Latest science news in Astronomy & Space
Spitzer Space Telescope is 5 years old
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 25 (UPI) -- A new image from the U.S. space agency's Spitzer Space Telescope was released Monday as part of the telescope's fifth anniversary celebration.
Grant Goes to Study Supermassive Black Holes
A group of astronomers from the Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences now has $1.4 million to study supermassive black holes and their role in the evolution of galaxies.
ESA to launch complicated mission Sept. 10
PARIS, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- The European Space Agency says it is about to launch its most sophisticated mission ever to investigate the Earth's gravitational field.
NASA investigates failed rocket launch
WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency and Alliant Tech Systems Inc. said they have started an investigation into the failed launch of a suborbital rocket.
Space Shuttle Atlantis Beats Weather for Move
NASA's shuttle Atlantis gets a break in the weather for launch preparations.
Caltech scientist Philip Saffman dies
PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 23 (UPI) -- Philip Geoffrey Saffman, an expert in fluid mechanics, has died in Pasadena, Calif. He was 77.
Science Weekly podcast: A Newsjam special featuring flying saucers made by schoolchildren; plus new biofuel bugs
Alok Jha presents a Newsjam special. We discuss the MoD's Grand Challenge; the ExoMars rover; personalised drugs; Prince Charles and GM crops; biofuel bugs; Harun Yahya; homoeopathy; plus an invisibility...
Russian Rocket: All Fueled Up, But No Place to Fly
Thailand's first satellite has a Russian rocket ride but no path to launch it.
Video - The Next Step in Heat Shields for Space
NASA's come up with two materials to protect returning astronauts. And one of them's been around for 40 years.
Spectrograph Team Awaits October Hubble Servicing Mission
A $70 million instrument designed by the University of Colorado at Boulder that will be inserted on the Hubble Space Telescope during an October 2008 servicing mission should help astronomers...
WEEK IN PHOTOS: Galactic "Tentacles," Palace Fire, More
Galactic "tentacles" stay put, balloons take flight, tropical storm Fay fights on, and more in our selection of the week's best news photos.
Stellar Stillbirths: Brown Dwarfs Revealed As Third Class Of Celestial Bodies After Stars And Planets
The systematics of celestial bodies apparently needs to be revised. Researchers have discovered that brown dwarfs need to be treated as a separate class in addition to stars and planets....
'Mars Webcam' now online
The Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) mounted on Mars Express was dormant after its first and only operational use in 2003. It is now back in action as the 'Mars Webcam',...
Ten ancient observatories spied from space
Flying 423 miles above Earth, the Ikonos satellite offers a space-age peek at ten ancient observatories built by cultures from long ago.
New Clues To Air Circulation In The Atmosphere
Air circulates above the Earth in four distinct cells, with two either side of the equator, say researchers. A new observational study describes how air rises and falls in the...
Cosmic Log: How the undecideds decide
Science editor Alan Boyle's Weblog: Scientists find a technique that could help pollsters figure out which way undecided voters will go, even before the voters themselves know.
Parachute Test Fails for NASA's New Spaceship
A parachute test for NASA's Orion space shuttle successor went awry.
Iran Hopes to Send an Astronaut into Space
State TV says Iran aims to launch an astronaut within 10 years.
Source of Gaza’s contaminated water confirmed
Nitrates that poison newborns come from manure dumped on soil
Too close for comfort
Nancy Haigwood, director of the Oregon National Primate Research Center, describes her encounters with anthrax suspect Bruce Ivins.
World heading towards cooler 2008
Global temperatures recorded so far this year suggest is likely to emerge as the coolest this century, scientists say.
Clouds that look like breasts
Few will have seen a sky like it. Yet this extraordinary-looking cloud formation wasn't photographed in exotic climes, but in St Albans, Hertfordshire, on a recent August evening. What is...
Feature: All aboard the time giant
With access to the world’s largest and most powerful optical telescopes, Swinburne astrophysicists are journeying back in time to the earliest phases of the universe. They hope to take Swinburne...
Adopt a Scientist: The Makeup of Mesmerizing Mars
Dr. Janice Bishop works with many of today's robotic Mars explorers.
Synesthesia turns lights into noise
PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 21 (UPI) -- A California scientist says she's discovered a form of auditory synesthesia in which people hear sounds when they see lights flash.
Tiny Satellites Promise Low-Risk, Low-Cost Space Future
A growing number of small satellites -- some only the size of a softball -- offer a way into space on the cheap, scientists say.
ISS to call high school simulated ISS
CLOVIS, Calif., Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Buchanan High School pupils in Clovis, Calif., taking part in a 48-hour space station simulation, will be able to chat with a...
Space 'Ropes' Hang Together by Threads
Magnetic forces hold together 100-million-year-old gas threads in a galaxy.