After a journey of 245 days across 352 million miles, the moment of truth for the Mars Science Laboratory begins late in the evening of August 5 when the spacecraft roars into the Martian atmosphere, traveling at 13,200 miles an hour. The final seven minutes will determine the fate of the mission, and a perfect performance of the Lockheed Martin Space Systems aeroshell is absolutely vital to getting the Mars Curiosity Rover safely down on the sands of Mars.
Jul 26th, 2012
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The inspiration behind NASA scientist Maxim Markevitch's quest to build a highly specialized X-ray mirror using a never-before-tried technique comes from an unusual source: a roll of Scotch tape.
Jul 26th, 2012
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Largest ever Cherenkov telescope sees first light.
Jul 26th, 2012
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Max Planck scientists discover a young and energetic neutron star with unusually irregular rotation.
Jul 26th, 2012
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Researchers measure the orientation of a multiplanet system and find it very similar to our own solar system.
Jul 26th, 2012
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A giant gas cloud is on collision course with the black hole in the centre of our galaxy in 2013. This is a unique opportunity to observe how a super massive black hole sucks in material, in real time.
Jul 25th, 2012
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Comets and asteroids preserve the building blocks of our Solar System and should help explain its origin. But there are unsolved puzzles. For example, how did icy comets obtain particles that formed at high temperatures, and how did these refractory particles acquire rims with different compositions? Carnegie's theoretical astrophysicist Alan Boss and cosmochemist Conel Alexander are the first to model the trajectories of such particles in the unstable disk of gas and dust that formed the Solar System.
Jul 25th, 2012
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Cutting-edge Canadian space technology directed by Université de Montreal's Rene Doyon
Jul 25th, 2012
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NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is set to deliver the largest planetary rover ever flown onto the Red Planet?s surface early in the morning of 6 August.
Jul 25th, 2012
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For several days this month, Greenland's surface ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations. Nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its 2-mile-thick center, experienced some degree of melting at its surface, according to measurements from three independent satellites analyzed by NASA and university scientists.
Jul 24th, 2012
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In order to understand Earth's earliest history--its formation from Solar System material into the present-day layering of metal core and mantle, and crust--scientists look to meteorites. New research from a team including Carnegie's Doug Rumble and Liping Qin focuses on one particularly old type of meteorite called diogenites.
Jul 23rd, 2012
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A large inflatable heat shield developed by NASA's Space Technology Program has successfully survived a trip through Earth's atmosphere while travelling at hypersonic speeds up to 7,600 mph.
Jul 23rd, 2012
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A light bulb-shaped eruption leaps from the Sun and blasts into space in this archival image from the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO.
Jul 23rd, 2012
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A telescope launched July 11 aboard a NASA sounding rocket has captured the highest-resolution images ever taken of the sun's million-degree atmosphere called the corona. The clarity of the images can help scientists better understand the behavior of the solar atmosphere and its impacts on Earth's space environment.
Jul 20th, 2012
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A research team observed emission lines at wavelengths of 0.87 mm, emitted from carbon monoxide molecules in an area of several degrees that includes the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Jul 20th, 2012
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Findings suggest the surface of Saturn's largest moon may have undergone a recent transformation.
Jul 20th, 2012
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Heliophysics nuggets are a collection of early science results, new research techniques, and instrument updates that further our attempt to understand the sun and the dynamic space weather system that surrounds Earth.
Jul 20th, 2012
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Mathematicians at UC Davis have come up with a new way to crinkle up the fabric of space-time -- at least in theory.
Jul 19th, 2012
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