Space Junk Jeopardizes Earth’s Space Environment
Scientists estimate that there are some 750,000 pieces of space junk circling Earth, millions more if you count fragments smaller than 1 centimeter. Think about it: Mankind has sent thousands of rockets into space since the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik 1, in 1957. While a number of space vehicles are still in active […]
Third Radiation Belt Discovered Around Earth
NASA scientists have discovered a third radiation belt briefly surrounded Earth for about a month before being blasted away by an interplanetary shock wave from the sun. Experts had long thought there were only two distinct regions of trapped radiation. But the third ring was spotted by twin Van Allen radiation probes NASA launched in 2012 […]
Earth Preps for Close Encounter with Asteroid
Earth is about to have a close encounter with an asteroid, the nearest an object of its size has ever come to our planet. The fly-by is expected to occur at around 1924 UTC on Feb. 15, according to scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The US space agency says there’s no chance the asteroid […]
See Jupiter’s Newly-discovered Tiny Moon in Motion
Astronomers have found that one of two recently-discovered moons of Jupiter is just two kilometers in diameter and may be the smallest of Jupiter’s 67 satellites. Back in September 2010, scientists discovered two unknown distant satellites of Jupiter while conducting routine tracking observations of the planet’s previously identified moons. To confirm that these were indeed […]
SpaceX Marks New Commercial Era in Space Exploration
Yesterday’s successful launch of SpaceX‘s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon reusable spacecraft from Cape Canaveral in Florida, marked what NASA administrator Charles Bolden called “the beginning of a new era in exploration.” Now that the Dragon is in space, technicians are testing its capability of rendezvousing and docking with the International Space Station, where it […]