrate our near-space environment. An ESA satellite cluster called, appropriately, C...
Asteroid Detection, Deflection Needs More Money, Report Says
Are we ready to act if an asteroid or comet were to pose a threat to our planet? No, says a new report from the National Research Council. Plus, we don't have the resources in place to detect all the possible dangerous objects out there. The report lays out options NASA could follow to detect mor...
ISS Now Has Live Access to the Internet
Talk about a truly 'world-wide' web! As the astronauts aboard the International Space Station orbit Earth at 28,000 kph (17,500 mph) they now have the ultimate wireless connection and direct, live access to the internet. The station received a special software upgrade this week, calle...
Thursday, Jan 21
Endeavour aiming for on time launch with coolant hose fix ahead of schedule
The crew of Endeavour said on Wednesday (Jan 20) that construction of new coolant hoses required to connect the new Tranquility module, or Node 3, to the space station is running ahead of schedule and they are optimistic for an on time launch of the STS 130 mission currently set for Feb 7. [...]
NASA Unveils Personal Aircraft
Forget about jetpacks or flying cars. How about your own personal stealth aircraft? NASA has unveiled the Puffin, an experimental electrically propelled, super-quiet, tilt-rotor, hover-capable one-man aircraft. According to Scientific American, the 3.7-meter-long, 4.1-meter-wi...
Solar Flares Can Now Be Predicted More Accurately
We all like to know in advance what the weather is going to be like, and space weather is no different. However, predicting solar storms from the sun — which can disrupt satellites and even ground-based technologies — has been difficult. But now scientists say magnetic loops breaking insid...
Wednesday, Jan 20
NASA's Bargain Basement Artifact Sale
If you thought obtaining the old Shuttles was cheap, qualified museums, educational institutions and other organizations are able to request over 2,500 artifacts from current and past NASA programs that include the space shuttle, Hubble Space Telescope, Apollo, Mercury and Gemini...
Sunday, Jan 17
If Phoenix Arises, Science could flow quickly
If the miraculous happens and contact is unexpectedly re-established with NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander, science could flow almost instantly if the ships vital operating systems are healthy. Indeed a science plan could be swiftly put in place after determining the condition of the lande...
Friday, Jan 15
Having Your Own Space Shuttle Just Got Cheaper
After the space shuttle program ends, NASA hopes to sell the three slightly used remaining orbiters to educational institutions, science museums or other organizations who could publicly display them. Over a year ago, the space agency put out a request for those interested to submit pr...
End of Shuttle Program Will Slow Florida's Economy
NASA's Space Shuttle, which will make its last flight sometime later this year, has been a boon to the local economy surrounding the Kennedy Space Center, which is located in Cocoa, Florida. The closest county, Brevard, is where many of the workers that help maintain and launch the shuttl...
Thursday, Jan 14
Cocaine Found In Shuttle Processing Facility
A small amount of cocaine was found in a restricted area of the processing hangar for shuttle Discovery at Kennedy Space Center, NASA is launching an extensive investigation into the incident. KSC spokeswoman Lisa Malone said the substance was found by a United Space Alliance worker in a...
Searching for Moon Rocks Here on Earth
Wanted: Moon rocks. Whereabouts: Unknown. Alarmingly, some of our Moon rocks are missing! After the Apollo Moon landings, then-U.S. President Richard Nixon distributed approximately 250 displays containing lunar surface materials from Apollo 11 (1969) to the 50 states and various oth...
Latest from Hubble: Star Formation Fizzling Out in Nearby Galaxy
Read the rest of Latest from Hubble: Star Formation Fizzling Out in Nearby Galaxy (445 words) © nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: dwarf galaxies, galaxies, Hubble, star formation
Wednesday, Jan 13
STS 130 flight pressing forward to launch as NASA resolves coolant hose leak
Caption: Tranquility and Cupola lowered into canister for transport to Launch Pad 39 A. Credit: NASA NASA managers decided on Tuesday (Jan. 12) to press forward towards an on time liftoff target date of Feb 7 for Space Shuttle Endeavour as engineers developed a workaround solution to the a...
Maps of Earthquake and Aftershocks in Haiti
Caption: NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen At 21:53 UTC on January 12, 2010 an earthquake with a magnitude 7.0 struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The US Geological Survey (USGS) says that it was the most violent earthquake to strike the impoverished country in a century, and de...
Monday, Jan 11
Odyssey to Start Listening for Phoenix Lander
Caption: The Phoenix Mars Lander, its backshell and its heatshield are visible within this enhanced-color image of the Phoenix landing site taken on Jan. 6, 2010 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NAS...
Friday, Jan 8
More Saturn System Beauty from Cassini
Caption: Cassini captures Rhea and Saturn's rings. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute The stunning images just keep coming from Cassini. Here's a collection of three recent images. Above, Saturn's moon Rhea teams up with the planet's rings, creating an image that could only come...
