New Horizons Journey; Wrong Way Asteroid; Ring Around Mars?
New Horizons Halfway to Next Flyby Destination NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft provided scientists an amazing once in a lifetime look at the distant dwarf planet Pluto as it flew by it in July 2015. Along with spectacular images of Pluto the spacecraft also sent back those of Pluto’s five moons including high definition shots of […]
Where are Ceres Large Craters?
After NASA’s Dawn spacecraft had passed by the asteroid Vesta, on its way to rendezvous with Ceres, mission scientists noticed that its surface was banged up with a lot of very large craters. Its biggest impact crater is Rheasilvia, which measures 505 km in diameter. They expected that Ceres would also be seriously pitted with giant impact basins too. […]
X Marks the Spot; New Radiation Monitor on ISS; 3D Astronomical Map
X Marks the Center of the Milky Way When we hear “X marks the spot,” many of us might think of old pirate maps and where treasure is supposedly buried. But “X marks the spot” could also have more of a cosmic meaning, thanks to a new study published in the Astronomical Journal. The study’s […]
Bright Spots of Ceres; Rotten Tomatoes Produces Energy; Black Hole Flashes Red
Earth Based Telescope Provides New Insight on the Bright Spots of Ceres The dwarf planet Ceres is the largest body in the asteroid belt, which is a large collection of small to very large space rocks between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Among the features of the dwarf planet that’s fascinated a lot of […]
Antarctic Dinosaur Hunt; 60 Days in Bed For Science; Noise May Disturb Sea Floor Ecosystem
Did Some of Today’s Species Get Their Start in Antarctica? We know Antarctica is the land of snow and ice and is the coldest place on Earth. But believe it or not, this polar continent, was once quite warm, due to the different, earlier atmosphere. Antarctica was covered with lush vegetation and teeming with a […]
First Flight of NASA’s New Space Launch System Will Carry 13 CubeSats
NASA says the planned 2018 inaugural flight of its new and powerful rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), will test the performance of the SLS and Orion spacecraft as an integrated system before it can be used to send humans into space. This initial flight, called Exploration Mission-1 or EM-1, will also carry 13 CubeSats […]
Moon Born from a Violent Head-On Collision
It’s been theorized by a number of scientists that the moon was formed as the result of a collision between an early Earth and a protoplanet known as Theia, named after the mother of the goddess of the moon in Greek mythology, some 4.5 billion years ago (around 100 million years after Earth formed). But scientists seem […]
Where Does Rain Go; Ocean Organics Form Cloud Ice; Hot Peppers May Fight Cancer
What Happens to Precipitation After it Falls to Earth? Have you ever wondered what happens to rain or snow once it falls on Earth? Researchers from the University of Utah and Oregon State University analyzed measurements, taken by the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) on NASA’s Aura satellite, of the two forms of hydrogen contained within […]
Asteroid Rumor Not True; Celestial Fireworks; Daycare Doesn’t Make Children Agressive
NASA: There is No Truth Behind Asteroid Online Rumor The internet has been abuzz with a now viral rumor that life on Earth will be wiped out by a massive asteroid strike some time near the end of September. Numerous recent blogs and web postings are erroneously claiming that an asteroid will impact Earth, sometime […]
The Best Science Images – February 2015