Long awaited satellite to monitor water cycle reaches orbit

The 658kg (1,450 lb) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) this week carried a payload composed of a single instrument – the Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis (MIRAS). The SMOS is the first ever satellite designed both to map sea surface salinity and to monitor soil [...]

NASA live broadcast of LCROSS impact

NASA’s Lunar Prospector first detected some hydrogen signatures in craters on the dark side of the moon in 1999. Ever since, researchers have been keen to confirm the presence of water on the moon. The Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) is tasked with crashing through the mists of speculation and conjecture and discover [...]

Water found on the moon – what will it mean for the future?

Newspapers and websites around the world are buzzing with the news that water and hydroxyl (hydrogen and oxygen) molecules have been found in the polar regions of the moon. NASA announced yesterday that instruments aboard three separate spacecraft revealed that water molecules were present, although in relatively small amounts. It was also discovered that hydroxyl [...]

Swift snaps our best-ever ultraviolet image of neighboring Andromeda Galaxy

In a galaxy far, far away … about 2.5 million light years, in fact, lie approximately 20,000 hot, young stars and dense clusters that comprise the Andromeda Galaxy. The galaxy, known as M31 in the constellation Andromeda, was recently captured by an ultraviolet optical telescope aboard NASA’s Swift satellite and delivers the highest-resolution view of [...]

A NEW EQUATION FOR LIFE

Astrobiologists are trying to work out a mathematical equation to quantify how suitable other planets are for life, similar to the famous Drake Equation for judging the chances of contacting extraterrestrial civilizations.
The exercise could help future generations figure out where to look for aliens – or where to settle down. But coming up with a [...]

Newfound world may plunge to fiery doom

A newly discovered planet that whips around its star in less than a day may have been found mere cosmic moments before its demise.
The planet, WASP-18b, is one of the “hot Jupiter” class of planets that are huge in size (10 times the mass of Jupiter in this case), but orbit very close to their [...]

THREE FACES OF A NEBULA

The latest view of the Trifid Nebula serves as fresh evidence that good things definitely come in threes: This star-illuminated cloud of gas and dust gets its name from its three-lobed appearance (via the Latin word “trifidus”), and the European Southern Observatory’s crowd-pleasing picture puts the “three faces” of the nebula on full display.
The Trifid Nebula, [...]

NASA Research Reveals Major Insight Into Evolution of Life on Earth

Humans might not be walking on Earth today if not for the ancient fusing of two microscopic, single-celled organisms called prokaryotes, NASA-funded research has found.
By comparing proteins present in more than 3000 different prokaryotes – a type of single-celled organism without a nucleus — molecular biologist James A. Lake from the University of California at [...]

X-ray telescope to shed light on dark energy

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Russia’s Roskosmos space agency are joining forces to try and shed some light on the poorly understood phenomenon referred to as ‘dark energy’. In 2012 the German extended Roentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array (eROSITA) X-ray telescope will be taken into orbit on board the Russian Spektrum Roentgen [...]

Researchers found First Discovery of Life’s Building Block in Comet

NASA scientists have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life, in samples of comet Wild 2 returned by NASA’s Stardust spacecraft.
“Glycine is an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins, and this is the first time an amino acid has been found in a comet,” said Dr. Jamie Elsila of NASA’s Goddard [...]

In space, worms help study microgravity effects

A transparent roundworm could reveal the biological effects of microgravity and space radiation, and perhaps provide clues on how to protect future human astronauts headed for the moon, Mars and beyond.
The C. elegans worm’s biological responses proved eerily similar to those of humans during a series of experiments aboard the International Space Station in 2004. [...]

SpacE: Google Earth event hints at moon mapping

Google announced plans Thursday to hold a press conference on July 20 in Washington, D.C., to discuss “a very special announcement about the newest addition to Google Earth,” according to an invitation sent to reporters. Further details were not included, but it’s not too hard to guess what Google might be up to here.
July 20 [...]

SpacE: NASA’s new Ares I rocket Launched

PROMONTORY, Utah–”This is the world’s biggest solid rocket motor.”
Those eight words, with which Kevin Rees described the Ares 1 rocket to me on Monday, are at once entirely understated, and hugely consequential. Rees is the director of test services for ATK, the primary rocket contractor on NASA’s Constellation program.
Since 1981, the Space Shuttle has been [...]

SpacE: NASA Scientists Find Evidence for Liquid Water on a Frozen Early Mars

NASA scientists modeled freezing conditions on Mars to test whether liquid water could have been present to form the surface features of the Martian landscape.
Researchers report that fluids loaded with dissolved minerals containing elements such as silicon, iron, magnesium, potassium and aluminum, can remain in a liquid state at temperatures well below freezing. The results [...]

SpacE: Planet-Hunting Method Succeeds at Last

PASADENA, Calif. — A long-proposed tool for hunting planets has netted its first catch — a Jupiter-like planet orbiting one of the smallest stars known.
The technique, called astrometry, was first attempted 50 years ago to search for planets outside our solar system, called exoplanets. It involves measuring the precise motions of a star on the [...]

SpacE: Nearby Star May Be Getting Ready to Explode

Betelgeuse, a star so large its shape can be seen through the Hubble Space Telescope.

 Bye-bye, Betelgeuse?
The nearby, well-known and very bright star may soon explode in a supernova, according to data released by U.C. Berkeley researchers Tuesday.
The red giant Betelgeuse, once so large it would reach out to Jupiter’s orbit if placed in our own [...]

SpacE: NASA To Give Hubble New Life

NASA To Give Hubble New Life With Atlantis Mission Launching Monday 11, 2009

 On Monday, May 11, at 2:01 PM EDT, the space shuttle Atlantis will lift off for the final service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. For close to twenty years, Hubble has dazzled the world with its wonderful images and led to new [...]

SpacE: Atlantis To Launch On Hubble Servicing Mission

Atlantis To Launch On Hubble Servicing Mission May 11
 
Top NASA and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the STS-125 mission to service NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope during Thursday’s executive-level Flight Readiness Review at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and determined the shuttle’s equipment, support systems and procedures are ready for flight.  
“We had [...]

SpacE: In Search of knowledge…..

Modern science tells us that stars are balls of burning gas, located light-years away from the Earth and held in their courses by the force of gravity. But the question of how they got there is one that Professor Arif Babul, an Ismaili cosmologist, researcher, and professor, seeks to understand.
“How did all the stars get [...]

NASA spacecraft to seek out Earth-like planets

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. spacecraft toting the biggest camera ever sent into space will be launched next month to scour our region of the Milky Way galaxy for warm, rocky planets like Earth that may host life, NASA said on Thursday. The Kepler spacecraft is scheduled to spend 3-1/2 years looking at more than [...]

Jupiter in space agencies’ sights

Nasa and the European Space Agency have decided to forge ahead with an ambitious plan to send a probe to the Jupiter system and its icy moon Europa.

The proposal could be the agencies’ next “flagship” endeavour, to follow on from the successful Cassini-Huygens mission to the Saturn system.
Officials had been considering the Jupiter mission along [...]

Scientists developing spray-on solar panels

Researchers in Australia have started a three-year project to develop a spray-on coating for solar panels and more efficient cells that are less costly than today’s PV. Australian National University (ANU) is working with new Australian solar company Spark Solar and Finnish materials company Braggone Oy on the method, which could be commercially available by [...]