Space News
Look for 'Jupiters' to Find Solar Systems Like Ours (Op-Ed)
SPACE.com - 17 Dec 2015 23:19
Understanding whether Jupiter's relative uniqueness is a real feature, or another product of selection effects, has real implications for our understanding of exoplanets.
Rocks Rich in Silica Present Puzzles for Mars Rover Team
PTTU - 17 Dec 2015 23:12
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory News and Features:
Media Invited to View Launch of New Ocean Monitoring Satellite
NASA Breaking news - 17 Dec 2015 23:10Moisture Vaporators, Death Star Construction and Other Real Star Wars Tech
Universe Today - 17 Dec 2015 22:19
Remember that time an X-Wing fighter flew past the International Space Station? Or when R2D2 saved the ISS crew? OK, yeah, those things didn't really happen, but since the first Star Wars movie came out in 1977, there ha...
Dust Devil 'Swarm' Races Across Martian Plain
SPACE.com - 17 Dec 2015 21:51
What's that? Not one, but a SWARM of dust devils on Mars!
Aerojet Rocketdyne Finishes Design Review on Proposed RD-180 Replacement
Space News - 17 Dec 2015 21:42
Aerojet Rocketdyne said Dec. 17 that the AR1 engine it hopes to build for United Launch Alliance's next-generation rocket has completed a key design review. SpaceNews.com
NuSTAR Finds Cosmic Clumpy Doughnut Around Black Hole
SpaceRef - 17 Dec 2015 21:31
The most massive black holes in the universe are often encircled by thick, doughnut-shaped disks of gas and dust....
Hubble Sees the Force Awakening in a Newborn Star
SpaceRef - 17 Dec 2015 21:16
Just in time for the release of the movie "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens," NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has photographed what looks like a cosmic, double-bladed lightsaber....
Rocks Rich in Silica Present Puzzles for Mars Rover Team
SpaceRef - 17 Dec 2015 21:03
In detective stories, as the plot thickens, an unexpected clue often delivers more questions than answers. In this case, the scene is a mountain on Mars....
New Mars rover findings: Much higher concentrations of silica indicate 'considerable water activity'
Phys.org - 17 Dec 2015 20:30
New findings by NASA's Mars Curiosity rover are the focus of a press conference this morning at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting in San Francisco, Calif. A group of scientists, including one from Los Alamos N...
NASA Reviving Effort To Put Spare Orbiting Carbon Observatory Sensor on ISS
Space News - 17 Dec 2015 20:14
With funding in the 2016 omnibus spending bill approved by House and Senate appropriators, NASA will be able to revive Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3, a dormant effort to measure carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere. Spac...
Hubble sees the force awakening in a newborn star
e! Science News - 17 Dec 2015 20:10
Just in time for the release of the movie "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens," NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has photographed what looks like a cosmic, double-bladed lightsaber.
New research finds cosmic clumpy donut around black hole
e! Science News - 17 Dec 2015 20:10
New research has revealed that the thick donut-shaped disks of gas and dust that surround most massive black holes in the universe are 'clumpy' rather than smooth as originally thought.
Active Spinning Comet Poses For Close-Up | Video
SPACE.com - 17 Dec 2015 19:57
ESA's Rosetta probe directed it's wide angle camera to capture 30 images at 1-minute intervals of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko as it moved against the background stars.
Flown-to-the-Moon Omega Watch Sells for $245K
SPACE.com - 17 Dec 2015 19:53
A watch that flew to the moon, of the same make and model as NASA issued to all of its Apollo astronauts to wear in space, was sold by Christie's for nearly a quarter of a million dollars to the watchmaker's own museum.
NASA looks at Tropical Cyclone Melor's rainfall and dissipation
e! Science News - 17 Dec 2015 19:31
When Tropical Storm Melor was raining on Luzon in the northern Philippines, the GPM satellite analyzed the rainfall rate. The next day, NASA's Terra satellite caught a look at Melor after it moved off-shore and weakened ...
Mars Spacecraft Shipped to California for March Launch
PTTU - 17 Dec 2015 19:30
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory News and Features:
NuSTAR Finds Cosmic Clumpy Doughnut Around Black Hole
PTTU - 17 Dec 2015 19:27
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory News and Features:
Christmas Eve asteroid to cruise past harmlessly: astronomers
Phys.org - 17 Dec 2015 19:00
After a comet for Halloween, another Earthly holiday will be marked by a visit from a celestial body--this time a large asteroid zipping past on Christmas Eve, astronomers said Thursday.
China's Dark-Matter Satellite Launches Era of Space Science
Scientific American - 17 Dec 2015 19:00
'Monkey King' is first in a line of Chinese space missions focused on scientific discovery --
Two Astronomers Talk Aliens
Bad Astronomy - 17 Dec 2015 19:00
Many of you who read my blog are already aware of my dear friend Michelle Thaller, who's an astronomer and a wonderful science communicator. She's been on TV (we both do the talking head gig for How the Universe Works, f...
Red Giant Stars --"Hold Clues to the Origin of Elements in the Universe"
The Daily Galaxy - 17 Dec 2015 18:56
The LUNA experiment at the INFN Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy has observed a rare nuclear reaction that occurs in giant red stars, a type of star in which our sun will also evolve. This is the first direct...