Featured Posts
View All
Starts With A Bang!
18 May 2013, 00:32 UTC
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” -Albert Einstein Back when Einstein first proposed his theory of General Relativity, his revolutionary picture of the Universe was met with a mix of curiosity, awe, and intense skepticism. It isn’t every day that your most cherished of all physical theories — the theory of Newtonian Gravity that had ruled the cosmos for nearly two-and-a-half centuries — gets challenged by a newcomer. Image credit: Brooks/Cole – Thomson publishing, 2005. And yet, that’s exactly what Einstein did when he proposed General Relativity at the end of 1915, nearly a century ago. Newtonian gravity, according to Einstein, was just an illusion. Objects didn’t really exert gravitational forces on one another, which in turn caused accelerations/changes in momentum, but rather the entire Universe existed in a framework known as spacetime, and the presence of matter-and-energy curved the fabric of that spacetime, causing objects to move as they do. Image credit: WGBH Boston, retrieved from http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/. Einstein’s theory not only reduced to Newtonian gravity when gravitational fields were weak, it also predicted the orbital anomaly of Mercury, something that had puzzled astronomers and physicists alike for nearly 50 years. When the 1919 ...
“Einstein’s Greatest Blunder” was REALLY a blunder!
18 May 2013, 00:32 UTC
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” -Albert Einstein Back when Einstein first proposed his theory of General Relativity, his revolutionary picture of the Universe was met with a mix of curiosity, awe, and intense skepticism. It isn’t every day that your most cherished of all physical theories — the theory of Newtonian Gravity that had ruled the cosmos for nearly two-and-a-half centuries — gets challenged by a newcomer. Image credit: Brooks/Cole – Thomson publishing, 2005. And yet, that’s exactly what Einstein did when he proposed General Relativity at the end of 1915, nearly a century ago. Newtonian gravity, according to Einstein, was just an illusion. Objects didn’t really exert gravitational forces on one another, which in turn caused accelerations/changes in momentum, but rather the entire Universe existed in a framework known as spacetime, and the presence of matter-and-energy curved the fabric of that spacetime, causing objects to move as they do. Image credit: WGBH Boston, retrieved from http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/. Einstein’s theory not only reduced to Newtonian gravity when gravitational fields were weak, it also predicted the orbital anomaly of Mercury, something that had puzzled astronomers and physicists alike for nearly 50 years. When the 1919 ...
Discovery News - Space News
17 May 2013, 22:45 UTC
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has recreated the world's tiniest droplets of a primordial state of matter that last existed moments after the Big Bang, some 13.82 billion years ago. Continue reading →
LHC Creates Tiny Drops of Big Bang 'Blood Spatter'
17 May 2013, 22:45 UTC
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has recreated the world's tiniest droplets of a primordial state of matter that last existed moments after the Big Bang, some 13.82 billion years ago. Continue reading →
StarStruck
17 May 2013, 20:45 UTC
A boulder-sized meteor slammed into the moon in March, igniting an explosion so bright that anyone looking up at right moment might have spotted it, NASA announced Friday. NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office is reporting the discovery of the brightest impact seen on the moon in the eight year history of the monitoring program. Some… An artist illustration of a meteor impacting the moon and resulting in an explosion that can be visible from Earth skies.Credit: NASA A boulder-sized meteor slammed into the moon in March, igniting an explosion so bright that anyone looking up at right moment might have spotted it, NASA announced Friday. NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office is reporting the discovery of the brightest impact seen on the moon in the eight year history of the monitoring program. Some 300 lunar impact events have been logged over the years but this latest impact, from March 17, is considered many orders of magnitude brighter than anything else observed. “We have seen a couple of others in the ‘wow’ category but not this bright,” said Robert Suggs, manager of NASA’s Lunar Impact Monitoring Program at Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The blast lasted only about a single second and shone ...
NASA Announces Brightest Lunar Explosion Ever Recorded
17 May 2013, 20:45 UTC
A boulder-sized meteor slammed into the moon in March, igniting an explosion so bright that anyone looking up at right moment might have spotted it, NASA announced Friday. NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office is reporting the discovery of the brightest impact seen on the moon in the eight year history of the monitoring program. Some… An artist illustration of a meteor impacting the moon and resulting in an explosion that can be visible from Earth skies.Credit: NASA A boulder-sized meteor slammed into the moon in March, igniting an explosion so bright that anyone looking up at right moment might have spotted it, NASA announced Friday. NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office is reporting the discovery of the brightest impact seen on the moon in the eight year history of the monitoring program. Some 300 lunar impact events have been logged over the years but this latest impact, from March 17, is considered many orders of magnitude brighter than anything else observed. “We have seen a couple of others in the ‘wow’ category but not this bright,” said Robert Suggs, manager of NASA’s Lunar Impact Monitoring Program at Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The blast lasted only about a single second and shone ...
