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. […]
5-Million-Degree Tornado Churns Across Sun | Time-Lapse Video
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) watched the Sun’s magnetic forces twist and turn enormous plumes of superheated plasma from Sept. 1-3, 2015. The particles observed by SDO – mostly iron – were measured at a blazing 5 million degrees. (2.8 million degrees C.) (Full Story) See Another Solar Tornado From 2012 Credit: NASA/SDO/mash mix: Space.com To […]
Dawn Takes a Closer Look at Occator
This image, made using images taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, shows Occator crater on Ceres, home to a collection of intriguing bright spots. To source
Winners selected
Congratulations to the very talented 12-year old artist, Tijana from Serbia, on her fantastic cosmic mosaic! To source
Partial Solar Eclipse to Darken Southern Africa's Skies Sunday
On Sunday morning, Sept. 13, there will be a partial eclipse of the sun visible in southern Africa, the Indian Ocean and parts of Antarctica. Here it is seen from Cape Town, South Africa, where it will be at its maximum.Credit: Starry Night Software The penguins are in luck, as are some skywatchers in the […]
US Air Force Eyes Blast Detection Satellite
The U.S. Air Force intends to use an Orbital ATK satellite platform for the STPSat-6 mission. Shown above is an artist’s concept of the GEOStar-1 platform Orbital ATK offers for national security missions in geostationary orbit.Credit: Orbital ATK WASHINGTON – The U.S. Air Force hopes to build an experimental satellite that would detect nuclear explosions […]
NASA Says No Special Treatment for SpaceX in Falcon 9 Investigation
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said that the agency is carrying out an independent review of the June 28 Falcon 9 launch failure, but using existing mechanisms rather than a separate panel.Credit: NASA TV WASHINGTON — Responding to congressional criticism that suggested NASA was giving SpaceX special treatment, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said the agency is conducting […]
Pluto Probe Starts Beaming Home 'Treasure Trove' of Flyby Data
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft spotted ice mountains 2 miles (3 kilometers) high on Pluto during its July 2015 flyby of the dwarf planet.Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has begun beaming home the best data from its epic July Pluto flyby. On July 14, New Horizons became the first probe ever to fly by Pluto […]
Galileo satellites in launch zone
Europe’s ninth and tenth Galileo satellites have reached their launch pad, taking their position atop the vertical Soyuz launcher in readiness for Friday’s launch. To source
What's The Point? The Real Reason Scientists Study Space (Op-Ed)
Hannah Rae Kerner is chair of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS), executive director of the Space Frontier Foundation, and a Ph.D. student at Arizona State University studying machine learning applications for astrophysics and robotic control. She contributed this article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights . Recently, my dad and […]
Wow! Space Station Astronauts Awed by Dazzling Auroras (Video)
Earth’s natural light show — the auroras — flared into high gear Monday (Sep. 7), creating a breathtaking display that astronaut Scott Kelly said was like no other aurora he’d ever seen. Bright-green rivers of light and a deep-crimson haze decorated Earth’s atmosphere during the Labor Day light show. From his vantage point on the […]