Hasta La Gadget!

Hide your kids, hide your wife, there’s an asteroid circling Earth’s orbit and we’re all gonna… be just fine? Yeah, no need to stock up those ’60s fallout shelters folks, this approximately 1,000 feet wide space rock is sitting pretty and safe in one of our Lagrange points. The so-called Trojan asteroid, known as 2010 TK7, was uncovered 50 million miles away by the infrared eyes of NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope, and is the first of its kind to be discovered near our humble planet. Typically, these near-Earth objects (NEOs) hide in the sun’s glare, but this satellite’s unusual circuit around our world helped WISE and the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope confirm its existence. The finding has our best and brightest giddy with the hope similar NEOs “could make excellent candidates for future robotic or human exploration.” Unfortunately, our new planetoid friend’s too-high, too-low path doesn’t quite cut the space mission mustard. No matter, 2010 TK7 still gets to call “First!”

Continue reading Trojan asteroid caught circling Earth, the Greeks deny involvement

Trojan asteroid caught circling Earth, the Greeks deny involvement originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 05:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink BBC News  |   | Email this | Comments

Is that an intergalactic wave pool, or just a hungry, hungry quasar? Turns out it’s a bit of both — well, not the wave pool bit, but it’s watery. A NASA-funded peep into the farthest reaches of the cosmos has uncovered this “feeding black hole” 12 billion light years away. APM 08279+5255, as this compacted mass of inescapable doom is affectionately known, has been gorging on water vapor and spewing out energy. How much H2O exactly? It’s only the “largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe,” and it weighs in at 140 trillion times the amount in our oceans. Located via the cooperation of two teams of astronomers and their star-gazing equipment — the Z-Space instrument at California Institute of Technology’s Submillimeter Observatory in Hawaii and the Plateau de Bure Interferometer in the French Alps — this aqueous discovery proves the wet stuff is more universally omnipresent than we once thought. Also, surfing aliens, right?

Giant body of water found in space, black hole claims it was just hydrating originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 23 Jul 2011 12:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  NASA  | Email this | Comments

The Space Shuttle Program’s 30 years brought great success—but also terrible failures and sadness. Today, as the program ends, we wanted to remember the heroes who fell along the way, and celebrate their lives. More »

An eccentric, or perhaps just egocentric, Shiek in Abu Dhabi has carved his name into the desert of an United Arab Emirates island he owns in giant 1000 meter letters. And it just happens to be visible from space. More »

End of the US space shuttle program got you down? It doesn’t seem to have phased SpaceX, which is still chipper and chugging right along with plans for its bodacious Falcon Heavy. The company recently broke ground at Complex 4 East at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, which Elon Musk’s baby will call home, later next year. With twice the payload-to-orbit capacity of Boeing and Lockheed’s Delta IV Heavy, and at a third of the cost, the firm hopes its latest will usher in a new era of affordable $100 million launches. If all goes according to plan, the 22-story behemoth will have its inaugural launch in 2013, making it — we’re told — the most powerful US rocket since Saturn V hurtled the Apollo spacecraft towards the moon. Budget-friendly, rocket-boostin’ PR awaits you after the break.

Continue reading SpaceX breaks ground at Vandenberg Air Force Base, continues preparation for 2013 Falcon Heavy launch

SpaceX breaks ground at Vandenberg Air Force Base, continues preparation for 2013 Falcon Heavy launch originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Space.com  | Email this | Comments