Jul 11
NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne tested their first 3D-printed rocket engine injector today. What you see above is the little guy passing the test with flying—and flaming—colors. Success is a beautiful thing.
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Jul 11
No doubt: the following spacewalk photos are the best I have seen in a very long time. I just cannot stop staring at the stunning photos captured during the spacewalk of ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA’s Chris Cassidy, on the 9th of July, released by the European Space Agency today on its webpage and on Flickr.
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Jul 10
Many stunning objects in our solar system have tails. We see them most often in comets, meteoroids, asteroids, etc. Tails are formed when dust and ice on these objects burn up as they heat up, which results in debris letting loose and leaving a trail behind the comet. As it turns out, even our own solar system has a tail.
NASA has discovered that our entire solar system consisting of Earth and other planets has its own tail that stretches 93 billion miles long. You may have not given it any thought really, but our solar system is also flying through the universe just like a comet would, leaving behind its own trail of space dust and ice.
NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) is currently out in space and mapping the edges of the solar system. Specifically, it has recently mapped the boundaries of the tail of the heliosphere, which is something that has never been possible before. Scientists have long assumed that the solar system has a tail, but we’ve never been able to see until now.
It’s officially called a “heliotail,” and it’s made up of both slow and fast-moving particles that were released by the sun. These particles escape the magnetic field surrounding the solar system and are invisible to the naked eye by the time they reach the edge of this magnetic field, but luckily, NASA is able to map them out with IBEX.
Scientists, astronomers, and researchers are still determining exactly how long the tail is, since 93 billion miles is simply just a rough estimate, but it seems that NASA has most of the details confirmed, and the study was published today in The Astrophysical Journal.
VIA: NASA
NASA reveals the solar system has a tail of its own is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 10
Hubble researchers identify color of an exoplanet for the first time (video)
Posted in: Today's Chili
While exoplanets are seemingly a dime a dozen, their looks have been mysteries; they often exist only as measurements. Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have partly solved that riddle by pinpointing the visible color of an extrasolar world for the first time. By measuring reflected light, they can tell that HD 189733b (conceptualized above) is a cobalt blue, much like Earth’s oceans. Not that we can claim much kinship, though. The planet is a gas giant 63 light-years away — its blue tint comes from an atmosphere likely full of deadly silicate. As disappointing as that may be, the discovery should at least help us understand planet types that don’t exist in the Solar System.
Source: ESA
Jul 05
We’ve seen a lot of neat photos from Mars thanks to NASA’s latest Curiosity rover that’s currently putzing its way around the surface of the red planet. The latest imagery that it has sent back is a rather simple, but neat timelapse video of one of Mars’ moons rising into the Martian sky.
The video is simply a timelapse consisting of 86 photos that were taken by Curiosity’s navigation camera, and they were stitched together to create a 30-second timelapse. The set of photos were taken shortly after Mars’ sunset on June 28. The timelapse video shows the moon rising over the course of about 30 minutes.
In the video, you’ll notice how small Phobos appears in the sky, and that’s mostly because it’s just 14 miles in diameter (compared to Earth’s Moon, which is over 2,100 miles in diameter). If you’re wondering about the mysterious ring glow in the video, officials say it’s is an artifact caused by the scattering of light inside the camera.
It’s not much to look at, really, since it just looks like another star in the sky, but it’s definitely unique to witness a moon rising on another planet in our solar system. The photos were taken from Gale Crater, which Curiosity arrived to back in August. The rover is expected to be active for at least another year.
Curiosity has yet to leave Gale Crater, but NASA plans to take it elsewhere in the future. It’s ultimate destination is the base of the mysterious Mount Sharp, which stands at 3.4 miles high. It’s no Mount Everest, but NASA thinks Mount Sharp holds some secrets that the rover could uncover about possible life on Mars.
VIA: Space.com
NASA Curiosity Mars rover records timelapse of Phobos moon rising is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jul 04
While there will be plenty of fireworks later today, it’s nice to know that our very own solar system will be joining in the fun, too—with comet ISON hurting toward the sun at a staggering 48,000 mph.
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Jul 02
Journey through the cosmos with In Saturn’s Rings, heading to IMAX in 2014 (video)
Posted in: Today's Chili
Ever since NASA’s Cassini-Huygens spacecraft entered Saturn’s orbit in 2004, filmmaker Stephen van Vuuren has been enthralled with its progress. So much so that he’s spent years collecting over a million insanely high-res photos from Cassini’s mission and quilted them together into a 45-minute film called In Saturn’s Rings. Without relying on CGI or fancy visual effects, van Vuuren has patched together a seamless visual journey through our solar system, culminating in a breathtaking view of Saturn’s rings and moons. Distributed by BIG & Digital, the movie is expected to make its way to IMAX theaters sometime in 2014, though there’s no word yet on a specific release date. The first official trailer dropped today, and you can watch it — in 4K if you’ve got the right screen — after the break.
Source: In Saturn’s Rings
Jun 28
At 15:09 ET today, NASA sent a signal to decommission the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) after ten years of tireless work shooting the galaxy in lower Earth orbit. NASA says GALEX will float around for another 65 years before it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere and essentially self-destructs.
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Jun 28
Joining Space Shuttles Endeavour, Discovery, and Enterprise, the Atlantis will open up to the public tomorrow at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Atlantis marked the end of an era and was the last Space Shuttle NASA sent up into space, which was launched on July 8, 2011 and returned
Jun 28
Earlier this month, NASA announced that they would be sending a probe into orbit later this month to study the sun’s lower atmosphere. As promised, the space agency has launched the satellite into space to begin its two year mission to study the mysteries of the sun and the odd lower atmosphere that has many
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