A sun imager aboard the GOES-16 satellite captured its first, vivid images, showing a “hole” in the sun’s hot upper atmosphere , called the corona. The sun is reaching a minimum in its 11-year-cycle of activity. As a result, solar flares and the associated coronal mass ejections, which send charged particles into space that sometime collide […]
Tag Archives | space
Women in STEM Fields Get Boost from President Trump
Sally Ride, the first female astronaut to fly in space. President Donald Trump signed into law two bills that aim to encourage women to pursue careers in science and technology. The bills — “Inspiring the Next Space Pioneers, Innovators, Researchers and Explorers (INSPIRE) Women Act” and “Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act” — were both introduced […]
SnapPlanet app wins top prize at Space App Camp
Developers of an app that combines the increasing availability of satellite images with social networking took home the top prize at this year’s Space App Camp in Barcelona. To source
Trump: Sending Astronauts to Distant Worlds Is 'Not Too Big a Dream'
President Donald Trump delivers his first address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress on Feb.28, 2017 in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump’s vision for America may include landing astronauts on the moon or Mars by the mid-2020s, if his first address to a joint session of […]
Glaciers Ebb on South Georgia Island
Frequent cloud cover in the southern Atlantic Ocean often obscures satellite images of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. But occasionally the clouds give way. On September 14, 2016, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured natural-color images of South Georgia Island, where several glaciers are in retreat. To source
Full-Circle Vista With a Linear Shaped Martian Sand Dune
The left side of this 360-degree panorama from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover shows the long rows of ripples on a linear shaped dune in the Bagnold Dune Field on the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp. To source
Waiting for the burn
Human spaceflight image of the week: Orion’s propulsion system ready for ‘hot firing’ To source
Solar Orbiter: Joint Mission to Study the Sun
Artist’s impression of Solar Orbiter circling close to the sun. Solar Orbiter is a planned European Space Agency (ESA) mission that will study the surface of the sun. It is expected to launch in October 2018 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. NASA is providing a launch vehicle, as well as an instrument and a sensor. After […]
Real Tatooines? Evidence Found of Rocky Planet Formation Around Double Star
Researchers found a disk of rocky debris surrounding a white dwarf and a brown dwarf orbiting in a binary system; the two stars circle one another in just over 2 hours. Astronomers have found evidence of shattered asteroids orbiting a pair of stars, a strong new sign that rocky worlds with twin suns like Luke […]
First Solid Sign that Matter Doesn't Behave Like Antimatter
One of the biggest questions that keep physicists up at night is why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe. One of the biggest mysteries in physics is why there’s matter in the universe at all. This week, a group of physicists at the world’s largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, might […]
Earth's Outer Shell: Was It Once Solid?
The outer layer of modern Earth is a collection of interlocking rigid plates, as seen in this illustration. But new research suggests that plate tectonics did not begin until much later in Earth’s history. Earth’s outer layer may have once been a solid shell before it was broken up into huge tectonic plates that move […]
Small Solar System Bodies Named by Citizen-Science Groups
Seventeen minor planets in the solar system have new names, selected by citizen-astronomer groups from around the world. Citizen scientists have given new names to 17 minor planets — small objects including asteroids — in Earth’s solar system, according to the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The list of new names includes Thunder Bay, a municipality […]
Relics of the Ancient Past: Q&A with Author Alastair Reynolds on 'Revenger'
Two young women join a dangerous expedition combing through the rubble left behind from countless past solar system civilizations in “Revenger ” (Orbit, 2017), the latest book by prolific science-fiction writer Alastair Reynolds. The book was released today (Feb. 28) in the United States. Although Reynolds is known for his hard science fiction and space […]