space

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We'll Be Visiting Pluto in a Year ... Sort Of

Flyby mission to get closer to dwarf planet than ever before

(Newser) - Exactly one year from today, a spacecraft will be "arriving" at Pluto—or so a planetary scientist puts it. More specifically, the New Horizons craft, about the size of a baby grand piano and carrying no one, will be passing closer to the dwarf planet than we've ever...

Ancient Meteorite Unlocks Space Puzzle

'Mysterious object' found in Swedish limestone quarry

(Newser) - Almost 500 million years ago in the Ordovician Period, two large bodies in the asteroid belt collided. Two asteroids, or an asteroid and a comet, blew apart and their debris and dust fell to Earth. One of these large bodies was the source of all the L-chondrite meteorites that have...

We Got Earth's Birthday Wrong by 60M Years

Same goes for the moon, say scientists

(Newser) - The planet we're living on is about 60 million years older than previously thought. So say scientists in France who studied quartz from Australia and South Africa that dates back about 3 billion years, reports Phys.org . The ratio of gases in the quartz compared to today's ratios...

SpaceX Unveils Its Latest Dragon

Reusable capsule is 'a big leap forward': Elon Musk

(Newser) - Astronauts could soon be zooming into space in a gumdrop—er, a gumdrop-shaped capsule. SpaceX yesterday unveiled its Dragon V2, which is designed to carry seven astronauts to the International Space Station and will ultimately be able to "land anywhere on Earth with the accuracy of a helicopter,"...

California Undergrad Makes Astronomy Breakthrough

No term exists for Michael Sandoval's stellar discovery

(Newser) - At just 21 years old, a California college student has made an incredible discovery: Michael Sandoval and his astrophysics professor at San Jose State have spotted what they believe is one galaxy that was swallowed up by another. The result is a dense system of stars—apparently the densest ever...

Jupiter's Great Red Spot Has Really Shrunk

It looks more like a circle than an oval

(Newser) - The signature red spot we see in pictures of Jupiter could fit three Earths next to each other—in the late 1800s. The Great Red Spot is getting smaller, and the reason is a mystery, Reuters reports. It was some 25,000 miles across in the late 19th century; by...

Tiny 'Fossil Galaxy' Could Hold Clues to Early Universe

Segue 1 apparently stopped evolving 13B years ago

(Newser) - One of our galactic neighbors, the tiny Segue 1, could be among the first galaxies ever to take shape—and it may present an opportunity for scientists to examine our universe as an infant. Segue 1's chemical composition suggests it stopped evolving some 13 billion years ago, Scientific American...

Mars Gets Up Close, Personal With Earth

Red planet is closest it's been to us since 2007

(Newser) - The red planet is coming in for a close-up with our night sky: As Sky & Telescope reports, Mars will be closer to Earth this month than it's been since the end of 2007, appearing bigger and brighter in the night sky for the middle two weeks of April....

Space Junk Solution: Fire Lasers at It

Australia prepares to deal with 300K pieces of debris

(Newser) - Space is full of debris, scientists say—about 300,000 pieces of it—and it's putting our satellites at risk. We could be "a couple of decades away from a catastrophic cascade of collisions ... that takes out all the satellites in low orbit," says researcher Matthew Colless....

The North Star Is Changing
 The North Star Is Changing 
Jan 28, 2014 12:31 PM CST

The North Star Is Changing

Polaris getting brighter over the centuries

(Newser) - Polaris is famed for its consistency, but the North Star we see today is brighter than it was in the 1800s. In fact, if historical records are correct, the star has gotten about 2.5 times brighter over the course of the past two centuries, researcher Scott Engle tells Space....

Hawking's New Theory: 'There Are No Black Holes'

He addresses conflicting theories of physics

(Newser) - Stephen Hawking helped develop current theories on black holes—but now, he's saying there aren't any. New Scientist explains his thinking, focusing on what's known in physics as the "firewall paradox," which deals with a black hole's event horizon. That's an "invisible...

Secrets of Mysterious Black Hole Jets Revealed
Secrets of Mysterious
Black Hole Jets Revealed
NEW STUDY
Nov 14, 2013 12:54 PM CST

Secrets of Mysterious Black Hole Jets Revealed

Jets have power to spew iron and nickel, study finds

(Newser) - For years, astronomers have wondered what exactly black holes spew into our universe—and now they know. Iron and nickel have been found shooting from the relativistic jets of a black hole several times larger than our sun, but the finding is more surprising than it may seem. It shows...

Olympic Torch Returns From Space

Crew parachutes into Kazakhstan

(Newser) - A Russian space capsule carrying the Sochi Olympic torch and three astronauts returned to Earth today from the International Space Station in a flawless landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan. The Soyuz capsule landed at 8:49 local time, about three and a half hours after undocking from the station...

There Are Billions of Earth-Like Planets in Our Galaxy

At least 8.8 billion planets like ours in the Milky Way, study finds

(Newser) - Space is vast, but it may not be so lonely after all: A study finds the Milky Way is teeming with billions of planets that are about the size of Earth, orbit stars just like our sun, and exist in the Goldilocks zone—not too hot and not too cold...

New Asteroid Points to Habitable Exoplanets

Scientists spot water-rich asteroid 170 light-years from Earth

(Newser) - Scientists have spotted the remains of a water-rich asteroid, orbiting a dying star about 170 light-years from Earth. It's more than a bit of space waste—the find suggests that this far-off solar system may have once had planets capable of supporting life, the LA Times reports. "The...

Work for NASA: Lie in Bed for 15 Weeks

And get paid about $5K a month

(Newser) - Best job ever? NASA wants test subjects to spend 15 weeks in bed and get paid about $5,000 a month for doing it, the Metro reports. Sounds like a dream job (literally), until you realize that you'd be prohibited from sitting or standing up, the Houston Chronicle notes....

NASA's New Quest: Solve Mystery of 'Horizon Glow'

Former ballistic missile set to launch from Virginia island

(Newser) - NASA scientists are setting their sights on the moon once again, with a launch due Sept. 6—the agency's first-ever deep-space mission to blast off from Virginia's Eastern Shore, the Virginian-Pilot notes. It's also the first mission for the US Air Force Minotaur V, a ballistic missile-turned-spacecraft....

Russia Building 'Star Wars' Defense

Moscow plans major improvement to launch in 2017

(Newser) - Russia might not be thrilled with US plans to build a NATO shield in Europe , but that's not stopping Moscow from beefing up its own missile-defense system, AFP reports. It plans to launch a long-range system in 2017 capable of knocking out targets in space. The S-500 system would...

Study Suggests Earth Life Began on Mars

Building blocks of life may have arrived via meteorite: scientist

(Newser) - Were our earliest ancestors Martians? A new study suggests that all life on Earth may have originated on the Red Planet, the BBC reports. That's because Mars would have had plenty of the minerals that are best at forging RNA, which is one of the key components of life...

Star Trek Replicator to Become a Reality on ISS

NASA is sending it a 3-D printer made for microgravity

(Newser) - Delivering supplies to astronauts in space is kinda tricky. So NASA is sending a 3-D printer to the International Space Station next year, to test whether the technology can work in microgravity. If it does, the ISS will get a permanent printer in 2015, so it can make things like...

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