SPACE.com
17 May 2013, 20:02 UTC
Dream Chaser's first free-flight test is slated for later this year.
Private Space Plane Arrives in California for Key Flight Tests
17 May 2013, 20:02 UTC
Dream Chaser's first free-flight test is slated for later this year.
Universe Today
17 May 2013, 19:05 UTC
Have you seen Star Trek: Into Darkness yet? If so, did you see the NASA-themed trailer, too? A crowd-funded 30-second video called “We Are the Explorers” is debuting at theaters this week, shown before the new Trek film begins. It highlights America’s future in space and is narrated by actor Peter Cullen, the voice of head Transformer Optimus Prime. (...)Read the rest of This is the new ‘We Are the Explorers’ Video You’ll See at ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness” (156 words) © nancy for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: NASA, star trek: into darkness Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
This is the new ‘We Are the Explorers’ Video You’ll See at ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness”
17 May 2013, 19:05 UTC
Have you seen Star Trek: Into Darkness yet? If so, did you see the NASA-themed trailer, too? A crowd-funded 30-second video called “We Are the Explorers” is debuting at theaters this week, shown before the new Trek film begins. It highlights America’s future in space and is narrated by actor Peter Cullen, the voice of head Transformer Optimus Prime. (...)Read the rest of This is the new ‘We Are the Explorers’ Video You’ll See at ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness” (156 words) © nancy for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: NASA, star trek: into darkness Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Astro Bob
17 May 2013, 16:57 UTC
Anyone looking at the moon at the right time on St. Patrick’s Day with a small telescope would have seen it. A pinpoint flash of light as bright as a 4th magnitude star suddenly appeared that evening in the lunar … Continue reading → Bright impact flash made by a 1-foot-wide rock that struck the moon on March 17, 2013. The moon was a crescent in the evening sky at the time. The impact occurred in the dark, earthlit part of the moon away from the sun-lit crescent. Credit: NASA Anyone looking at the moon at the right time on St. Patrick’s Day with a small telescope would have seen it. A pinpoint flash of light as bright as a 4th magnitude star suddenly appeared that evening in the lunar sea Mare Imbrium and faded away one second later. The St. Pat’s Day meteoroid strike occurred near the prominent crater Copernicus in Mare Imbrium, the Sea of Showers. Photo: Bob King “On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium,” says Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. “It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as ...
Meteoroid hits moon, goes boom!
17 May 2013, 16:57 UTC
Anyone looking at the moon at the right time on St. Patrick’s Day with a small telescope would have seen it. A pinpoint flash of light as bright as a 4th magnitude star suddenly appeared that evening in the lunar … Continue reading → Bright impact flash made by a 1-foot-wide rock that struck the moon on March 17, 2013. The moon was a crescent in the evening sky at the time. The impact occurred in the dark, earthlit part of the moon away from the sun-lit crescent. Credit: NASA Anyone looking at the moon at the right time on St. Patrick’s Day with a small telescope would have seen it. A pinpoint flash of light as bright as a 4th magnitude star suddenly appeared that evening in the lunar sea Mare Imbrium and faded away one second later. The St. Pat’s Day meteoroid strike occurred near the prominent crater Copernicus in Mare Imbrium, the Sea of Showers. Photo: Bob King “On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium,” says Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. “It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as ...
