Latest science news in Astronomy & Space
Cassini captures ghostly dance of Saturn's northern lights
In the first video showing the auroras above the northern latitudes of Saturn, Cassini has spotted the tallest known "northern lights" in the solar system, flickering in shape and brightness...
Mars Reconnaissance Orbite Team Plans Uplink of Protective Files
(PhysOrg.com) -- The team operating NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter plans to uplink protective files to the spacecraft next week as one step toward resuming the orbiter's research and relay activities.
U.S. losing its lead in space, experts warn Congress
America's once clear dominance in space is eroding as other nations, including China, Iran and North Korea, step up their activities, a panel of experts told the House subcommittee on...
Five Tips For Particle Physics Ph. D. Wannabes - Part II
This is the second part of a two-part collection of tips for particle physics graduate students. The first part is here.Three: be a fool today if you want to be...
Infrared Image of Circumstellar Disk Illuminates Massive Star Formation Process
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of astronomers from Ibaraki University, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Kanagawa University, University of Tokyo, Academica Sinica, and National Astronomical Observatory of Japan have used the Subaru...
NASA Assessing New Roles for Ailing QuikScat Satellite
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA mission managers are assessing options for future operations of the venerable QuikScat satellite following the age-related failure of a mechanism that spins the scatterometer antenna. This spinning...
Numerous "Tramp" Stars Adrift in Intergalactic Space Could Await Discovery
Take a look up in the night sky. Whether on a mountaintop, largely unfazed by light pollution, or wedged in the heart of a muddied-sky metropolis, thank your lucky stars...
NASA Releases Climate Change Multimedia Resource Reel
In advance of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, NASA has released a new multimedia climate change "resource reel" showcasing free downloadable videos, data visualizations, animations, and still...
GPS bolsters view that big Cascadia quakes could hit inland
Satellite tracking hones picture of fault dynamics
First Neutrino Events Observed at T2K Near Detector
(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists from the Japanese-led multi-national T2K neutrino collaboration announced today that over the weekend they detected the first events generated by their newly built neutrino beam at the...
Ep. 3: Giants in the Depths - The Biggest Black Holes
Super-powerful galactic overlords rearrange the contours of space itself in their local neighborhoods. Their blast-waves heat up - and hollow out - hundreds of thousands of light years of interstellar...
Ep. 2: How Black Holes Got Supermassive
Which came first: Galaxies? Or the big black holes at their centers? Evidence from the Hubble Space Telescope's Deep Field images is persuasive.
NASA to telecast ISS crew's Soyuz landing
HOUSTON, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- NASA says it will televise the events surrounding the landing of three International Space Station crew members who will return to Earth next month.
NASA honors astronaut Fred Haise Jr.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- NASA says it will honor astronaut Fred Haise Jr. by presenting him with the space agency's Ambassador of Exploration Award.
Cassini's big sky: View from the center of our solar system
NASA's Cassini spacecraft is helping to rewrite our understanding of the shape of our solar system as it moves through the local Milky Way galaxy. Previous models pictured our solar...
First black holes may have incubated in giant, starlike cocoons, says CU-Boulder study
The first large black holes in the universe likely formed and grew deep inside gigantic, starlike cocoons that smothered their powerful x-ray radiation and prevented surrounding gases from being blown...
New dad-in-space: Focusing on shuttle job easy
NASA's new dad in space, shuttle astronaut Randolph Bresnik, said Tuesday he had no problems focusing on his job while awaiting his daughter's birth.
Is Case Finally Closed on 1965 Pennsylvania 'UFO Mystery'?
The mystery of an acorn-shaped object that fell from the sky still intrigues the masses.
Play 'Cosmic Slot Machine' and Help Astronomers
Website lets users play cosmic slot machine to match up modeled galaxy mergers with real ones.
The 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower
The 2009 Leonid meteor shower peaks on Nov. 17th with a sprinkling of meteors over North America and a possible outburst over Asia.
Can Spirit be Freed?
On Monday, NASA will begin transmitting commands to its Mars exploration rover Spirit as part of an escape plan to free the venerable robot from its Martian sand trap.
LCROSS Finds Water on the Moon
The argument that the Moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water. At a press conference today, researchers revealed data from NASA's LCROSS mission indicating that water...
SOFIA Seeks Secrets of Planetary Birth
Imagine cutting retractable doors in the side of a 747 airliner, installing a 17-ton telescope, and flying to the stratosphere to solve one of astronomy's greatest puzzles. That's what NASA...
The universe's past, in close up
Three giant telescopes, many times stronger than any today, will allow scientists to study the processes that created today's mature cosmos of planetary systems, stars, galaxies and galaxy clusters. TUCSON - If there...
Wise a Bit Closer to the Sky
NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or Wise, is now perched atop its rocket in preparations for a Dec. 9 liftoff.
The Crab Nebula: Energy for 100,000 Suns
(PhysOrg.com) -- A star's spectacular death in the constellation Taurus was observed on Earth as the supernova of 1054 A.D.
Jeff Bezos' Secretive Rocket Program Picks Science Projects
Blue Origin announced that it has picked three research payloads to fly on the New Shepard suborbital vehicle.
Lightning’s gamma rays may destroy matter
A satellite dispatched to scout out high-energy gamma rays streaming from the cosmos found that not only were flashes of gamma rays oddly close to home, but they were also...