What chardonnay will the well-traveled space tourist prefer? That’s the kind of question 20 New York students might be studying in the coming months. The Rochester Institute of Technology is offering a class in space tourism.
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From Sea to Space
The shortest route to orbit begins at a satellite launch pad in the ocean.
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Large fireball lights up Maritime sky
A huge ball of smoke and fire flew across the Maritime sky Wednesday night. Residents also reported hearing a large 'bang' as the fiery mass descended, some even felt buildings and homes shake. Once the possibility was ruled out that this was the result of anything man-made, such as an aircraft or satellite collision, local astronomers geared up to study what they now suspect was a very large meteor known as a fireball.
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The Problem of Space Debris Is Growing Exponentially
If there is anything we can all agree upon it is this: Humans are extremely efficient at polluting. No place however challenging is below our competence. Even if it is 300 miles overhead. We won't be deterred even 20,000 miles overhead or even further - like, on Mars.
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Leonids in the Crystal Ball
Most experts agree that 1999 is a likely year for a full-fledged Leonids meteor storm. Other forecasters think that better displays could be in store for 2000 - 2002. Whatever the case, the place to be before dawn on November 18, 1999 is outdoors and looking up!
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Lasers Brings Leonids Alive
An Air Force Research Laboratory astronomer calls them 'glowworms in the sky' and scientists will soon gather at the laboratory's Starfire Optical Range to study them.
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Help name the Planetary Society penguin
Could the first Martian be a green penguin? He is in the whimsical logo for the Planetary Society's Mars Microphone Project. Now he needs a name.
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Big Bang Broke The Lightspeed Barrier
An apostate, the dictionary tells us, is one who renounces, defects or revolts from a religious faith. Although he might not use it himself, the term is hard to avoid when trying to describe the scientific approach of physicist John Moffat.
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Earth's 'Second Moon' in a 'ménage à trois'
We will never see it but the Earth has at least one other natural satellite. In discovering several new types of orbital motion, a team of British scientists has shown that the gravitational forces of our planet and of the Sun allow our planet to capture passing asteroids. One of them is named 'Cruithne', and can be considered - at least for the next 5000 years - as 'Earth's second Moon'.
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Volcanoes and Water Don't Mix
New images from Mars have revealed small cone-shaped structures on lava flows that are most likely volcanic features known as "pseudocraters" or "rootless cones".
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NASA Star Hunt Boosts British Space Industry
British scientists are hoping to use a new NASA satellite to solve the mystery of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and look at the death of a star. NASA's Swift satellite will scour the sky looking for GRBs and will then quickly train two British-built telescopes on the source of the burst to capture data and take pictures.
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Postmortems in the Sky
To say they are ghoulish may be going too far, but like ghouls those studying Gamma Ray Bursts gleefully seek the moldering remains, and never see the living victim. But they are very much interested in both the victim and the cause.
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NASA decides to stick with original Mars landing site
NASA officials said Tuesday they have decided to stick with the first choice of landing sites for the Mars Polar Lander despite concerns about potentially hazardous terrain in the area.
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Chandra spies X-ray jets
See also: Chandra spies structure of huge X-ray jets
and Chandra Spies Structure of Huge X-Ray Jets
The Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed jets of superhot gas erupting from the extraordinary galaxy Centaurus A.
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Is there other life in the final frontier? SETI scientist: `Life may be commonplace'
Dr. Seth Shostak is a public programs scientist at the SETI Institute, a nonprofit, privately financed group based that is carrying out a Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Shostak sat with members of the Florida Today Editorial Board for a talk about his work and what may be out there. These are excerpts of that discussion.
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New space station moved up to avoid space junk
Flight controllers boosted the orbit of the international space station by about a mile Tuesday to avoid dangerous space junk.
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Closest ever pictures of volcanic Io released
The closest-ever image of Jupiter's moon Io, taken during a daring flyby of the volcanic moon by NASA's Galileo spacecraft.