Universe Today
17 May 2013, 15:12 UTC
The Universe can be a very gray place. But this week, we’ll look at a fine example of a class of objects that defies this trend.(...)Read the rest of Seeing the Red of ‘La Superba,’ a Magnificent Springtime Carbon Star (886 words) © David Dickinson for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | [...] Finder chart for La Superba in Canes Venatici. (Photo by Author). The Universe can be a very gray place. But this week, we’ll look at a fine example of a class of objects that defies this trend.(...)Read the rest of Seeing the Red of ‘La Superba,’ a Magnificent Springtime Carbon Star (886 words) © David Dickinson for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: canes venatici, carbon star, cor caroli, herschel's garnet star, la superba, r leporis, Red Stars, springtime astronomy, Star Trek, v hydrae Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Seeing the Red of ‘La Superba,’ a Magnificent Springtime Carbon Star
17 May 2013, 15:12 UTC
The Universe can be a very gray place. But this week, we’ll look at a fine example of a class of objects that defies this trend.(...)Read the rest of Seeing the Red of ‘La Superba,’ a Magnificent Springtime Carbon Star (886 words) © David Dickinson for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | [...] Finder chart for La Superba in Canes Venatici. (Photo by Author). The Universe can be a very gray place. But this week, we’ll look at a fine example of a class of objects that defies this trend.(...)Read the rest of Seeing the Red of ‘La Superba,’ a Magnificent Springtime Carbon Star (886 words) © David Dickinson for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: canes venatici, carbon star, cor caroli, herschel's garnet star, la superba, r leporis, Red Stars, springtime astronomy, Star Trek, v hydrae Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Most Recent Blogs
Expand Entries
View All
- 19 May 2013
-
18:54 UTC
AmericaSpace
Photo Feature: Launch of GPS IIF-4
Photo Credit: Alan Walters / awaltersphoto.com CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla — For those used to archival footage of the early days of space flight, watching modern-day launches must seem a tad ...
-
18:35 UTC
Discovery News - Sp...
Rodent Space Travelers Perish in Orbital Test
A number of mice and eight gerbils sent into space in a Russian capsule perished during their journey, after a month-long mission touched back down on Earth.
-
18:04 UTC
Starts With A Bang!
Weekend Diversion: Against Scientific Racism
“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.” -Frederick Douglass ...
-
17:31 UTC
Astro Bob
Don’t let Comets PANSTARRS and Lemmon out of your sight …...
What the heck have comets L4 PANSTARRS and Lemmon been up to anyway? Well, they’re still visible in 50mm binoculars and small telescopes. You can see them both sans moonlight ...
-
17:30 UTC
SPACE.com
Space-y Photos from Maker Faire Bay Area 2013
See space crafts photos, homemade tech and more from the Maker Faire Bay Area in May 2013.
-
17:29 UTC
Space Politics
Differing perspectives on commercial crew
Speaking at the meeting Wednesday of the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) in Washington, NASA administrator Charles Bolden made another pitch—this time to a rather sympathetic audience—for the ...
-
17:27 UTC
In the Dark
All that matters in football….
..is the relative position of the two teams in 16th and 17th place in the final Premiership table! Of course, it would have been more satisfying if Sunderland had finished ...
-
17:08 UTC
NASA Watch
Senate Hearing on Partnerships to Advance the Business of...
Prepared Statement by Wayne "Poised on the cusp of these new systems, we run the risk of being penny wise and pound foolish as we make the same mistake that ...
-
17:00 UTC
Astronomy Box
A Week In Tenerife - The Mt Tiede Observatory Part 5
Finally, it's my great pleasure to show you all the fruits of our labor on the Tenerife trip. I hope this journey will help and inform anyone considering studying physics ...
-
16:57 UTC
Tom's Astronomy Blo...
Impact!
I put up a picture of a relatively new crater on the moon a few days back. Some good questions came up and I thought I’d post a link to ...
-
16:50 UTC
SPACE.com
How Space Tourism Could Help Save Planet Earth
Seeing our fragile Earth hanging alone in space could inspire people to take the long view.
-
16:42 UTC
Astro Bob
Watch as Venus, Jupiter and Mercury align after sunset
Hey, hey, hey. Three planets are now lining up in a neat row at dusk. Watch for the trio starting 30-35 minutes after sunset when they’ll be low in the ...
-
15:04 UTC
SPACE.com
Comet ISON: How to See Potential 'Comet of the Century' O...
The online Slooh Space Camera will provide live views of Comet ISON Sunday (May 19) at 4:45 p.m. ET (2045 GMT).
-
14:46 UTC
In the Dark
The Threat to STEM from HEFCE’s Funding Policies
In my job here as Head of the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) at the University of Sussex, I’ve been been spending a lot of time recently on ...
-
14:24 UTC
Wayne Hale's Blog
Making a Difference
When I started blogging, it was in connection with my work, at that time as a government civil servant. I tried to stay strictly on topic (space) and never ever ...
