Space
Spacecraft casts doubt on alleged culprit for dinosaur extinction
September 20, 2011 5:37 am | News | CommentsWhile scientists are confident a large asteroid ended the age of dinosaurs about 65 million years ago, they don’t exactly where the asteroid originated or how it arrived at Earth. New findings from NASA’s WISE mission have probably ruled out a popular candidate for the impact: the remains of the huge asteroid Baptistina.
Black hole, star collisions may illuminate universe's dark side
September 19, 2011 9:57 am | News | CommentsScientists looking to capture evidence of dark matter may find a helpful tool in the recent work of researchers from Princeton University and New York University. The team unveiled a ready-made method for detecting the collision of stars with an elusive type of black hole that is on the short list of objects believed to make up dark matter.
Small distant galaxies host supermassive black holes
September 15, 2011 9:30 am | News | CommentsUsing the Hubble Space Telescope to probe the distant universe, astronomers have found supermassive black holes growing in surprisingly small galaxies. The findings suggest that central black holes formed at an early stage in galaxy evolution.
NASA Mars research helps find buried water on Earth
September 15, 2011 5:32 am | News | CommentsA NASA-led team has used radar sounding technology developed to explore the subsurface of Mars to create high-resolution maps of freshwater aquifers buried deep beneath an Earth desert, in the first use of airborne sounding radar for aquifer mapping. The research may help scientists better locate and map Earth's desert aquifers, understand current and past hydrological conditions in Earth's deserts, and assess how climate change is impacting them.
Chemists help astronauts make sure their drinking water is clean
September 15, 2011 5:00 am | News | CommentsResearchers from Iowa State University and the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory have developed chemistry and procedures that astronauts can use to test the quality of their drinking water at the International Space Station. The testing technology is now considered operational hardware at the space station. Astronauts will begin using refinements to the tests in late September.
Dark matter packs a punch
September 14, 2011 9:53 am | News | CommentsAccording to research, University of California, Irvine astronomers have shown how the Milky Way galasy's iconic spiral arms form. A dwarf galaxy named Sagittarius loaded with dark matter has carrened twice through our much larger home galaxy in the past two billion years, according to telescope data.
Star blasts planet with X-rays
September 13, 2011 9:51 am | News | CommentsA nearby star is pummeling a companion planet with a barrage of X-rays a hundred thousand times more intense than the Earth receives from the sun. New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope suggest that high-energy radiation is evaporating about 5 million tons of matter from the planet every second. This result gives insight into the difficult survival path for some planets.
Did intense magnetic fields form shortly after the Big Bang?
September 13, 2011 5:27 am | News | CommentsIntense magnetic fields were probably generated in the universe shortly after the Big Bang, according to an international team led by CRAL. The project offers the first explanation for the presence of intergalactic and interstellar magnetized gas.
Astronomers find extreme weather on an alien world
September 12, 2011 9:06 am | News | CommentsA University of Toronto-led team of astronomers has observed extreme brightness changes on a nearby brown dwarf that may indicate a storm grander than any seen yet on a planet. Because old brown dwarfs and giant planets have similar atmospheres, this finding could shed new light on weather phenomena of extra-solar planets.
Invisible world discovered
September 9, 2011 5:27 am | News | CommentsUsually, running five minutes late is a bad thing. But when a planet runs five minutes late, astronomers get excited because it suggests that another world is nearby. NASA's Kepler spacecraft has spotted a planet that alternately runs late and early in its orbit because a second, "invisible" world is tugging on it.
Wind delays NASA launch of twin moon spacecraft
September 8, 2011 5:45 am | by Marcia Dunn, AP Aerospace Writer | News | CommentsHigh wind has forced a one-day launch delay for NASA's newest moon spacecraft. An unmanned rocket was supposed to blast off from Cape Canaveral today with the twin probes. But the countdown was halted because of gusty wind in the flight path.
MIT-led GRAIL lunar mission scheduled to launch
September 8, 2011 4:55 am | by John Tylko, MIT News correspondent | News | CommentsToday's expected launch of NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) twin spacecraft, a carefully choreographed mission to precisely map the moon's gravitational field, could help scientists understand fundamental questions about the moon's composition, internal structure, and evolution.
NASA spacecraft observes new characteristics of solar flares
September 8, 2011 4:40 am | News | CommentsNASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is carrying a suite of instruments including a $32 million University of Colorado Boulder package, has provided scientists with new information that energy from some solar flares is stronger and lasts longer than previously thought.
