Space & Earth news

NJIT receives funding to improve Big Bear Telescope, study solar energy

Space & Earth / Astronomy

18 minutes ago | not rated yet | 0

NJIT researchers are at work on many scientific and technological frontiers. The National Science Foundation has recently provided support that totals nearly $4.3 million for the diverse efforts of the following ...

Cassini's Big Sky: The View from the Center of Our Solar System

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

7 hours ago | 4.9 / 5 (7) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- When NASA's Cassini spacecraft began orbiting Saturn five years ago, a dozen highly-tuned science instruments set to work surveying, sniffing, analyzing and scrutinizing the Saturnian system.

New Method to Measure Snow, Soil Moisture With GPS May Benefit Meteorologists, Farmers

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

2 hours ago | not rated yet | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- A research team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder has found a clever way to use traditional GPS satellite signals to measure snow depth as well as soil and vegetation moisture, a technique expected ...

Lehigh receives grant to reduce cost of carbon capture at coal-fired power plants

Space & Earth / Environment

4 hours ago | 3 / 5 (2) | 1

Lehigh University's Energy Research Center (ERC) has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop methods of recovering and reusing the heat that would be generated by the carbon-dioxide (CO2) compressio ...

International expedition investigates climate change, alternative fuels in Arctic

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

2 hours ago | not rated yet | 0

Scientists from the Marine Biogeochemistry and Geology and Geophysics sections of the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) organized and led a team of university and government scientists on an Arctic expedition ...

Astronauts get extra moving time at space station

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

10 hours ago | 4 / 5 (1) | 0

(AP) -- The astronauts aboard the shuttle-station complex are getting some extra moving time.

Mystery of the Solar Tsunami -- Solved (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

23 hours ago | 4.9 / 5 (22) | 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- Sometimes you really can believe your eyes. That's what NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) is telling researchers about a controversial phenomenon on the sun known as ...

Hunting for Planets in the Dark

Space & Earth / Astronomy

22 hours ago | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 2

A proposed space mission that aims to measure dark energy could also detect planets that current surveys are unable to find.

Astronauts get extra work done in 1st spacewalk (Update)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

23 hours ago | not rated yet | 1

(AP) -- A pair of spacewalking astronauts, one of them a surgeon, hustled through antenna and cable work outside the International Space Station on Thursday and even whipped off an extra chore.

Paleontologists find extinction rates higher in open-ocean settings during mass extinctions

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

23 hours ago | 5 / 5 (1) | 0

Arnie Miller, University of Cincinnati professor of paleontology in the McMicken College of Arts & Sciences, and co-author Michael Foote of the University of Chicago publish their research in the Nov. 20 issue ...

SOFIA Seeks Secrets of Planetary Birth

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

22 hours ago | not rated yet | 1

You don't always have to have a rocket to do rocket science. Sometimes a mere airplane will do - that is, a mere Boeing 747 toting a 17-ton, 9-foot wide telescope named SOFIA.

NASA Provides Venerable Hubble Hardware to Smithsonian

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

23 hours ago | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two key instruments from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have a new home in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington after being returned to Earth aboard space shuttle Atlantis ...

After mastodons and mammoths, a transformed landscape

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 19, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (11) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Roughly 15,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, North America's vast assemblage of large animals -- including such iconic creatures as mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, ground ...

Germany calls for binding climate deal in 2010

Space & Earth / Environment

Nov 19, 2009 | 1 / 5 (1) | 2

(AP) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Thursday for all countries to fix binding climate change targets next year at the latest, acknowledging that no such deal is likely at global talks in Copenhagen next month.

Rich Ore Deposits Linked to Ancient Atmosphere

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

Nov 19, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (3) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Much of our planet's mineral wealth was deposited billions of years ago when Earth's chemical cycles were different from today's. Using geochemical clues from rocks nearly 3 billion years old, a group of ...

SMOS satellite instrument comes alive (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 19, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

The MIRAS instrument on ESA's SMOS satellite, launched earlier this month, has been switched on and is operating normally. MIRAS will map soil moisture and ocean salinity to improve our understanding of the ...

Second Planned Extrication Drive is Straight Ahead Again

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 19, 2009 | 3.8 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Because the first extrication drive for Spirit, on Sol 2088 (Nov. 17), stopped as soon as it began due to an exceeded tilt limit, the plan for an extrication drive on Sol 2090 (Nov. 19) wil ...

ORNL, Los Alamos pioneer new approach to assist scientists, farmers

Space & Earth / Environment

Nov 19, 2009 | 3 / 5 (1) | 0

Sustainable farming, initially adopted to preserve soil quality for future generations, may also play a role in maintaining a healthy climate, according to researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge and Los Alamos ...