NASA researchers in collaboration with a team from Ames Research Center are planning to launch a solar sail dubbed NanoSail-D from Omelek Island in the Pacific Ocean during a window extending from July 29th to August 6th. If successful, NanoSail-D ...
SXS – X-Ray on the Universe
NASA has recently approved the construction of the High-Resolution Soft X-Ray Spectrometer (SXS), an instrument devised to study the extreme environments of the universe. The new instrument will help researchers explore dark matter on a large scale as well as ...
Mars’ soil is like Antarctica’s
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander scraped the icy soil of the “Wonderland” area on June 26, confirming that subsurface soil and icy soil can be sampled at a single trench. Now, Phoenix scientists are assured they have a completed the soil-layer ...
NASA Crew Mobility Chassis
NASA has recently experimented with a new concept for a lunar truck, called the Crew Mobility Chassis. The main feature of the new vehicle is its high mobility resulting from the use of six sets of dual wheels. This arrangement ...
Pipsqueak Star Unleashes Monster Flare
On April 25th, 2008, NASA’s Swift satellite picked up the brightest flare ever seen from a normal star other than our Sun. The flare, an explosive release of energy, packed the power of thousands of solar flares theoretically, was visible ...
GLAST – Exploring the Extreme Universe
NASA has developed a new observatory telescope that could help scientists understand some of our universe’s best-kept secrets. The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) was successfully launched by NASA aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force ...
Strange Ring Found Circling a Dead Star
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has detected an unusual ring of material surrounding the magnetic remains of a blasted star. The stellar ‘corpse’, called SGR 1900+14, belongs to a class of objects known as magnetars, which are the cores of massive ...
NASA STS-124 Mission Takes Off
On 5:02 p.m. EDT NASA launched the Discovery Space Shuttle on its latest mission, STS-124. The shuttle will deliver Japan’s Kibo pressurized module to the International Space Station (ISS). Furthermore, during some last minute preparations, very important equipment has been ...
The Phoenix Has Landed
Precisely at 7:53PM EST, the “Phoenix Mars Lander” touched-down on the desert-like surface of Mars. Since its launch on August 4th, 2007, the spacecraft has covered more than 680,752,512 kilometers, traveling at average speeds of around 120,000 km/hr. Upon arriving ...
Next Extinction Coming Soon?
Scientists from the Cardiff Center for Astrobiology have developed a model showing that our solar system goes through the plane of the galaxy every 35-40 million years. This is accompanied by comets hurtling into the inner solar system, coinciding with ...