Space Exploration news

Success in 'space elevator' competition (AP)

Success in 'space elevator' competition (Update 3)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (34) | comments 53

(AP) -- A robot powered by a ground-based laser beam climbed a long cable dangling from a helicopter on Wednesday to qualify for prize money in a $2 million competition to test the potential reality of the ...


The Stars My Destination

The Stars My Destination

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 10, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (21) | comments 1

The Voyager spacecraft are now in the outermost layer of the heliosphere, traveling toward interstellar space - the first man-made spacecraft to travel such a vast distance from Earth.


Space hotel taking bookings for 2012 opening

Space hotel taking bookings for 2012 opening

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (21) | comments 11

(PhysOrg.com) -- The first orbiting space hotel is on track to open for its first customers in 2012, but hurry, as bookings are filling fast.


Seattle team wins $900,000 in Space Elevator Games (AP)

Seattle team wins $900,000 in Space Elevator Games

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 07, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (17) | comments 6

(AP) -- A Seattle team has collected a $900,000 prize in a NASA-backed competition to develop the concept of an elevator to space - an idea spurred by science fiction novels.


A bubbling ball of gas

A bubbling ball of gas (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created 21 hours ago | popularity 4.9 / 5 (15) | comments 5

The Sun is a bubbling mass. Packages of gas rise and sink, lending the sun its grainy surface structure, its granulation. Dark spots appear and disappear, clouds of matter dart up - and behind the whole thing ...


Planetary Society plans new 'solar sail'

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 09, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (14) | comments 1

(AP) -- Four years after its first solar sail ended up in the ocean instead of orbit, The Planetary Society announced Monday that by the end of 2010 it will try again to launch a spacecraft that will be propelled by the ...


Unusual meteorite found by time-lapse camera observatory

Unusual meteorite found by time-lapse camera observatory

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (15) | comments 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- An unusual meteorite with an interesting orbit has been tracked to the ground using a photographic observatory that records time-lapse images of fireballs traveling across the sky.


sky, sun

A lightning strike in Africa helps take the pulse of the sun

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created 18 hours ago | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 0

Sunspots, which rotate around the sun's surface, tell us a great deal about our own planet. Scientists rely on them, for instance, to measure the sun's rotation or to prepare long-range forecasts of the Earth's ...


Mars: Chaotic terrain between Kasei Valles and Sacra Fossae

Mars: Chaotic terrain between Kasei Valles and Sacra Fossae

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 06, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (8) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Mars Express flew over the boundary between Kasei Valles and Sacra Fossae and imaged the region, acquiring spectacular views of the chaotic terrain in the area.


A Tale of Planetary Woe

A Tale of Planetary Woe (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created 16 hours ago | popularity 4.1 / 5 (9) | comments 4

Once upon a time — roughly four billion years ago — Mars was warm and wet, much like Earth. Liquid water flowed on the Martian surface in long rivers that emptied into shallow seas. A thick atmosphere blanketed ...


L-R: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet and John Cusack at the premiere of "2012"

NASA on crusade to debunk 2012 apocalypse myths

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 09, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 4

The world is not coming to an end on December 21, 2012, the US space agency insisted Monday in a rare campaign to dispel widespread rumors fueled by the Internet and a new Hollywood movie.


Kepler

Kepler Mission Update

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 06, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Kepler completed another science data download over October 18-19. In this download, a month's worth of science data was transmitted through the NASA Deep Space Network and into the Science ...


Frost-Covered Phoenix Lander Seen in Winter Images

Frost-Covered Phoenix Lander Seen in Winter Images

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Winter images of NASA's Phoenix Lander showing the lander shrouded in dry-ice frost on Mars have been captured with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera, aboard ...


Russian rocket to launch from French Guiana in 2010

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 07, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 4

A Russian rocket will next year for the first time blast off from a European launch pad in South America, officials said Saturday, as the first rockets headed for the site on board a ship.


The 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower

The 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 10, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0

This year's Leonid meteor shower peaks on Tuesday, Nov. 17th. If forecasters are correct, the shower should produce a mild but pretty sprinkling of meteors over North America followed by a more intense outburst ...