-
14:11 UTC
SALT Astronomy
High Resolution Spectrograph: Red Arm Lab first-light
Following on from the HRS blue-arm laboratory first-light, this week also saw the red-arm achieving the same milestone. The photo below shows a red solar echellogram covering orders from n=51 ...
-
13:31 UTC
The Daily Galaxy
Saving Kepler! --The Mission That Changed Our View of the...
The NASA mission that has changed our view of the probability of life in the Universe is in jeopardy. The Kepler has shown that planets are common throughout the Milky ...
-
13:00 UTC
SPACE.com
Vote Now! Best Space Stories of the Week - May 19, 2013
What was your favorite space news story of the last week?
-
13:00 UTC
AmericaSpace
Launch Complex 39A for Lease?
NASA has announced that Launch Complex 39A will be open to take on commercial clients. Photo Credit: Julian Leek / Blue Sawtooth Studio CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla — NASA is moving ...
-
12:00 UTC
Bad Astronomy
Lunar Hook Shot
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a cool close-up picture of the Moon from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (or LRO), and this one is too nifty not to share: ...
-
12:00 UTC
Space Exploration N...
Cassini creates the first global topographic map of Titan
NASA's Cassini radar team have created the first global topographic map of Saturn's moon Titan. Detail of the new topography map. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/JHUAPL/Cornell/Weizmann(Sen) - Scientists from NASA's Cassini radar ...
-
11:41 UTC
Galaxy Zoo Blog
Observing Run: Raw Data versus Finished Product
So let’s say you have a galaxy: And you know this galaxy has a growing black hole, and probably hasn’t had any significant mergers, because it has very little, if ...
-
11:39 UTC
AmericaSpace
A Most “Egg-cellent” Competition: Space Florida and Kenne...
Third graders from Lithia Springs Elementary show off their “Lithia Lynx Lander” at the Planetary Lander Egg Drop. Photo credit: Emily Carney/AmericaSpace. DOVER, Fla — While it has been said ...
-
11:38 UTC
Space Fellowship
Space Capsule Returns Cosmic Rodents to Earth after Month...
MOSCOW – The returnable capsule of a biological research satellite has landed in the Russian Orenburg Region near the border with Kazakhstan, bringing mice, Mongolian gerbils, geckos and various microorganisms ...
-
10:11 UTC
Space Fellowship
NASA’s STEREO Detects a CME From the Sun
On 5:24 a.m. EDT on May 17, 2013, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection or CME, a solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar ...
-
10:07 UTC
Space Fellowship
Bright Explosion on the Moon
For the past 8 years, NASA astronomers have been monitoring the Moon for signs of explosions caused by meteoroids hitting the lunar surface. "Lunar meteor showers" have turned out to ...
-
09:46 UTC
AMSAT-UK
UK Astronaut to fly to International Space Station in 201...
Major Tim Peake, has been selected to fly on a five-month mission on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015. The Guardian newspaper reports: 41-year-old Peake has been assigned a ...
-
09:34 UTC
Rocketeers
Innovation Centre progress
The Technology Strategy Board's network of "catapult" Innovation Centres seems to be achieving commercial success:- A profit in their own country -- Professional Engineer
-
09:29 UTC
Rocketeers
Virgin Galactic hires two new spaceplane pilots, includin...
Welcome to our two new SpaceShipTwo pilots, CJ (4x @nasa shuttle astronaut) and Sooch (U-2 pilot and more). #space twitter.com/virgingalactic… — Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) May 7, 2013 (Source: Virgin Galactic ...
-
09:23 UTC
Supernova Condensat...
A jolly good fellow?
While I’m quite merrily building a writing career and even planning on writing a book, there is honestly no way I’m going to drop my research career without a fight. ...
-
09:23 UTC
Rocketeers
Interview with David Mackay
Virtuoso Travel has an extended interview with David Mackay, chief test pilot of Virgin Galactic, in which he discusses his work and the flying characteristics of the VG vehicles: Now ...
-
09:19 UTC
Rocketeers
Apologies for the downtime...
...but real life is occupying too much of my time at the moment. Too many projects on the go at the same time. I'm aiming to catch up with the ...
-
09:03 UTC
AMSAT-UK
AMSAT Fox-1 Ham Radio CubeSat Announcement
NASA announced on May 13, 2013 that AMSAT’s Fox-1 amateur radio spacecraft has been assigned for launch in November 2014 on the ELaNa XII mission. The expected orbit is 470 ...
