On May 16, 2016, the bread loaf-sized Miniature X-Ray Solar Spectrometer, or MinXSS, CubeSat deployed from an airlock on the International Space Station to begin its journey into space. The NASA-funded MinXSS studies emissions ...
Space Exploration
May 16, 2016
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9
At first glance, Saturn's rings appear to be intersecting themselves in an impossible way. In actuality, this view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows the rings in front of the planet, upon which the shadow of the rings ...
Space Exploration
Apr 29, 2016
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16
What would it take to hide an entire planet? It sounds more like a question posed in an episode of "Star Trek" than in academic discourse, but sometimes the bleeding edge of science blurs with themes found in science fiction.
Astronomy
Apr 14, 2016
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28
It takes a bold person to declare that interstellar travel is now within our grasp. Physicist Stephen Hawking has shown that he is just that, taking part in the Breakthrough Starshot initiative. The project has announced ...
Space Exploration
Apr 14, 2016
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111
ESA's LISA Pathfinder has released both of its gold–platinum cubes, and will shortly begin its demanding science mission, placing these test masses in the most precise freefall ever obtained to demonstrate technologies ...
Space Exploration
Feb 16, 2016
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15
NASA's Cassini spacecraft spied details on the pockmarked surface of Saturn's moon Prometheus (86 kilometers, or 53 miles across) during a moderately close flyby on Dec. 6, 2015. This is one of Cassini's highest resolution ...
Space Exploration
Dec 9, 2015
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14
In August 2015, more than 150 scientists interested in the exploration of Mars attended a conference at a hotel in Arcadia, California, to evaluate 21 potential landing sites for NASA's next Mars rover, a mission called Mars ...
Space Exploration
Sep 8, 2015
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36
The two large craters on Tethys, near the line where day fades to night, almost resemble two giant eyes observing Saturn.
Space Exploration
Jun 15, 2015
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40
Hubble, it's your turn to smile for the cameras!
Space Exploration
Apr 22, 2015
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38
From afar, Saturn's rings look like a solid, homogenous disk of material. But upon closer examination from Cassini, we see that there are varied structures in the rings at almost every scale imaginable.
Space Exploration
Mar 17, 2015
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