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A close encounter with Jupiter
This weekend the Solar System's largest planet will be brighter and nearer to Earth than at any time in the past 12 years. It's easy to see with a telescope or binoculars, or even with the naked eye!
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Pioneers Aim for Mars
Some scientists are comparing colonizing Mars to the Europeans venturing to the New World - something necessary for the collective soul.
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Moon not quite dead
Astronomers have strong proof to show that the Moon is not a completely inactive world.
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A Breakfast Fit For The Stars
Many giant planets come to a fiery end when their parent stars swallow them whole, new observations suggest.
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Dodging pitfalls in the hunt for the cause of gamma-ray bursts
At the GRB conference this week, scientists discuss how to avoid making mistakes while searching for the solution to a big astrophysical mystery - What causes gamma-ray bursts?
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A Planetary Dust Bowl
The popular image of nascent planetary systems as thin, spinning pancakes of cosmic dust and debris may be changed by a new computer model that shows how that disk of debris is transformed into a very distinct ring once Pluto-like bodies start to form.
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Liquid Telescopes Have Yet to Reach Their Potential
In Terminator 2, a robot frantically chases Arnold Schwarzenegger while changing shapes to adapt to different situations. At one point the robot's hands change into crow bars to ply elevator doors open. Arnold then shoots at the robot and the bullets become part of its belly. How did this supernatural ability remain credible? Because the robot's body was, presumably, made of liquid metal. Could this concept be applied to telescopes?
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Hubble telescope spies 'Rotten Egg' nebula
See also: The ‘Rotten Egg’ nebula - a planetary nebula in the making
and The 'Rotten Egg' Nebula: A Planetary Nebula in the Making
The Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a picture of a splotch in space dubbed the "Rotten Egg" that could give astronomers clues about the future of our Sun.
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Outbursts Result in Controversy
Just a little over a year ago, scientists announced the discovery of the first known magnetars, neutron stars with exceptionally strong magnetic fields. The announcement seemed to solve two mysteries that had baffled scientists since the 1970s. But the discovery, and the grouping of ten objects as the first magnetar candidates, has not been universally accepted.
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Intriguing details of Chinese space plans
Probably more by accident than intent, conflicting signals are coming out of China and Russia about China's plans for a manned space programme.
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A Hike Through Isidis Planitia In 2001
Following a meeting of planetary scientists in June, the Mars 2001 team have decided that the Valles Marineris and White Rock regions are too rugged to be worth the risk. Now, the strongest candidate is an area from just north of the equator around 275 west - the southern rim of the low land depression, Isidis Planitia.
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Russian Space Launch
May Be Delayed to 2000
The launch of the Russian-built living quarters for the International Space Station will be delayed at least until late December.
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Why There Is Never Enough Time
Time seems to be the most powerful force, an irresistible river carrying us from birth to death. To most people it is an inescapable part of life, a fundamental element of the Universe.
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Sky Surveys - A Telephone Book of the Heavens
In 1789 two incidents filled French and English eyes with sparkles. One came from muskets and was the French Revolution, the other came from a long tube and was William Herschel's newly completed 40-foot telescope - at the time the world's largest.
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Galileo completes daring Io flyby
For the men and women of the Galileo project, Sunday, Oct. 10 began as a real nail-biter, but ended with immense pride and relief as the spacecraft successfully completed its daring flyby of Jupiter's moon Io.
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NASA announces missions to seek planets, study gamma rays
See also: New missions
to survey universe
Hundreds of cosmic scientists were gathered in Galileo's homeland today, hoping to learn from a spac
A spacecraft that will study one of astronomy's greatest mysteries and another that will search for new planets outside our solar system have been selected as the next missions in NASA's medium-class Explorer (MIDEX) program.
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Carl Sagan: A life in the cosmos
The BBC's science editor assesses two biographies of Carl Sagan, who died in 1996 aged 62.
