Space

New Radiation Belt Discovered Around Saturn

The Cassini spacecraft's Magnetospheric Imaging instrument (MIMI) has detected a temporary radiation belt around Dione, one of the moons of Saturn.  The discovery will be presented at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam by Dr Elias Rous ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 13 2009 - 8:39pm

To Space: Burn, Armadillo, Burn!

What do engineer Burt Rutan, hotel magnate Robert Bigelow, and game programmer John Carmack have in common? Answer: they've built the first private earth-to-space rocket, space station, and lunar lander in the current new space race. Most people are f ...

Article - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Sep 15 2009 - 1:00am

Going to space cheaper than me

Just how much would you pay to go into space? $12000 for a satellite plus launch, like me? Or perhaps... $300 to build a high-altitude balloon camera? Or, if $300 is too high, how about getting a couple of high school kids to do it for half that? Their 99E ...

Blog Post - Project Calliope - Sep 14 2009 - 3:02pm

NASA Needs Amateur Astronomers to Observe Moon Crash

Last year, we featured on DPR AmSci, NASA's LCROSS Mission to the moon (read), which is an important study to see if water ice exists on the moon. A successful find would amount to a critical discovery that will lead the way for sending humans back t ...

Blog Post - Matthew T. Dearing - Sep 15 2009 - 11:39pm

MIT Students Take Pictures from Near-space for $150

Take two students from MIT; now, take two students from MIT with only $150 in their pockets and a notion to use a little science to make a little art, and what do you get?... Eight gigabytes of near-space photographs and an experience to share to the rest ...

Blog Post - Matthew T. Dearing - Sep 16 2009 - 7:53am

M31 And Ultraviolet Andromeda

NASA's Swift satellite has acquired a new high-resolution view of a neighboring spiral galaxy; M31 in the constellation Andromeda, the largest and closest spiral galaxy to our own. M31, also known as the Andromeda Galaxy, is more than 220,000 light-ye ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 16 2009 - 8:23pm

Evidence For Atmospheric Water Loss On Venus

There is new evidence that the solar wind has stripped away significant quantities of water from Venus.   The SPICAV and VIRTIS instruments carried by the Venus Express spacecraft have been used to measure concentrations of water vapor in the Venusian atmo ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 16 2009 - 9:40pm

First Light From Planck-- And Why It Matters

Planck, a European-US collaborative mission launched by ESA, has provided its first pictures. Planck is a followup to WMAP, and looks at the cosmic microwave background. But it has a host of other detectors and purposes, too. Stealing blatently from Wikipe ...

Article - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Mar 21 2013 - 12:41pm

A Mathematical Explanation For Gamma Ray Bursts

Black holes are invading stars, according to a new hyposthesis for the origin of the bright flashes in the universe that are one of the biggest mysteries in astronomy today.  Those flashes, known as gamma ray bursts, are beams of high energy radiation prod ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 18 2009 - 9:00am

Desert Fireball Network Makes A Rare Meteorite Discovery

Meteorites discovered with known orbits are incredibly rare but researchers using cameras which capture fireballs streaking across the night sky have managed to find not only a tiny meteorite on the vast Nullarbor Plain, but also mathematically determine i ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2010 - 6:57pm