Hasta La Gadget!

Space smells. But what does it smell like? Different astronauts and scientists have said different things—from seared steak to hot metal, gunpowder to welding fumes, raspberries to rum and nearly any meaty metallic description in between—but it’s known to be a gnarly scent. Now NASA wants to know for sure. It’s hired a scent chemist to get to the bottom of the smell of space. More »

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft was able to capture some incredible pictures of bright blue daytime lightning on Saturn. Cassini has been visiting the ringed planet for about eight years now and came across the lightning strike on March 6, 2011 during a massive storm that had been occurring around the northern hemisphere for most of 2011. NASA had only unveiled the images yesterday and admitted that the discovery was a pretty big surprise.

An imaging team associate said that they didn’t expect to see lighting on the planet’s day side. Since Cassini was able to detect the lighting, it had to have been pretty intense. The images were analyzed and showed that the energy from the lightning may have generated up to 3 million watts in just a single second, meaning that daytime lightning on Saturn is just as powerful as some of the strongest lightning strikes we have here on Earth.

One thing that scientists definitely don’t know about the lightning is whether or not its actual color is blue or if it only appeared blue in Cassini’s blue imaging filter–due to the camera’s short exposure time that helps it detect lightning. Whatever color it is, Cassini was still pretty lucky to catch it. The spacecraft was initially launched in 1997 and has been orbiting Saturn since 2006, expected to complete an extended mission by 2017.

[via NASA]

NASA’s Cassini captures daytime lightning on Saturn is written by Elise Moreau & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The astronauts are wearing white suits with American flags and mission patches on them. They’re aware but unworried about the hostile environment inches away from their noses. They’d be dead in seconds if it were not for their air supply. As they bound nimbly along in a state of near-weightlessness, all each astronaut can hear is breathing. More »

The folks at SpaceX made history this year with their successful launch of the Dragon spacecraft and interaction with the International Space Station – and they’re not about to let you forget it. This week they’ve released a highlights video showing off footage that they and/or NASA filmed from the launch, the approach, the attachment to the ISS, and the splashdown of this mission, all in epic fashion. Have a peek while you sip your afternoon coffee!

This video shows highlights, not quite the whole mission. The mission itself took place over the course of a little over a week, starting on the 22nd of May and ending on May 31st. This journey starts with the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching the Dragon spacecraft off into orbit from Cape Canaveral and quickly heads to the Dragon orbiting Earth as it lined up good and ready to attach to the ISS.

On the 24th of May, two days after launch, NASA gave the go-ahead for the Dragon to attempt berthing with the space station. This was one of the most teeth-clenching moments of the mission as once the spacecraft connected, all would be well. On May 26, our good pal Don Pettit officially opened the Dragon’s hatch and the astronauts entered – mission successful!

Then of course, as SpaceX retells so elegantly:

May 31: After six days at the International Space Station, Dragon departed for its return to Earth, carrying a load of cargo for NASA. SpaceX completed its historic mission when Dragon splashed down safely in the Pacific.

Check out the rest of our SpaceX news from this launch in the timeline below, and stay tuned for more awesome space action!

SpaceX historic Dragon ISS mission video highlights blast off is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Scientists have been keeping an eye on a specific region of the northern Petermann Glacier in Greenland for quite some time, and now a piece has broken off. A gigantic iceberg, reportedly twice the size of the island of Manhattan at 46 square miles, is the result. Scientists are blaming the break on global warming, pointing towards the dramatic changes that Greenland has started to see over the past few years.

Some scientists believe that this may be a natural occurrence, but the scale of the break has others concerned. “We’re still in the phase of scratching our heads and figuring out how big a deal this really is,” says Ian Howat, an ice scientist at Ohio University. Several of Greenland’s glaciers have been warming at a rapid pace, with data indicating that they’re heating up five times faster than the average global temperature. Temperatures in the region have risen by 4 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 30 years.

Scientist remain concerned over the shift in Greenland’s climate over the past three years, with NASA glaciologist Eric Rignot saying that the occurrence “is not part of natural variations anymore.” As to what will happen to the new iceberg, it’s likely that it will break off into smaller pieces and drift towards Newfoundland. A similar pattern occurred with another iceberg in 2010. Meanwhile, the Arctic saw the largest sea ice loss during June since records began.

[via AJC]

Giant iceberg tears off Greenland glacier is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.