 |
Small group gathers to protest Cassini flyby
Opponents of NASA's plutonium-powered Cassini spacecraft gathered Feb.27 outside the gates of the Air Station as they gained momentum for other protests against the use of nuclear power in space.
|
|
A new window on starry creation
NASA on Monday launches a decades-long exploration into the deepest questions of the universe: How did stars, planets and life itself come into existence? The inaugural mission of the space agency’s Origins Program, known as the Wide Field Infrared Explorer, will study how stars were born billions of years ago.
|
|
Cosmonauts Home Safetly See also: Mir visitors return to Earth
A Russian and a Slovak returned safely from the Mir space station, landing their Soyuz capsule in the plains of northern Kazakstan early Sunday morning (Feb.28), officials said.
|
|
When does the millennium begin? Logic, sentiment duke it out
All right, commentators, copywriters, cultists and celebrators everywhere, let's get this straight once and for all: The new millennium doesn't arrive for 22 more months. Not 10 months. Twenty-two.
|
|
Retired astronaut Musgrave logical choice to fix Hubble
Quick - someone flash the Bat Signal. And if Batman isn't available, try astronaut Story Musgrave. In case you haven't heard, the Hubble Space Telescope needs fixing. And that involves launching a space shuttle to deliver the repair crew.
|
|
Once in a Blue Moon
As February winds down with no full moon at all, sky watchers are looking forward to two full moons in March and the second Blue Moon of 1999.
|
|
The VLT Opening Symposium See also: Far-sighted telescope opens eyes
ESO scientists will make several presentations at a forthcoming Symposium. They include general reviews of various research fields as well as important new data and results from the VLT that show the great potential of this new astronomical facility. Some of the recent work is described in this Press Release, together with images and spectra of a large variety of objects.
|
|
Chinese manned spaceflight probable
China is making advanced preparations for the launch of a manned spaceflight, with the recent overhaul of three ships designed to track spacecraft.
|
|
Robotic Rover, Spacesuited Geologist Work Together In Test Of Future Exploration
NASA is testing a remotely operated planetary rover and an advanced prototype spacesuit in southern California this week to see how robots and humans might someday work best together to explore other planets.
|
|
Russians may keep NASA, station partners waiting again
A senior NASA official admitted Feb.25 that a key Russian piece for the International Space Station might not be launched until late this year, causing still more trouble for the project.
|
|
Martian Colors Provide Clues about Martian Water See also: Seeing Mars in a different light
Hubble Space Telescope images of Mars taken in visible and infrared light detail a rich geologic history and provide further evidence for water-bearing minerals on the planet's surface.
|
|
Goldin dazzles Congress with NASA's space research See also: Dan Goldon's Statement to Congress
For the first time in recent memory, members of the House Science Committee did not use their first hearing of the year to beat up on NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin.
|
|
Rock Circling the Sun May Be Chip off the Moon
A chunk of rock 50 meters across found circling the Sun in an orbit close to the Earth's is probably a chip off the Moon, astronomers have suggested.
|
|
Trouble for Hubble See also: NASA considers emergency repair trip for ailing Hubble and NASA considers Hubble repairs
Trouble aboard the Hubble Space Telescope could interrupt the flow of astronomical data for about a year unless repairs are made. |
|
Russia Seeks More U.S. Money for Space Station
Cash-strapped Russia is seeking additional funds from the United States to help finance its obligations to the new International Space Station in exchange for services rendered. |
|
Chandra will target the age of the Universe
Astronomers plan to combine radio images of galaxy clusters with new data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and open a new window on the history of the Universe.
