Space exploration thread

[BlueGin]

Wow! Monster Hurricane on Saturn Spied by NASA Spacecraft


Spectacular new images from a NASA spacecraft orbiting Saturn have captured the most detailed views ever of an enormous hurricane churning around the ringed planet's north pole.

The stunning new images and video of the Saturn hurricane, which were taken by NASA's Cassini probe, show that the storm's eye is 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide — about 20 times bigger than typical hurricane eyes on Earth. And the Saturn maelstrom is more powerful than its Earth counterparts, with winds at its outer edge whipping around at 330 mph (530 km/h).

Pictures at link

Wow! Monster Hurricane on Saturn Spied by NASA Spacecraft

 

[Mr. H.]

I spy something, I spy something.... red.

And angry...

 

[ScienceRocks]

New experiments set to detect gravitational waves

4 hours ago by Bob Yirka report

(Phys.org) —Over the next five years, Mansi Kasliwal writes in an astrophysics perspective in the journal Science, researchers will begin setting up experiments designed to detect gravitational waves. Kasliwal, an astronomer with the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science located in Pasadena, California, says momentum is building in the physics community to find proof of the existence of gravitational waves. Thus, far, they are still considered theoretical.

Read more at: New experiments set to detect gravitational waves

 

[ScienceRocks]

New Kind of Cosmic Flash May Reveal Birth of a Black Hole

New kind of cosmic flash may reveal birth of a black hole

May 3, 2013 — A new kind of cosmic flash may reveal something never seen before: the birth of a black hole

 

[ScienceRocks]

First Tunguska Meteorite Fragments Discovered
First Tunguska Meteorite Fragments Discovered | MIT Technology Review

Nobody knows what exploded over Siberia in 1908, but the discovery of the first fragments could finally solve the mystery.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Record-Breaking Star Explosion Is Most Powerful Ever Seen

Record-Breaking Star Explosion Is Most Powerful Ever Seen | Space.com

Two NASA space telescopes have captured what appears to be the most powerful star explosion ever detected, a cosmic event so luminous that scientists dubbed it "eye-wateringly bright" despite being 3.6 billion light-years from Earth

 

[ScienceRocks]

Air Force-Developed Rocket Propellant Could Usher In Next Era of Space Travel

New propellant is environmentally friendly and safe to handle
Air Force-Developed Rocket Propellant Could Usher In Next Era of Space Travel - US News and World Report

NASA is ready to use an Air Force-developed rocket propellant that can allow spacecraft to fly faster, further and carry a heavier payload than current space propellants.

[PHOTOS: NASA's Curiosity Lands on Mars]


The agency will test out AF-M315, a new class of propellant, in 2015. AF-M315 is about twice as powerful as existing spacecraft propellants and doesn't damage the environment, according to Tom Hawkins, of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Aerospace Systems Directorate. The propellant has been under development for more than 10 years by scientists at the Air Force's Office of Scientific Research and the AFRL.

Hawkins says the propellant might usher in a new era of space travel

 

[ScienceRocks]

New research sets back date of moon's dynamo 160 million years

May 07, 2013 by Bob Yirka report


(Phys.org) —

A multi-disciplinary team of international researchers has found evidence to suggest the moon's dynamo persisted until at least 3.6 billion years ago. In their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team says this pushes back the date for the dynamo approximately 160 million years.

New research sets back date of moon's dynamo 160 million years

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA announces new site for Mars drilling

After a four-week break, NASA researchers have announced a second drilling site on Mars, they announced May 9 via their website. The break came about due to the Sun’s recent position relative to Earth and Mars; the Sun could have blocked or corrupted the information sent to the rover (named Curiosity), so the team opted to wait it out.

Read more: NASA announces new site for Mars drilling | Science Recorder

 

[ScienceRocks]

Mars One founder on mission to Mars: We expected a slow start
Photo credit: Mars One


Science Recorder | Alyssa Samson | Saturday, May 11,

It sounds like something straight out of the Hunger Games: groups are selected all around the world, each of whom train for months on end to try and make it to the final round—a one-way ticket to Mars—while the rest of the world votes.

Read more: Mars One founder on mission to Mars: We expected a slow start | Science Recorder

 

[Mr. H.]

I forget, did the Robinson's ever make it back to earth?

 

[ScienceRocks]

Hubble Tells a Tale of Galactic Collisions
Hubble tells a tale of galactic collisions

May 12, 2013 — When we look into the distant cosmos, the great majority of the objects we see are galaxies: immense gatherings of stars, planets, gas, dust, and dark matter, showing up in all kind of shapes.

 

[ScienceRocks]

'Einstein's Planet': New Alien World Revealed by Relativity

Einstein's special relativity has proven more useful than ever, as scientists have now used it to discover an alien planet around another star.

