“ “Nobody’s dreaming about tomorrow anymore. The most powerful agency on the dreams of a nation is currently underfunded to do what it needs to do — and that’s to make dreams come true. How much would you pay for the Universe?” 
An amazing photo of Mars as it approaches the Earth captured by Efrain Morales on January 9, 2012. 
A distant super-Earth named "55 Cancri e" is wetter and weirder than astronomers thought possible. The discovery has researchers re-thinking the nature of alien worlds.
According to the new observations, 55 Cancri e has a mass 7.8 times and a radius just over twice that of Earth. Those properties place 55 Cancri e in the "super-Earth" class of exoplanets, a few dozen of which have been found. Only a handful of known super-Earths, however, cross the face of their stars as viewed from our vantage point in the cosmos, so 55 Cancri e is better understood than most. 
NASA’s long lived Opportunity rover has discovered the most scientifically compelling evidence yet for the flow of liquid water on ancient Mars. The startling revelation comes in the form of a bright vein of the mineral gypsum located at the foothills of an enormous crater named Endeavour, where the intrepid robot is currently traversing.
The light-toned vein is apparently composed of the mineral gypsum and was deposited as a result of precipitation from percolating pools of liquid water which flowed on the surface and subsurface of ancient Mars, billions of years ago. Liquid water is an essential prerequisite for life as we know it. 
NASA's orbiting Kepler telescope has discovered its first planet in the habitable zone of another star. By "habitable," astronomers mean that a planet could harbor temperatures conducive to liquid water—and maybe life. The new planet, Kepler 22b, orbits somewhat closer to its host star than Earth does to the sun. “The star is some 600 light years away.” NASA's Bill Borucki, who leads the Kepler mission, in a December 5th teleconference. 
It is sometimes said that Mike Malin knows Mars better than anyone else on Earth. A more verifiable statement is that Malin has seen more of Mars than anyone on Earth. His company, Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) in San Diego, California, has designed cameras for every one of NASA's Mars-orbiting missions since Viking in 1975. Later this week, Malin will see the start of his ninth mission to the red planet, when a launch window opens on 25 November for Curiosity, the US$2.5-billion NASA rover that is carrying three of his camera systems.
Malin's devices are the eyes of the rover, the most costly and complicated Mars mission in a generation. The pictures taken by his cameras will help engineers to steer the machine; they will also be central to the scientific aim of the project: to determine whether Mars had suitable conditions for life billions of years ago.
When the images start streaming back from Curiosity, some nine months after launch, the best shots are likely to end up in Malin's hall of fame, the library inside his company's two-storey office building. A sanctuary in which the reclusive scientist can work alone, the library is strewn with copies of Aviation Week & Space Technology, which Malin says he has subscribed to since he was 14. In racks along the walls are poster-sized images of Mars taken from orbit. They display the wildly variegated terrain that has challenged scientists' understanding of the planet: scorched plains, dead volcanoes, mountainous dunes, chiselled canyons and the massive holes in the ground left by asteroid strikes. Everywhere he looks, Malin sees a land carved by wind, water and time. “I like these big prints,” he says. “You see much more in them.” The broadly accepted theory for the origin and evolution of our universe is the Big Bang model, which states that the universe began as an incredibly hot, dense point roughly 13.7 billion years ago. So, how did the universe go from being fractions of an inch (a few millimeters) across to what it is today?
Here is a breakdown of the Big Bang to now in 10 easy-to-understand steps. Mars is often known as the "Red Planet," but is it really red? This 60-second video answers one of the most frequently asked questions about our planetary neighbor. 
When you hear about robots and space exploration, the first thing many people may think of is R2-D2 and C-3PO from Star Wars.
When you hear about robots and space exploration, the first thing many people may think of is R2-D2 and C-3PO from Star Wars. While we may not be quite there yet, robots have become a major, even necessary, part of space missions. The many probes, landers and rovers that have been sent throughout the solar system are essentially robots, which have become more advanced over time. Then there’s the new Robonaut, a humanoid robot designed to assist astronauts with a variety of tasks in space including on the International Space Station, for example. But what is next? That was the subject of a panel discussion last Tuesday at the Von Braun Memorial Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama. The future being planned by the robotics experts involved is one of both humans and robots working together in space. The future is now…
“Can we have both robotics and human exploration of space?” was the question of the day. While there have long been advocates of both, there has also been a prevailing debate over which is better; robotic missions are less expensive and don’t put people in danger, but there are some things that only humans could do efficiently and quickly. The rovers on Mars for example, have done an amazing job of exploring the Martian surface, although human astronauts could do a lot of the same tasks faster. Also of course, people can experience the wonder and excitement of exploration in a way that machines can’t 
Mike Fossum, current commander of the International Space Station, took this beautiful image of a recent aurora, two Russian vehicles docked to the station in the foreground. You can see the image on NASA’s Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. 