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Hope for signs of life on Jupiter moon spurs space scientists
See also: Scientists pin hopes on prospects for life on Europa
Hundreds of cosmic scientists were gathered in Galileo's homeland today, hoping to learn from a spacecraft named Galileo whether a heavenly body the Renaissance astronomer discovered ffour centuries ago might support life.
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Cornell Spys Neptune Hot Spot
Astronomers at Cornell University and JPL have used an infrared camera on Caltech's 200-inch Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory to take detailed images unobstructed by atmospheric turbulence of Neptune.
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Solar Déjà Vu
When Yogi Berra made his famous remark about "déjà vu all over again," he probably didn't have solar eruptions in mind. But this week solar physicists did a double take, and then a triple take, as the sun produced a rapid-fire series of coronal mass ejections. Even Yogi would have been impressed.
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Ads in Space
Imagine gazing skyward on a clear night and spotting Orion, the Big Dipper ... and an oversized billboard flashing "Coke is it!"
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New Optics Center At NASA's Marshall Center Seeks To Expand View Of Universe
Telescopes with the power to view Earth-like planets in distant solar systems have so far existed only in "star-gazers'" dreams. Now, after several years in the making, efforts to make large-scale space optics a reality are being led by a new technology center at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
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Launch Pad No More
With hundreds of rocket scientists and launch pad workers cheering from the sidelines, historic Launch Complex 41 was blasted to pieces on Oct. 14th with 180 pounds of explosives.
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Solar Cycle Update
Updated predictions from NASA scientists place the solar maximum in mid-2000. As activity on the Sun begins to increase toward this broad maximum, we can expect more auroral displays, radio disruptions and power fluctuations.
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Mir Station Leaking Air
And Losing Altitude
The Mir space station, unmanned since August, has been leaking air into space and gradually falling to Earth, but neither problem.
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Moon Water Still a Mystery
The July 31, 1999 crash of Lunar Prospector into the Moon did not liberate detectable signs of water, say scientists. The possibility of water-ice in shadowed lunar craters remains open.
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Hale-Bopp Points To Early Solar Chemistry
A group of astronomers at the University of Massachusetts have discovered that a new molecule, nitrogen sulfide (NS), exists within comets. Previously known to exist within dense interstellar clouds, this is the first time it has been seen in a comet.
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French Nobel Laureate turns back clock
At any given spot along its path, the Aug. 11, 1999, total eclipse offered up to 2-1/2 spectacular minutes of total lunar coverage of the sun. But for two NASA researchers, the show's not over. They're just getting started probing a 50-year-old mystery.
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Astronomers: Kuiper belt objects from collision that created Pluto and Charon
Planetary astronomers working in the Space Studies Department (Boulder) of San Antonio-based Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) suggest that some Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) may be leftover shards from the giant collision that created the Pluto-Charon system.
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Rutgers Partners With South Africa In New Telescope
Rutgers officials today announced the university's participation in the South African Large Telescope (SALT) project that will create the second largest telescope in the world.
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New NASA track races toward cheaper trips to space
Sports cars that speed from zero to 60 mph in four-and-a-half seconds have met their match: A new high-technology track at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., accelerates a model spacecraft from zero to 60 in less than a half-second - with the flip of an electric switch.
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Galileo survives volcanic flyby
NASA's Galileo spacecraft has successfully zipped past Jupiter's moon Io, the most volcanic body in our solar system. This was the closest look at Io by any spacecraft, and Galileo's cameras were poised to capture the brief encounter.
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Firm plans to make its mark on the moon
Are you looking to leave your mark on the final frontier? One company says it’s offering the next best thing to being there. Applied Space Resources is selling space on an “Eternity Disk” featuring its customers’ pictures, favorite songs, poetry or family history, to be launched to the moon in 2002. The cost for about three pages of space is $189. [See ad on Homepage]
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Galileo sweeps over Io's volcanoes
See also: Io Gets Its Close-Up
At 0600 GMT on Monday, the Galileo spacecraft swept within a few hundred kilometres of Io, the innermost moon of Jupiter. It was its closest ever approach to this strange volcanic moon.
