Space News
Double Comet Landing? Philae Probe May Have Bounced During Touchdown
SPACE.com - 13 Nov 2014 00:05
Europe's Philae lander made history Wednesday, touching down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. But the probe's anchoring harpoons didn't fire as planned, and Philae may have bounced off the surface before settling back...
China Reveals Designs for Mars Rover Mission
Universe Today - 13 Nov 2014 23:59
For many space-faring nations, ambitions for Mars run broad and deep. Now, add China to the list of countries with Mars in their sights. News reports from China disclosed that country is considering a future Mars rover m...
NASA Gives the Green Light to $200 Million ICON Mission
Space News - 13 Nov 2014 20:39
NASA approved ICON, a small heliophysics mission set to launch no later than October 2017, to proceed into development, the agency announced Nov. 12.
How to See 4 Weird Pulsing Stars in the Autumn Night Sky
SPACE.com - 13 Nov 2014 23:49
: Late autumn is an excellent time to observe four of the most variable stars in the sky: Mira, Algol, and Delta Cephei. As their name suggests, variable stars are ones that, for one reason or another, varies in brightne...
Video and Images: Rosetta Mission Philae Lander Media Briefing 13 November 2014
SpaceRef - 13 Nov 2014 23:20
Watch today's Rosetta media briefing, held at ESA's Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt, Germany, at 8:00 a.m. EST (1300 GMT). The replay runs about 45 minutes and includes updates from the Rosetta mission operations team...
Weather Forecasting on Mars Likely to be Trickier Than on Earth
Universe Today - 13 Nov 2014 23:16
Predicting the weather here on Earth is never an easy thing, but predicting it on Mars may be ever trickier. Such is the argument presented by a recent study concerning “macroweather” patterns on the Red Planet, a ne...
NASA, Lockheed To Use "Blended Teams" For Orion Test Flight
Space News - 13 Nov 2014 23:00
As preparations ramp up for the first test flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft in December, agency officials say they will be closely involved in all aspects of the mission even though the flight itself will be run by Lock...
New Horizons set to wake up for Pluto encounter
Phys.org - 13 Nov 2014 22:52
(Phys.org) --NASA's New Horizons spacecraft comes out of hibernation for the last time on Dec. 6. Between now and then, while the Pluto-bound probe enjoys three more weeks of electronic slumber, work on Earth is well und...
Research reveals the real cause of death for some starburst galaxies
Phys.org - 13 Nov 2014 22:11
Like hedonistic rock stars that live by the "better to burn out than to fade away" credo, certain galaxies flame out in a blaze of glory. Astronomers have struggled to grasp why these young "starburst" galaxies--ones tha...
Goddard Seeks a Host Satellite for Its Earth Venture Proposal
Space News - 13 Nov 2014 22:04
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is looking for a host satellite to carry a roughly 100-kilogram science instrument to a geostationary orbit in 2022, according to notice published online Nov. 10.
The answer is blowing in the intergalactic wind
Phys.org - 13 Nov 2014 21:47
Astronomers from the University of Toronto and the University of Arizona have provided the first direct evidence that an intergalactic "wind" is stripping galaxies of star-forming gas as they fall into clusters of galaxi...
Hey Space Fans! Big Discounts on Stellar Gifts
SPACE.com - 13 Nov 2014 21:43
Save up to 60% on space-related gifts ranging from skywatching gear to Star Wars memorabilia. New coupon codes each weekday.
'Double Earths' Could Be Fun Exoplanets To Hunt For -- If They Exist
Universe Today - 13 Nov 2014 21:21
One big driver in the search for exoplanets is whether life can exist elsewhere in the Universe. In fact, a major goal of the Kepler space telescope is to discover an Earth-like planet in the habitable zone of a star lik...
Radio Galaxy With Black Hole Has 'Fierce Electrical Thunderstorm' Raging In Its Depths
Universe Today - 13 Nov 2014 20:55
We know black holes are dangerous to people and galactic objects alike due to their immense gravity. But it turns out the galaxies that host supermassive black holes also have stormy interiors, at least according to one ...
NASA Highlights Mission Advances at Supercomputing Conference
PTTU - 13 Nov 2014 20:35
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center: From our home planet to the far reaches of space, NASA will highlight science and engineering mission advances enabled by agency supercomputers at SC14, the international supercomputin...
X-ray telescopes find black hole may be a neutrino factory
Phys.org - 13 Nov 2014 20:31
(Phys.org) --The giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way may be producing mysterious particles called neutrinos. If confirmed, this would be the first time that scientists have traced neutrinos back to a black ho...
Comet Lander Stuck against Bottom of Shady Cliff
Scientific American - 13 Nov 2014 20:30
The probe's solar panels will get just three hours of light per day, hindering Philae's science goals --
Wake Up, Pluto Spacecraft! New Horizons Emerges From Nap Next Month
Universe Today - 13 Nov 2014 20:25
It’s not quite the cryogenic sleep featured in Interstellar, but all the same, NASA’s New Horizons probe has spent most of its long, long journey to Pluto in hibernation. So far it’s been asleep periodically for 1,...
A Universe of Water Planets? --"Common During the Formation of All Planetary Systems"
The Daily Galaxy - 13 Nov 2014 20:15
The new SciFi blockbuster, Interstellar, shows astonauts from post apocalyptic earth, destroyed by what appears to be a modern dust-bowl, catapulted into the unknown of outer space in the hopes of finding a new home for ...
New Horizons Spacecraft Set to Wake Up for Pluto Encounter
SpaceRef - 13 Nov 2014 20:07
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft comes out of hibernation for the last time on Dec. 6. Between now and then, while the Pluto-bound probe enjoys three more weeks of electronic slumber, work on Earth is well under way to pre...
New Images from Philae Reveal Comet's Ancient Surface
Universe Today - 13 Nov 2014 20:03
We may not know exactly where Philae is, but it’s doing a bang-up job sending its first photos from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. After bouncing three times on the surface, the lander is tilted vertically with one f...
The Party's Over for These Youthful Compact Galaxies
PTTU - 13 Nov 2014 20:00
HubbleSite NewsCenter -- Latest News Releases: Get larger image formats Hubble has uncovered young, massive, compact galaxies whose raucous star-making parties are ending early. The firestorm of star birth has blasted ou...