Space

Last month, Pluto passed in front of a star and cast a small shadow on the Earth- astronomers from Lowell Observatory were among the scientists and crew who observed the rare occultation event from NASA's newest airborne observatory, SOFIA (Stratosph ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 19 2011 - 2:41pm

Discovery: P4, Another Moon Around Pluto

Though 2 percent of astronomers declared Pluto was no longer a planet, for not being a planet, it sure has a lot of moons. Four so far. The Hubble Space Telescope discovered this fourth moon, cleverly designated P4, and astronomers say this newest, small ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 20 2011 - 12:43pm

Worm Versus Meatball

Antonio Carusone, describing himself as "a little obsessed with finding vintage design materials", has a look at NASA Graphic designs, circa 1970s. Specifically, he hunted up this 1976 NASA Graphics Standards Manual. Amidst the glories of clean ...

Article - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Jul 22 2011 - 12:09pm

APM 08279+5255- The Largest Water Mass In The Universe (So Far)

Astronomers have discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe in a quasar called APM 08279+5255- enough water to fill Earth's oceans more than 100 trillion times. The distant quasar is one of the most powerful k ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 22 2011 - 2:19pm

Nantes, France in October 2011 for Astronomy Congress Anyone?

Today I received the news release that the first joint meeting of the European Planetary Science Congress and the Division for Planetary Sciences (EPSC-DPS) of the American Astronomical Society 2011 will be held October 2 to 7 in Nantes, France, at La Cité ...

Blog Post - Anonymous - Jul 22 2011 - 10:05pm

No Screwdrivers In Space

What do you get when you mix Mad Men styling, IKEA how-to, and NASA high tech? In an incredibly terse 1 minute and 28 seconds, with no sound needed, NASA asks " So, You Want to Build a Satellite?" and explains why rocket science is hard. Seriou ...

Article - Project Calliope - Aug 2 2011 - 12:00pm

Building An Ion Engine

The question 'what can you do with such a tiny satellite' has many answers. This week we're looking at Calliope's faster, cooler cousin, the ion-drive testing platform called FRETS1. An ion engine in a satellite the size of a soda can ...

Article - Project Calliope - Jul 26 2011 - 5:33pm

The universe, to scale

As I am halfway around the world right now, using the magic of the internet and Science 2.0's 'scheduling' function, here is a fun little graphic of 'the universe'. It shows various sizes of things in the universe, particularly ho ...

Blog Post - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Aug 5 2011 - 1:22pm

Oxygen Molecules Found In Orion

Molecules of oxygen have been found in the nearby Orion star-forming complex, the first undisputed detection of oxygen molecules in space. P revious missions looking for the molecular variety, two atoms of oxygen bonded together, had been fruitless. Yet ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 1 2011 - 12:43pm

TrES-2b- Universe's Darkest Exoplanet Discovered

Astronomers writing in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society say they have discovered the darkest known exoplanet, a Jupiter-sized gas giant called TrES-2b. Their measurements show that TrES-2b reflects less than one percent of the sunlight fa ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 11 2011 - 8:19pm