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China renews goals for human space flight
TChina still hopes to put an astronaut in space, perhaps before the end of the year, Beijing's official newspapers reported Saturday, citing a senior executive in a government-run aerospace company.
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Two crews prepare for Mir mission
Two cosmonaut crews are in training for a new mission to the Mir space station, the Russian Tass news agency reports.
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Sea launch heralds new space era
See also: New Era
and Commercial satellite's launch from sea is a first
An international consortium has carried out the first sea-launch of a commercial satellite, heralding a new era in the space business.
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Life on Mars: Will It Survive First Contact
A new era is about to begin in space exploration: an era in which samples of material from worlds more distant than the Moon are returned to Earth by unmanned spacecraft.
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Mars lander doesn't have metric problem that doomed orbiter
See also: Mars Lander Uses Metric
A spacecraft hurtling toward Mars for a Dec. 3 landing is not afflicted by the same metric conversion problem that caused a sibling probe to vanish as it arrived at the Red Planet last month, mission controllers say.
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Another asteroid threat downgraded
Further observations have led asteroid-watchers to cross another potential threat off their list. Earlier this week, astronomers said there was a very slight chance that Asteroid 1999 RM45 could hit Earth in the year 2042 or 2050 - but even that risk has now been eliminated.
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A shocking view of a superstar
See also: Chandra Takes X-ray Image
of Repeat Offender
and CChandra observation deepens mystery of 'superstar'
New images of the mysterious superstar Eta Carinae by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory reveal a surprising hot inner core - creating immense shock waves as well as fresh questions for astronomers.
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Possible Pluto Debris Spotted
A new era is about to begin in space exploration: an era in which samples of material from worlds more distant than the Moon are returned to Earth by unmanned spacecraft.
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A planet beyond Pluto
See also: A Tenth Planet?
and A mystery revolves around the sun
A British astronomer may have discovered a new and bizarre planet orbiting the Sun, 1,000 times further away than the most distant known planet.
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Tense Nerves at NASA
The loss of Mars Climate Orbiter resulted in some frazzled nerves and flaring tempers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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Tiny moon found orbiting asteroid
See also: Asteroid moon secrets revealed
For only the second time in history, a tiny moon has been discovered orbiting an asteroid.
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Peering at Galactic Bulges
See also: Hubble snaps clues about origin of spiral galaxies
and Starry bulges yield secrets to galaxy growth
The latest photos from the Hubble Space Telescope take a close-up look at the central bulges in spiral galaxies, providing some hints about how these galaxies formed.
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Countdown to Oblivion
When the countdown reaches zero next week at historic Launch Complex 41, the entire pad will be blasted to pieces - deliberately, as part of a modernization project.
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Moving Macho's may be galaxy's missing matter
Astronomers may have obtained a clue about one of the deepest mysteries of the universe - what is it made of?
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Space Station delayed again
US and Russian space officials have postponed the launch of the next component of the International Space Station (ISS) by at least several weeks.
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China plans new space base
China is planning to build a satellite launching complex on an island in the South China Sea.
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Io's Alien Volcanoes
Scientists are eager for a closer look at the solar system's strangest and most active volcanoes when Galileo flies by Io on October 11. This article explores what we know about volcanism on Io and what researchers hope to learn from next week's daring encounter.
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Planetary Power Breakfast
NASA and its Russian partners have agreed to yet another delay in the launch of the International Space Station's key element. The Zvezda service module, which is to serve as the station's first true living quarters, will be launched no earlier than Dec. 26, NASA said Friday. The announcement was just the latest in a long series of space shuffles.
