Apr 23

Researchers: Exoplanet Contains Unusual Atmosphere

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili
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As technology improves, scientists are beginning to pick up clues of Earth-like exoplanets, or planets orbiting other stars.
One possible stepping stone to finding those is a Neptune-sized exoplanet near a star about 33 light years away. The exoplanet’s surface could be as hot as 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. But its atmospheric composition has turned out to be much different than expected.
“GJ 436b is the smallest exoplanet whose direct light we’ve been able to measure,” said Kevin Stevenson, the University of Central Florida‘s first planetary sciences doctoral student and lead author of the study, which will be published Thursday, April 22, in Nature.
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Apr 22

NASA Unveils First Solar Dynamics Observatory Images

Posted in: NASA, science, solar, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili
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NASA has unveiled the first series of images from the agency’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which had launched back in February.
The photos are striking images of looping flares and massive explosions on the sun’s surface. As Popular Science reports, the goal of the mission is to help scientists gain a better understanding of how various processes on the sun affect our lives on Earth.
In particular, SDO will provide a “wealth of solar data” to help researchers improve solar weather forecasts. The observatory carries four telescopes, views the sun with a resolution an order of magnitude higher than what is possible with an HD video camera, and also contains instruments for measuring magnetic motions and ultraviolet energy output, the report said.
Click here for NASA’s complete SDO photo gallery.
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Apr 19

Astronomers Discover Mysterious Object in Space

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili
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Scientists have discovered a mysterious new object, located within the galaxy M82, using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope–and it’s not like anything we’ve seen before.
The new object is a micro-quasar, a sort of miniature version of the brightest objects in the night sky, and could be the brightest one ever discovered, according to Space.com.
What’s strange is that, unlike other micro-quasars, it began shooting out radio waves last year very rapidly–within a few days–and hasn’t died down, unlike other supernovae. In fact, it has even become a bit brighter, the report said.
“We think a massive black hole must be involved, but we don’t really understand how it’s getting fueled,” said researcher Tom Muxlow, a radio astronomer at the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory in England, in the report. (Image credit: NASA/Spitzer)
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Apr 16

NASA to Launch Supercomputing App

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili
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Who said supercomputers were dead? NASA on Monday will unveil a powerful new supercomputing application called NASA Earth Exchange (NEX), which will let scientists model and analyze large Earth science data sets, InformationWeek reports.
The program will enable collaborative work via social networking-enhanced virtual environments, so that scientists can share research and work on projects together from remote locations.
The report said NEX will run on the 609-teraflops Pleiadies, NASA’s most powerful supercomputer and the sixth most powerful supercomputer in the world. It will also hook into a 450-terabyte internal storage cache, a 160-terabyte external storage cache, and a potential 10+ petabyte tape archive. (Image credit: NASA Ames)
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Apr 16

Obama Lays Out Visions for NASA, Mars Exploration

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili
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President Barack Obama on Thursday laid out a case for saving some NASA jobs and an eventual manned mission to Mars.
At the Kennedy Space Center, Obama sought to address concerns–not to mention a few prominent critics like Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon–that the U.S. intends to remain a world leader with its space program, despite an original plan to abandon the Constellation moon program, Reuters reports.
“The bottom line is, nobody is more committed to manned space flight, to human exploration of space, than I am. But we’ve got to do it in a smart way,” Obama said in the article.
Obama said that he would like to see deep space-capable craft by 2025, a manned mission to an asteroid and even to Mars by the mid-2030s, and later, a mission to land humans on Mars. “And I expect to be around to see it,” he said.
He also said that he would salvage the Orion crew capsule from the Constellation program, and use that as an emergency escape vehicle for the International Space Station–preventing the need to rely on Russia’s Soyuz capsule.
Obama also proposed a $40 million fund to boost the economy around NASA’s facilities in Florida, which could create thousands of new jobs to offset the losses at NASA–projected to be about 9,000 Kennedy Space Center jobs after the shuttle program ends and Constellation is shut down, according to the report. (Image: NASA/Ares I)
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Apr 15

Massive European Telescope to Search for ET

Posted in: NASA, radio, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili
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A massive new telescope, with 44 stations spread across Europe, will soon kick the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) into high gear.
The LOFAR (the pan-European Low Frequency Array) project has unveiled new images and observing plans for the telescope, which is currently under construction, Discovery News reports.
Each of the 44 stations will have dozens of antennas, and be able to achieve “unprecedented spatial resolution for meter-wave astronomy,” a virtually unexplored region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
That means the telescope will be useful for detecting radio jets, cosmic rays, intergalactic hydrogen, and other natural phenomena in addition to possible alien life, the report said. (Image credit: LOFAR)
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Apr 14

NASA Mulls Extra Spacewalk to Fix ISS Valve

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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NASA may extend space shuttle Discovery’s current mission by one extra day and one spacewalk, so that astronauts can work on a stuck valve that could impact half of the International Space Station’s on-board systems, Space.com reports.
The valve is one part of the ISS’s ammonia coolant tank; it regulates flow of coolant through half of the space station, the report said. It has been stuck since April 8th; so far, there have been no ill effects, but the ISS will soon need the extra coolant to combat heating from switching positions later this week.
Thankfully, the ISS has two full spare ammonia tanks on board, so if need be, the astronauts will swap the bad one out in case mission control can’t fix the problem remotely, the report said. (Image credit: NASA)
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Apr 14

NASA, GM to Launch Robot into Space

Posted in: NASA, robot, Robots Robotics, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili

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Remember Robonaut 2, the GM and NASA-developed humanoid robot?

It’s going for a little ride.

NASA has announced it plans to launch the first human-like robot to space later this year, where it will live permanently on the International Space Station.
GM’s 300-pound Robonaut 2, or R2, is capable of working alongside humans at GM manufacturing plants, and was also engineered to work alongside astronauts in space.
R2 will launch on space shuttle Discovery mission STS-133, which is currently scheduled for December. GM said in a statement that it plans to monitor how the robot operates in weightlessness.
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Apr 12

Next Mars Rover Gets Super-Powered Camera

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili
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NASA engineers has finished developing new camera eyes to the agency’s new Curiosity Mars rover, scheduled to launch in 2011.
The Fixed Focal Length Mastcam, developed by Malin Space Science Systems, contains a telephoto lens, and will pan and tilt to provide image coverage around the rover, as well as nearby and further out to the horizon, Space.com reports.
The new eyes will soon be mounted to the rover. NASA originally scrapped a plan back in 2007 to add a 3D-capable zoom lens thanks to cost pressures, the report said. But the agency has since funded the project anyway, and there’s still time for MSSS to develop 3D-capable zoom versions.
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Apr 09

NASA Unveils Way Forward for Space Program

Posted in: NASA, science, space, Space Tech, Today's Chili
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NASA has finally revealed its plans for the coming years Thursday, announcing a lineup of new programs that fulfill President Obama’s plan for space exploration.
In lieu of the Constellation program, which has now been terminated, NASA plans to develop commercial flights of crew and cargo to the International Space Station, along with long-range technology to allow sustained exploration beyond Earth’s orbit, including by humans, according to the New York Times.
One example is $6 billion (over five years) for Flagship Technology Demonstrations, which will develop orbital fuel depots and test the idea of using planetary atmospheres to slow spacecraft instead of braking rockets, the report said.
The Kennedy Space center, meanwhile, will get $5.8 billion over five years to develop commercial cargo and astronaut passenger programs for the space station.
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