|
|
Venus, Jupiter 'pair up'
Just after sunset Feb.23, the planets Venus and Jupiter appeared to 'pair up' in the west-southwest sky for the first time in nearly a quarter century. |
|
Comets, Like Cars, Leave Carbon Monoxide In Their Wake
Hitching a ride on a comet may be like latching onto a bus's tailpipe, a recent Arizona State University study found. The study, done by ASU astronomers and published in the February 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal, found that comet gas tails, previously thought to be composed mostly of water, actually contain high concentrations of ionized carbon monoxide (CO) gas. |
|
Wide-Field Infrared Explorer To Survey Starburst Galaxies
One of NASA's smallest spacecraft, scheduled for launch
March 1, will tackle a very big cosmic question: What is the
history of star-formation in the Universe? |
|
Pocketful of glass leads geologist to site of ancient, powerful collision
You never know what will turn up on a trip. Military buffs comb battlefields along their travel routes. Amateur archeologists poke through every abandoned home site they find. Peter Schultz digs impacts. Schultz's latest, and possibly most important impact discovery, began by chance during a visit to Argentina in 1992. |
|
Iridium Fleet Squeezes Telescope Time
New telecommunications satellites have woven an orbiting web of radio noise that threatens to entangle studies of our galaxy.
|
|
Cosmic Rice Helps Fill China's Paddies
Ever on the lookout for innovative ways to feed its 1.2 billion people, China has turned to conditioning rice and wheat seeds in space to lift crop yields.
|
|
Orbital ships first X-34 spaceplane from factory in Virginia to NASA testing facility in California
Orbital Sciences Corporation has shipped the first X-34 vehicle from its assembly and integration facility in Dulles, Virginia to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California.
|
|
Artificial muscles to be used on space rover
Imagine space robots negotiating the terrain of asteroids, moons and distant planets with animal-like flexibility - their hands nimbly grasping rock samples, their arms bringing the loot into a collection pouch. These robots aren't laden with gears, hydraulics and other expensive, heavy and power-sucking parts. Instead, flexible pieces of plastic contract and relax, contract and relax, just like human muscles, to allow the robot to manipulate its surroundings. This is the future of robotic space explorers.
|
|
Don't miss the show
If you only ever look at the night sky once a year, make it Tuesday night. Look towards the sunset on the evening of 23 February and, if it is clear, you will see an awe-inspiring sight. The planets will appear at their closest to each other at about 2000 GMT.
|
|
Mapping of Mars to Begin next Month
NASA said on Feb.22 that its Mars Global Surveyor satellite will start its main mapping mission of the red planet next month.
|
|
Breathing deep on the Red Planet
A new device to produce pure oxygen from Martian air will be aboard the Mars Surveyor 2001.
|
|
Mir Crew Could Be Last See also: Mir's last docking
On the 13th anniversary of Mir’s launch, a new three-man crew lifted off Feb.20 for a rendezvous with the Russian space station in what may be Mir’s last manned mission.
|
|
UFOs, or a Light Show?
It’d be cool if those zigzagging lights were UFOs, but science has a duller explanation. |
|
Carbons from Heaven
Researchers have shown that conditions in interstellar space can create some organic compounds that are essential to life. |
|
The Making of the Milky Way Halo
A group of ESO astronomers has used new observations, obtained with the first 8.2-m VLT Unit Telescope (UT1) during the 'Science Verification' programme, to show that a globular cluster in the Milky Way galaxy is 'evaporating' and has already lost its faintest stars.
|
|
Hubble Finds More Evidence of Galactic Cannibalism
An international team of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a system of star clusters which was created, or perhaps orphaned, during the destruction of its parent galaxy.
|
|
New Climate Modeling Of Venus May Hold Clues To Earth's Future
New computer models that indicate the climate of Venus has wavered radically in its relatively recent past may prove valuable to scientists tracking Earth's changing climate, according to two University of Colorado at Boulder researchers.
|
|
Saturday launch may herald Mir's final chapter
A Russian, a Slovak and a Frenchman are scheduled to blast off Saturday from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a six-month mission that may mark the swan song for Russia's aging Mir space station.
|
|
Kick-start for life on earth
Life on Earth may have been kick-started by a meteorite and comet bombardment of molecular "food", believe some scientists.
|
|
Space station 'not worth' joining
Britain's space agency has advised the UK government not to join the International Space Station (ISS) project, according to BBC Radio Four's Today programme.
