Latest Space Stories
John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Astronomy is more than merely using optical telescopes to take pretty pictures of distant nebulae and galaxies. Researchers also seek to understand complex systems in the universe by observing how objects interact and what types of radiation are produced. To do this requires telescopes capable of observing over several energy bands, working together to construct a complete physical picture of the object of interest. This is...
NASA Much like the inside of an operating room, in the clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., engineers worked meticulously to implant part of the eyes of the James Webb Space Telescope. They scrubbed up and suited up to perform one of the most delicate performances of their lives. That part of the eyes, the MIRI, or Mid-Infrared Instrument, will glimpse the formation of galaxies and see deeper into the universe than ever before. It's high-stakes surgery...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online NASA announced on Wednesday that its Kepler spacecraft was sitting in safe mode once again, possibly putting an end to its high-accuracy observations. Kepler went into a Thruster-Controlled Safe Mode earlier in May, and NASA said its spacecraft is sitting in the same position again. The space agency said the root cause of Kepler putting itself into safe mode is unknown, but the possible cause "appears to be an altitude error."...
[ Video 1 ] | [ Video 2 ] Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released a new image of the constellation of Orion showing part of the Orion Molecular Cloud. The image shows off clouds of gas and interstellar dust at wavelengths too long for the human eye to see. These tiny dust grains block the view of what lies within and behind the clouds, making it difficult to observe star formation taking place in this region. In...
NASA Given a legitimate need to protect Earth from the most intense forms of space weather -- great bursts of electromagnetic energy and particles that can sometimes stream from the sun -- some people worry that a gigantic "killer solar flare" could hurl enough energy to destroy Earth, but this is not actually possible. Solar activity is indeed currently ramping up toward what is known as solar maximum, something that occurs approximately every 11 years. However, this same solar cycle...
John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online The field of exoplanet research – the study of planets outside of our solar system – has exploded in the last decade as new instruments have come online that have dramatically increased our ability to find new worlds. Perhaps the most important player in the game is the Kepler mission. It primarily works by analyzing stars in our galaxy and looking for tiny changes in a star’s brightness. As a planet passes in front...
SPRINGFIELD, Ill., May 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Levi Ray & Shoup, Inc. (LRS) announced that it is acquiring Capella Technologies Inc. (Capella). After more than a decade of successful collaboration with Capella, Capella will become a division of LRS, a global leader in enterprise software for output management. Capella management and staff will continue to operate their business and service their traditional customers, markets, and partners. "We've been working with...
New Brand Innovations Ring True with Top Ratings in Leading Consumer Publications BENTON HARBOR, Mich., May 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumers are always searching for appliance innovations to help streamline daily tasks. On the heels of a number of Good Housekeeping Seals in both the kitchen and laundry category, the latest ratings from several leading consumer publications prove that features available in Whirlpool brand's laundry pairs are easy enough to use and sophisticated...
SKA Scientific studies done with the "PAPER" array, one of the world-class scientific instruments in South Africa's Karoo Radio Astronomy Reserve, is producing ground-breaking science and spectacular cosmic images, resulting in several important articles in top astronomy journals. The primary goal of PAPER (Precision Array to Probe the Epoch of Reionization) is to detect emission from the neutral gas that pervaded the universe before the first galaxies and black holes were formed. This...
John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online In the search for life beyond Earth scientists face significant challenges. Given the great distances and faint signatures of the alien worlds that we have found, discovering which ones are even potentially habitable is difficult. While the first step is attempting to determine which worlds could maintain liquid water on their surfaces, an equally important factor is characterizing the atmosphere maintained above the...
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The prominent feature that allows for the existence of life on Earth is the Sun. Radiation from our closest star provides heat and energy to our planet, driving biological processes and providing the necessary conditions for liquid water to naturally exist. But our Sun is only but one star in this vast Universe. And as it turns out, most stars are quite different than the one that illuminates our day. For this reason, scientists have, for hundreds of years, attempted to study the other...
Image Caption: Artistic concept of a planetary system. Credit: Wikipedia/NASA/JPL-Caltech The term Astronomy encompasses a broad range of topics, including the study of stars, galaxies, and planets. In order to focus on the different areas of study, many subfields of astronomy emerge. One such area is the study of planets known, appropriately, as Planetary Astronomy. Observational Planetary Astronomy Even within the field of Planetary Astronomy, there are several divisions to...
Ad Astra is a quarterly-published journal of the National Space Society (NSS). The name “ad astra” means “to the stars.” The journal was established following the merger of the L5 Society and the National Space Institute, which formed the NSS in 1987. The NSS is a non-profit aerospace advocacy and educational institution based in Washington DC. On November 28, 2007, the NSS announced MM Publishing Inc. as the newest publisher of Ad Astra. MM Publishing officially took on the role...
Columbia launched from Kennedy Space Center on October 22, 1992 at 1:09 PM EDT and landed at Kennedy on November 1 at 9:05 AM EST. The shuttle orbited 159 times at an altitude of 163 nautical miles at an inclination of 28.45 degrees and travelled 4.1 million miles. The mission lasted 9 days, 20 hours, 56 minutes, and 13 seconds. The mission launched several satellites for international partners. The primary mission objectives were the deployment of the Laser Geodynamic Satellite II...
Columbia launched from Kennedy Space Center on June 25,1992 at 12:23 PM EDT and landed at Kennedy on July 9 at 7:42 AM EDT. The shuttle orbited 221 times at an altitude of 160 nautical miles at an inclination of 28.45 degrees and travelled 5.8 million miles. The mission lasted 13 days, 19 hours, 30 minutes, and 4 seconds. This was the longest mission to date, close to 14 days. The mission's primary purpose was to study the effects of microgravity on humans. The primary payload was the...
