Mars Curiosity Drills Into Red Planet
NASA/JPL-Caltech(PASADENA, Calif.) — Mars Curiosity has another scientific first under its belt.The Mini Cooper-sized rover successfully collected a tiny sample of powder – enough to fill a tablespoon – as it drilled into a Mars rock earli…
Asteroid 2012 DA14 Makes Closest Pass to Earth on Friday
Hemera/Thinkstock (file photo)(HOUSTON) — The asteroid 2012 DA14 will come scarily close to Earth on Friday, traveling from south to north, and passing closest to Australia, Asia and Eastern Europe. Its closest approach will be at 2:25 p.m. ET.T…
Post-Valentine’s Day Asteroid Will Miss Earth
Hemera/Thinkstock (file photo)(NEW YORK) — Scientists are saying an asteroid, 150-feet in diameter, is due to swing by the Earth on Friday, Feb. 15, the day after Valentine’s Day.NASA officials contend the asteroid named 2012DA14 will come “a remarkab…
Earth-Like Planets May Be Next Door in Milky Way
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — You may look out on a starry night and get a lonely feeling, but astronomers now say our Milky Way galaxy may be thick with planets much like Earth — perhaps 4.5 billion of them, according to the Harvard-Smithsonian…
Scientists Say 1 in 6 Stars May Have Own Earth-Size Planet
M. Kornmesser /ESA/NASA(NEW YORK) — The Kepler Space Telescope, an observatory launched by NASA in 2009 to find Earth-like planets, has provided data that suggests there are billions of them — enough that one in six stars may have at least one orbiti…
Astronomers Discover Habitable Planet Around Nearby Star
Habitable planet orbits Tau Ceti Image credit: J. Pinfield/RoPACS network at the University of Hertfordshire(NEW YORK) — Perhaps Earthlings aren’t alone in their celestial neighborhood.An international team of scientists has discovered at least …
Not Happening: NASA Debunks Mayan Doomsday Prophecy
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — We’ll never know if they were wrong.NASA has quietly published a web video explaining why the world will not come to an end on Dec. 21, 2012.The date of its release, Dec. 11, was no mistake, even if doomsayer…
Google Reaches for the Stars, Takes You to Outer Space in Your Browser
Google(NEW YORK) — You ready to space out? Literally? Google’s got just the trick, and no, it’s not another Doodle.The company’s creative lab has put together a new project called 100,000 Stars. Dubbed an “experiment,” th…
Total Solar Eclipse over Australia and Pacific
iStockstock/Thinkstock(CAIRNS, Australia) — There was a total eclipse of the sun Tuesday (Wednesday morning over much of its path), visible only from a narrow strip that began in northern Australia and stretched across the southern Pacific. North Amer…
Alpha Centauri, Nearest Star System, Has Earth-Sized Planet
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Many scientists, in their quest to determine just how lonely we are in the universe, have wondered whether there are any planets in Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to our own. And now, the first results…
Felix Baumgartner: Daredevil Lands on Earth After Record Breaking Supersonic Leap
Red Bull(NEW YORK) — Daredevil Felix Baumgartner has landed safely on earth — and in the record books — after a supersonic leap from the edge of space. The Austrian thrill-seeker broke the world record for the highest skydive. “I’m coming home,” Bau…
Mars Rover Discovers Earth-Like Rock
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS(PASADENA, Calif.) — The Curiosity rover surprised NASA engineers with the first Martian rock it examined. Scientists expected to find a rock similar to the ones seen on previous missions to Mars. But instead, they found a rock wi…
Astronaut Talks Dessert, Voting and Triathlons from Space
PRNewsFoto/NASA(NEW YORK) — Domino’s doesn’t deliver, there’s no alcohol, and no fresh coffee, but the astronauts aboard the International Space Station are going to have a real treat. They just got a special delivery of chocolate-va…
NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Bright Object on Mars
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS(NEW YORK) — During NASA’s Curiosity rover’s first scoop of Mars’ surface, the robot discovered more than just soil.An image taken by Curiosity’s right Mast Camera (Mastcam) shows a small, bright object nea…
Air Force Mystery Space Plane Set for Next Secret Mission
Stockbyte/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The U.S. military’s mysterious X-37B space plane is headed back into the great beyond to do whatever it does up there.The X-37B is slated for its third launch in October, the Air Force said, but like its two orbi…
Explosion Spotted on Jupiter a Comet or Asteroid?
Hemera/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A bright flash was spotted on Jupiter early Monday morning, and astronomers are trying to figure out exactly what hit it.The flash was first spotted by Dan Peterson, an amateur astronomer from Racine, Wisc., who saw the f…
Space Station Saved By a Toothbrush?
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(HOUSTON) — A $100 billion space station saved by a simple $3 toothbrush? It was the brainstorm of astronauts Sunita Williams and Akihido Hoshide and NASA engineers on the ground to use the toothbrush as a tool to clean a bolt th…
Blue Moon: Rare Second Full Moon of Month Visible Friday Night
Stockbyte/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Once in a blue moon, we get a night like this one. If the weather is clear, you will get to see the second full moon of the month — or perhaps the fourth full moon of a three-month season — or maybe an early “betraye…
‘Curiosity’ Transmits will.i.am Song From Mars
NASA/JPL-Caltech(PASADENA, Calif.) — Making its interplanetary debut, Black Eyed Peas artist will.i.am’s “Reach for the Stars” became the first song to be broadcast to Earth from the Red Planet. NASA’s rover “Curios…
‘Curiosity’ Transmits will.i.am Song From Mars
NASA/JPL-Caltech(PASADENA, Calif.) — Making its interplanetary debut, Black Eyed Peas artist will.i.am’s “Reach for the Stars” became the first song to be broadcast to Earth from the Red Planet. NASA’s rover “Curios…