News tagged with space science

SpaceX cargo vessel prepares to leave space station (Update 2)

US company SpaceX's Dragon cargo ship is preparing to make its return journey to Earth after a landmark mission to the International Space Station, NASA and SpaceX representatives said Wednesday.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 30, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (9) | comments 0

SpaceX capsule has 'new car' smell, astronauts say (Update)

SpaceX's Dragon cargo vessel smells like a new car, said astronauts at the International Space Station after opening the hatches Saturday following the spacecraft's landmark mission to the orbiting lab.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 26, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (23) | comments 11

Groundwater depletion in semiarid regions of Texas and California threatens US food security

The nation's food supply may be vulnerable to rapid groundwater depletion from irrigated agriculture, according to a new study by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and elsewhere.

Space & Earth / Environment

created May 28, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 19 | with audio podcast

NASA lunar spacecraft GRAIL complete prime mission ahead of schedule

(Phys.org) -- A NASA mission to study the moon from crust to core has completed its prime mission earlier than expected. The team of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, with twin ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 29, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

New Interstellar Boundary Explorer data show heliosphere's long-theorized bow shock does not exist

For the last few decades, space scientists have generally accepted that the bubble of gas and magnetic fields generated by the sun – known as the heliosphere – moves through space, creating three ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 10, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (17) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Astronauts enter world's 1st private supply ship

(AP) -- Space station astronauts floated into the Dragon on Saturday, a day after its heralded arrival as the world's first commercial supply ship.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 0

Astronauts capture SpaceX's Dragon for station dock

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station reached out and caught SpaceX's Dragon capsule for docking at the orbiting lab on Friday in a historic first for commercial spaceflight.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 25, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Astronomers solve mystery of vanishing energetic electrons in Earth's outer radiation belt

UCLA researchers have explained the puzzling disappearing act of energetic electrons in Earth's outer radiation belt, using data collected from a fleet of orbiting spacecraft.

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 29, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (11) | comments 14 | with audio podcast

Commercial spacecraft speeds toward space station

(AP) -- Opening a new, entrepreneurial era in spaceflight, a ship built by a billionaire businessman sped toward the International Space Station with a load of groceries and other supplies Tuesday after a ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 22, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 5

Princeton researchers solve problem filling space -- without cubes

(PhysOrg.com) -- Whether packing oranges into a crate, fitting molecules into a human cell or getting data onto a compact disc, wasted space is usually not a good thing.

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Jun 28, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Commercial rocket will fly to the space station

For the first time, a private company will launch a rocket to the International Space Station, sending it on a grocery run this weekend that could be the shape of things to come for America's space program.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 17, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1

New class of stellar explosions discovered

They're bright and blue-and a bit strange. They're a new type of stellar explosion that was recently discovered by a team of astronomers led by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Among the most ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jun 08, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (14) | comments 12 | with audio podcast

Herschel Space Observatory discovers source of cosmic dust in a stellar explosion

(PhysOrg.com) -- ESA's Herschel Space Observatory is helping unravel the mystery of where cosmic dust comes from. Thanks to the resolution and sensitivity of Herschel, astronomers have been able to detect ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jul 07, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (11) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Unusual gamma-ray flash may have come from star being eaten by massive black hole

A bright flash of gamma rays observed March 28 by the Swift satellite may have been the death rattle of a star falling into a massive black hole and being ripped apart, according to a team of astronomers led ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jun 16, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (12) | comments 12 | with audio podcast

Free-floating planets in the Milky Way outnumber stars by factors of thousands

A few hundred thousand billion free-floating life-bearing Earth-sized planets may exist in the space between stars in the Milky Way. So argues an international team of scientists led by Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, Director ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 10, 2012 | popularity 2.6 / 5 (17) | comments 53