Crash! Early Collision Could Explain How Earth Kept its Carbon
New research into the ratio of elements in Earth’s mantle suggests that the planet’s carbon might have come from a collision with a planet embryo around 4.4 billion years ago. The early Earth could have been hit by a Mercury-like planet embryo deep in its past, letting the planet keep hold of the carbon necessary […]
Stormy Protostars Can Give Birth to Multi-Star Systems
An artist’s impression of the binary star system HK Tau shows the stars’ misaligned disks. Measuring the orientation of the stars in multiple-star systems like this one could help astronomers learn how the stars came together. Stars that twinkle in the night sky may look like individual points of light when viewed from Earth, but […]
Hubble Telescope Captures Jaw-Dropping Beauty of Nearby Galaxy
This breathtaking new image from the Hubble Space Telescope captures electric-blue wisps of gas and bright stars in the early stages of birth. A spectacular new image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope shows bright-blue wisps of glowing gas and hot, sparkling, young stars within a satellite dwarf galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud […]
Canada's Flight Across the Solar System
When NASA’s new asteroid-sampling spacecraft makes a daring descent to Asteroid Bennu in 2020, it will be thanks in part to help from a much smaller partner — the Canadian Space Agency. The northern country (which happens to be my home) will fly a lidar altimeter on OSIRIS-REx that will be crucial to help the […]
Proba-3: set the controls for the verge of the Sun
By converging in orbit, a pair of small satellites will open a new view on the source of the largest structure in the Solar System: the Sun’s ghostly atmosphere, extending millions of kilometres out into space. To source
9/11 Remembered in Space Photos
<div data-cycle-pager-template=”” readability=”35.5″> NASA Commemorates 9/11 Anniversary Credit: NASA Fifteen years ago on Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that crashed planes into New York City’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania shocked the United States and the world. Satellites allowed U.S. officials to monitor the event from space. […]
NASA's Orion Space Capsule on Course for 2018 Trip Around the Moon
Technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center work to get the Orion crew capsule ready for an unmanned trip around the moon in 2018. Photo taken Sept. 8, 2016. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s next-generation crew-carrying spacecraft remains on track to make a historic journey around the moon in 2018, agency officials say. The bulk structure […]
Virgin Spaceship 'Unity' Takes Flight Mated To WhiteKnightTwo | Video
Recommended videos for you Virgin Spaceship ‘Unity’ Takes Flight Mated T… Space Telescope’s ‘Star Trek’ Reveals ‘Enterp… Saturn Moon Titan’s ‘Shangri-La’ Revealed By… Blastoff! OSIRIS-REx Launches To Asteroid Ben… OSIRIS-REx: NASA Mission To Study Asteroid Be… Listen: Jupiter’s Auroral Radio Emissions Cap… Edge of the Sun Imaged – Where Solar Wind Beg… Dwarf Planet Ceres […]
How to Spot an Asteroid with Mobile Astronomy Apps
As they orbit the sun, the larger asteroids in the main belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter can be viewed in backyard telescopes, if you know where to look. The SkySafari 5 app allows you to search for asteroids by name and display their location on any date. In September 2016, asteroid Pallas […]
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Unity Takes 1st Flight with Mothership
A Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo space plane took to the air under the wing of its massive mothership Thursday (Sept. 8), marking the first flight test for the private space travel company since a tragic accident in 2014. Virgin Galactic’s second SpaceShipTwo spacecraft, the Virgin Spaceship Unity, soared over Mojave, California, in a captive carry test […]
Visit to 'Armageddon Asteroid' Could Save Future Earth from Impact
An artist’s impression of asteroid Bennu, the target of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample return mission. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The asteroid-sample-return mission that launched into space yesterday (Sept. 8) may help protect Earth from future life-threatening impacts by rogue space rocks. The target of the OSIRIS-REx mission is an asteroid known as Bennu, which circles the sun just […]
Space Telescope's 'Star Trek' Reveals 'Enterprise'-Shaped Nebulae | Video
By Steve Spaleta | September 9, 2016 10:37am ET NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope is “boldly going where no one has gone before” with out of this world imagery of the cosmos. In honor of the 50th anniversary of ‘Star Trek,’ imagery of nebulae IRAS 19340+2016 and IRAS 19343+2026 that was captured by Spitzer has been […]
Week In Images
Our week through the lens: 5-9 September 2016 To source