The newfound world — nicknamed "Einstein's planet" by the astronomers who discovered it — is the latest of more than 800 planets known to exist beyond our solar system, and the first to be found through this method.

The planet, officially known as Kepler-76b, is 25 percent larger than Jupiter and weighs about twice as much, putting it in a class known as "hot Jupiters." The world orbits a star located about 2,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. [7 Ways to Discover Alien Planets]

'Einstein's Planet': New Alien World Revealed by Relativity | Space.com

 

[ScienceRocks]

First X-Class Solar Flares of 2013
05.13.13 Second Update: 3:30 p.m. EDT
NASA - First X-Class Solar Flares of 2013

The X2.8-class flare was also associated with a coronal mass ejection, or CME, another solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space, which can potentially affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground. The CME was not Earth-directed, but could pass NASA's STEREO-B, Messenger and Spitzer spacecraft. Their mission operators have been notified. Experimental NASA research models show that the CME left the sun at 1,200 miles per second beginning at 12:18 p.m. EDT. If warranted, operators can put spacecraft into safe mode to protect the instruments from solar material.

 

[ScienceRocks]

A Robot Just Broke the Human Record for Miles Driven in Space

Another victory for Opportunity, the spunky little rover driving on Mars

Megan GarberMay 16 2013, 6:16 PM ET

A Robot Just Broke the Human Record for Miles Driven in Space - Megan Garber - The Atlantic

In December of 1972, the Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt got to do something awesome: They took a joyride on the moon. A long one. The pair piloted their mission's Lunar Roving Vehicle 19.3 nautical miles (which is also 22.210 statute miles, or 35.744 kilometers) over the moon's dusty, roadless terrain, collecting scientific samples along the way.

Their trip -- Thelma and Louise, with a better car and a happier ending -- was notable not just for the photos it produced or the payloads it collected. The distance Cernan and Schmitt traversed on that foreign soil -- those 20-odd miles of moon-driving -- has marked the longest stretch that any NASA vehicle has ever tread on ground other than Earth.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Kepler telescope down, but not yet out (we hope)

Colin Druce-McFadden

Kepler telescope down, but not yet out (we hope) | DVICE

The Kepler space telescope has been peering into the heavens since 2009, carefully watching 150,000 alien suns in the search for potentially habitable worlds orbiting them. Data collected from the telescope has helped astronomers estimate that there are at least 17 billion (billion!) Earth-sized exoplanets in our galaxy.

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA signs off on sampling mission to Earth-threatening asteroid
NASA signs off on sampling mission to Earth-threatening asteroid ? The Register

NASA has given final approval for a billion-dollar mission that will visit one of the most potentially dangerous asteroids to Earth, collect samples, and then bring it back home for analysis.

The OSIRIS-REx* mission, proposed by the University of Arizona, will blast off in 2016 and visit 101955 Bennu – a 493m wide hunk of rock and gravel that orbits the sun every year and a half. After a two-year flight, the craft will orbit the asteroid, mapping it in visible, infrared, and X-ray spectrums, and then land a sample collector.

The machine will scoop up at least 60 grams (2.1 ounces) of material, and possibly as much as 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds), before spending another two years heading back to Earth. The sample is scheduled to land in the Utah desert by 2023.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Private Space Plane Arrives in California for Key Flight Tests


by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer

Date: 17 May 2013 Time: 03:53 PM ET

Private Space Plane Arrives in California for Key Flight Tests | Dream Chaser | Space.com

Dream Chaser Hauled

A private space plane has arrived at a NASA facility in California to undergo tests that will help vet its ability to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

A test version of the Dream Chaser space plane arrived at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in southern California on Wednesday (May 15) aboard a flatbed truck, wrapped in a protective white caul for the overland journey from Colorado.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Why do planets farthest from sun have highest winds? Team closes in on answer

Now, they may be a step closer to figuring out the energy source that drives these mighty winds.

In a new study, a team scientists from Israel and the US finds that on Uranus and Neptune the winds appear to be confined to the top 680 miles of the atmosphere – and may actually involve a thinner layer than that.

Why do planets farthest from sun have highest winds? Team closes in on answer - CSMonitor.com

 

[BlueGin]

Huge Rock Crashes Into Moon, Sparks Giant Explosion


The moon has a new hole on its surface thanks to a boulder that slammed into it in March, creating the biggest explosion scientists have seen on the moon since they started monitoring it.

The meteorite crashed on March 17, slamming into the lunar surface at a mind-boggling 56,000 mph (90,000 kph) and creating a new crater 65 feet wide (20 meters). The crash sparked a bright flash of light that would have been visible to anyone looking at the moon at the time with the naked eye, NASA scientists say.

"On March 17, 2013, an object about the size of a small boulder hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium," Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office said in a statement. "It exploded in a flash nearly 10 times as bright as anything we've ever seen before."


Huge Rock Crashes Into Moon, Sparks Giant Explosion