|
|
Pioneer Leonov Safe on Earth
By the time legendary Soviet spaceman Alexei Leonov confidently shook hands with an American astronaut in orbit during the Cold War he had narrowly escaped death five times - thanking God each time for his good luck.
|
|
Space Station: More Delays, Rising Costs for NASA Project
Two months after launching the foundation of its new space station, NASA isn't sure how many more flights - or how many more years - will be needed to finish the job.
|
|
Surveyor spacecraft spots bright sand dunes on Mars that researchers speculate could be mounds of sulfates
After analyzing hundreds of high-resolution pictures of the Martian surface taken by the orbiting Mars Surveyor spacecraft, a team of researchers finds that weathering and winds on the planet create landforms, especially sand dunes, remarkably similar to those in some deserts on Earth.
|
|
StarDust is on its way to Wild 2!
After a one-day delay because of range safety issues with the Delta 2 C-band transponder, the StarDust launch team scored a virtual "bullseye" on the targeted outbound trajectory.
|
|
CU-Boulder Researchers To Map Polar Ice On Mars
NASA's Office of Space Science has selected a group of University of Colorado at Boulder researchers to spend three years mapping the polar ice on Mars using satellite data.
|
|
Much ado about Pluto
Recent discoveries of Pluto-like objects in the outer solar system have sparked debate about the nature of the tiniest 'planet.'
|
|
Mining for Meteorites
It was the morning of June 13, 1998, when a 4.6-billion-year-old extraterrestrial object passed the moon's orbit, streaked into earth's atmosphere and blew to pieces in the sky somewhere in the neighborhood of Nelda Wallace's backyard...
|
|
Asteroid named after ESA astronomer, as a reward for his discoveries
Scientists are closer to piecing together a view of the early climate on Mars that could help answer the question of whether life existed on the red planet.
|
|
New Images of Mars Disclose More Secrets of Planet
Scientists are closer to piecing together a view of the early climate on Mars that could help answer the question of whether life existed on the red planet.
|
|
Live volcanoes on Mars? See also: Researchers Say Volcanoes Ruled Early Mars and The Lavas of Mars
Volcanic activity could occur on Mars today, scientists have concluded, from the most recent analysis of images sent back by the Mars Global Surveyor.
|
|
VLT UT1 Soon Ready to Receive the Astronomers
Recent footage from the Paranal Observatory illustrates the status of the VLT site and the UT1 and UT2 telescopes. The present video clip contains some of the scenes from a forthcoming newsreel.
|
|
Space weather camera set for launch in 2000
A unique camera that will take some of the first pictures of Earth's invisible magnetic shield is being prepared for flight on Feb. 15, 2000. The mission, called IMAGE, will explore a region of space where the aurora is energized.
|
|
Manned Mission to Mars
Prodded by a visionary outsider, NASA has devised a new plan for sending astronauts to Mars.
|
|
'Ring of fire' eclipse visible over Australia
A partial solar eclipse swept over parts of Australia on Feb.16, a celestial event that some Aboriginal tribes believe means the sun is mating with the moon after a passionate courtship.
|
|
Collision at 30,000km/h
Geologists prospecting for oil in the Barents Sea have stumbled across the largest meteorite crater ever found in Europe. It is also one of the largest in the world.
|
|
Haloes hang over South Pole
The Galileo spacecraft is operating normally again, nearly two weeks after it went into semi-shutdown when its onboard computer became confused after a pass by Jupiter's moon Europa.
|
|
Russia Says it Let down Partners in Space Station
The head of the Russian Space Agency said Moscow had let down its partners in the new International Space Station by failing to deliver vital components on time.
|
|
Galileo probe returns to health
Scientists at the South Pole research base were dazzled recently by one of nature's most enchanting sights - sky haloes.
|
|
NASA Goes Foraging for Spare Parts in Museum
Facing a shortage of parts and money, the U.S. space agency NASA is taking back part of an exhibit on the space shuttle from an Alabama museum.
