Latest science news in Astronomy & Space
NASA and NOAA's Environmental Satellite Now GOES-15
(PhysOrg.com) -- Twelve days after a flawless launch, NASA and NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-P (GOES-P) reached its proper orbit and was renamed GOES-15. The latest weather satellite will complete...
Inside the Plastic Vortex
Last summer, minutes before leaving port on a voyage to the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, Chief Scientist Miriam Goldstein was frank about what might and might not be encountered during...
Supplies moved to Discovery launch pad
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., March 19 (UPI) -- A huge canister containing food and equipment was moved Friday to the shuttle Discovery for its April 5 launch to the International...
Experience Hubble's Universe in 3-D (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Take an exhilarating ride through the Orion Nebula, a vast star-making factory 1,500 light-years away. Swoop through Orion's giant canyon of gas and dust. Fly past behemoth stars...
Russia plans to resume space tourism
MOSCOW, March 19 (UPI) -- Russia says its could offer more seats than ever to space tourists when the program begins again in two to three years.
Are We Pushing the Earth's Environmental Tipping Points?
Jon Foley, director of the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment, talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky (pictured left) about his article in the April issue of Scientific American...
Cassini shows Saturnian roller derby
The seemingly serene orb of Saturn is in fact a gas giant with extraordinary patterns of charged particles and rough and tumble roller derbies for rings. Such are the findings...
ESA and Thales Alenia Space enter negotiations for MTG
The tendering process that will result in the supply of Europe's next series of meteorological satellites, Meteosat Third Generation, has reached an advanced stage as ESA invites Thales Alenia Space...
NASA preps for polar ice cap study
WASHINGTON, March 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency plans Monday in Greenland to start a second year of polar ice cap surveys to examine global climate change.
Widening the search for extraterrestrial intelligence
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has been dominated for its first half century by a hunt for unusual radio signals. But as he prepares for the publication of his...
Proposed mission would return sample from asteroid 'time capsule'
Meet asteroid 1999 RQ36, a chunk of rock and dust about 1,900 feet in diameter that could tell us how the solar system was born, and perhaps, shed light on...
Biggest, deepest crater exposes hidden, ancient moon
Shortly after the Moon formed, an asteroid smacked into its southern hemisphere and gouged out a truly enormous crater, the South Pole-Aitken basin, almost 1,500 miles across and more than...
New launch date for CryoSat-2 confirmed
(PhysOrg.com) -- The technical issue with the second stage of the Dnepr rocket that delayed the launch of ESA's Earth Explorer CryoSat-2 satellite in February has now been resolved -...
How Astronauts Can Become Media Stars
NASA's astronauts have both a harder and easier job now when it comes to sharing spaceflight with the public.
Scientists locate apparent hydrothermal vents off Antarctica
Scientists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have found evidence of hydrothermal vents on the seafloor near Antarctica, formerly a blank spot on the map for researchers wanting to learn...
Crowdsourcing Science
Anyone can help discover new stuff in Galaxy Zoo- but why do people bother in the first place? In the podcast "Why Go to the Zoo?", Jordan Raddick responds with...
After Hubble, What's Next for IMAX in Space?
The producer/director of the new >i/i< movie hopes to send her massive IMAX cameras beyond low earth orbit.
Lost into space
Space physicists from the University of Leicester are part of an international team that has identified the impact of the Sun on Mars' atmosphere...
The Multiplying Mystery of Moonwater
Researchers who once confidently stated that the Moon was bone-dry are now thinking the unthinkable: The Moon has so much water, there's actually a "lunar hydrosphere." International spacecraft...
NASA IceBridge Mission Prepares For Study Of Arctic Glaciers
NASA IceBridge Mission Prepares for Study of Arctic Glaciers In a world where the blogosphere is filled with politically motivated versions of what is 'really' happening to the cryosphere it is...
Video: Solar Panels Become "Hot" Items
Solar panels have been targeted by thieves in California, where there are more than 52,000 solar installations. Each panel can cost a thousand dollars or more. John Blackstone reports.
A radon detector for earthquake prediction
Nobel laureate adapts his famous detector design for earthquake science
Life Without Water?
On Saturn`s giant moon Titan, it is so cold that water is frozen as hard as granite. And yet there is a complete liquid cycle of methane and ethane. Scientists...
Micro-algae explored as renewable energy source in Argentina
BUENOS AIRES, March 18 (UPI) -- Micro-algae as a source of cheap renewable energy are at the center of new research being conducted at Argentina's National Technological University.
Hubble's successor one step closer to completion
(PhysOrg.com) -- A working replica of MIRI - the pioneering camera and spectrometer for the James Webb Space Telescope - has just been shipped (16th March) from the Science and...
Sun-Earth day to be marked by NASA webcast
PHILADELPHIA, March 18 (UPI) -- NASA Edge, the U.S. space agency's televised talk show, will celebrate Sun-Earth Day 2010 with a live Web cast focusing on the sun and...
First measurement of the age of cometary material
Though comets are thought to be some of the oldest, most primitive bodies in the solar system, new research on comet Wild 2 indicates that inner solar system material was...
Nabucco set for 2011, spokesman says
BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 18 (UPI) -- Shareholders in the Nabucco natural gas pipeline for Europe are determined to launch construction on the project in 2011, a spokesman said in...