Latest science news in Astronomy & Space
NASA Spacecraft Breaks Speed Boost Record
Zooming deep toward the heart of the asteroid belt, NASA's Dawn spacecraft has accelerated itself into the record books for the biggest single speed boost ever by a spacecraft engine.
Earth and Moon Are Younger Than Thought
Earth is not exactly getting its youth back, but a new study has determined that the collision from which the Earth and moon were formed may have occurred much later...
New Planet-Hunting Robot Telescope Takes First Photos
A new robotic telescope built to hunt for alien planets and comets from Chile has opened its camera eyes and taken its first photos of the night sky.
Ugly Ducklings Get Chance to Show Swan Hotness
Website Before You Were Hot Features Awkward "Before" Pics from Childhood, "After" Shots of Hot Adulthood
Airborne particles affect precipitation
FORT COLLINS, Colo., June 9 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've discovered for the first time that large airborne particles of dust and pollen can create greater amounts of...
NASA to launch Arctic mission
NASA is launching a mission from Alaska next month, but it won't be into space.
NASA Will Launch Your Face to Space For Free
You may not be able to squeeze your whole body onto NASA's last two space shuttle missions in history, but your face can go - at no charge.
Is There Really Life on Saturn's Moon?
An Uproar Follows Claim by Scientists of Evidence of Life on Titan
10 oil-spill ills
Science editor Alan Boyle's Weblog: How did so many things go so wrong at the Deepwater Horizon oil-spill site? Still more ills may surface before all this is over. ...
Study: Life might survive on Mars
MONTREAL, June 8 (UPI) -- Canadian and U.S. scientists say they've concluded life might survive on Mars since they've found evidence of bacteria in a martian-like environment on Earth.
How the iPhone 4 Will Change Smartphones
It's only been a year since the iPhone 3GS was announced, and yet the smartphone landscape has changed dramatically in that time.
Man-made aurora to help predict space weather
For more than 25 years, our understanding of terrestrial space weather has been partly based on incorrect assumptions about how nitrogen, the most abundant gas in our atmosphere, reacts when...
Haze hid early Earth from UV radiation
BOULDER, Colo., June 8 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say early Earth was most likely shielded from ultraviolet radiation by a thick, organic haze like that now seen over Saturn's...
Cassini Shoots Stunning New Images of Saturn
Rhapsody in Black This spectacular image of Saturn, released June 7 by NASA, shows sunlight scattered through the uppermost part of the planet's atmosphere. The sun is eclipsed in this photo, but...
Drilling Down into Mars
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Phoenix lander revealed water ice mere inches beneath the martian surface, and chemical evidence from the landing site strongly hints that the region is habitable. But learning...
Coulomb Technologies to install 4,600 electric vehicle charging stations
There's more good news for electric-vehicle enthusiasts. Coulomb Technologies, a Campbell, Calif., startup that is a leading maker of electric-vehicle charging stations, recently announced that it plans to install more...
NASA Tweaks Tech Toolbox to Capture Tricky Rotor Results
(PhysOrg.com) -- "Smooth" and "quiet" are two words not usually associated with a helicopter ride, but NASA is working to change that. A full-size UH-60A Blackhawk helicopter rotor was the...
Entrepreneurs Enter the Commercial Space Race
Bigelow Aerospace, a Nevada company, is preparing the solar system’s first private space station.
Survey reveals many thousands of supermassive black holes
(PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of scientists, led by Penn State Distinguished Professor Donald Schneider, has announced its completion of a massive census in which they identified the quasars in...
Restless stars: High precision study reveals surprising unrest in massive star clusters
(PhysOrg.com) -- Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg and the University of Cologne have completed a high precision study of...
Astronauts to Aquanauts; NASA Conducts Experiments on Sea Floor
It is easy to conjure up images of astronauts working in space, but there are also astronauts living and working on the sea floor, where they conduct experiments to prepare...
New Video Camera Sees It All
360 deg. surveillance video promises high-res detail, multiple views, and DVR features.
Crocodiles Know How to Ride the Tides
Crafty crocs cruise in favorable currents to cover vast distances
NSF Names New Chemistry Division Head
Personnel: Ohio State University's Matthew Platz will take new position in October.
New Theory for Life's First Energy Source
Scientists propose that an obscure molecule related to phosphorus was the critical spark in the emergence of life from inanimate matter.
What Lies Beneath: Holes Full of Fire, Water, Darkness
An exploration of mysteries presented by huge holes in the earth.
Space saver: the scientist who aims to get rid of space junk
Space is dangerously full of junk, but how to clean it up? A special mirrored 'sail' may prove to be the answerCaptain Kirk never seemed to worry about the problem of space...
Shell back in Iranian energy sector?
TEHRAN, June 7 (UPI) -- Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell moved back into the Iranian energy sector as new sanctions develop against the resource-rich country, a report says.