|
|
Ring of Fire solar eclipse to be webcast
On Tuesday, Feb 16th, starting at around 6:00 am UT, a dedicated group of Japanese skywatchers who call themselves Live! Eclipse will be putting what's being billed as the last annular solar eclipse of the millenium up on the Internet in a video stream that may be almost as gratifying as (and a lot cheaper than) flying to remote western Australia to see it.
|
|
Evapourating Gas in Supernova Remnant Supports Theory
The expanding shock wave of a supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud has provided strong evidence to support a popular model of the interstellar medium, says a University of Illinois astronomer who directed an international team studying the object.
|
|
Next Stop: The Stars
The Chandra X-ray Observatory is a giant step closer to the cosmos this week after being installed in a clean room for final tests and other work before being orbited later this year.
|
|
Three VLT UT1 Photos and a Viewgraph
Here are some recent wide-angle photos of the first 8.2-m VLT Unit Telescope (UT1) with FORS1 and ISAAC attached. Regular observations with these astronomical instruments are scheduled to start from April 1, 1999.
|
|
End may be near for Russia's space station Mir See also: Mir's next commander prepares to be its last
Senior Russian space officials said Feb.11 that efforts to find private investors to keep Mir aloft are failing, and the station might be dumped into a watery grave in the Pacific Ocean by late summer.
|
|
Martian 'bacteria' matched to Earth
Unusual features found on a Martian meteorite may be those of fossilised alien bacteria afterall, research suggests.
|
|
Peering into the violent universe
A new approach to observing the most violent objects in the sky is taking shape and will be reviewed with competing concepts today near Washington. Fiber GLAST - the scintillating fiber detector concept for the next-generation Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope - has passed a number of tests that show the basic concept is good and could meet the program's goals in space.
|
|
Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage for Planet Birth in New Hubble Images See also:  Explore planetary construction sites
Dramatic pictures from Hubble of eerie disks of dust encircling young stars are giving astronomers a new look at what may be the early formative stages of planetary systems.
|
|
Anti-Cassini protesters readying for more demonstrations
NASA's Cassini spacecraft is on course to fly near Earth this summer, and opponents of the plutonium-powered journey already are gearing up to protest.
|
|
Casting a High-Tech Net for Space Trash
A cloud of spacecraft parts and debris envelops the earth. Keeping track of it takes the best we have and anybody who believes that space is as empty as it looks in the movies should spend a few hours with Justin Kerr of NASA and Ronnie Bernhard of Lockheed Martin.
|
|
Largest alien-hunting telescope planned See also: SETI to Use 1,000 Antennas and The big idea in SETI: Think small
Plans to build the world's largest telescope devoted to the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence have been announced.
|
|
Fuzzy blobs hold the secret of gamma-ray bursts
Two weeks ago one of the most powerful cosmic explosions ever recorded bathed the earth in gamma rays. On Feb.09, astronomers released a new Hubble photograph of the gamma-ray burst's fading optical counterpart. The relic fireball appears to be embedded in a faint, irregular galaxy.
|
|
Knots of evaporating gas in supernova remnant support theory
The expanding shock wave of a supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud has provided strong evidence to support a popular model of the interstellar medium, says a University of Illinois astronomer who directed an international team studying the object.
|
|
Eros Smaller in Person See also: NEAR Spacecraft Reveals Major Features Of Eros, Eros brought down to size, NEAR spacecraft reveals major features of Eros and Images
Eros isn't as grand as had been expected, NASA scientists studying the asteroid said Feb.08. Eros was studied by the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous satellite in late December. NASA said Eros was found to be slightly smaller than predicted, with at least two medium-sized craters, a long surface ridge and a density comparable to the Earth's crust.
|
|
Space station 'lifeboat' passes second flight test
The first prototype of the International Space Station's crew return vehicle had a successful second flight Saturday in California, NASA said.
|
|
When a star explodes
Hubble pictures the first supernova explosion to be observed in our region of space since the invention of the telescope early in the 17th century.
|
|
Giant Meteor Crater Found
Norwegian scientists have discovered a rare undersea meteor crater in the Arctic left by a stunning collision millions of years ago.
