Space Exploration news

Is a New Solar Cycle Beginning?

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 17, 2007 | 4.6 / 5 (40) | 1

The solar physics community is abuzz this week. No, there haven't been any great eruptions or solar storms. The source of the excitement is a modest knot of magnetism that popped over the sun's eastern limb ...

Researcher Presents Origin-Of-Life Theory for Young Earth

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Aug 14, 2007 | 3.9 / 5 (46) | 0

Some of the elements necessary to support life on Earth are widely known - oxygen, carbon and water, to name a few. Just as important in the existence of life as any other component is the presence of adenine, an essential ...

NASA Plans to Visit the Sun

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Jun 10, 2008 | 4.8 / 5 (37) | 15

For more than 400 years, astronomers have studied the sun from afar. Now NASA has decided to go there. "We are going to visit a living, breathing star for the first time," says program scientist Lika Guhathakurta ...

Warning: Sunspot cycle beginning to rise

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

May 08, 2009 | 4 / 5 (44) | 10

(AP) -- When the sun sneezes it's Earth that gets sick. It's time for the sun to move into a busier period for sunspots, and while forecasters expect a relatively mild outbreak by historical standards, one ...

First evidence of under-ice volcanic eruption in Antarctica

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Jan 20, 2008 | 3.9 / 5 (44) | 5

The first evidence of a volcanic eruption from beneath Antarctica’s most rapidly changing ice sheet is reported this week in the journal Nature Geosciences. The volcano on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet erupted 2000 years ...

Return to Europa: A closer look is possible

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Dec 14, 2007 | 4.7 / 5 (36) | 2

Jupiter’s moon Europa is just as far away as ever, but new research is bringing scientists closer to being able to explore its tantalizing ice-covered ocean and determine its potential for harboring life.

Reconnaissance Orbiter Reveals Details of a Wetter Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 28, 2008 | 4.3 / 5 (39) | 18

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has observed a new category of minerals spread across large regions of Mars. This discovery suggests that liquid water remained on the planet's surface a ...

Phoenix Robotic Arm Camera Sees Possible Ice

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Jun 01, 2008 | 4.7 / 5 (36) | 18

A view of the ground underneath NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander adds to evidence that descent thrusters dispersed overlying soil and exposed a harder substrate that may be ice.

MESSENGER Reveals Mercury in New Detail

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Jan 16, 2008 | 4.5 / 5 (37) | 0

As MESSENGER approached Mercury on January 14, 2008, the spacecraft’s Narrow-Angle Camera on the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) instrument captured this view of the planet’s rugged, cratered landscape ...

Droids on the ISS

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Jun 01, 2006 | 4.9 / 5 (34) | 0

Six years ago, MIT engineering Professor David Miller showed the movie Star Wars to his students on their first day of class. There's a scene Miller is particularly fond of, the one where Luke Skywalker spars ...

Theory of the sun's role in formation of the solar system questioned

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Sep 04, 2008 | 4.7 / 5 (35) | 7

A strange mix of oxygen found in a stony meteorite that exploded over Pueblito de Allende, Mexico nearly 40 years ago has puzzled scientists ever since. Small flecks of minerals lodged in the stone and thought ...

Scientists solve 30-year-old aurora borealis mystery

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Jul 24, 2008 | 4.1 / 5 (40) | 13

UCLA space scientists and colleagues have identified the mechanism that triggers substorms in space; wreaks havoc on satellites, power grids and communications systems; and leads to the explosive release of ...

What's Wrong with the Sun? (Nothing)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Jul 11, 2008 | 3.8 / 5 (43) | 20

Stop the presses! The sun is behaving normally. So says NASA solar physicist David Hathaway. "There have been some reports lately that Solar Minimum is lasting longer than it should. That's not true. The ongoing ...

Success in 'space elevator' competition (Update 3)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 05, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (37) | 54

(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 ...

Probing Question: Why does the Earth rotate?

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Aug 06, 2007 | 3.7 / 5 (43) | 0

We spend our lives on a spinning globe -- it takes only 24 hours to notice that, as night follows day and the cycle repeats. But what causes Earth to rotate on its axis?