Thursday, Jan 7
Opportunity's Vacation at Marquette Island
Caption: Opportunity leaves a mark on the Marquette Island rock on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL/U of AZ, colorization by Stuart Atkinson © nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Mars Rovers, Opportunity Rover
Tuesday, Jan 5
How Common are Solar Systems Like Ours?
Solar system montage. Credit: NASA On the whole, we'd like to think we're special, but we also hope we aren't alone in the Universe. Astronomers have been trying to figure out just how common solar systems like ours are across the cosmos, and during one moment of epiphany one scientist figur...
New Pulsar "Clocks" Will Aid Gravitational Wave Detection
This illustration shows a pulsar's magnetic field (blue) creates narrow beams of radiation (magenta). Image credit: NASA How do you detect a ripple in space-time itself? Well, you need hundreds of precision clocks distributed throughout the galaxy, and the Fermi gamma ray telescope h...
Monday, Jan 4
Moon Rock Will Return to Space Aboard Endeavour
In May of last year, we followed the story of former astronaut Scott Parazynski, as he climbed Mt. Everest to collect a piece of the mountain and test out equipment for NASA. During the climb, Parazynski carried a Moon rock that was brought to the Earth by the Apollo 11 mission. Though the journ...
Stellar Destruction Could Be from Intermediate Black Hole
NGC 1399, an elliptical galaxy about 65 million light years from Earth. Credit: NASA, Chandra A dense stellar remnant has been ripped apart by a black hole a thousand times as massive as the Sun. If confirmed, this discovery would be a cosmic double play: it would be strong evidence for an int...
Friday, Jan 1
Sailing the Seas of Titan
The first interplanetary nautical craft may be a boat to explore the methane seas of Titan. A proposed mission to Titan would explore some of its largest seas, including Ligeia Mare (pictured) or the Kraken Mare, both of which are in the northern hemisphere of the foggy moon of Saturn. The co...
Wednesday, Dec 30
Russia May Head Mission to Deflect Asteroid Apophis
Russia is considering sending a spacecraft to deflect a large asteroid and prevent a possible collision with Earth, according to a radio interview by the head of the country's space agency. Anatoly Perminov said the space agency will hold a meeting soon to assess a mission to Apophis, and...
Tuesday, Dec 29
Where To Next for NASA's Solar System Exploration?
Where is NASA going next to probe our solar system? The space agency announced today they have selected three proposals as candidates for the agency's next space venture to another celestial body in our solar system. The proposed missions would probe the atmosphere and crust of Venus; re...
New Horizons Spacecraft Now Closer to Pluto Than Earth
The New Horizons spacecraft crossed a milestone boundary today: it is now closer to its primary destination, Pluto, than to Earth. But New Horizons –the fastest man-made object — is not yet halfway to the dwarf planet. That won't happen until February 25, 2010. New Horizons is now 1,440 days...
Thursday, Dec 24
ISS “Iron Chef” Recalls Holiday Cooking in Space
Last year at this time, astronaut Sandy Magnus was living on board the International Space Station. When the holidays were approaching in 2008, Magnus decided it was time to spice things up a bit in the culinary department in space. “When you think about it, food is an important part of our li...
Controversial Image from SkyAlert Hints at Multiple Santas in the Early Universe
Normally, SkyAlert collects and distributes reports of astronomical transients in near-real time, such as supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, cataclysmic variables and blazar eruptions. You can even get alerts of these events via Twitter or Facebook. But starting this morning, Dec 24, th...
Wednesday, Dec 23
May Visions of Saturn's Moons Dance in Your Head
Moons dancing around Saturn. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute The Cassini CICLOPS imaging team has released some new movies of several moons orbiting Saturn as if in a cosmic ballet around the ringed planet. In one scene that blends 12 images taken over the span of 19 minutes, Rhe...
Blue Stragglers Can Be Either Vampires or Stellar Bad-Boys
Messier 30, from HST's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Credit: NASA, ESA and Francesco Ferraro (University of Bologna © nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Blue Stragglers, Hubble Space Telescope
Tuesday, Dec 22
Engineers Find Fixes For Potential Thrust Oscillation Problem on Ares
Will the Ares rocket stay or will it go? For now, no one knows, but NASA engineers have developed multiple options for "de-tuning" the Ares I rocket to prevent any problematic thrust oscillations that could potentially expose astronauts to dangerous levels of vibrations as the rocket c...
Sunday, Dec 20
Soyuz Blasts off with International Crew to build out ISS
An international crew of three astronauts and cosmonauts blasted off Sunday (Dec 20) at 4:52 PM EST in a Russian capsule from the bone chilling Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The crew aboard the Soyuz TMA-17 capsule comprises Russia...
Friday, Dec 18
Latest Buzz: NASA to Get Bigger Budget and New Launcher
OK, I guess I was wrong yesterday when I said nothing happened during the meeting between President Obama and NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden. Science News has now published this: President Barack Obama will ask Congress next year to fund a new heavy-lift launcher to take humans to the...
