outer space

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Mercury Harbors Lots of Ice
 Mercury Harbors Lots of Ice 
Nov 29, 2012 6:59 PM CST

Mercury Harbors Lots of Ice

Frozen water confirmed at planet's north pole

(Newser) - Just in time for Christmas, scientists have confirmed a vast amount of ice at the north pole—on Mercury, the closest planet to the sun. The findings are from NASA's Mercury-orbiting probe, Messenger, and the subject of three scientific papers released today by the journal Science. The frozen water...

NASA Taps Astronaut for Longest US Space Mission

Scott Kelly to spend a year in space

(Newser) - His twin brother may be the bigger household name , but that could change come 2015. Capt. Scott Kelly, who claims Mark Kelly and wife Gabby Giffords among his family members, is scheduled to blast off on a one-year mission to the International Space Station in the spring of that year....

New &#39;Super-Earth&#39; Spotted
 New 'Super-Earth' Spotted 
Nov 8, 2012 3:25 PM CST

New 'Super-Earth' Spotted

It's seven times the size of our planet, and just 42 light years away

(Newser) - Scientists have found another planet to add to the growing list of potential homes for life. Researchers recently spotted three new planets circling around HD 40307, just 42 light years from Earth, the BBC reports, and one of them is just far enough from the star that it could harbor...

Best Defense Against Asteroids? Try Paintballs
 Best Defense Against 
 Asteroids? Try Paintballs 
in case you missed it
Nov 3, 2012 12:33 PM CDT

Best Defense Against Asteroids? Try Paintballs

MIT grad student wins award with novel idea

(Newser) - If an asteroid were speeding toward a calamitous collision with Earth, we might be able to knock it off track by ... painting it white. The PopSci blog picks up on the novel idea by MIT grad student Sung Wook Paek: Let's say scientists determined that an asteroid were going...

Now We Know the Distance Between Stars

Measurement of cosmic 'fog' reveals it to be 4,150 light-years

(Newser) - Here's an astronomer's quote to try to wrap your head around, courtesy of PhysOrg : "The optical and ultraviolet light from stars continues to travel throughout the universe even after the stars cease to shine, and this creates a fossil radiation field we can explore using gamma rays...

It's Out There: A Planet Made of Diamond

Astronomers say '55 Cancri e' has an interesting makeup

(Newser) - It's going to need a much better name. A planet known as "55 Cancri e" is making headlines today after astronomers revealed that much of it is made of diamond, reports Space.com . The bad news for ambitious space travelers is that it's 230 trillion miles away...

Hubble 'Travels' Back 13.2B Years

'Time-tunnel' composite bares space 'just' after Big Bang

(Newser) - An out-of-this-world composite photo of Hubble Space Telescope shots peers back to a time a "mere" 450 million years after the Big Bang. Dubbed the eXtreme Deep Field, or XDF, the photograph—made up of 2,000 snaps taken by the Hubble over 10 years—reveals nearly 5,500...

Astronauts Make Space Station Fix With ... Toothbrush

Astronauts, NASA have to make improvised tool

(Newser) - Astronauts pulled a MacGyver in space today when they fixed the $100 billion space station with the help of a $3 toothbrush. An electrical power unit affixed to the station needed replacing, but a stubborn bolt was malfunctioning. NASA engineers and astronauts Sunita Williams and Akihido Hoshide ultimately solved the...

Cosmic Mystery: Why Is the Sun So Round?

It's one of the roundest objects ever measured

(Newser) - The sun is round... too round, say scientists. The giant star that bathes us in light is one of the most perfectly round objects ever measured. If it were shrunk to the size of a beach ball, the difference between the sun's widest and thinnest diameters would be slighter...

Mars Rover Curiosity Drives for First Time

15-foot test trip was a success

(Newser) - The Mars rover Curiosity is officially cruising. NASA completed its first test drive of the space vehicle today. The rover traveled 15 feet, turned right, and then reversed a short distance, reports AP . "We're very excited to have this kind of milestone behind us," says one NASA...

NASA: We'll Launch Astronauts in 5 Years

Three commercial companies will build new crafts

(Newser) - NASA is gearing up to again launch humans into space ... within five years. The agency retired its fleet of shuttles last summer, and this morning it announced a deal worth about $1 billion with three American companies to design and construct the next generation of rocket ships to take off...

Revealed: What Space Smells Like

In two words, not good

(Newser) - Outer space may be soundless, but it's apparently not odorless. Life's Little Mysteries recently stumbled upon a 2009 interview with a NASA astronaut that's too good to not resurrect. In it, Kevin Ford spoke of picking up the weird odor while undertaking spacewalks. It's not something...

Oldest Spiral Galaxy Shocks Astronomers

'Grand-design' spiral formed only 3B years after Big Bang

(Newser) - An ancient galaxy has flabbergasted astronomers. The perfectly formed spiral galaxy was born eons ago, a mere 3 billion years after the Big Bang. But this galaxy type was considered impossible so early on, when the cosmos was too chaotic to mold a "grand-design" spiral. How did it appear?...

On NASA's Mars Menu: Thai Pizza, Martian Veggies

Astronauts on the 3-year mission could grow some of their own produce

(Newser) - Here's a real head scratcher: How do you feed a crew of six to eight astronauts on a mission to Mars that will last almost three years? It's a question NASA is working at already, even though the mission won't happen for at least another 10 to...

Solar Storm Tomorrow: Scientists Not Worried

No grid disruptions are expected

(Newser) - Another solar storm is hurtling toward Earth and will collide with our planet's magnetic field beginning tomorrow morning and lasting into Sunday. But don't fret, say scientists. The event is minor, and "we don't see any ill effects to any systems," says a space forecaster....

Oddly Close Alien Planets Witness Huge 'Planetrise'

Kepler Space Telescope spots them 1,200 light-years away

(Newser) - Two far-flung planets are orbiting the same star so closely that they can appear to each other as giant, colorful moons, Space.com reports. Spotted by the Kepler Space Telescope, a craggy "super-Earth" and a gaseous, Neptune-size world are 1,200 light-years away, but just 1.2 million miles...

Scientists Turn Star Data Into Reggae

Reggae-rock group Echo Movement composes astral melody

(Newser) - What do stars in outer space sound like? Try listening to the 6-second melody (note: that's a .wav file) that will be used on a track due this fall by the reggae-rock group Echo Movement. The band wanted to create its own space jam, so it asked researchers at...

How to Watch Tonight's Asteroid Flyby

Huge near-Earth asteroid 2012 LZ1 is approaching

(Newser) - An unusually large and bright asteroid will fly by Earth tonight, and astronomers believe it will come close enough to be caught on camera, Space.com reports. 2012 LZ1, which was only discovered this week, is between 1,000 and 2,300 feet wide and, at its closest, is expected...

SpaceX's Dragon Heads Back to Earth

Cargo ship successfully completes first mission to space station

(Newser) - SpaceX's much-celebrated supply ship "Dragon" departed from the International Space Station this morning, setting course for a Pacific Ocean splashdown, just off California's Baja peninsula. The station's Canadian-built robot arm unbolted the capsule at about 4am EDT, then held it in place for a full orbit...

NASA Thinks 4,700 Asteroids Threaten Earth

And twice as many as previously believed are in orbits similar to Earth's

(Newser) - NASA thinks it's got a pretty solid estimate on the number of gigantic asteroids that could plausibly cause regional or global catastrophe by smashing into Earth: 4,700, give or take 1,500. Included in that number are all the rocks that exist, or which they suspect exist, that...

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