astronomy

Seventeen Years of Waiting Meets More Delays—Weather Pushes SpaceX Dscovr Launch to Tuesday

Medicine & Technology After 17 years of waiting for his late night dream to come to fruition, former Vice President of the United States Al Gore is going to have to wait a little longer to see his satellite launched into space. A US Air Force ground radar malfunction delayed SpaceX’s launch of the 1,250-pound satellite nicknamed “GoreSat” this weekend, however, in spite of planning a relaunch this morning, the rocket company decided to delay another 24 hours due to weather concerns at its Florida launch site.
Blue Marble 1972

SpaceX Rocket to Launch Dscovr Satellite Tonight

Seventeen years after the thought came to his mind, former Vice President of the United States Al Gore is finally getting his wish. This evening, Saturday Feb. 7 at 6:10pm, a 1,250-pound satellite nicknamed “GoreSat” is going off into space at last.
Ceres View from Dawn

Will Dawn Find Life on Ceres? What NASA Has to Say About Possible Life on the Dwarf Planet

Releasing the sharpest set of images from within the asteroid belt to date, this week NASA researchers have filled the internet with their hopes for what may lie on the dwarf planet Ceres. Only a month before NASA’s Dawn spacecraft will enter orbit around the 590-mile-wide dwarf, found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, the space agency is hopeful that their mission will reveal a lot more about the small planet and the secrets its surface may hold.
History of the Universe

Fire Starter—ESA’s Planck Satellite Reveals Later Star Formations

Looking to gather a clearer view of the history of our Universe, researchers with the ESA’s Planck satellite constructed a new image of the entire sky, utilizing Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) fossil light originating only 380,000 years after the creation of the Universe. The new sky map uncovers the polarized light from the Universe’s early formation, and reveals that the first stars may have originated far later than researchers once thought.
March of the Moons

Three Moons Cast Shadow on Striped Gas Giant—Jupiter

Though researchers have studied the four natural satellites orbiting around Jupiter, a new set of images courtesy of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a rare new view of three of the moons in action. In a rare, and short-lived event, three of the moons moved across the striped face of the gas giant, casting shadows on the planet below.
Venus & Mars

The Month of Love—When the Stars & Planets Align

As the month of love kicks off, with Valentine’s Day only a few days away, gentlemen out there are looking for the perfect gift. Money not being an object, diamond and floral sales skyrocket in February, but even in spite of the size of their trust funds, no man is able to buy a perfect night sky. Fortunately for them, however, February will be a skywatcher’s dream even without any meteor showers on the near horizon.
Bering Sea

NASA Satellite Reveals ‘Cloud Streets’ Over Bering Sea

While NASA researchers are still waiting for the initial readings from their newest mission, the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission which plans to give researchers and farmers vital information about the moisture of any given soil on the face of the Earth, another mission has its sights set on the seas this week. Releasing a new image courtesy of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite, researchers at the space agency reveal that while all may seem calm below, the clouds above the Bering Sea tell a tale much more interesting than the waters it hides.
Black Beauty Meteorite

When Red Dust Settles, Only ‘Black Beauty’ Remains

While many may be familiar with Mars’ dusty red surface from the glow it gives, or even the dust-covered mountains traversed by Mars rovers in the past, a new study of a meteorite found in the Moroccan desert has researchers believing that a far different image of the planet lies just below the thin red dust.
SMAP

SMAP Launch Promises New View of Earth’s Soil—From Space

As climate change issues intensify, and many countries face continuing droughts, NASA’s newest mission plans to offer a bit of assistance in confronting a drying Earth. Sent into orbit just this morning, Saturday Jan. 31 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission plans to give researchers and farmers vital information about the moisture of any given soil on the face of the Earth.
SMAP

NASA Climate Research Satellite Launch Postponed Due to Fast Winds

Fast winds over California postponed a NASA satellite launch today, but researchers with the space agency say that the mission is far from over. Set to launch this morning, Jan. 29, the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) spacecraft developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory may have had a setback but it still has plans to map the world in a way researchers have never done before.
Opportunity Rover

Opportunity Rover Celebrates 11 Years on Mars

NASA's Opportunity Mars Rover is celebrating a new milestone of eleven years on the Red Planet. But in spite of its fortitude, the rover which is only about the size of a riding lawn mower, was originally only designed to explore the Martian surface for about 90 days, along with her twin rover, Spirit.
SMAP

SMAP Craft Set to Move to Launch Pad

NASA has moved the Soil Moisture Active Passive spacecraft to the launch pad in preparation for a January 29 launch, in its first ever attempt to take scientific measurements of the Earth on a global scale.
Dimming Quasar

Researchers Discover Dimming Switch on a Quasar

Scientists have long believed that at the center of quasars are massively powerful black holes. However, a new study from Yale University researchers indicates the exact opposite may be true. Researchers at Yale found that one particular quasar is actually dimming, and astronomers think it could be because of a black hole on a diet.
Vesta

Evidence of Water Flows Found on Vesta

NASA has revealed that new data from the Dawn spacecraft indicates that there may have once been short-lived water flows on the second largest body in the asteroid belt, known to us as Vesta.
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