Latest science news in Astronomy & Space
DNA double helix: how James Watson and Francis Crick cracked the secret of life – video
Dr Mark Hirst and Prof Robert Budd discuss how Crick and Watson made their landmark discovery 60 years ago this week
Cargo Ship Overcomes Glitch, Docks to Space Station | Video
The Russian Progress 51 automatically docked to the the ISS's Zvezda Service Module on April 26th, 2013. A navigational antenna did not diploy shortly after launch but mission controllers...
Mysterious Hot Spots Observed In Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse is visible to nighttime viewers as the bright, red star on the shoulder of Orion the Hunter. The star itself is huge, 1,000 times larger than our Sun, but...
NASA Probes Near Sun Safe from Triple Solar Eruption
NASA's Messenger and Stereo-A space probes were not affected by three back-to-back solar storms, scientists say.
Space History Photo: Apollo 8 Recovery
Swimmers prepare the command module to be hoisted aboard the U.S.S. Yorktown.
Researchers at IceCube detect record energy neutrinos
(Phys.org) —Researchers at the Antarctic research station IceCube are reporting that they've detected the highest ever energy neutrinos ever observed. In their paper they've uploaded to the preprint server arXiv,...
Nothing bugs these NASA aeronautical researchers
(Phys.org) —NASA's gutsiest scientists say they don't get bugged no matter what kind of sticky situation they find themselves smashed into. The preceding dose of hyperbole is brought to...
TRAPPIST participated in the detection of ten percent of all transiting exoplanets known to date
Among the many planets detected orbiting other stars (exoplanets) over the last twenty years, a little less than three hundred periodically pass in front of their star. This is what...
Space station communications test bed checks out—experiments begin
(Phys.org) —NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) test bed has begun its experiments after completing its checkout on the International Space Station.
NASA invites the public to fly along with Voyager
(Phys.org) —A gauge on the Voyager home page, http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov, tracks levels of two of the three key signs scientists believe will appear when the spacecraft leave our solar neighborhood and...
Against-the-clock rehearsal for Station immunology test
Simply getting anything into space is tough, but doing so against a strict deadline can be really stressful. Researchers in an ESA laboratory nervously checked the clock as they extracted...
Mars stereo view from 'John Klein' to Mount Sharp—raw
(Phys.org) —Left and right eyes of the Navigation Camera (Navcam) in NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took the dozens of images combined into this stereo scene of the rover and its...
Scientists detect 'dark lightning' energy burst linked to visible lightning
Researchers have identified a burst of high-energy radiation known as 'dark lightning" immediately preceding a flash of ordinary lightning. The new finding provides observational evidence that the two phenomena are...
Private Asteroid-Mining Project Launching Tiny Satellites in 2014
Planetary Resources hopes to loft a set of cubesats to Earth orbit by this time next year.
NASA chief: Visiting an asteroid is all agency can afford
A NASA plan to send astronauts to an asteroid was met with skepticism Wednesday when NASA Chief Charlie Bolden presented the idea to top space officials in Congress - though...
Penises on Mars? Grow Up, Internet
The photo shows the Spirit Mars rover's efforts to turn around, not amuse its handlers.
Dying stars may still host habitable planets, astronomer say
TEL AVIV, Israel, April 24 (UPI) -- White dwarfs are dying stars that will eventually cool and fade away but evidence suggests they can still support habitable planets, scientists...
Seven days: 19–25 April 2013
This week in science: Ricin-laced letters sent to politicians; Antares rocket completes its maiden test flight; and Nobel laureate François Jacob dies.Nature 496 402 doi: 10.1038/496402a
Big Pic: There's A Penis Drawing On Mars, You Guys
Opportunity's Tracks NASACommence giggling We did it, everyone! A space program decades in the making has culminated with this: a penis on the surface of Mars. An intrepid Reddit user spotted...
Professor works to shrink error margins in US census data
A person searching through the massive expanse of data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau in search of details about a specific neighborhood may increasingly find statistics with colossal margins...
Robot helper to aid field engineers
A robotic sidekick could soon be helping field engineers fix faulty equipment in remote and unfamiliar locations.
'Standard candle' supernova extraordinarily magnified by gravitational lensing
A team of researchers at the Kavli IPMU led by Robert Quimby has identified what may prove to be the first ever Type Ia supernova (SNIa) magnified by a strong...
The SPHERES have eyes
(Phys.org) —It looks like something out of a sci-fi movie...free-formation-flying robotic spheres hovering around the International Space Station with goggles on. The Visual Estimation and Relative Tracking for Inspection of...
How the Hubble Space Telescope Works (Infographic)
Find out how Hubble has stayed on the cutting edge of deep-space astronomy for the past 20 years.
Wanted: volunteers to spend life on Mars
The CEO of Mars One, Bas Lansdorp, launches a search for volunteers to spend the rest of their lives on Mars
Cosmonauts May Carry Olympic Torch and 'Flame' on Spacewalk
The 2014 Sochi Olympic torch will fly to the International Space Station.
Eugene Cernan: Last Man on the Moon
Eugene Cernan, the last Apollo astronaut to walk on the moon, left something behind: his daughter's initials in the dust.
Oldest man to walk in space: 59-year-old Russian cosmonaut
Russian cosmonaut breaks a record for the oldest person to take a spacewalk