Latest science news in Astronomy & Space
Japan's IKAROS Solar Sail Mission Extended for a Year
TOKYO—Success is paying off for Japan's IKAROS solar sail mission: The team behind the...
Mock Mars Mission Crew Prepares to 'Land' on Red Planet
As a mock mission to Mars nears its halfway point, astronauts are preparing for a simulated "landing" on the Red Planet.
New images of martian moon released
PARIS, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- The European Space Agency has released close-up portraits of Mars's moon Phobos, taken as the ESA Mars Express spacecraft flew within 60 miles of...
Voyager celebrates 25 years since Uranus visit
(PhysOrg.com) -- As NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft made the only close approach to date of our mysterious seventh planet Uranus 25 years ago, Project Scientist Ed Stone and the Voyager...
Cosmonauts perform 27th russian space station spacewalk
Two Russian cosmonauts ventured outside the International Space Station on Jan. 21 to complete installation of a new high-speed data transmission system, remove an old plasma pulse experiment, install a...
A Bird's Eye View of Saturn and its Neighbors
Gallery: Cassini's Orbital Mission to Saturn Sends Back a New Trove of Amazing Images
Cosmic dust busters aim to clear stellar views
Cosmic dust is fogging up attempts to study light left over from the Big Bang, and Canadian scientists aim to clear up the problem.
Censoring Mars
Over at the Journal of Cosmology, an engaging open journal I've discussed before, there is a controversy over their book, "The Human Mission to Mars: Colonizing the Red Planet". Namely,...
Swift survey finds 'missing' active galaxies
Seen in X-rays, the entire sky is aglow. Even far away from bright sources, X-rays originating from beyond our galaxy provide a steady glow in every direction. Astronomers have long...
NASA prepares to launch next Earth-observing satellite mission
NASA's newest Earth-observing research mission is nearing launch. The Glory mission will improve our understanding of how the sun and tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols affect Earth's climate. Glory also...
Theoretical walker struts its energy-efficient stuff
Bizarre gait could aid design of prosthetic limbs.
Space Pictures This Week: Orion's Jewel, Horned Dunes, More
Amateurs dig up cosmic gems, a Mercury-bound craft feels the heat, a whirlpool brims with dust, and more in the week's best space pictures.
Will Betelgeuse Really Become a Second Sun in 2012?
Betelgeuse will definitely not produce a supernova bright enough to look like a second sun in 2012.
Beaming rockets into space
Space launches have evoked the same image for decades: bright orange flames exploding beneath a rocket as it lifts, hovers and takes off into the sky. But an alternative propulsion...
Archive Gallery: Mankind's Eternal Fascination With the Mysterious Moon
March 1924 What's on the moon? Here are the "midget-sun hypothesis," lunar snow, and more wild speculations we made prior to the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 Few things have inspired as...
New Aurora Pictures: First Big Show of 2011
In the year's first big northern lights show, "gusts" of solar wind set the Arctic sky alight in shades of green.
Glowing cosmic cloud may point to quasar
WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- A cosmic blob of glowing hydrogen gas discovered by a Dutch schoolteacher and named in her honor points to a nearly invisible quenched quasar,...
ScienceShot: Superstars Team Up in the Southern Cross
Spitzer telescope captures the galaxy's brightest gathering of suns
Lunar Eclipse Wallpaper Contest Yields Hundreds of Photos
A winning photo has been chosen for NASAJPL's "I'm There: Lunar Eclipse" wallpaper contest from an entry pool of close to 2,000 images.
Smart phones foster dumb habits among pedestrians
(AP) -- It was a miserable morning in New York, rain falling heavily and a 30 mph wind that made holding an umbrella difficult. Yet a man walked briskly...
NanoSail-D ejects: NASA seeks amateur radio operators' aid to listen for beacon signal
Wednesday, Jan. 19 at 11:30 a.m. EST, engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., confirmed that the NanoSail-D nanosatellite ejected from Fast Affordable Scientific and Technology Satellite, FASTSAT....
Spectacular view of Aitken Crater from sideways LRO glance
When people look out of the corner of their eyes, they often don't see things very clearly. But that's not the case for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's cameras. Occasionally LRO's...
Galileo satellite undergoes launch check-up at ESTEC
Galileo's first satellite is undergoing testing at ESA's technical centre in the Netherlands, checking its readiness to be launched into orbit. This marks a significant step for Europe's Galileo satnav...
For robust robots, let them be babies first
Want to build a really tough robot? Forget about Terminator. Instead, watch a tadpole turn into a frog. Or at least that's not too far off from what University of...
SpaceX to Upgrade Robotic Spaceship to Carry Astronauts
Now that SpaceX has successfully demonstrated its Dragon capsule, the commercial spaceflight company is looking ahead to another big step forward: outfitting Dragon to carry astronauts.
Professional development opportunity for teachers: Ocean Exploration
Here’s a unique opportunity for teachers to learn about ocean exploration from NOAA’s College of Exploration. Here’s the opening paragraph of the course description: Join NOAA’s...
Astronomers honored for excellence, research
At its 217th semiannual meeting in Seattle, the American Astronomical Society named the recipients of its 2011 prizes for achievements in research, instrument development, education, and writing. Robert P. Kirshner, Clowes Professor of...
Romania accedes to ESA Convention
ESA PR 04-2011 Romania took a step further in its relations with ESA by signing the Accession Agreement to the ESA Convention on 20 January 2011, to become the 19th...