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 […]
Space Station Astronauts Talk Crewed Mars Missions (Real and Fictional)
International Space Station crew members, including Scott Kelly, Mikhail Kornienko, Gennady Padalka, Oleg Kononenko, Sergei Volkov, Kjell Lindgren, Kimiya Yui, Andreas Mogensen and Aidyn Aimbetov, talk with reporters on Sept. 8, 2015.Credit: NASA TV HOUSTON — If Scott Kelly were on a spaceship heading out to Mars — rather than on board the International Space Station, […]
Space-Borne Astronaut Runs Robot On Earth | Video
On Sept. 7th, 2015, European astronaut Andreas Mogensen – orbiting 240+ miles up and flying at 17,000+ mph – placed a peg in a hole on Earth; a demonstration of teleoperation using a force-feedback controlled machine system built by ESA. Credit: ESA To source
Hopping 'Hedgehog' Robot Could Explore Comets and Asteroids (Video)
This summer, researchers tested two “hedgehog” robot prototypes, to get an idea of the machines’ potential to explore space locations inaccessible to conventional rovers. Wheeled robots like the car-size Mars rover Curiosity work well on planetary surfaces, but in the low-gravity environment of a comet or an asteroid, such machines would be in danger of […]
World View Offers Cost-Sharing Balloon Flights to Stratosphere
A World View Enterprises balloon about to lift off from southeastern Arizona on March 8, 2015, on the company’s first commercial flight.Credit: World View Enterprises The cost of sending a scientific experiment to the stratosphere aboard a balloon just went down. Arizona-based World View Enterprises announced today (Sept. 8) that it’s introducing a cost-sharing system […]