Space Exploration news

Voyager makes an interstellar discovery

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 26, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (36) | 8

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 | 4.3 / 5 (7) | 0

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 ...

Iran to unveil new home-built satellite: report

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 24, 2009 | 3.8 / 5 (10) | 4

Iran will unveil a new home-built satellite in February, a newspaper reported Thursday, amid Western concerns that Tehran is using its nuclear and space industries to develop atomic and ballistic weapons.

War-torn 'nursery' hopes to send monkeys to Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 20, 2009 | 2.4 / 5 (7) | 5

The monkeys at this run-down research centre which was once the pride of Soviet science have seen it all -- a brutal civil war, freezing winters and starvation.

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.

Astronauts to carry Christmas cheer to ISS

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 19, 2009 | 5 / 5 (3) | 0

Despite being separated from their families, astronauts heading to the International Space Station next week are excited to be spending Christmas in space, a crew member said Saturday.

Spirit Rover: Right-Front Wheel Rotations

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 18, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (5) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Spirit's right-front wheel, which had stopped operating in March 2006, revolved with apparently normal motion during the first three of four driving segments on Sol 2117 (Wednesday, Dec. 16) ...

Scientists discover fog on Titan

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 18, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (11) | 2

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, looks to be the only place in the solar system—aside from our home planet, Earth—with copious quantities of liquid (largely, liquid methane and ethane) sitting on its surface. ...

Calif. space tourism firm launches S. Korea deal

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 18, 2009 | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

(AP) -- A California company developing a rocket plane for space tourism announced Thursday that it has an agreement with a nonprofit group in South Korea to conduct launches in that nation.

How to Find Signs of Life on Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 18, 2009 | 3.7 / 5 (3) | 2

By studying the signatures of fossil life on Earth, geobiologists can get a clue of what to look for when hunting for extraterrestrial life on Mars.

New Study of Meteorite Provides More Evidence for Ancient Life on Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 17, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (44) | 18

(PhysOrg.com) -- In 1996, when scientists examined a meteorite from Mars previously uncovered in Antarctica, they were intrigued by what looked like microscopic fossils of ancient Martian life forms. Now, ...

Top US lawmaker skeptical of new space funding

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 17, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (6) | 4

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was personally skeptical of manned space missions and warned that NASA's future funding could depend on whether it was likely to create jobs.

Glint of Sunlight Confirms Liquid in Northern Lake District of Titan

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 17, 2009 | 5 / 5 (14) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Cassini Spacecraft has captured the first flash of sunlight reflected off a lake on Saturn's moon Titan, confirming the presence of liquid on the part of the moon dotted with many large, ...

Colliding auroras produce an explosion of light

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 17, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (8) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A network of cameras deployed around the Arctic in support of NASA's THEMIS mission has made a startling discovery about the Northern Lights. Sometimes, vast curtains of aurora borealis collide, ...

Orion Launch Abort System Attitude Control Motor Lights Up Sky

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 17, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (3) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- It looked like a light show in Elkton, Md., on Tuesday, Dec. 15, as NASA ground tested a full-scale attitude control motor, or ACM. The motor operated with precision as its elaborate eight-valve ...

Studying how black holes grow

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 17, 2009 | 5 / 5 (2) | 1

Black holes are some of the most exotic objects in the universe. They are the final evolutionary stage of giant stars much larger than the sun. When these stars explode, their cores collapse down to the size ...

NASA NuSTAR Telescope Being Built at Nevis

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 17, 2009 | 5 / 5 (4) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- It's an unlikely place to build a NASA telescope: a leafy estate in Irvington, N.Y., that once belonged to the son of Alexander Hamilton. Inside a hangar-like building on the site, which is ...

Hubble Finds Smallest Kuiper Belt Object Ever Seen

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 16, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (20) | 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the smallest object ever seen in visible light in the Kuiper Belt, a vast ring of icy debris that is encircling the outer rim of the solar system ...