Russia in secret plan to save Earth from asteroid: official

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

13 hours ago | 4.7 / 5 (9) | 19

Russian scientists will soon meet in secret to work on a plan for saving Earth from a possible catastrophic collision with a giant asteroid in 26 years, the head of Russia's space agency said Wednesday.

NASA Chooses Three Finalists for Future Space Science Mission to Venus, an Asteroid or the Moon

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

13 hours ago | 4 / 5 (2) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA has selected three proposals as candidates for the agency's next space venture to another celestial body in our solar system. The final project selected in mid-2011 may provide a better ...

NASA awards CU-Boulder $3.3 million for concept study for mission to Venus

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 29, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 0

NASA has awarded the University of Colorado at Boulder $3.3 million for a detailed, one-year concept study for a lander mission to Venus to study the history of its surface, climate and atmosphere and to predict ...

New Video Reveals Secrets of Webb Telescope's MIRI (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 29, 2009 | 3.3 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- It's going to take infrared eyes to see farther back in time than even the Hubble Space Telescope, and that's what the James Webb Space Telescope's MIRI or Mid-Infrared Instrument detectors ...

CU Students to Build Tiny Spacecraft to Observe 'Space Weather' Environment

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 29, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (5) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The University of Colorado at Boulder has been awarded $840,000 from the National Science Foundation for students to build a tiny spacecraft to observe energetic particles in space that should ...

As the World Churns

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Dec 28, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (15) | 26

(PhysOrg.com) -- "Terra firma." It's Latin for "solid Earth." Most of the time, at least from our perspective here on the ground, Earth seems to be just that: solid. Yet the Earth beneath our feet is actually ...

Voyager makes an interstellar discovery

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 26, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (61) | 24

The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist. In the Dec. 24th issue of Nature, a team of scientists reveal how NASA's Voyager spacecraft have solved the mystery.

As shuttle's career nears an end, NASA turns focus to satellites

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 26, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (8) | 2

NASA heads into 2010 with the bittersweet assignment of retiring the space shuttle after nearly three decades. But that's not all the agency has planned: There are also launches of three new satellites aimed at better understanding ...

Keck Telescopes Take Deeper Look at Planetary Nurseries

Space & Earth / Astronomy

Dec 23, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (13) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers using the W. M. Keck Observatory have peered far into a young planetary system, giving an unprecedented view of dust and gas that might eventually form planets similar to Jupiter, ...

Titan's lakes could be explored by boat

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 22, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (10) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- If a suggestion to be made to NASA comes to fruition, vast lakes thought to be filled with liquid hydrocarbons near the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan, may one day be explored by boat.

Highlight: California, Nevada Lakes Warming Rapidly

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Dec 21, 2009 | 3.9 / 5 (8) | 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new JPL study examines the impact recent variability in climate is having on the surface temperatures of large lakes in California and Nevada.

NASA Tests Unique Jumbo Jet with Opening in Side; Plane's Airborne Telescope Will Be Used to Study Cosmos

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 21, 2009 | 5 / 5 (4) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- A NASA jumbo jet that will help scientists unlock the origins of the universe with infrared observations reached a milestone Friday when doors covering the plane's telescope were fully opened ...

Silicon technology offers extended X-ray vision of high-energy cosmos

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 21, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- As elements of the integrated circuits running our computers, phones and electronics, silicon wafers are everywhere. An ESA-led effort is establishing an out-of-this-world use for these ...

Astronauts blast off for Christmas space mission

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 20, 2009 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

(AP) -- A Russian rocket blasted off from a cosmodrome in Kazakhstan lighting up the frigid Central Asian steppe Monday, shuttling an American, a Russian and a Japanese to the International Space Station.

Computer-simulated Thunderstorms with Ice Clouds Reveal Insights for Next-generation Computer Models

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Dec 18, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (5) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Computer simulations of thunderstorms using data from a field campaign in Australia confirm that the "ice-phase" cloud processes in climate models contribute most to the wide discrepancy between ...