CHEMISTRYSeventeen years after the thought came to his mind, former Vice President of the United States Al Gore is finally getting his wish. This evening, Saturday Feb. 7 at 6:10pm, a 1,250-pound satellite nicknamed “GoreSat” is going off into space at last.
Releasing the sharpest set of images from within the asteroid belt to date, this week NASA researchers have filled the internet with their hopes for what may lie on the dwarf planet Ceres. Only a month before NASA’s Dawn spacecraft will enter orbit around the 590-mile-wide dwarf, found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, the space agency is hopeful that their mission will reveal a lot more about the small planet and the secrets its surface may hold.
Only a month before starting its orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres in our solar system's main asteroid belt, NASA's Dawn spacecraft has revealed the sharpest images of the mysterious dwarf planet to date.
Though researchers have studied the four natural satellites orbiting around Jupiter, a new set of images courtesy of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a rare new view of three of the moons in action. In a rare, and short-lived event, three of the moons moved across the striped face of the gas giant, casting shadows on the planet below.
While NASA researchers are still waiting for the initial readings from their newest mission, the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission which plans to give researchers and farmers vital information about the moisture of any given soil on the face of the Earth, another mission has its sights set on the seas this week. Releasing a new image courtesy of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite, researchers at the space agency reveal that while all may seem calm below, the clouds above the Bering Sea tell a tale much more interesting than the waters it hides.
Fast winds over California postponed a NASA satellite launch today, but researchers with the space agency say that the mission is far from over. Set to launch this morning, Jan. 29, the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) spacecraft developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory may have had a setback but it still has plans to map the world in a way researchers have never done before.
NASA's Opportunity Mars Rover is celebrating a new milestone of eleven years on the Red Planet. But in spite of its fortitude, the rover which is only about the size of a riding lawn mower, was originally only designed to explore the Martian surface for about 90 days, along with her twin rover, Spirit.
NASA has moved the Soil Moisture Active Passive spacecraft to the launch pad in preparation for a January 29 launch, in its first ever attempt to take scientific measurements of the Earth on a global scale.
Scientists have long believed that at the center of quasars are massively powerful black holes. However, a new study from Yale University researchers indicates the exact opposite may be true. Researchers at Yale found that one particular quasar is actually dimming, and astronomers think it could be because of a black hole on a diet.
NASA has revealed that new data from the Dawn spacecraft indicates that there may have once been short-lived water flows on the second largest body in the asteroid belt, known to us as Vesta.
NASA's Dawn spacecraft continues its approach to the dwarf planet Ceres for its planned mission. During this approach it has already snapped several images of this small planet located in the asteroid belt. And what these pictures have revealed has mystified scientists at NASA for weeks.
The skies of Mars could be teaming with drones one day if NASA's new project manages to make it to the red planet. The proposed Mars Helicopter is currently being developed to help researchers cover more ground with their rovers, and one day it could even help them discover more unique and interesting aspects of Mars that they would have simply missed without it.
After putting on quite a show in the night sky that delighted astronomers of all ages across the world, it is finally time to bid farewell to the comet Lovejoy. This past Saturday night was the last time that sky-watching enthusiasts had the opportunity to witness Comet Lovejoy with the naked eye, and there won't be another chance to catch this unique comet for the next 8,000 years.
Do you remember that comet we landed on last year? It seems this comet has unexpectedly become more active showing signs of "waking up" as it zooms towards the sun at almost 47,800 miles per hour.
A powerful Atlas 5 rocket blasted its way into space Tuesday carrying a 15,000 pound Navy communications satellite. This satellite is the third of five relay stations planned for a new $5 billion global network designed to handle high-speed mobile phone traffic as well as voice and data from other, older systems.
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has begun approaching the dwarf planet Ceres, and with a new vantage point it has snapped some of its first images of the planet showing possible craters on the surface.
A study by astrophysicists at the University of Toronto suggests that exoplanets - planets that are outside our solar system - are more likely to have liquid water, and therefore may be more hospitable to life than researchers originally thought.
A recent as last week, radio waves from a distant galaxy were detect by an Australian-based radio telescope. And just how far is "distant"―try around 5.5 billion light-years away.
Scott and Mark Kelly, identical twin brothers and astronauts for NASA are participating in a new study that is the first of its kind. The study will look at the effects of long-term space missions on the human body, with the hopes of gaining insights on what will happen to humans on a mission to Mars.
Astronomers in eastern Australia using the CSIRO's 64-m Parkes radio telescope have for the first time caught a "fast radio burst" live. A fast radio burst is a short, sharp flash of radio waves from an unknown source.