|
|
The Stardust Mission
NPR's Richard Harris explains for All Things Considered how the mission will consist of a few thrilling moments punctuating years of waiting around.
|
|
Stardust Blasts Off See also: Space probe on comet quest and NASA launches comet-chasing mission
A NASA spacecraft called Stardust is on the way for a date with a distant comet. If all goes well, the probe will attempt to catch some of the solar system’s ancient carbon in hopes of finding clues to the beginning of life.
|
|
Znamya - what went wrong? See also: Znamya falls to Earth and Znamya is going nowhere
It must be an image etched in the minds of all the mission controllers on duty at Mir mission control on Thursday - the ugly and depressing sight of the Znamya space mirror crumpled and trapped on one side of its mothercraft.
|
|
Aerogel Rides Again
Everything in the universe, from planets to the particles of your skin, is composed of star dust. But even though star dust is the clay from which all things are formed, actually going into space to capture a pure sample is not an easy task. Yet NASA plans to do just that, using a lightweight insulating material called aerogel.
|
|
Going Comet Wild
This weekend a NASA spacecraft will blast off from the Kennedy Space Center for an historic rendezvous with periodic comet Wild-2. Its ambitious goal is to intercept Wild-2 in 2004, to capture tiny bits of comet dust and debris, and then return them to Earth for analysis in 2006.
|
|
NASA Rearranges Entire Shuttle Flight Schedule
NASA was forced to rearrange its entire shuttle flight schedule Friday because of trouble with an X-ray telescope and Russia's inability to get a crucial piece of the international space station into orbit.
|
|
New test for space 'lifeboat'
NASA is to conduct a second flight test on the spacecraft that will act as a "lifeboat" for the International Space Station.
|
|
Tiny Galaxies Have Hearts of Darkness
Small ghost galaxies, devoid of stars but harboring dense clumps of invisible matter, may outnumber the entire population of luminous galaxies in the universe.
|
|
NASA's comet chase begins Saturday
NASA's Stardust mission is scheduled to blast off Saturday on an epic seven-year, 3.2 billion mile (5.1 billion kilometer) journey that will take it through the tail of a comet.
|
|
New images reveal 'honeycomb' source of solar wind See also: SOHO finds source of high speed wind blowing from the Sun
Using instruments aboard the SOHO spacecraft, scientists say they have pinpointed the source of the "solar wind" on the sun.
|
|
Spain Joins NASA’s E.T. Search
Spain today opened the first NASA-backed laboratory outside the United States dedicated to seeking out extraterrestrial life.
|
|
Mirror Deployment Fails
Russian officials scrapped the Mir space station’s much-hyped space mirror experiment today after the shiny metal object got stuck and failed to properly unfurl.
|
|
UK Astronomers Attack Russian Space Mirror Plan
RThe prospect of space mirrors circling the earth to bring light to Russia's dark frozen north angered British astronomers who said on Thursday they feared it could prevent them from watching the stars
|
|
E.T. in Quarantine
The Stardust mission will land a smidgen of material from a comet onto the Utah desert in 2004. Should we worry about contamination from the cosmos? Or has it already happened?
|
|
Comet Chaser
On Saturday, a NASA spacecraft called Stardust will launch on a mission to catch some of the solar system’s ancient carbon in hopes of finding some clues to the beginning of life.
|
|
Mirror Deployment Fails
An exotic space mirror expected to flash a beam of reflected sunlight down to earth failed to unfold after repeated attempts by the Mir space station’s crew today, forcing the experiment to be called off for the day.
|
|
Planetary Society Awards Three New Gene Shoemaker NEO Grants
Three researchers have been selected to receive Planetary Society Gene Shoemaker Near Earth Object Grants. Named for one of the pioneers in the field, the grants fund programs in the discovery and tracking of near-Earth objects -- asteroids and comets with Earth-crossing orbits that could impact our planet with devastating results. Special emphasis is given to international and amateur observers.
