Space

NASA to blastoff solar satellite to gather images of the sun

Despite Earthlings depending on the sun for survival, there's a lot that scientists still don't know about our solar system's star. NASA is looking to change this.

The U.S. space agency is launching a solar satellite called the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) on June 26 to get a closer look at the sun's lower atmosphere. This part of the atmosphere is important because it is where most of the sun's ultraviolet emissions are generated, which are known to impact Earth's climate and the near-Earth space environment, according to NASA.

"IRIS data … Read more

Ancient Egyptians wore space bling made from meteorites

There have been plenty of far-out theories about otherworldly alien visitations of the ancient Egyptians, especially those involving aliens building the pyramids. That's all a load of bunk, but at least now we have a real scientist-approved story involving ancient Egyptians and objects from space.

Strings of unusual iron beads were excavated from a burial site near Cairo in 1911. The beads date back to around 3300 BCE. It took more than 100 years for scientists to conclusively sort out what they are made from. As it turns out, they are fashioned from meteorites.… Read more

Watch the enormous QE2 binary asteroid pass by Earth

An asteroid the size of a small town, and its smaller satellite "moon," are zooming past Earth this week, and you can watch on Friday afternoon as binary asteroid "1998 QE2" reaches its closet point to Earth for the next 200 years.

The 1.7-mile-long asteroid and its smaller satellite, which was just discovered this week, will come closest to Earth around 2 p.m. PT, but will still safely stay about 15 lunar distances away from us.… Read more

Mars rover confirms dangers of space radiation

Future manned missions to Mars and other remote targets will require internal shielding and advanced propulsion systems to shorten transit times, minimizing exposure to cancer-causing radiation from the sun and deep space, scientists said Thursday.

Data collected by the Radiation Assessment Detector, or RAD, instrument during the Curiosity Mars rover's cruise to the Red Planet last year generally confirmed the results from earlier studies showing space radiation is a major problem that must be overcome before manned trips into deep space are attempted.

"NASA's very excited to get this new cruise data to help us refine and … Read more

Huge asteroid buzzing Earth has its own moon

The huge asteroid -- 1.7 miles long, to be exact -- that is zipping by Earth this week isn't alone.

No, it isn't carrying an alien virus or a golden DVD containing the second season of "Firefly," but it does have a traveling companion. NASA radar images just released show a previously undiscovered moon orbiting the asteroid known as "QE2," technically making it a binary asteroid system.

The smaller asteroid circling its larger celestial road trip buddy is estimated to be about 2,000 feet wide.… Read more

Tesla expanding Supercharger network for coast-to-coast drives

PALOS VERDES, Calif. -- It appears that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk got bored with the Internet. After PayPal, Musk said creating another Internet company would have been like falling off a log. Instead he went for some more risky and ambitious projects -- sustainable energy and space exploration to make life interplanetary.

The sustainable energy project turned into Tesla Motors, and that seems to be going well after years of struggles and naysayers. "If I had a dollar for every time someone brought up DeLorean or Tucker I wouldn't need to IPO," Musk said in … Read more

We should nuke dangerous asteroids, expert says

The meteor that slammed into Russia in February injured about 1,000 people and freaked out many more. Recent months have highlighted the danger of larger space objects that could bring doomsday if they collide with our planet.

We've seen potential proposals that involve vaporizing asteroids and capturing them.

Bong Wie, director of the Asteroid Deflection Research Center at Iowa State University, says we should nuke them. … Read more

Use-it-yourself orbiting space telescope in the works

Planetary Resources, a pioneer in asteroid mining, announced today that it is planning to launch the world's first publicly accessible space telescope.

The company, led by X Prize Foundation Chairman Peter Diamandis, said in April, 2012, that it planned to prospect and mine asteroids. But today the company expanded on that mission, saying that it is engaging "in another passion of our team: to make space exploration accessible to everyone." … Read more

Stunning supermoon close-up taken with iPhone

System administrator and photographer Jared Earle took some amazing photos of the recent supermoon, and he's willing to share his secrets with the world. He didn't have to break into an observatory or fly his camera to the edges of space. In true MacGyver fashion, he only required an iPhone and a telescope to pull off the photo shoot.

The telescope was a necessary part of the equation. While Earle said any telescope will work, he used a 5-inch Celestron spotter scope with his iPhone 4S. He also used a Magnifi adapter, a photo adapter case designed to attach an iPhone to most pieces of optical equipment, whether it's a microscope, binoculars, or a telescope.… Read more