NASA: News About the Space Exploration Agency - Page 40

NASA Marks
25th Anniversary
of Challenger
Disaster

Jan 28, 2011 5:28 AM CST

NASA Marks 25th Anniversary of Challenger Disaster

Agency pays tribute to fallen astronauts

(Newser) - NASA officials will gather at Kennedy Space Center today to mark the 25th anniversary of one of the worst disasters in the history of space travel. The space shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after take-off on Jan. 28, 1986, killing all seven astronauts aboard. The widow of Challenger commander...

NASA Spots Runaway Star

Jan 26, 2011 12:32 PM CST

NASA Spots Runaway Star

Supernova sent Zeta Ophiuchi bolting through space

(Newser) - NASA's latest find is a runaway star with about 20 times the mass of our sun, slamming through space at an eye-popping 54,000 miles per hour, reports Space.com. NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) caught Zeta Ophiuchi in a spectacular infrared image that shows a massive star blanketed...

NASA: Nearby Black Hole
Is Enormous

NASA: Nearby Black Hole Is Enormous

M87 is bigger than six billion suns

(Newser) - NASA has taken new measurements of a black hole that’s just one galaxy over—and the results are staggering. The black hole, known as M87, is so big that you could fit roughly 6.6 billion of our suns inside it. Black holes that huge are a rare find,...

NASA Picks Backup
for Gifford's Husband

Jan 13, 2011 2:38 PM CST

NASA Picks Backup for Gifford's Husband

Shuttle commander Mark Kelly may miss April's Endeavour mission

(Newser) - Mark Kelly has been temporarily replaced in his duties as an astronaut so he can stay with his wife—Gabrielle Giffords. Kelly has been at his wife's bedside since last weekend's shooting, but he's scheduled to command the shuttle Endeavour when it blasts off in April. The crew needs to...

NASA Finds First Rocky World Outside Our Solar System

NASA Finds Smallest Planet Outside Our Solar System

Jan 11, 2011 1:42 PM CST

NASA Finds Smallest Planet Outside Our Solar System

But Kepler-10b is too hot for human habitation

(Newser) - The Kepler space telescope has discovered a rocky planet that’s just 1.4 times the size of Earth orbiting a distant star—making it the smallest planet NASA has ever discovered outside of our solar system, and the only rocky one, NASA announced today. The bad news: The planet,...

NASA Studying Strange,
Star-Creating Blob

Jan 11, 2011 8:43 AM CST

NASA Studying Strange, Star-Creating Blob

Hanny's Voorwerp creating 'lonely' stars 'in the middle of nowhere'

(Newser) - The Hubble Telescope has turned its gaze to a mysterious glowing green blob that’s creating stars where stars shouldn’t normally form. Dubbed Hanny’s Voorwerp, after the Dutch elementary school teacher who first discovered it in 2007, the blob is a swirling mass of hydrogen gas, caused by...

NASA Spending $500M on Canceled Rocket Program

NASA Forced to Spend $500M on Canceled Rocket Program

Dec 28, 2010 7:54 AM CST

NASA Forced to Spend $500M on Canceled Rocket Program

But much needed upgrades to Kennedy Space Center delayed indefinitely

(Newser) - Thanks to congressional inaction, NASA is being forced to spend $500 million on canceled projects—but can't begin much-needed modernization programs, reports the Orlando Sentinel . NASA's Constellation program, designed to return people to the moon, was canceled earlier this year by President Obama. But lawmakers inserted language into the budget...

Private Spacecraft Returns
From Orbit in Historic First

Dec 8, 2010 2:49 PM CST

Private Spacecraft Returns From Orbit in Historic First

SpaceX plans to run supplies to space station next year

(Newser) - The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off into orbit today, and its on-board capsule successfully returned to Earth about 3 hours later—the first time a private company negotiated a re-entry from orbit, reports AP . The test flight by SpaceX is a big step toward NASA's goal of privatizing certain space...

Scientists Blast NASA's
Arsenic-Based Life Paper

Dec 8, 2010 11:41 AM CST

Scientists Blast NASA's Arsenic-Based Life Paper

Researchers refuse to respond directly to criticism

(Newser) - Scientists are coming out of the woodwork to deride NASA’s finding of arsenic-based life as flim-flam. “I was outraged at how bad the science was,” one microbiology professor tells Slate , and she wasn’t alone; Slate tracked down dozens of experts to ask their opinion of the...

Girls, Meet Your
New Role Model

Girls, Meet Your New Role Model

Felisa Wolfe-Simon is the young scientist behind the 'new life' discovery

(Newser) - Jezebel has a girl crush, and it's a good one. Meet Felisa Wolfe-Simon, the lead scientist behind the whiz-bang discovery about potential new life forms . Though only in her early 30s by "standard graduation-year math," she is already "insanely accomplished by anyone's standards," writes Irin...

