Space News

The Amateur Future of Space Travel

jaydenh8 — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:50:51 +0000

It was in 2004 that NASA inaugurated what it calls the Centennial Challenges. The purses for the seven contests would range from the $200,000 to $2 million for the creation of a new lunar lander. The winners retain the rights to their inventions. So if it works out as planned, everybody wins. So far this has not been easy…

read more | digg story

Burned-out star harbors signs of Earthlike planets

jaydenh8 — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:36:52 +0000

Chemical elements observed around a burned-out star known as a white dwarf offer evidence Earth-like planets once orbited it, suggesting that worlds like our own may not be rare in the cosmos, scientists said on Thursday.

read more | digg story

What if we made a moon base and no one showed up?

jaydenh8 — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:33:24 +0000

Industry hasn’t found anything that’s worth doing in low-earth orbit so far, and they’re extremely unlikely to suddenly discover something that’s going to make it worth the added costs of doing it on the moon. There are compelling reasons to want to go to Mars. I haven’t seen an equivalent scientific justification for putting people on the moon…

read more | digg story

How to feed a black hole

jaydenh8 — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:19:35 +0000

A special magnetic effect, the so-called magnetorotational instability (MRI), plays a key role in the formation of stars and planetary systems. It is also what feeds the black holes in the center of galaxies. For the first time, this effect has been observed in a laboratory experiment at the Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (Germany).

read more | digg story

Turbulence Detected in Space

jaydenh8 — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:17:44 +0000

The highly ionized solar wind blows around our planet, disrupting satellites and endangering unprotected astronauts. A flotilla of four satellites have recently measured random variations in the solar wind’s propagation, providing the first definitive detection of turbulence in space.

read more | digg story

Storm’s Giant Eye On Saturn (Photos)

jaydenh8 — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:12:44 +0000

The Cassini probe has discovered a new wonder on Saturn–a storm similar to a hurricane on Earth.

read more | digg story

Britain wide open to invasion by aliens

jaydenh8 — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:47:25 +0000

Actual aliens this time, not an enlarged European Union… The British government is shockingly underprepared for an attack by extraterrestrials, an ex-MoD man has claimed.

read more | digg story

Russia wants to join NASA moon program

jaydenh8 — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:18:47 +0000

Rivals for lunar conquest four decades ago, Russia hopes to join the U.S. moon exploration program with technology and know-how. NASA said Monday that it would send a four-astronaut crew to the moon in 2020 and set up an international base camp on one of the moon’s poles that would be permanently staffed by 2024.

read more | digg story

3 planets to offer rare visual treat on Sunday

jaydenh8 — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:04:50 +0000

Rise before dawn on Sunday, prepare a thermos of hot cocoa, bundle up, drive to some spot where mountains don’t obstruct the eastern horizon — and watch an astronomical grouping not seen since the Civil War.. About 45 minutes before dawn on Sunday those three planets will be so close that the average person’s thumb can obscure all three from view.

read more | digg story

Largest 3D Map of Galaxies

jaydenh8 — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 11:51:59 +0000

A team of American, Australian and British astronomers has released maps from the largest full-sky, three-dimensional survey of galaxies ever conducted.

read more | digg story