Stephen Colbert Says Elon Musk Is Either a Supervillain or a Superhero
SpaceX CEO and entrepreneur Elon Musk was a guest on the second episode of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” on Sept. 2, 2015.Credit: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert/CBS Elon Musk appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” last night (Sept. 9) to talk about dropping nuclear bombs on Mars, the future of […]
Why Pluto's Big Moon Charon Has a Red Polar Cap
The reddish polar patch on Pluto’s moon Charon is visible in this image, which was taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft on July 13, 2015, from a distance of 289,000 miles (466,000 kilometers).Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute The north pole of Pluto’s big moon Charon likely gets its reddish color from […]
'Red Dragon' Mars Sample-Return Mission Could Launch by 2022
SpaceX’s robotic Dragon capsule could be modified to help bring Mars samples back to Earth, some researchers say.Credit: SpaceX A mission that uses SpaceX’s Dragon capsule to help bring chunks of Mars rock back to Earth for analysis could launch as early as 2022, researchers say. This “Red Dragon” project — which remains a concept at […]
Gigantic Ice Slab Found on Mars Just Below the Planet's Surface
This image shows a digital terrain model of the crater investigated by the University of Arizona’s Ali Bramson. Image released August 26, 2015.Credit: American Geophysical Union A giant slab of ice as big as California and Texas combined lurks just beneath the surface of Mars between its equator and north pole, researchers say. This ice […]
Sweeping over the south pole of Mars
An unusual observation by Mars Express shows a sweeping view over the planet’s south polar ice cap and across its ancient, cratered highlands. To source
Methane Painting
Why does Saturn look like it’s been painted with a dark brush in this infrared image, but Dione looks untouched? To source
Watch Galileo launch
Galileo 9 and 10 are due for launch atop a Soyuz rocket at 02:08 GMT on 11 September (04:08 CEST; 23:08 local time, 10 September). Streaming starts at 01:48 GMT (03:48 CEST). To source
'Cosmic Tsunami' Shocks Comatose 'Sausage' Galaxy Cluster Into Star Formation
This radio image shows a shock wave (the bright arc running from bottom left to top right) in the ‘Sausage’ merging cluster of galaxies as seen by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope. The shock wave was generated 1 billion years ago, when the two original clusters collided, and is moving at 5.6 million mph (9 […]
5-Million-Degree Plasma 'Tornado' Rages on the Sun (Video)
A giant, swirling plume of superheated plasma churned above the surface of the sun for 40 hours last week while a NASA spacecraft looked on. NASA’s sun-studying Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured dramatic time-lapse video of the solar tornado , which raged from Sept. 1 through Sept. 3. The mass of plasma “was stretched and […]
Andreas in space
Human spaceflight and operations image of the week: ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen’s first space experiment to purify water To source
Ceres’ Bright Spots – What Are They? | Improved Video
Ice? Diamonds? Salt-lick for giant nocturnal astro-worms that follow the terminator around the dwarf planet so they’re always in darkness (never photographed by NASA’s Dawn probe). NASA wants your guess: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/dawn/world_ceres/ New Imagery of the bright spots of the dwarf planet’s Occator crater are the highest detailed to date with a resolution of 450 feet […]
Everything's Relative: The Discovery of Space-Time (Podcast)
Paul Sutter is a research fellow at the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste and visiting scholar at the Ohio State University’s Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics (CCAPP ). Sutter is also host of the podcasts Ask a Spaceman and RealSpace , and the YouTube series Space In Your Face . He contributed this article to Space.com’s […]
Moon, Venus and Mars Offer Triple Skywatching Treat Early Thursday
On Thursday, Sept. 10 the waning crescent moon, Venus and Mars will appear in an eye-catching arrangement in the early-morning sky.Credit: European Southern Observatory If you want to see an eye-catching celestial display involving a slender crescent moon and two bright planets, be sure to wake up an hour before sunrise on Thursday morning (Sept. […]