NASA Discovers
New Form of Life

Dec 2, 2010 1:03 PM CST

NASA Discovers New Form of Life

Arsenic-based lifeforms found on Earth are unlike any previously observed

(Newser) - NASA has discovered a totally new kind of life form, but it’s not an alien—it’s here on Earth. Astrobiologists have found a bacteria living in a poisonous California lake that’s actually partially made of arsenic, it announced in a much-hyped press conference today. Whereas every other...

NASA Press
Conference
Ignites ET
Rumors

Dec 1, 2010 12:26 PM CST

NASA Press Conference Ignites ET Rumors

Alien idea debunked, but speculation rages

(Newser) - NASA has announced a press conference tomorrow “to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life,” and alien enthusiasts have been wondering: have scientists found ET? An insider’s tweet debunked that rumor, but the net remains abuzz with curiosity over what...

NASA Probe Passes
'Snow Globe'
Comet

Nov 19, 2010 8:28 AM CST

NASA Probe Passes 'Snow Globe' Comet

Hartley covered with golf ball-size 'snowballs'

(Newser) - NASA's Deep Impact probe soared past a comet earlier this month, revealing the mass to be peppered with "snowballs," the BBC reports. Comet Hartley, encountered some 14 million miles from Earth, "looks like a 'snow globe' that you've just simply shaken,” said a scientist. Another noted...

Ohio NASA Facility Locked Down, Reports of Gunman

Nov 5, 2010 9:56 AM CDT

Ohio NASA Facility Locked Down, Reports of Gunman

Spokesperson will not confirm whether gunman is involved

(Newser) - A sprawling NASA research center next to Cleveland's airport is under lockdown amid reports of a possible gunman. NASA Glenn Research Center spokeswoman Sally Harrington wouldn't say whether police were checking for a gunman but she says the complex was placed under "complete lockdown" this morning.

NASA Probe
Sweeps Past
'Space Peanut'

Nov 5, 2010 1:20 AM CDT

NASA Probe Sweeps Past 'Space Peanut'

Hartley 2 comet is spewing out cyanide gas

(Newser) - NASA's Deep Impact probe is sending back amazing images from the comet Hartley 2, say team scientists. The probe, after a journey of 2.9 billion miles, came to within 435 miles for a fly-by of the intriguing peanut-shaped comet, the BBC reports. The comet is roughly 1.4 miles...

Robonaut Joining
Space Station Crew

Nov 2, 2010 4:45 AM CDT

Robonaut Joining Space Station Crew

'A giant leap forward for tinmankind'

(Newser) - International Space Station astronauts won't need to worry about the newest crew member hogging the oxygen or clogging the toilet. Robonaut 2 will become the first humanoid robot in space when he heads to the station this week on the space shuttle Discovery's final mission, AP reports. "R2" will...

NASA Finds Singing Stars

Oct 29, 2010 10:23 AM CDT

NASA Finds Singing Stars

Telescope spots sound waves traveling through space

(Newser) - NASA has discovered a group of massive red stars that are actually humming to themselves. The planet-hunting Kepler space telescope recently spotted sound waves emanating from the stars, the Wall Street Journal reports. NASA recorded the tune, and played it recently at a press conference in Denmark. “It is...

NASA Plans to Send
Men to Mars, Leave
Them There

NASA Plans to Send Men to Mars, Leave Them There

Hundred Year Spaceship could hit other planets, too

(Newser) - NASA is hatching an audacious plan to send astronauts into space to colonize Mars and other planets—and never return. The project, known as the Hundred Year Starship, has already received more than $1.5 million in funding, the Daily Mail reports, though that’s a small fraction of what...

Analysis Confirms Lots
of Water on Moon

Oct 21, 2010 5:03 PM CDT

Analysis Confirms Lots of Water on Moon

More than thought from last year's 'moonshot'

(Newser) - When NASA blasted a hole in the moon last year in search of water, scientists figured there would be a splash. They just didn't know how big. Now new results from the Hollywood-esque moonshot reveal lots of water in a crater where the sun never shines—41 gallons of ice...

NASA Finds Bizarre
X-Shaped Comet

Oct 14, 2010 2:57 PM CDT

NASA Finds Bizarre X-Shaped Comet

Debris from extremely recent collision

(Newser) - The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of a bizarre X-shaped object with a comet-like streak of dust behind it, NASA announced yesterday. Scientists believe the images represent an extremely recent asteroid collision, with a small rock, perhaps 10-15 feet wide, colliding with a larger, roughly 400-foot-wide one. When...

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