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First Teacher Rockets to Space
First Teacher Rockets to Space
Aug 9, 2007 4:42 AM CDT

First Teacher Rockets to Space

Endeavour launches without a hitch 21 years after McAuliffe tragedy

(Newser) - Former schoolteacher Barbara Morgan safely reached space last night when the shuttle Endeavour rocketed through a problem-free launch. Ten minutes after its evening blastoff, the shuttle was orbiting 140 miles above the Earth in preparation for docking with the International Space Station tomorrow. Morgan is the first astronaut teacher since...

Largest Planet Ever Discovered
Largest Planet Ever Discovered
Aug 7, 2007 1:53 PM CDT

Largest Planet Ever Discovered

Huge, lightweight discovery puzzles scientists

(Newser) - Forget Jupiter. Scientists have discovered the largest planet out there—a "puffy" space mass almost twice the size of our solar system's gas giant. But the find is posing more questions than answers, Space.com reports: TrES-4’s mass is large but its density is about the same as...

US Teacher Headed for Space
US Teacher Headed
for Space
Aug 6, 2007 8:02 AM CDT

US Teacher Headed for Space

NASA readies educator 21 years after Challenger disaster

(Newser) - NASA is sending another schoolteacher into space, 21 years after the Challenger disaster killed educator Christa McAuliffe. Barbara Morgan, a former Idaho schoolteacher and now a fully trained astronaut, will spend most of the trip transferring cargo to the International Space Station and about six hours on educational pursuits. When...

Robot Geologist Heads to Mars
Robot Geologist Heads to Mars
Aug 4, 2007 7:05 AM CDT

Robot Geologist Heads to Mars

NASA launches lander with years-long mission to red planet

(Newser) - An unmanned rocket carrying a robotic excavation machine is on its way to Mars following a successful launch from Cape Canaveral this morning. The AP reports that the Phoenix Mars Lander should arrive on Mars in May, 2008, when it will collect and analyze soil and ice in search of...

NASA Admits Sabotage, Drunk Astronauts

Agency says hard stuff not right stuff, vows to launch action

(Newser) - NASA promised immediate action today on embarrassing reports of an intentionally damaged computer and inebriated astronauts. An administrator said an internal safety review, staff briefing on new policy, and official 12-hour pre-flight ban on alcohol would follow an independent panel’s finding of “heavy” alcohol use by astronauts before...

MIT Slims Down the Space Suit
MIT Slims Down the Space Suit
Jul 24, 2007 1:05 PM CDT

MIT Slims Down the Space Suit

BioSuit is astronauts' sexy new get-up

(Newser) - When NASA astronauts are suited up for space heroics they're more Marshmallow Man than Spider-Man, but that could change with a sleek new space suit designed by MIT aeronautics professor Dava Newman. The revolutionary BioSuit is lightweight and form-fitting, allowing physical feats not possible in the current bulky gear.

Astronaut Takes Out the Trash, Into Space

Discarded equipment expected to burn up in Earth's atmosphere

(Newser) - A NASA astronaut hurled two large pieces of space junk—a 1,400-pound reservoir filled with ammonia and a 212-pound piece of video equipment—off the International Space Station and into the Earth's orbit today. NASA does not approve of space littering, Reuters reports, but the agency had no other...

Meet Frank, Saturn's 60th Moon
Meet Frank, Saturn's 60th Moon
Jul 20, 2007 1:09 PM CDT

Meet Frank, Saturn's 60th Moon

Planet's latest addition sparks search for more

(Newser) - Scientists have discovered Saturn’s 60th moon, and are hinting that more could exist. In May, cameras aboard the Cassini spacecraft captured the “extremely faint object,” which scientists have officially designated a moon and tentatively named Frank. Composed mostly of ice and rock, Frank is about a mile...

Planet with Water Discovered
Planet with Water Discovered
Jul 11, 2007 3:57 PM CDT

Planet with Water Discovered

HD 189733b holds superheated water vapor but is too hot for aliens

(Newser) - Astronomers located the first planet beyond our solar system that hosts water—a giant gas ball bigger than Jupiter and named HD 189733b. Its sizzling climate, which can reach upwards of 3,600 degrees, renders it uninhabitable to any extraterrestrials, but the discovery shows that water is more common in...

