Space Exploration news

Meteorite from Sept. 25 fireball event recovered and presented

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 16, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (10) | 2

When Tony Garchinski heard a loud crash just after 9 p.m. on Friday, September 25 he didn't think much of it. That is, until he awoke the next morning to find the windshield of his mom's Nissan Pathfinder ...

Scientists Explore Galactic Frontier, Release First-Ever All-Sky Map (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 15, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (23) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft has made it possible for scientists to construct the first comprehensive sky map of our solar system and its location in the Milky ...

How the Moon produces its own water

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 15, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (15) | 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Moon is a big sponge that absorbs electrically charged particles given out by the Sun. These particles interact with the oxygen present in some dust grains on the lunar surface, producing ...

Water Bears to Travel to Martian Moon, Test Theory of Transpermia

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 13, 2009 | 3.9 / 5 (14) | 22

(PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny microscopic creatures commonly known as water bears (also called Tardigrades), along with a few other life forms, will be sent to the Martian moon Phobos to test whether organisms can ...

Scientists work to free Mars rover Spirit

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 13, 2009 | 5 / 5 (11) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- In the past several weeks, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory finished experimentation on methods to get the rover Spirit unstuck from its location near a plateau called Home Plate.

Astronomers Detect Sodium Gas Ejected by Lunar Impact

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 12, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (21) | 10

(PhysOrg.com) -- Boston University astronomers announced today observations of a cloud of sodium gas ejected from the Moon’s surface as a result of the NASA impact experiment that was part of its Lunar Reconnaissance ...

Astronomers capture spectacular meteor footage and images (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 07, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (12) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers from The University of Western Ontario in London, Canada have released footage of a meteor that was approximately 100 times brighter than a full moon. The meteor lit up the skies ...

Plasma Rocket Could Travel to Mars in 39 Days

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 06, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (125) | 72

(PhysOrg.com) -- Last Wednesday, the Ad Astra Rocket Company tested what is currently the most powerful plasma rocket in the world. As the Webster, Texas, company announced, the VASIMR VX-200 engine ran at ...

Scientists see water ice in fresh meteorite craters on Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Sep 24, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (16) | 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists are seeing sub-surface water ice that may be 99 percent pure halfway between the north pole and the equator on Mars, thanks to quick-turnaround observations from orbit of fresh ...

Cassini Reveals New Ring Quirks, Shadows During Saturn Equinox

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Sep 21, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (9) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA scientists are marveling over the extent of ruffles and dust clouds revealed in the rings of Saturn during the planet's equinox last month. Scientists once thought the rings were almost ...

New NASA temperature maps provide 'whole new way of seeing the moon'

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Sep 17, 2009 | 4.9 / 5 (14) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's first-ever moon temperature-mapping effort has returned its first data.

Researchers make rare meteorite find using new camera network in Australian desert

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Sep 17, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (19) | 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have discovered an unusual kind of meteorite in the Western Australian desert and have uncovered where in the Solar System it came from, in a very rare finding published today ...

Solar Cycle Driven by More than Sunspots

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Sep 17, 2009 | 4.2 / 5 (14) | 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- Challenging conventional wisdom, new research finds that the number of sunspots provides an incomplete measure of changes in the Sun's impact on Earth over the course of the 11-year solar ...

Planck first light yields promising results (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Sep 17, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (11) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Planck, ESA's mission to study the early Universe, started surveying the sky regularly from its vantage point at L2 on 13 August. The instruments of ESA's 'time machine' were fine-tuned for ...

Gravitational Space Corridors Could Slash Space Travel Costs (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Sep 16, 2009 | 4.6 / 5 (29) | 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists studying space travel possibilities have proposed that gravitational space corridors could be used by spacecraft, in much the same way as ships use ocean currents. Taking advantage ...