NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has found a rare class of oddball stars called blue stragglers in the hub of our Milky Way, the first detected within our galaxy’s bulge. Blue stragglers are so named because they seemingly lag behind in the aging process, appearing younger than the population from which… Read more“Hubble Space Telescope Finds Rare ‘Blue Straggler’ Stars in Milky Way’s Hub”
Endeavour To Undock From Station Tonight
The STS-134 crew will leave their temporary home at 11:55 p.m. EDT tonight, after delivering the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and performing four spacewalks during Endeavour’s final mission.
NASA-Funded Scientists Make Watershed Lunar Discovery
A team of NASA-funded researchers has measured for the first time water from the moon in the form of tiny globules of molten rock, which have turned to glass-like material trapped within crystals. Data from these newly-discovered lunar melt inclusions indicate the water content of lunar magma is 100… Read more“NASA-Funded Scientists Make Watershed Lunar Discovery”
NASA to Launch New Science Mission to Asteroid in 2016
NASA will launch a spacecraft to an asteroid in 2016 and use a robotic arm to pluck samples that could better explain our solar system’s formation and how life began. The mission, called Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, will be the first U.S. mission to carry samples from… Read more“NASA to Launch New Science Mission to Asteroid in 2016”
Cassini and Telescope See Violent Saturn Storm
PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Cassini spacecraft and a European Southern Observatory ground-based telescope tracked the growth of a giant early-spring storm in Saturn’s northern hemisphere that is so powerful it stretches around the entire planet. The rare storm has been wreaking havoc for months and shooting plumes of gas high… Read more“Cassini and Telescope See Violent Saturn Storm”
Dark Energy and Gravity – Yin and Yang of the Universe
Astronomers think that the expansion of the universe is regulated by both the force of gravity, which acts to slow it down, and a mysterious dark energy, which pushes matter and space apart. In fact, dark energy is thought to be pushing the cosmos apart at faster and faster speeds,… Read more“Dark Energy and Gravity – Yin and Yang of the Universe”
NASA’s Dawn Captures First Image of Nearing Asteroid
PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has obtained its first image of the giant asteroid Vesta, which will help fine-tune navigation during its approach. Dawn is expected to achieve orbit around Vesta on July 16, when the asteroid is about 188 million kilometers (117 million miles) from Earth. The… Read more“NASA’s Dawn Captures First Image of Nearing Asteroid”