-
09:00 UTC
AmericaSpace
NASA Spacecraft Counts Impacts on Red Planet
NASA has used a camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft to study how frequently the planet Mars is impacted by meteors. Image Credit: NASA / JPL NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance ...
-
08:46 UTC
Cosmic Log
Why sign up for a one-way Mars trip? Three applicants exp...
A one-way trip to Mars sounds like something you'd wish on your worst enemy — so why would more than 78,000 people from around the world pay up to $75 ...
-
08:00 UTC
All About Space
Heroes of Space: Hugh L. Dryden
The unsung hero who built NASA into the world’s greatest space agency Dryden, pictured here in 1958, was hugely influential in the formation of NASA. From the early days of ...
-
07:10 UTC
SALT Astronomy
Night Log 2013-05-18
SA: Tim SO: Siphelo Others: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary ---------------------------------------------------------------------- smooth, productive night with mediocre, but steady, seeing until the clouds arrived after 0300 and brought raindrops after 0430. accepted a total ...
-
04:37 UTC
Lunar Meteorite Hun...
KY IL AR TN Meteor 18MAY2013
KY IL AR TN Meteor approx.22:40 CST 18MAY2013 If you witnessed a meteor event please file a meteor sighting report on this site; thank you .http://thelatestworldwidemeteorreports.blogspot.jp/2011/12/december-2011-meteorfireball-sighting.html Please also get the ...
-
04:19 UTC
astrobites
UR#6: Neutrinos and ICM Magnetic Fields
The undergraduate research series has been revived! This month's post features research on neutrinos from failed supernovae and compact-object mergers, as well as research on magnetic fields in the intracluster ...
-
04:00 UTC
SpacePolicyOnline.c...
Requiem for Many of the Rodents on Bion-M1
All of the gerbils and half the mice reportedly did not survive their spaceflight aboard Russia's Bion-M1 capsule, which returned to Earth last night after a month in space.. Anatoly ...
-
04:00 UTC
SpacePolicyOnline.c...
Space Policy Events for the Week of May 20-24, 2013
The following space policy events may be of interest in the week ahead. The House and Senate are in session this week. During the Week Among the highlights of the ...
-
04:00 UTC
NASA: Earth Observa...
Two Niles Meet
The main tributaries of the world’s longest river meet in Khartoum, Sudan.
-
03:39 UTC
Tychogirl
Never Seen
What was your role on that summer night when the blanket on the lawn was drenched to the last thread in honeysuckle and we looked up at a full moon ...
-
03:23 UTC
Lights in the Sky
The "HUM" Heard in McAllen, Texas
I received another email today, this one from a student in McAllen, Texas, who has been affected by the Hum. What is this sound that is bothering people in so ...
-
01:30 UTC
collectSPACE.com: T...
Rolling record
While Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt visited the moon for three days in December 1972, they drove the lunar rover 22.2 statute miles (35.7 kilometers). That was ...
-
00:55 UTC
Parabolic Arc
Some More Photos From Maker Faire 2013
Above, Eric Dahlstrom (in hat) watches two children control lunar rovers at the X Prize booth. There were many forms of getting around the Maker Faire, including this pedal powered ...
-
00:43 UTC
collectSPACE.com: S...
Mars rover Opportunity breaks US distance record set by A...
A robotic Mars rover rolled past a record set by the last men to drive on the moon more than 40 years ago. NASA's Opportunity six-wheeled Mars Exploration Rover drove ...
-
00:16 UTC
Lunar Meteorite Hun...
MBIQ Detects Possible Meteorite Fall in La Paz, Boliva 18...
MBIQ Detects Possible Meteorite Fall in La Paz, Boliva 18MAY2013 Anyone who saw this possible meteor event please file a meteor sighting report on this website; thank you. http://thelatestworldwidemeteorreports.blogspot.jp/2011/12/december-2011-meteorfireball-sighting.html update- ...
-
00:16 UTC
Spaceports
British Astronaut Assigned 2015 ISS Stay
Britain's first official astronaut, Major Tim Peake, 41, has been selected to fly on a five-month mission on the International Space Station in 2015, it is believed. The go-ahead for ...
-
00:00 UTC
Sky Caramba
Three planets meet up and a first of a kind eclipse
¡SkyCaramba! Astronomy blog for the week ending May 25, 2013 Three planets meet up In the next few nights, three planets that haven’t met up in two years are coming ...
-
18:54 UTC
AmericaSpace