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New delay for space station effort
NASA and its Russian partners have agreed to yet another delay in the launch of the International Space Station’s key element. The Zvezda service module, which is to serve as the station’s first true living quarters, will be launched no earlier than Dec. 26, NASA said Friday. The announcement was just the latest in a long series of space shuffles.
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Chemical that could power microbes is found at Jupiter moon
See also: Sulfuric Acid Found on Europa
While scientists wait for direct proof of water and maybe even life beneath the frozen crust of Jupiter's moon Europa, new data shows it is coated with an acid that could power microbes.
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Window on the world
One of the most expensive windows ever constructed will go in the International Space Station to give astronauts a perfect view of home.
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Planets, planets everywhere
See also: Astronomers find clues to solar system evolution
Moon craters help us understand how extrasolar planets form More than a dozen planets orbiting other 'suns' have been found in the last few years, but... are they the rule or the exception? The European Space Agency's infrared space observatory, ISO has shown that the formation of extrasolar planets must be a very common event. As explained in today's issue of the journal Nature (30 September), ISO has found that almost all young stars are surrounded by a disc of debris - a requisite for planet making - while most above a certain age do not have discs. Correlating these data and certain events in the history of our own Solar System, such as the formation of the Moon's craters, astronomers postulate that the discs of older stars have vanished because they have already condensed into planets.
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Planets in Sky with Diamonds
See also: Another ice-making machine in the Solar System?
Uranus and Neptune may be giant diamond factories, pressing out millions of the precious stones under the pressure of billions of tons of hydrogen.
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Chandra runs into problems
The Chandra X-ray observatory has delivered spectacular first images but astronomers are concerned that some of its detectors are having problems.
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Measure for Measure
See also: Confusion leads to Mars failure
and  Mixed-Up Measures Behind Loss of Mars Orbiter
A $125 million spacecraft on a mission to Mars likely vanished last week because a contractor provided data in English measurements and NASA navigators assumed they were metric units.
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Old spacecraft makes surprise discovery
The Pioneer 10 spaceprobe may have helped astronomers discover a new object orbiting the Sun.
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ESA's Mercury mission named BepiColombo in honour of a space pioneer
Meeting in Naples last week (20-23 September), the European Space Agency's Science Programme Committee recognised the achievements of the late Giuseppe Colombo of the University of Padua by adopting his name for the Mercury project now being planned. Almost everything known until now about the planet Mercury comes from three passes by NASA's Mariner 10 in 1974/75, which were inspired by Colombo's calculations. He suggested how to put that spacecraft into an orbit that would bring it back repeatedly to Mercury. The Italian scientist also explained, as an unsuspected resonance, Mercury's peculiar habit of rotating three times in every two revolutions of the Sun.
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Dust Disk Pattern Emerges
The same gravitational shoving match that swept dense swarms of comets and asteroids from our solar system long ago is apparently at work around dozens of nearby stars.
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Crab's ring of power
See also: Peering at the heart of a Crab
and Chandra image shows a powerful connection in the Crab Nebula
Nasa's Chandra X-ray Observatory has taken a stunning image of the Crab Nebula, the remnant of a stellar explosion seen in 1054.
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Companion to comet Grigg-Skjellerup discovered using Giotto data?
13/14 March 1986, the European Space Agency's Giotto spacecraft obtained the first close-up pictures of a comet nucleus during its close flyby of Halley's Comet. An historic second comet encounter followed on 10 July 1992 when Giotto flew within 200 km of Comet Grigg-Skjellerup.
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Hubble Captures a Grand View of the Birth of "Hefty" Stars
Images taken in infrared and visible light by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope recount a vivid story of the turbulent birthing process of massive stars.
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Supernova Shower
Astronomers say a burst of cosmic gamma rays — one of the most powerful explosions ever observed — probably originated in a supernova explosion and the formation of a black hole.
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The Bouncing Baby Universe
Astronomers say a burst of cosmic gamma rays — one of the most powerful explosions ever observed — probably originated in a supernova explosion and the formation of a black hole.
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