|
|
Galileo spacecraft finds thin atmosphere on Callisto
NASA's Galileo spacecraft has detected a thin carbon dioxide atmosphere on Jupiter's moon Callisto, and has confirmed the existence of carbon dioxide on Callisto's surface.
|
|
SOHO gets back to work - historical first in space
For the second time in six months, engineers have revitalised ESA’s orbiting solar observatory SOHO, and have also set a space record.
|
|
It's official: no 'demotion' for planet Pluto See also: Scientists put Pluto in perspective and See also: No Demotion for Pluto
Finally, after weeks of controversy, it's official. There will be no "demotion" for Pluto. |
|
FEROS Finds a Strange Star
A Lithium rich giant star in a 2 billion year old stellar cluster was discovered when observations were made with a new spectrograph at the 1.52-m
telescope on La Silla. |
|
Space mirror to sparkle over world See also: Mirror, mirror in the sky
Russian hopes of brightening the Siberian winter by reflecting sunlight from a mirror in space is about to be tested again on Thursday (Feb.04).
|
|
New Saturn-sized planet found See also: A new extra-solar planet around HD75289. Down towards the mass of Saturn
Scientists at the Geneva Observatory have discovered a new planet circling a star almost identical to our Sun.
|
|
From Kitty Hawk to the red planet See also: Flying over Mars the old-fashioned way – with a plane and An airplane and a Net for Mars
It's an idea that's been tossed around at NASA for decades: an unpiloted airplane sails through the Martian atmosphere, cameras whirring, giving humankind an unprecedented aerial tour of the red planet.
|
|
Saving space station central theme of NASA's 2000 budget
The Clinton administration wants to spend an extra $2 billion in the next five years to keep the International Space Station from falling victim to Russia's economic crisis.
|
|
Galileo buzzes Europa
JPL scientists reported yesterday that the Galileo spacecraft executed a close flyby of Europa on Jan.31, passing a scant 894 miles above the surface of Jupiter's frozen moon.
|
|
Galileo Switches to ‘Safe Mode'
The Galileo spacecraft halted all non-essential activities by going into a 'safe mode' shortly after close approaches to the moon Europa and Jupiter.
|
|
NASA spacecraft to bring back comet and interstellar dust See also: Stardust Awaits February Launch
Stardust, the robotic spacecraft that will collect the tiny grains, is due to lift off Feb. 6 on a journey that will span seven years and 3.2 billion miles.
|
|
NASA seeks money to fly plane to Mars
NASA wants to launch and fly a robot plane on Mars in 2003, a feat that would put mankind's first aircraft on another world.
|
|
Rare blue moon rises, another one coming
A blue moon rose Sunday, but don't worry if you missed it. Another blue moon will be coming on the night of March 31.
|
|
A LAN that's out of this world... literally
At first, Neil Woodbury's networking challenge doesn't seem too tough: He needs to support a seven-person remote office 250 miles away - on the International Space Station.
|
|
The price of eclipse
The British government is to be asked for military equipment to help cope with an estimated 1.5 million people expected to visit Devon and Cornwall this summer.
|
|
ET call Earth
In a few weeks' time mankind will send out its first detailed radio message into the cosmos, asking any aliens who may receive it to get in touch.
|
|
Planet Search Getting Easier
Astronomers have had a tough time detecting planets outside our solar system. But now with better telescopes and evolving theories on how planetary bodies form, the search is starting to get easier.
|
|
NASA confirms new delay in space station assembly
The Russian Space Agency will not meet a July launch deadline for its crucial service module component, forcing yet another delay in the construction of the $50 billion International Space Station.
|
|
Looking for life? Look down deep
If you’re serious about the search for extraterrestrial life, it’s going to take more than rovers and radio telescopes. You may have to look miles beneath the surfaces of other worlds. Maybe the movie “Armageddon” got it right: The best astronauts for interplanetary expeditions will be deep drillers.
|
|
First images from Subaru Telescope
The search for new worlds in deepest space took a huge leap forward on Jan.29, when Japan unveiled the 'first light' results of the world’s largest optical infrared telescope.
|
