Space News for March 10, 2010

Answer to Universe Puzzle No. 4 Now Posted

I've now posted the answer in the original post. Check back next week for another Universe Puzzle!© Jean Tate for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.usPost tags:Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

It’s Not Just The Astronauts That Are Getting Older

Representing what may be the first long term lunar environmental impact study, recent laser ranging data from the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico suggests the Lunar Ranging Retro Reflectors (LRRRs) left on the Moon by Apollo missions 11, 14 and 15 are beginning to shows signs of age.(...)Read the rest of It’s Not Just The [...]

Massive Repeated Explosions Halted Star Formation in Early Universe

Scientists have found evidence of a catastrophic event they believe was responsible for halting the birth of stars in a galaxy in the early Universe. According to their findings, just 3 billion years after the Big Bang, a massive galaxy exploded in a series of blasts trillions of times more powerful than any caused by [...]

SpaceX Falcon 9 Test Fire Ends with Abort

Updated at 9:40 EST Tuesday: SpaceX just released the official word on what happened with Tuesday's 3.5 second test-fire of the Falcon 9 rocket. The test aborted immediately after it started, and a a spin start system failure forced the early shutdown. The Falcon 9 sits on Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral [...]

Where's My Jetpack? Right Here

Step right up — you can now get your very own jetpack. That's right, a real, not-science-fiction-honest-to-goodness jetpack. New Zealander Glenn Martin has been working on perfecting his jetpack for 30 years, and in 1998 created the Martin Aircraft Company to develop and market his idea. Now, the jetpack has become a [...]

Carnival of Space #144, Oscar Edition

This week's Carnival of Space is hosted by Ian O'Neill over at Discovery News/Space, (and formerly of Universe Today!) who has given the Carnival the "Red Carpet" treatment. Click here to read the Carnival of Space #144. And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If [...]

Possibility of Past Water on Mars Takes a Hit

Images of Mars taken from orbit show a massive system of riverbeds and canyons etched by water. Or maybe not. A new study of one channel shows that it was formed by lava flow and not water, and the results make "a strong case that fluid lava can produce channels that look [...]

Obama to Unveil "Ambitous" Plan for NASA

President Obama will travel to Florida to unveil an "ambitious plan for NASA that sets the agency on a reinvigorated path of space exploration," according to a press release from the White House. The President will host a conference on April 15, inviting space officials and leaders to discuss the new budget and plan [...]

Universe Puzzle No. 4

As with last week's Universe Puzzle, something that cannot be answered by five minutes spent googling, a puzzle that requires you to cudgel your brains a bit, and do some lateral thinking. This is a puzzle on a "Universal" topic – astronomy and astronomers; space, satellites, missions, and astronauts; planets, moons, telescopes, and so on. What's [...]

Taking The Pulse Of A Supernova – NGC 4490

NGC 4490/4485 – T. Grossman, D. Hager and R. JohnsonWay out yonder some 40 to 50 million light years away in the constellation of Canes Venetici is a pair of interacting galaxies sometimes referred to as "The Cocoon". These two mis-shaped blobs of star stuff have already made their closest approach to each other [...]

A New Edition of This Week In Space

Florida's Space Coast braces for layoffs, Buzz Aldrin muses on the next steps for NASA and his upcoming stint on "Dancing with the Stars," plus other headlines from This Week In Space.© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.usPost tags: This Week In SpaceFeed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

Astronomy Without A Telescope – The Hitchhikers Guide To The Solar System

Short on fuel, but good at astrophysics? It is possible to tour the solar system on less than 30 Altairian dollars a day by using the Interplanetary Transport Network (ITN).(...)Read the rest of Astronomy Without A Telescope – The Hitchhikers Guide To The Solar System (571 words)© Steve Nerlich for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | 17 [...]

Gorilla On Mars?

Classify this one under the same nonsense as the "Bigfoot on Mars" the wooden plank on Mars, or perhaps even the "Face on Mars." Just an optical illusions, folks from a very, very zoomed in image from the Mars rovers. The Sun newspaper seemingly started this foolishness on what must have been a [...]

Bolden: There is No "Plan B" In Development

Several news sources reported Thursday that NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden had asked senior managers to come up with an alternate plan for the newly proposed NASA budget after members of Congress indicated they wanted to reject a White House proposal to cancel the Constellation program and hire private companies to bring astronauts to the ISS. [...]

Could Phobos Be Hollow?

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, there was some speculation that Mars' moon Phobos could possibly be hollow due to the its unusual orbital characteristics. While scientists now agree that the moon is very likely not hollow, vast caverns may exist within the moon, and it might be a porous body instead of solid. [...]

Answer for This Week's WITU Challenge Now Posted

The answer is now available for this week's Where In The Universe Challenge. Find it back on the original post. Thanks to Jason Major for submitting the image for this week! And check back next week for another test of your visual knowledge of the cosmos.© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment [...]

Weekend SkyWatcher's Forecast: March 5-7, 2010

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Are you ready for the weekend? Then let's spend it "stellar" as we take a look at a great series of open galactic star clusters. Gathering a few photons will enrich both the spirit and the mind! If you're ready for some history, science and challenges, then follow [...]

Podcast: Behind the Scenes at NASA TV

Listen to the audio of this podcast at this link. You can also read the interviews below. Hi, this is Nancy Atkinson from Universe Today. Right now I'm at Kennedy Space Center, and I've had the opportunity to see a couple of launches and cover other events that normally, I'd be back home watching on NASA [...]

GOES-P Goes to Space

A Delta IV rocket rumbled and roared off launch pad 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Thursday evening, sending the GOES-P satellite soaring into a crisp and clear night sky. With liftoff at 6:57 p.m. EST, the rocket could be seen for several minutes after launch, and booster separation was clearly [...]

Scientists Come to a Conclusion: Asteroid Killed the Dinosaurs

Over the years, scientists have debated the cause of the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Now, a panel of 41 international experts says it's official: a massive asteroid around 15 kilometers wide slamming into Earth at Chicxulub, Mexico is the culprit. After surveying a wide variety [...]

Best "Blue Marble" Images Yet

The Goddard Space Flight Center has a Flickr account showcasing a series of images of our own home planet. Called "Blue Marble," these spectacular images are the most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth to date. Using a collection of satellite-based observations, scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations in 2001 of [...]

Spirit Hunkered Down for Winter; Stuck Forever ? Maybe Not !

The plucky Mars rover ‘Spirit’ may yet rove again ! She’ll just have to outwit and outlast the unavoidably harsh cold and desperately low power levels of the looming winter in Mars southern hemisphere. Rather long odds to be sure – but she’s done it before. Remember – at this moment [...]

Where In The Universe #94

Here's another Where In The Universe Challenge, to test your visual knowledge of the cosmos. This week's image was submitted by UT reader Jason Major, who is hoping this one will pose a challenge for everyone. But you know what to do: take a look at this image and see if you can determine where [...]

Second-Generation Star Supports Cannibal Theory of Milky Way

A newly discovered red giant star is a relic from the early universe — a star that may have been among the second generation of stars to form after the Big Bang. Located in the dwarf galaxy Sculptor some 290,000 light-years away, the star has a remarkably similar chemical make-up to the Milky Way’s oldest [...]

Gallery: Midnight Shuttle Rollout

It was a dark and windy night. But then the Xenon spotlights hit space shuttle Discovery as it inched out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, lighting up the darkness. The lights didn't help the wind any, but the gleaming shuttle stack on top of the crawler/transporter was a [...]

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