Space News
A link between black holes and new stars
Phys.org - 23 Oct 2013 17:05
Supermassive black holes (those with millions to billions of solar-masses) are thought to reside at the centers of most galaxies. These black holes must have undergone periods of intense accretion activity to grow to the...
Cassini Gets New Views of Titan's Land of Lakes
PTTU - 23 Oct 2013 21:08
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory News and Features: With the sun over Titan's north pole, some weather luck and optimal viewing positions, NASA's Cassini spacecraft took new images of liquid methane and ethane seas and l...
Coral chemicals protect against warming oceans
Phys.org - 23 Oct 2013 23:48
Australian marine scientists have found the first evidence that coral itself may play an important role in regulating local climate.
Titan's North Pole is Loaded With Lakes
Universe Today - 23 Oct 2013 23:16
A combination of exceptionally clear weather, the steady approach of northern summer, and a poleward orbital path has given Cassini — and Cassini scientists — unprecedented views of countless lakes scattered across T...
South Pole ozone hole slightly smaller this year (Update)
Phys.org - 23 Oct 2013 23:00
Scientists say warm upper air this September and October helped shrink the man-made ozone hole near the South Pole slightly.
Mars Rover Opportunity Heads Uphill
PTTU - 23 Oct 2013 22:53
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory News and Features: NASA's Mars Exploration Rover has begun climbing "Solander Point," the northern tip of the tallest hill it has encountered in the mission's nearly 10 Earth years on Mar...
Taking Measure: A 'New' Most Distant Galaxy
Universe Today - 23 Oct 2013 22:36
“The farthest galaxy yet seen!” Haven’t we heard that one before? (See here and here, for example.) While it’s true that astronomers keep pushing farther back in time with better instruments, there are fundamenta...
Zap! NASA Laser Breaks Space Communications Record
SPACE.com - 23 Oct 2013 22:35
A laser communications demonstration flying on NASA's newest moon probe is now a record holder. The Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration aboard the LADEE spacecraft has set a record for the fastest download rate betw...
Space-flown Jumping Spider 'Back-Flops' In Fly Hunt On Earth | Video
SPACE.com - 23 Oct 2013 22:26
A Phiddipus johnsoni, or red-backed jumping spider (named Nefertiti), has returned from its time on the International Space Station. Its hunting skills were compromised when attempting to capture its prey, due to its rea...
SES Designing Its Satellites To Take Aim at Shipboard and In-flight Broadband
Space News - 23 Oct 2013 22:20
SES has begun designing its satellites with dedicated beams for mobile markets.
European Satellite, Out of Fuel, Will Plunge to Earth Next Month
SPACE.com - 23 Oct 2013 22:12
Europe's Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer satellite (GOCE) has run out of fuel and will likely die a fiery death in Earth's atmosphere about two weeks from now, officials say.
Orbital's Cygnus Concludes First ISS Cargo Run
Space News - 23 Oct 2013 21:58
Cygnus broke up over an uninhabited stretch of ocean east of New Zealand.
Curiosity update: Roving through the shutdown toward Waypoint 2, sols 388-432
Planetary Society - 23 Oct 2013 21:57
After a brief science stop at Darwin (formerly known as Waypoint 1), Curiosity has driven hundreds of meters toward Mount Sharp. Autumn has come to Curiosity's southern hemisphere location, bringing lower temperatures. T...
Dwarf Galaxies Contradict Current Dark-Matter Predictions
The Daily Galaxy - 23 Oct 2013 21:42
Like all galaxies, our Milky Way is home to a strange substance called dark matter. Dark matter is invisible, betraying its presence only through its gravitational pull. Without dark matter holding them together, our gal...
NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 23 October 2013
SpaceRef - 23 Oct 2013 21:41
Vascular Blood Collection Operations: Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Nyberg performed a blood sample collection by self-phlebotomy....
New Views of Titan's Land of Lakes
SpaceRef - 23 Oct 2013 21:38
With the sun now shining down over the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan, a little luck with the weather, and trajectories that put the spacecraft into optimal viewing positions, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has obtained ne...
Incredible Vertical-Landing Grasshopper Rocket Has Retired
Universe Today - 23 Oct 2013 21:36
Did you take a moment to look at that August video of the Grasshopper rocket deliberately going sideways and then appearing to hover for a bit before returning to Earth? For more video fodder, there’s also this high-fl...
Astrophoto: Seeing the Cygnus Capsule Before Its Demise
Universe Today - 23 Oct 2013 21:30
Here's a nice photo of the trails in the sky from the International Space Station and Orbital Science's Cygnus freighter. This was captured just a few hours after Cygnus was undocked from the station on October 22, 2013....
NASA's TRMM satellite shows wind shear's effect on Tropical Storm Lorenzo
Phys.org - 23 Oct 2013 21:07
NASA's TRMM satellite data provided forecasters at the National Hurricane Center with a good look at how wind shear is affecting Tropical Storm Lorenzo in the Atlantic Ocean.
NASA eyes Super-typhoon Lekima in the northwestern Pacific
Phys.org - 23 Oct 2013 21:07
NASA's Terra satellite flew over Lekima after it became a super-typhoon in the northwestern Pacific Ocean and captured visible and infrared data on the storm.
NASA sees Tropical Storm Raymond finally moving away from Mexico
Phys.org - 23 Oct 2013 21:06
Satellite data revealed that Raymond, formerly a hurricane, now a tropical storm is finally moving away from the coast of south-central Mexico.
New study establishes first-ever connections between the Mississippi River
Phys.org - 23 Oct 2013 20:46
A new study led by scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science showed that the complex circulation from the Mississippi River plume played a substantial role in the tran...