Scientists in the US have warned Nasa that the amount of so-called space junk orbiting Earth is at tipping point.
The National Research Council says the debris could cause fatal leaks in spaceships or destroy valuable satellites. It calls for international regulations to limit the junk and more research into the possible use of launching large magnetic nets or giant umbrellas.
Deputy Executive Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society, Dr Robert Massey said: "The problem is there are lots and lots of tiny fragments that are almost impossible to detect.
"It is a serious issue not just for astronauts but for all the commercial satellites that we're so used to and we really depend on." 
In travelling out as far as Jupiter, Nasa's $1.1bn Juno mission will venture where no solar-powered spacecraft has dared go before.
The Juno spacecraft will cruise beyond Mars to put itself in orbit around the gas giant in 2016. The probe is the first solar-powered mission to venture this far from the Sun. Lift-off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Friday is timed for a window that opens at 11:34 local time (15:34 GMT; 16:34 BST). At Jupiter, where the intensity of sunlight is only 1/25th of that at Earth, one would normally resort to a plutonium battery. But Juno will instead travel with three wings coated with 18,000 solar cells. "As a solar-panelled mission, we have to keep those solar panels facing the Sun and we never go into Jupiter's shadow," the mission's chief scientist Scott Bolton told BBC News Juno's mission is to probe the secrets of the Solar System by explaining the origin and evolution of its biggest planet. Scientists also want to measure the abundance of water in the atmosphere - an indicator of how much oxygen was present in Jupiter's region of the Solar System when it formed. The probe will also try to settle old arguments over whether the planet hosts a rocky core or whether its gases go all the way down to the centre in an ever more compressed state. And it will look for the deep swirling sea of liquid metallic hydrogen that many suspect is the driver behind Jupiter's strong magnetic field. 
The Dawn spacecraft is returning close-up views of the pockmarked asteroid.
The new Vesta photos from the Dawn probe, which NASA unveiled today (Aug. 1), include the spacecraft's first full-frame view of the entire asteroid and should help astronomers understand how the space rock formed in the early solar system, researchers said. "We could not imagine the detail we're seeing and the processes that we're seeing," said Chris Russell, Dawn's principal investigator at UCLA, during the announcement. [Photos: Asteroid Vesta and NASA's Dawn Spacecraft] Dawn entered orbit around Vesta on July 15, beginning a yearlong mission to orbit and study the asteroid. Vesta, the brightest asteroid in our solar system, is the second-largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The space rock measures about 330 miles (530 kilometers) across. |
The doors are open on NASA's Suomi NPP satellite and the newest version of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument is scanning Earth for the first time, helping to assure continued availability of measurements of the energy leaving the Earth-atmosphere system.
The CERES results help scientists to determine the Earth's energy balance, providing a long-term record of this crucial environmental parameter that will be consistent with those of its predecessors.
Thick cloud cover tends to reflect a large amount of incoming solar energy back to space (blue/green/white image), but at the same time, reduce the amount of outgoing heat lost to space (red/blue/orange image).
Contrast the areas that do not have cloud cover (darker colored regions) to get a sense for how much impact the clouds have on incoming and outgoing energy. Credit: NASA/NOAA/CERES Team 
Astronomers are still scratching their heads over Comet Lovejoy, which plunged through the atmosphere of the sun in December and, against all odds, survived. The comet is now receding into the outer solar system leaving many mysteries behind.
Sungrazing comets aren't a new thing. In fact, the orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) watches one fall toward the sun and evaporate every few days. These frequent kamikaze comets, known as “Kreutz sungrazers,” are thought to be splinters of a giant comet that broke apart hundreds of years ago. Typically they measure about 10 meters across, small, fragile, and easily vaporized by solar heat.
Based on its orbit, Comet Lovejoy was surely a member of the same family—except it was 200 meters wide instead of the usual 10. Astronomers were eager to see such a whopper disintegrate. Even with its extra girth, there was little doubt that it would be destroyed.
When Dec. 16th came, however, "Comet Lovejoy shocked us all," says Battams. "It survived, and even flourished.”
Images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory showed the comet vaporizing furiously as it entered the sun's atmosphere--apparently on the verge of obliteration—yet Comet Lovejoy was still intact when it emerged on the other side. The comet had lost its tail during the fiery transit--a temporary setback. Within hours, the tail grew back, bigger and brighter than before.
Some more exciting images here http://spaceweather.com/comets/gallery_lovejoy_page1.htm
As we continue to explore farther out into our solar system and beyond, the question of habitation or colonization inevitably comes up. Manned bases on the Moon or Mars for example, have long been a dream of many.
There is a natural desire to explore as far as we can go, and also to extend humanity’s presence on a permanent or at least semi-permanent basis. In order to do this, however, it is necessary to adapt to different extreme environments. On the Moon for example, a colony must be self-sustaining and protect its inhabitants from the airless, harsh environment outside. 
