Space Exploration news

How to Find Signs of Life on Mars

22 minutes ago | not rated yet | 0

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.

Scientists discover fog on Titan

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

4 hours ago | 4.6 / 5 (5) | 1

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

5 hours ago | 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.

Glint of Sunlight Confirms Liquid in Northern Lake District of Titan

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

19 hours ago | 5 / 5 (11) | 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

23 hours ago | 4.7 / 5 (7) | 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, ...

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

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 17, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (28) | 14

(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, ...

Orion Launch Abort System Attitude Control Motor Lights Up Sky

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

20 hours ago | 5 / 5 (2) | 0

(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

18 hours ago | 5 / 5 (1) | 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 ...

Hubble Finds Smallest Kuiper Belt Object Ever Seen

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 16, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (17) | 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 ...

Kansas scientists probe mysterious possible comet strikes on Earth

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 14, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (12) | 8

It's the stuff of a Hollywood disaster epic: A comet plunges from outer space into the Earth's atmosphere, splitting the sky with a devastating shock wave that flattens forests and shakes the countryside.

NASA aims to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020, and then perhaps to Mars and other destinations

Top US lawmaker skeptical of new space funding

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 17, 2009 | 3.8 / 5 (4) | 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.

NASA NuSTAR Telescope Being Built at Nevis

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

22 hours ago | 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 ...

US launches space-mapping satellite WISE

WISE satellite blasts off on space-map mission

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 14, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (6) | 4

NASA launched Monday a new breed of satellite called WISE on a mission to orbit Earth and map the skies to find elusive cosmic objects, including potentially dangerous asteroids.

Scientist uncovers relics of ancient cosmos

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 14, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (18) | 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- A University of Manchester scientist, working as part of an international team, has uncovered an unexpectedly rich trove of relicts from the ancient cosmos.