Latest science news in Astronomy & Space
Image: Fires in Central America
On April 11, 2013, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Mexico and Central America, and acquired this true-color image of dozens of fires burning...
NASA's asteroid initiative benefits from rich history
NASA's FY2014 budget proposal includes a plan to robotically capture a small near-Earth asteroid and redirect it safely to a stable orbit in the Earth-moon system where astronauts can visit...
Zone of silence: Testing satellite antennas
(Phys.org) —Satellite engineers learn to get used to the weirdly hushed interior of the Compact Payload Test Range in ESA's ESTEC technical centre area, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. In this...
Explosive crater twins on Mars
(Phys.org) —Dramatic underground explosions, perhaps involving ice, are responsible for the pits inside these two large martian impact craters, imaged by ESA's Mars Express on 4 January.
Sun Unleashes Biggest Solar Flare of the Year Yet
The powerful solar flare erupted from the sun at 3:16 a.m. ET on Thursday, April 11.
U.S. scientists find no link between solar activity, earthquakes
WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- Researchers at the United States Geological Survey say they've disproved a long-held belief that solar activity can be linked to increased earthquake activity.
Image: Fires in the Yucatan Peninsula
Dozens of red hot spots cluster at the tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. To the south, fires also speckle the neck of the Yucatan, Guatemala, and Belize. Each hot spot,...
Europe sets June 5 for launch of space freighter
The European Space Agency (ESA) on Thursday announced it would launch the fourth, and heaviest, in a series of hi-tech cargo vehicles to the International Space Station (ISS) on June...
"Dark Lightning" sparks call for more earth gazing satellites
"Dark Lightning" is invisible to the naked eye, but in rare conditions can expose airplane passengers to radiation
Inside NASA's Plan to Catch an Asteroid (Bruce Willis Not Required)
The mission is in its early stages, but some details are already emerging.
Math method to simulate evolution of solar system improved
In order to improve a simulation designed to study the evolution of the solar system through time, numerical mathematical methods have been developed at the Computing Faculty of the University...
Shaking ExoMars
Space science image of the week: the ExoMars Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module undergoes vibration tests at ESA’s ESTEC test centre
Space underwater
Human spaceflight and operations image of the week: ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet spacewalk training underwater
ESA's Proba family
A new video profiles ESA's Proba family of minisatellites. Proba-V, the latest addition, will be launched on 2 May
Tell-tale evidence of bouncing boulders on Mars
What are the types of things that happen on Mars when we're not looking? Some things we'll never know, but scientists with the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter...
A ray of light thrown on 60-year-old mystery
The unexpected capture of a rare ray found only in a small region off South Australia could help marine scientists validate the existence of the elusive magpie fiddler ray (Trygonorrhina...
Iowa State, Argonne Physicist Preparing for First Neutrino Data From NOvA Experiment
When the NOvA experiment begins sending a beam of neutrinos on a 500-mile journey this summer, Iowa State University physicists will be in the middle of the research action. The...
Physicists and astronaut discuss cosmic ray detector's findings of possible signs of dark matter
Two MIT physicists and an alumnus who's a NASA astronaut spoke on campus earlier this week, describing an experiment that's been 18 years in the making and yielded its first...
Discovery of a blue supergiant star born in the wild
A duo of astronomers, Dr. Youichi Ohyama (Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica or ASIAA, Taiwan) and Dr. Ananda Hota (UM-DAE Centre for Excellence in the Basic Sciences or...
Moon Base Over Asteroid? Lawmakers Push for Lunar Landing by 2022
The REAL Space Act would help safeguard American leadership in space, its sponsors say.
Color printing at highest resolution possible enabled by use of arrays of metal-coated nanostructures
Commercial laser printers typically produce pin-sharp images with spots of ink about 20 micrometers apart, resulting in a resolution of 1,200 dots per inch (dpi). By shrinking the separation to...
WH seeks funds for NASA to start work on asteroid capture
Request is part of $17.7B administration budget proposal for space agency for fiscal 2014
Telescope captures image of dying star
MUNICH, Germany, April 10 (UPI) -- European astronomers have released an image of a star 3,300 light-years from Earth seen putting on a show of color and light as...
NASA Associate Administrator on Asteroid Initiative
The following are statements from the associate administrators of three NASA directorates.
Satellite shelved after 2000 election to now fly
President Barack Obama is proposing dusting off and finally launching an old environmental satellite championed by Al Gore but shelved a dozen years by his 2000 rival George W. Bush.
One Year Of the Sun | Time-Lapse Video
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) captures imagery in 3 different wavelengths - 171, 193 and 211 angstroms. Data from 2012 are here overlaid.
Lego Rovers head to NASA's International Space Apps Challenge
A system that imitates navigation of a space rover, originally intended for use in North West schools, will become part of NASA's International Space Apps Challenge later this month.
FYI: What Would It Feel Like To Travel At Warp Speed?
Warp Speeding Everett CollectionIt wouldn't feel like much of anything. If it were really possible to build a warp drive, using it wouldn't make you fly back into your seat as in...