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Sunday:
February 22, 2004 | |
0122 GMT |
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Seeking new Earths? Look for dust, researchers say
If alien astronomers around a distant star had studied the young Sun four-and-a-half billion years ago, could they have seen signs of a newly-formed Earth orbiting this innocuous yellow star? The answer is yes, according researchers. The key to locating newborn Earths, they say, is to look not for the planet itself, but for a ring of dust orbiting the star that is a fingerprint of terrestrial planet formation.
 FULL STORY
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Was Einstein right about dark energy after all?
The good news from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is that Einstein was right -- maybe. A strange form of energy called "dark energy" is looking a little more like the repulsive force that Einstein theorized in an attempt to balance the universe against its own gravity. Even if Einstein turns out to be wrong, the universe's dark energy probably won't destroy the universe any sooner than about 30 billion years from now, say Hubble researchers.
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Saturday:
February 21, 2004 | |
0001 GMT |
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Planetoid found in Kuiper Belt, maybe the biggest yet
Planetary scientists have discovered a new planetoid in the outer fringes of the solar system. The planetoid, currently known only as 2004 DW, could be even larger than Quaoar -- the current record holder in the area known as the Kuiper Belt -- and is some 4.4 billion miles from Earth.
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Tank modifications more complex than expected
After months of testing and computer analyses, engineers believe they understand the phenomena that causes foam insulation to separate from the space shuttle's external fuel tank during launch. But preventing such foam shedding has turned out to be more difficult than originally thought, a top NASA manager said Friday, and tank modifications remain a major challenge.
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Friday:
February 20, 2004 | |
0224 GMT |
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Next shuttle flight delayed; rescue scenario formed
The first post-Columbia shuttle mission will slip from September to March 2005 to give engineers more time to develop in-flight repair procedures and to take advantage of more favorable launch windows, officials said Thursday. The slip also will give NASA and its contractors time to resolve problems with actuators in the shuttle's rudder and speedbrake assembly in the ship's vertical tail fin.
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Fading supernova produces spectacular new light show
Seventeen years ago, astronomers spotted the brightest stellar explosion ever seen since the one observed by Johannes Kepler 400 years ago. Called SN 1987A, the titanic supernova explosion blazed with the power of 100,000,000 suns for several months following its discovery. Although the supernova itself is now a million times fainter than 17 years ago, a new light show in the space surrounding it is just beginning.
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Opportunity probes trench, Spirit to dig one, too
By inspecting the sides and floor of a hole it dug on Mars, NASA's Opportunity rover is finding some things it did not see beforehand, including round pebbles that are shiny and soil so fine-grained that the rover's microscope can't make out individual particles.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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Video coverage for subscribers only:
VIDEO: ANIMATION OF OPPPORTUNITY'S ARM EXAMINING TRENCH QT
VIDEO: ONBOARD VIEWS OF ARM IN ACTION WITH NARRATION QT
VIDEO: NARRATION OF MICROSCOPIC IMAGES FROM TRENCH QT
VIDEO: NEW PANORAMA OF ROCK OUTCROP WITH NARRATION QT
VIDEO: THURSDAY'S MARS ROVER SCIENCE NEWS CONFERENCE QT
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Thursday:
February 19, 2004 | |
0257 GMT |
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Prime mission half over, Spirit looks for bonus time
The first Mars Exploration Rover, beset for a time by computer troubles but now trekking on a geology adventure to an impact crater, has reached the midway mark of its primary mission.
FULL STORY
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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Giant black hole destroys unlucky star
A super-massive black hole has ripped apart a star and consumed a portion of it, according to data from ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra X-ray observatories. These results are the best evidence yet that such a phenomenon, long predicted by theory, does actually happen.
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Video coverage for subscribers only:
VIDEO: WATCH NEWS CONFERENCE ANNOUNCING THE DISCOVERY QT
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More views of Saturday's Titan 4 liftoff in new gallery
With the end of Lockheed Martin's Titan 4B rocket era looming, here is another collection of images showing last Saturday's launch from Cape Canaveral. These pictures were captured from sound-triggered cameras around the launch pad and the NASA Causeway viewing site south of Complex 40.
ENTER PHOTO GALLERY
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Kosmos 2405 military payload launched by Russia
With President Vladimir Putin looking on, Russia's largest military exercise in over two decades took to the high frontier Wednesday with the launch of a clandestine payload from the nation's northern space base near the Arctic Circle.
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Wednesday:
February 18, 2004 | |
0434 GMT |
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Opportunity digs Mars
The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is putting its mark on the Red Planet, digging a small hole so its suite of science instruments can probe soil enriched with hematite, a mineral that typically forms in the presence of water.
FULL STORY
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Video coverage for subscribers only:
VIDEO: 3-D OVERVIEW OF OPPPORTUNITY'S TRENCH W/NARRATION QT
VIDEO: ANIMATION USING DATA FROM ROVER SHOWS TRENCHING QT
VIDEO: ROVER IMAGES SHOW THE DIGGING WITH NARRATION QT
VIDEO: SCIENTIST NARRATES TOUR OF OPPPORTUNITY CRATER QT
VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION SHOWS DRIVES INSIDE CRATER QT
VIDEO: TUESDAY'S MARS ROVER STATUS AND SCIENCE BRIEFING QT
MORE: PREVIOUS MISSION COVERAGE!
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Road trip to Bonneville Crater continues for Spirit
Proving to be a real Mars hotrod, the Spirit rover has become the most traveled vehicle on the Red Planet, surpassing the distance accumulated by the Pathfinder rover nearly seven years ago.
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Video coverage for subscribers only:
VIDEO: SPIRIT'S FORWARD-LOOKING PANORAMA W/NARRATION QT
VIDEO: SPIRIT PAN LOOKING BACK AT LANDER W/NARRATION QT
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X-43A flight delayed
The flight of NASA's X-43A has been postponed, due to an incident with the rudder actuator on the booster. On Feb 11, during setup at Orbital Sciences Corporation for testing of the rudder and its actuator, an anomaly caused the actuator to go hard over and hit its mechanical stop, exceeding the torque to which the units were qualified.
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Tuesday:
February 17, 2004 | |
0318 GMT |
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Rosetta comet probe is a space sophisticate
The European Space Agency's Rosetta mission to rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenk is certainly not a short trip. Rosetta will need ten years just to reach the comet. This places extreme demands on its hardware; when the probe meets up with the comet, all instruments must be fully operational, especially since it will have been in "hibernation" for two-and-a-half years of its journey.
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Rosetta mounted atop its Ariane 5 launch vehicle
The Rosetta comet probe that will embark on its long-awaited journey next week was attached to its Ariane 5 launcher Monday inside a cavernous assembly building at the South American launch site.
MISSION STATUS CENTER
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Monday:
February 16, 2004 | |
1510 GMT |
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Farthest known galaxy in the Universe discovered
An international team of astronomers may have set a new record in discovering what is the most distant known galaxy in the Universe. Located an estimated 13 billion light-years away, the object is being viewed at a time only 750 million years after the big bang, when the Universe was barely 5 percent of its current age.
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Photo gallery captures Titan 4's weekend launch
The Lockheed Martin Titan 4B rocket lifted off Saturday, powering through an overcast Florida sky. A collection of launch photos is available in this gallery.
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Missile warning satellite launched by Titan 4B rocket
The U.S. military's newest orbiting sentry was successfully deployed Saturday, joining a space surveillance system that maintains a constant vigil 22,300 miles above Earth to detect enemy missile launches and nuclear weapon detonations.
FULL STORY
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