Space Exploration news

Cassini closes in on the centuries-old mystery of Saturn's moon Iapetus

Cassini closes in on the centuries-old mystery of Saturn's moon Iapetus

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Extensive analyses and modeling of Cassini imaging and heat-mapping data have confirmed and extended previous ideas that migrating ice, triggered by infalling reddish dust that darkens and warms the surface, ...


An unusual light phenomenon above the Norwegian city of Skjeroy

New Russian missile failure sparks UFO frenzy

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (10) | comments 24

Russia's new nuclear-capable missile suffered another failed test launch, the defence ministry said Thursday, solving the mystery of a spectacular plume of white light that appeared over Norway.


mars surface

Rare Scottish mineral may indicate life on Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (21) | comments 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) scientists is looking for clues about life on Mars in an earthy clay mineral found only in Aberdeenshire in Scotland.


Best (Meteor) Shower of 2009 - No Towel Required

Best (Meteor) Shower of 2009 - No Towel Required

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Bundle up and get ready to watch a fiery lightshow stirred up by dead comets in Earth's upper atmosphere during the cold of winter in the dead of night. The annual Geminid meteor shower is ...


Saturn's Mysterious Hexagon Emerges from Winter Darkness

Saturn's Mysterious Hexagon Emerges from Winter Darkness

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 09, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (23) | comments 21

(PhysOrg.com) -- After waiting years for the sun to illuminate Saturn's north pole again, cameras aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft have captured the most detailed images yet of the intriguing hexagon shape ...


NASA's WISE Set to Blast Off and Map the Skies

NASA's WISE Set to Blast Off and Map the Skies

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 09, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The countdown clock is ticking, with just days to go before the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, rockets into space on a mission to map the entire sky in infrared light.


Astronaut balancing act: Training to help explorers adapt to a return to gravity

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 09, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Astronauts returning from challenging long-duration missions face one more challenge when they get back to Earth - standing up and walking.


Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Spacecraft Out of Safe Mode

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 09, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter today has been taken out of the precautionary 'safe mode' it had been in since August.


XMM-Newton celebrates decade of discovery

XMM-Newton celebrates decade of discovery

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 09, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory is celebrating its 10th anniversary. During its decade of operation, this remarkable space observatory has supplied new data for every aspect of astronomy. ...


The 2009 Geminid Meteor Shower

The 2009 Geminid Meteor Shower (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 08, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (6) | comments 0

Make hot cocoa. Bundle up. Tell your friends. The best meteor shower of 2009 is about to fall over North America on a long, cold December night.


 Further Tests Designed for Rover's Right-Rear Wheel

Further Tests Designed for Rover's Right-Rear Wheel

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 08, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A series of diagnostic tests on Spirit's right-rear wheel on sols 2104 and 2105 (Dec. 3 and 4) investigated stalls that occurred on Sol 2099 (Nov. 28) and earlier. The rover team cannot draw ...


Prof gets messages from space

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 08, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Barbara Frisken received several messages from outer space this year on her answering machine.


NASA Global Precipitation Measurement Mission Passes Major Review

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 08, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's effort to deploy the first satellite mission to advance global precipitation observations from space moved closer to this goal when agency officials approved critical elements for the Global Precipitation ...


Mars

Life on Mars theory boosted by new methane study

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 08, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (30) | comments 11

Scientists have ruled out the possibility that methane is delivered to Mars by meteorites, raising fresh hopes that the gas might be generated by life on the red planet, in research published tomorrow in Earth an ...


NRL's MISSE7 launched aboard STS-129

NRL's MISSE7 launched aboard STS-129

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 07, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

The Materials on the International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) 7, designed and built by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), launched aboard STS-129 on November, 16, for transport to the International ...