Stephen Hawking at 70: still the brightest star in the scientific universe

January 2nd, 2012

As the author of A Brief History of Time approaches 70, eminent former students celebrate an awe-inspiring intellect still pushing at the frontiers of physics

Uncommon science projects are common at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville

January 2nd, 2012

Living in Rocket City, USA, it’s not uncommon to hear someone say, “In that building, they’re working on something that’s never been done before.”
That about sums up Huntsville doesn’t it?

Orbital junk threatens future of space travel acording to NASA

January 2nd, 2012

The alerts from U.S. Strategic Command now arrive every couple of weeks — warnings that space junk is hurtling toward one of Canada’s multi-million-dollar satellites.

New Insight into the Bar in the Center of the Milky Way

January 2nd, 2012

It sounds like the start of a bad joke: do you know about the bar in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy? Astronomers first recognized almost 80 years ago that the Milky Way Galaxy, around which the sun and its planets orbit, is a huge spiral galaxy.

The mechanism that explains why our universe was born with 3 dimensions: a 40-year-old puzzle of superstring theory solved by supercomputer

January 2nd, 2012

A group of three researchers from KEK, Shizuoka University and Osaka University has for the first time revealed the way our universe was born with 3 spatial dimensions from 10-dimensional superstring theory*1 in which spacetime has 9 spatial directions and 1 temporal direction.
This result was obtained by numerical simulation on a supercomputer.

Quadrantid Meteors Set to Perform on January 4th

January 2nd, 2012

Celestially speaking, 2012 opens with a bang. The Quadrantid meteor shower, one of the best displays of “shooting stars” all year, will peak in the hours before dawn this Wednesday, January 4th. If you get up early, bundle up warmly, and find dark site with a wide-open view of the clear sky, you might see 1 or 2 meteors per minute during the shower’s brief but intense performance.

Dazzling satellite views of vast Moon crater

January 2nd, 2012

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC), overseen by ASU professor Mark Robinson, has been busy taking high resolution photos of the Moon’s surface. Most recently, LROC captured stunning photos of the Moon’s enormous Aristarchus crater. Wired Science reporter and freelance journalist Adam Mann posted a story on Wired’s website today about this crater, which is two times as deep as the Grand Canyon.

Hackers Plan Satellites To Block Internet Censorship

January 2nd, 2012

“Let’s take the Internet out of the control of terrestrial entities.”
This call to arms, issued by hacker activist Nick Farr, is the rallying cry behind a new plan to launch satellites into space to prevent Internet censorship.

Pseudo-moons Orbit Earth

January 2nd, 2012

Earth may be going steady with the Moon, but it has a bit of a wanderer’s relationship with some other nearby objects. A study by an international trio of scientists suggests that, at any given time, there is at least one meter-sized mini asteroid temporarily orbiting our planet.

WHERE WOULD EARTH-LIKE PLANETS FIND WATER?

January 2nd, 2012

Throughout 2011 there was a string of breathless news stories about astronomers finding extrasolar planets in the habitable zones surrounding their stars.
This is the “Goldilocks Zone” where temperatures are just right for water to remain in liquid form and presumably nurture life as we know it.

The Austere Beauty of Other Worlds

January 2nd, 2012

In the northern winter months we are surrounded by the stark beauty of chilled landscapes. From the darkness of the far north, broken perhaps only by starlight and the glow of aurora, to the brisk grey streets of Manhattan and its now skeletal trees with their claw-like limbs and knobbly stubs pressed to the skies, this is not a time of complexity or color.

NASA’s Twin Grail Spacecraft Reunite in Lunar Orbit

January 2nd, 2012

The second of NASA’s two Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft has successfully completed its planned main engine burn and is now in lunar orbit. Working together, GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B will study the moon as never before.

Martian Life Might Thrive in Lava Tubes, Study Suggests

January 2nd, 2012

Ice within lava tubes on Earth can host bacteria in cold, Mars-like conditions, hinting that life could dwell in similar lava tubes on Mars, researchers say.

12 Must-See Skywatching Events in 2012

January 2nd, 2012

As the year 2011 comes to a close, some might wonder what is looming sky-wise for 2012? What celestial events might we look forward to seeing?

China unveils ambitious plan for space exploration

January 2nd, 2012

China plans to put laboratories in space, collect samples from the moon and prepare to build space stations over the next five years, according to an ambitious plan released this week aimed at putting the country on the global map for space exploration.

Are we alone in the universe?

January 2nd, 2012

Huge excitement last week. Two Earth-size planetsfound orbiting a sun-like star less than a thousand light-years away. This comes two weeks after the stunning announcement of another planet orbiting another star at precisely the right distance — within the “habitable zone” that is not too hot and not too cold — to allow for liquid water and therefore possible life.

Proposed tax break could launch new business for Virginia spaceport

January 2nd, 2012

NASA has launched thousands of rockets from Wallops Island over the last 60 years. And the state is hoping to capitalize on commercial space opportunities with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport there.

NASA’s Cassini Delivers Holiday Treats from Saturn

January 2nd, 2012

No team of reindeer, but radio signals flying clear across the solar system from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have delivered a holiday package of glorious images. The pictures, from Cassini’s imaging team, show Saturn’s largest, most colorful ornament, Titan, and other icy baubles in orbit around this splendid planet.

RARE DNA VARIANT MAY DISPROVE PALEOLITHIC MIGRATION TO AMERICA ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

January 2nd, 2012

A new analysis of the rare mitochondrial DNA haplogroup C4c in Native American populations shows that it has a parallel genetic history with the X2a haplogroup thought by some to indicate a connection between early Paleoindians in eastern North America and the Upper Paleolithic Solutrean culture in France and Spain.

Lovers’ Pipe Dreams Emerge from Jerusalem Excavation

January 2nd, 2012

An archaeological excavation in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem has uncovered a centuries-old clay pipe inscribed with the phrase “Love is the language for lovers.”