After a 34-kilometre trek, NASA’s indefatigable rover Opportunity has discovered veins of hydrothermally deposited minerals at the edge of Endeavour crater, where it will over-winter in its eighth year.
Physicist Paul Davies explains that traveling to and subsisting on the Red Planet isn't the hard part—it's getting people home.
Eminent physicist Paul Davies has a proposal for you: a one-way ticket to the Red Planet. As it’s typically conceived, a round-trip Mars mission would take about two years and cost at least $80 billion. But you could cut 80 percent of the expense, Davies says, by nixing the return and initiating a permanent Mars colony. The hard part, he says, isn’t subsisting in a hostile environment millions of miles from home but changing the Space Shuttle-era culture of timidity. That’s starting to happen, though: The NASA Ames Research Center teamed up with Darpa to put $1.1 million into a study of manned interstellar travel. Even so, no one’s going anywhere, Davies argues, unless we can bring the price down. To do that, the ticket has to be one-way. Wired: Who would sign up for a mission with no return?
Paul Davies: That’s the least of our worries. About 1,000 people volunteered after I wrote about this in the . Of course, most are starry-eyed adventurers, not serious scientists who want to be on Mars to do great science. 
Scientists studying data from NASA's Galileo probe have discovered what appears to be a body of liquid water the volume of the North American Great Lakes locked inside the icy shell of Jupiter’s moon Europa.
The water could represent a potential habitat for life, and many more such lakes might exist throughout the shallow regions of Europa’s shell, say researchers writing in the journal Nature.
"The data opens up some compelling possibilities," said Mary Voytek, director of NASA's Astrobiology Program at agency headquarters in Washington. "However, scientists worldwide will want to take a close look at this analysis and review the data 
30 Doradus is also known as an HII (pronounced "H-two") region, created when the radiation from hot, young stars strips away the electrons from neutral hydrogen atoms (HI) to form clouds of ionized hydrogen (HII). It is the most massive and largest HII region in the Local Group of galaxies, which contains the Milky Way, Andromeda and about 30 other smaller galaxies including the two Magellanic Clouds. Because of its proximity and size, 30 Doradus is an excellent target for studying the effects of massive stars on the evolution of an HII region. 
Cambridge, MA - In the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, astronomers have hunted for radio signals and ultra-short laser pulses. In a new paper, Avi Loeb (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) and Edwin Turner (Princeton University) suggest a new technique for finding aliens: look for their city lights. "Looking for alien cities would be a long shot, but wouldn't require extra resources. And if we succeed, it would change our perception of our place in the universe," said Loeb.
Russia’s Space Agency, Roscosmos, has set November 9 as the launch date for the Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars and its tiny moon Phobos.
Roskosmos said that engineers have finished loading all the propellants into the Phobos-Grunt main propulsion module (cruise stage), Phobos lander and Earth return module at Facility 31 at Baikonur.
Phobos-Grunt is Russia’s first mission to Mars in almost two decades and a prelude to an ambitious program of even more interplanetary Russian science flights.
After about an 11 month journey, the spaceship will enter Mars orbit and spend several months searching for a suitable landing site on Phobos. The goal of the bold mission is to retrieve up to 200 grams of soil and rock from Phobos and return them to Earth in August 2014. The samples will help unlock the mysteries of the origin and evolution of Phobos, Mars and the Solar System. Scientists hope that bits of Martian soil will be mixed in with Phobos soil. 
Scientists’ predictions of the formation and characteristics of dark matter are shaken by research into dwarf galaxies surrounding the Milky Way.
That may mean that the Large Hadron Collider will not be able to spot it.
Leading cosmologist Carlos Frenk spoke of the "disturbing" developments at the British Science Festival in Bradford.
The current theory holds that around 4% of the Universe is made up of normal matter - the stuff of stars, planets and people - and around 21% of it is dark matter.
The remainder is made up of what is known as dark energy, an even less understood hypothetical component of the Universe that would explain its ever-increasing expansion.
Scientists' best ideas for the formation and structure of the Universe form what is called the "cosmological standard model", or lambda-CDM - which predicts elementary particles in the form of cold dark matter (CDM). The Nuclear Debate.- live video feed from the Chemistry Centre presented by The Reaction and The Royal Society of Chemistry... Active Region 1261 produced a beautiful solar flare. From Universe Today
Early today, (Aug 3, 2011) two active regions on the Sun, sunspot 1261 and 1263 unleashed solar flares, which was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.
The above video shows an M6 class flare from 1261 in a couple of different wavelengths. SolarstormWatch, a citizen science project through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England predicts the solar storm from the larger flare to reach Earth at 15:00 UTC on August 5, 2011, and also predict direct hit on Earth. |
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