Thursday, Dec 17
Earth's Upper Atmosphere is Cooling
New measurements from a NASA satellite show a dramatic cooling in the upper atmosphere that correlates with the declining activity of the current solar cycle. For the first time, researchers can show a timely link between the Sun and the climate of Earth's thermosphere, the region above...
Cassini Captures Sunshine Gleaming off Lake on Titan
Yes, it's all true. The Cassini Spacecraft has captured the first flash of sunlight reflected off a lake on Saturn's moon Titan, confirming the presence of liquid on the part of the moon dotted with many large, lake-shaped basins. Read the rest of Cassini Captures Sunshine Gleaming off Lak...
Obama and Bolden Meet. So What Happened?
US President Barack Obama’s met with NASA administrator Charlie Bolden on Wednesday at the White House. What happened? Not much, as far as anyone can tell. The meeting was short, and no real details have emerged of what might have been discussed or decided. “The two spoke about the Administr...
Wednesday, Dec 16
Giant Iceberg Still Heading for Australia (Satellite Images)
Iceberg B17-B Adrift Off the Southwestern Coast of Australia as seen on Dec. 11, 2009. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory © nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Earth Observation, icebergs
Hubble Finds Smallest Kuiper Belt Object Ever Seen
Artists impression of a small KBO detected by Hubble as it transited a star. Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI) Like finding a needle in a haystack, the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the smallest object ever seen in visible light in the Kuiper Belt. While Hubble didn't image this...
Friday, Dec 11
Fermi Spies Energetic Blazar Flare
A comparison of the Fermi images from November 3rd and December 2nd of this year, showing the brightening of 3C 454.3. Image Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration © nick for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Thursday, Dec 10
Earth's Atmosphere Came from Outer Space
A new study finds the gases which formed the Earth's atmosphere – as well as its oceans – did not come from inside the Earth but from comets and meteorites hitting Earth during the Late Heavy Bombardment period. A research team tested volcanic gases to uncover the new evidence. "We found a cle...
Tuesday, Dec 8
Exoplanet Not Really There?
This artist's concept shows the smallest star known to host a planet. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech In May 2009, astronomers were jubilant: finally, an extra solar planet had been found by using the method of astrometry. That's great, except, they may not have found a planet after all. Re...
Friday, Oct 23
Opinion: Ares I-X Test Flight is Go For Oct. 27 (Video)
Following a flight test readiness review, NASA has given the 'all systems go' for the Ares I-X maiden test flight on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 8 a.m. EDT from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "I am proud of the work this team has done to ready this test rocket for launch," said [...]
Thursday, Apr 16
Opinion: NASA Weighing Debris Hit Risk for Hubble Repair Mission
There’s good news and bad news for the upcoming Hubble repair mission. The good news is that the statistical threat posed to space shuttle Atlantis and her crew by micro-meteoroid orbiting debris (MMOD) is currently no greater than last year, even with the collision of two satellites in F...
Wednesday, Feb 18
New Recipe for Dwarf Galaxies: Start with Leftover Gas
NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer reveals, for the first time, dwarf galaxies forming out of nothing more than pristine gas likely leftover from the early universe. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DSS Apparently, dwarf galaxies can spring out of thin air.
Thursday, Dec 29
Podcast: Universe Today - Gravity Tractor Beam for Asteroids
Forget about nuclear weapons, if you need to move a dangerous asteroid, you should use a tractor beam. Think that's just Star Trek science? Think again. A team of NASA astronauts have recently published a paper in the Journal Nature. They're proposing an interesting strategy that would use...
Thursday, Jun 30
Podcast: Universe Today - Interview with Story Musgrave
How many times have I been to space? Well, I lost count at, oh, none. So I, and nearly every other human being on Earth can't compare with Story Musgrave, a legendary NASA astronaut who flew on the space shuttle six times, including leading the team that fixed the Hubble Space Telescope's vis...
Tuesday, Jun 7
Podcast: Universe Today - Homing Beacon for an Asteroid
Asteroids have been roughing up the Earth since it formed 4.6 billion years ago. Hundreds of thousands of potentially devastating asteroids are still out there, and whizzing past our planet all the time. Eventually, inevitably, one is going to score a direct hit and cause catastrophic dam...
Thursday, May 12
Podcast: Universe Today - NASA Tests a Solar Sail
Imagine a solar powered sail that could propel a space craft through the vacuum of space like a wind that drives a sail here on Earth. The energy of photons steaming from the Sun alone would provide the thrust. NASA and other space agencies are taking the idea seriously and are working on vario...
Thursday, Apr 14
Podcast: Universe Today - Best Spot for a Lunar Base
In case you missed the news, NASA is headed back to the Moon in the next decade. A permanent lunar base could be down the road, so scientists are starting to consider where we should build. Ben Bussey, with Johns Hopkins University in Maryland likes the Moon's North Pole. It's got everything yo...