Our galaxy might hold thousands of ticking 'time bombs'
September 7, 2011 4:53 am | News | CommentsIn the Hollywood blockbuster "Speed," a bomb on a bus is rigged to blow up if the bus slows down below 50 miles per hour. The premise makes for a great action movie plot, and also happens to have a cosmic equivalent. New research shows that some old stars might be held up by their rapid spins, and when they slow down, they explode as supernovae.
Space junk littering orbit; might need cleaning up
September 2, 2011 8:04 am | by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsAccording to some experts, we’ve lost control of the environment in Earth’s orbit. There are 22,000 objects in orbit that are big enough to track and countless more smaller ones, anyone on of which could do damage to human-carrying spaceships and valuable satellites. The problem now is how to pick up the pieces.
Louisiana Tech, NASA partner to conduct zero-gravity experiments
September 2, 2011 7:26 am | News | CommentsResearchers from Louisiana Tech University will be floating high above the Gulf of Mexico this month to conduct zero-gravity testing of an experimental DNA analysis instrument developed at Tech that could benefit future NASA astronauts.
Hubble movies reveal solar-system-sized traffic jams
September 2, 2011 4:15 am | News | CommentsWhen it comes to big-budget action movies, a Rice University astronomer prefers Hubble to Hollywood. Using Hubble Space Telescope images collected over 14 years, Patrick Hartigan has created time-lapse movies that offer astronomers their first glimpse of the dynamic behavior of stellar jets, huge torrents of gas, and particles that spew from the poles of newborn stars.
Mars rover Opportunity examining rocks at new site
September 1, 2011 8:10 am | by Alicia Chang, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsSnapping pictures like a tourist, NASA’s solar-powered rover is beaming back images of the horizon, soil, and rocks unlike any it has seen during its seven years roaming the Martian plains. At the western rim of the crater Endeavour, Opportunity has a few more missions to complete.
New discovery sheds light on the ecosystem of young galaxies
August 30, 2011 6:17 am | News | CommentsA team of scientists, led by Michael Rauch from the Carnegie Observatories, has discovered a distant galaxy that may help elucidate two fundamental questions of galaxy formation: How galaxies take in matter and how they give off energetic radiation.
NASA: Space station may be evacuated by late November
August 29, 2011 12:41 pm | by Marcia Dunn, AP Aerospace Writer | News | CommentsAstronauts may need to temporarily abandon the International Space Station this fall if last week's Russian launch accident prevents new crews from flying, a NASA official said Monday. Russia’s Soyuz rockets remain grounded after a failed upper stage, which is similar to what’s used to launch astronauts, was destroyed last week.
NASA satellite images Irene, one-third size of East Coast
August 26, 2011 5:56 am | by Rob Gutro, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center | News | CommentsThe first major hurricane threat to the Northeast since 1985, Hurricane Irene is, as of mid-day Friday, a Category 2 storm with sustained winds around 115 mph and a pressure down to approximately 951 millibars. NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer is tracking the storm.
Astrophysicists identify missing fuel for galactic star formation
August 26, 2011 5:21 am | News | CommentsAccording to astrophysicists from the University of Notre Dame, the Milky Way will have the fuel to continue forming stars, thanks to massive clouds of ionized gas raining down from its halo and intergalactic space.
Scientists discover an 'instant cosmic classic' supernova
August 26, 2011 4:17 am | News | CommentsA supernova discovered Wednesday, August 24, 2011, is closer to Earth—approximately 21 million light-years away—than any other of its kind in a generation. Astronomers believe they caught the supernova within hours of its explosion, a rare feat made possible with a specialized survey telescope and computational tools.
First glimpse into birth of the Milky Way
August 25, 2011 5:55 am | News | CommentsFor almost 20 years astrophysicists have been trying to recreate the formation of spiral galaxies such as our Milky Way realistically. Now astrophysicists from the University of Zurich present the world's first realistic simulation of the formation of our home galaxy together with astronomers from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Distant black hole discovered devouring a sun-like star
August 24, 2011 10:14 am | News | CommentsTwo studies provide new insights into a cosmic accident that has been streaming X-rays toward Earth since late March. The X-rays are being produced by a distant black hole as it slowly devours a Sun-like star.
