Latest science news in Astronomy & Space
Bears RB Matt Forte has MCL sprain
The Sports Xchange Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte said Friday that he suffered a sprained MCL in his right knee during the contest against Minnesota on Nov. 1.
Why we need a new definition of the word 'planet'
Is it time for a new definition of "planet"? UCLA astronomer and planetary scientist Jean-Luc Margot says the answer is yes. The current definition was decreed by the International Astronomical...
Week’s Best Space Pictures: Mars' Moon Phobos Slowly Crumbling
Winter comes roaring in on Saturn's moon Titan while a dead star rips apart a wandering asteroid.
Psychedelic Pluto pic is a groovy space trip
New false color image puts a disco spin on the far-out dwarf planet
Team maps gas emissions from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft began orbiting comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August 2014, providing the closest and most detailed look at a comet to date. Now, a team led by...
Mercury gets a meteoroid shower from Comet Encke
The planet Mercury is being pelted regularly by bits of dust from an ancient comet, a new study has concluded. This has a discernible effect in the planet's tenuous atmosphere...
Space Elevator Concept Stars in 'Sky Line' Documentary
Going up? Attention space elevator button pushers! A feature-length documentary called Sky Line is being released this month, an impressive view that follows a group of scientists and entrepreneurs as...
Largest Object in Asteroid Belt May Have Come From Elsewhere
Ammonia detected on Ceres’ surface suggests a cold birth beyond Neptune’s orbit.
Dust, iron, life: How atmospheric dust prepped Earth for life
Dust begets life, and Earth's atmosphere 300 million years ago was perhaps the dustiest of all time, with large consequences for carbon cycling and the climate system. In a new...
Medicines do not seem to degrade faster in space
The results of an opportunistic, pilot-scale study led by Virginia Wotring of the Center for Space Medicine and Department of Pharmacology at Baylor College of Medicine in the U.S. suggest...
Raytheon delivers 200th AESA radar for F-15 fighter
Richard TomkinsEL SEGUNDO, Calif., Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Another F-15 receives active electronically scanned array radar from Raytheon.
Google Maps rolls out offline search and directions
Tomas MonzonMOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Google upgraded its Maps app for Android devices to include offline search and directions capabilities.
Terminally ill 'Star Wars' fan Daniel Fleetwood dies
Marilyn MalaraSPRING, Texas, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Daniel Fleetwood, one of the first fans to watch the entirety of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens,' died from cell sarcoma cancer Tuesday....
Doomed quasar is heading for a powerful explosion
(Phys.org)—PKS 1302-102 is one of the few known quasars with a pair of black holes within its accretion disc. It is also a curious case for astronomers as it will...
Largest ensemble simulation of global weather using real-world data
Using the powerful K computer, scientists have run an enormous global weather simulation. They ran 10,240 simulations of a model of the global atmosphere divided into 112-km sectors, and then...
EU looks beyond borders for energy
Daniel J. GraeberBRUSSELS, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- Some of the key pillars to strengthening energy security in the European Union lie beyond the bloc's borders, a European energy official said...
Mars will come to fear my botany powers
NASA seems to believe that making space habitable will require more finesse than Elon Musk's "let's nuke Mars" plan, and has funded a couple of synbio projects which seek to...
Opportunity rover driving between 'lily pads' in search of Martian sun and science
Just shy of an unfathomable 4200 Sols traversing ravishing alien terrain on the Red Planet, the longest living 'Martian' – NASA's robot 'Opportunity' – is driving between "lily pads" down...
Will we contaminate Europa?
Europa is probably the best place in the solar system to go searching for life. But before they're launched, any spacecraft we send will need to be squeaky clean so...
20,000-year-old Taurid meteor puts on a show in Saskatchewan
University of Saskatchewan astronomer Stan Shadick has some background info on Sunday night's meteor sighting.
Frozen cones on Pluto—the first discovery of ice volcanoes?
Ice volcanoes have shaped my life, and until today I didn't even know if they actually existed. Now, thanks to NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, there's a good chance we've...
What's it like to see auroras on other planets?
Witnessing an aurora first-hand is a truly awe-inspiring experience. The natural beauty of the northern or southern lights captures the public imagination unlike any other aspect of space weather. But...
Seattle's Space Needle gets an upgrade for the digital age
Breathtaking view from the "Halo Walk" - 520 feet off the ground - is now available to all, thanks to technology
Got Milky Way? Cows Surprise Skywatcher During Night Sky Photo Shoot
Skywatcher Stephen Ippolito captured this image of the Milky Way over some friendly cows was taken in New Hampshire on Sept. 11, 2015.
Image: Layers and fractures in Ophir Chasma, Mars
Ophir Chasma forms the northern portion of the vast Mars canyon system Valles Marineris, and this image, acquired on Aug. 10, 2015, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)...
UPI Almanac for Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015
By United Press International On Nov. 10, 1982, Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev died at age 75 after 18 years in power.
NASA, partners track rain, snow in soggy Washington
Using everything from a customized DC-8 jetliner to ground radars to four-inch rain gauges, scientists are fanning out across one of the soggiest places in the United States this month...
One year after comet touchdown, what's next for Philae?
A year ago on Thursday, the world held its collective breath as a European spacecraft dropped a tiny robot lab onto the surface of a comet hurtling towards the Sun.