The European Space Agency's 1.4 billion-euros Rosetta mission on Wednesday achieved a first for humankind by successfully landing its Philae probe on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Now, the lander's fate hangs in the balance following a tense descent and the apparent failure of several key anchori...

Alzheimer's Could Be the Trade-off for Deep-Space Pioneers

January 3, 2013

Cosmic radiation could accelerate the onset of Alzheimer's disease among astronauts, adding to the health risks it's already known to pose. Researchers at the University of Rochester looked at the effect of high-mass particles with a high charge. These so-called "HZE particles" are the nuclei of ele...

NASA Shares Earth's Nighttime Glamour Shots

December 6, 2012

In 1972, we marveled at the beauty of our planet in a photo taken by the crew of Apollo 17 on its way to the moon. Dubbed the "Blue Marble," the iconic image depicted a blue-and-white globe floating in the blackness of space. On Thursday, we were treated to a different view of Island Earth, one with...

Blown SpaceX Engine May Have Been Best of Bad Things

October 9, 2012

One of the nine Merlin engines of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket suffered what the company called "an anomaly" after the vessel's launch on Sunday. The "anomaly" looks a lot like one of the rocket's nine engines failing in mid-launch, as can be seen in the video below Initial data suggest that Engine 1 l...

Sunday's SpaceX Launch: High Stakes for Commercial Spaceflight

October 6, 2012

The first resupply mission to the International Space Station conducted by a private firm is set to launch Sunday evening. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon capsule made by SpaceX are scheduled to take off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida at 8:35 p.m. Eastern time. Ahead o...

Scientists Turn Big Honking Camera Loose on Dark Energy Quest

September 19, 2012

An international group of scientists from universities in various parts of the world known as the Dark Energy Survey had a Dark Energy Camera built in order to find out what dark energy is. Dark energy has been posited to be the reason for the universe's expanding faster and faster. DECam took its f...

35 Years Later, Earth Finally Returns ET's Phone Call

August 22, 2012

Just after 11 p.m. on Aug. 15, 1977, while pointing toward the constellation Sagittarius, Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope picked up a mysterious transmission that would very soon make history. For 72 seconds, the Big Ear was able to listen to that signal, which has since come to be k...

Gliese 581g: A Potentially Habitable World or Not?

July 31, 2012

There's been considerable debate over the existence of Gliese 581g ever since the discovery of the "Goldilocks" planet was first reported nearly two years ago, but new research claims to provide additional evidence that the potentially habitable "super-Earth" really is out there. The prospect of the...

Shining Some Light on Sunspots

May 11, 2012

Right now, if you look at the sky at sunrise or sunset when the sun's light is dim, you might be able to see Sunspot AR1476, which is now wending its way across the face of Sol, with your naked eye. The sunspot measures 160,000 km across, or about a dozen times Earth's diameter. Eyeballing the sun m...

NASA Dreams of Floating Space Station Twixt Earth and Moon

February 14, 2012

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration is looking into setting up a base near the moon to further space exploration. As it's envisioned, the base will go into a halo orbit of the Earth-moon libration point 2, known as "EM L-2," above the far side of the moon. Essentially, a spacecraf...

Fully Loaded Curiosity Rover Readies for Trek to Red Planet

November 21, 2011

Following a one-day delay, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission featuring its new Curiosity rover is now scheduled for launch on Saturday, Nov. 26, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Representing the largest and most advanced rover ever sent to the Red Planet, the automobile-sized C...

Virgin Galactic Spacecraft Triumphs in Hair-Raising Test Flight

October 18, 2011

A recent test flight of Virgin Galactic's private SpaceShipTwo spacecraft caused some tense moments for those participating and observing, but ultimately a new safety feature on the suborbital craft allowed its three-person crew to regain control and bring it safely back down to Earth. After being c...

DARPA's Long-Term Long Shot to the Stars

August 22, 2011

In a few short weeks, the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, will award a $500,000 grant for a 100-year starship project. The grant will be awarded at the 100 Year Starship Study Symposium, which will be held in Orlando, Fla., Sept. 30 through Oct. 2. The symposium wi...

Beyond the Point of No Return: Is There Life in Black Holes?

May 25, 2011

Few ideas convey the mystery and awe-inspiring nature of space better than the black hole. Dark, vast and little understood, black holes in many ways represent all that we still don't know about the universe. With their seemingly infinite emptiness and general unexplorability, they're also more than...

Lone Wanderers: No Warmth of the Sun for Some Planets

May 19, 2011

Roaming planets, untied to a solar system or stellar orbit, were recently found by a team of astronomers, according to a report in Nature. The team of researchers led by David Bennett from Notre Dame University and Takahiro Sumi of Osaka University used gravitational microlensing observing programs ...

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