Europe Seeks Mars Test Volunteers

Wanted: 12 people to live in a mock-up 'spacecraft' for 500 days

(Newser) - The European Space Agency is recruiting 12 volunteers to spend 17 months living and working in a series of interconnected modules that simulate an inter-planetary mission to Mars. The 'spaceship' is 19,250 cubic feet and is located at the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow.

Atlantis Heads Home
Atlantis Heads Home
Jun 19, 2007 7:10 PM CDT

Atlantis Heads Home

13-day mission concludes; rain may delay landing in Florida

(Newser) - Space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station today and set out on the final leg of its 13-day mission. The seven astronauts' final preparations for landing included making sure the craft's heat shield was ready to re-enter the atmosphere before landing Thursday—or later if the weather doesn't...

Shuttle Docks at Space Station
Shuttle Docks at Space Station
Jun 11, 2007 5:31 AM CDT

Shuttle Docks at Space Station

(Newser) - The Atlantis docked with the international space station today, bringing with it a segment to be added to the station and the newest member of its crew. The arrival was marred by concern about a piece of thermal blanket on the shuttle that peeled back during launch;  ground control...

Most Massive Star Ever Weighs In
Most Massive Star Ever Weighs In
Jun 8, 2007 6:43 AM CDT

Most Massive Star Ever Weighs In

Astronomers say hefty gas giant is 100 times heavier than the sun

(Newser) - The most massive star yet discovered has been "weighed," astronomers say, and it tips the scales at a whopping 114 times the mass of the sun. The enormous star forms the bigger half of a rapidly orbiting binary system and it far outstrips both its companion star and...

Scientists Find Cold Dwarf Star
Scientists Find Cold Dwarf Star
Jun 5, 2007 8:51 AM CDT

Scientists Find Cold Dwarf Star

Failed star has temperature a tenth of the sun's

(Newser) - Scientists are over the moon with the discovery of a cold brown dwarf in the Cetus constellation. The star-like body, spotted by a British team using the UKIRT telescope in Hawaii, is the coldest of its kind ever seen, the BBC reports, tipping thermometers at just 800 degrees F, a...

Crop of New Planets Means Better Chance of Life

Rapid discovery of planets outside our solar system ups odds one has liquid water

(Newser) - Astronomers who've spotted 28 new planets in the past year are gaining confidence that other solar systems may be able to support life like ours. One researcher estimated that there are probably "tens of billions" of planets with habitable conditions, most important of which is hospitality to water.

Hubble Finds Dark Matter
Hubble Finds Dark Matter
May 15, 2007 8:00 AM CDT

Hubble Finds Dark Matter

(Newser) - Astronomers have discovered a ring of dark matter in a galaxy cluster about 5 billion light years away. The Hubble Telescope turned up an anomaly in the way stars in the area appear, which researchers think is a distortion caused by the intense gravity of the galactic "glue" holding...

NASA Reveals Superpowered Telescope
NASA Reveals Superpowered Telescope
May 11, 2007 4:38 PM CDT

NASA Reveals Superpowered Telescope

Giant camera will replace Hubble, see across universe

(Newser) - NASA has uncovered a prototype for a new telescope that will outmagnify the dominant Hubble. The James Webb Space Telescope will cost $4.5 billion and float nearly a million miles from Earth when it launches in six years; its supercharged hexagonal mirror will transmit images of the farthest and...

King of Supernovas Sheds Light on Early Stars

(Newser) - Researchers are reporting the biggest stellar explosion ever recorded—a discovery which could shed light on how the universe was shaped. The star, 150 times more massive than the sun, went out with a bang 100 times more powerful than typical supernovas. Astronomers think the first stars after the Big...

Final Frontier Tests Terra Firma Ethics

NASA ponders death, sex during long space voyages

(Newser) - As NASA plans a three-year manned mission to Mars during the next three decades, Oregon Trail ethics are being updated. What do you do with bodies of pioneers who don't make it? A new document on crew health from the space agency deals with death and interment where no man...

NASA Shutters Ideas Factory
NASA Shutters Ideas Factory  
Mar 22, 2007 8:47 AM CDT

NASA Shutters Ideas Factory

(Newser) - In a cost-cutting move, NASA is shutting down its futuristic think tank, source of way-ahead-of-the-curve ideas, many of them worthy of a Star Trek script. Closing the Institute for Advanced Concepts will save $4 million out of NASA’s $16 billion dollar budget. But former NASA scientist Keith Cowing describes...

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