Science News
NASA Space Telescope Sees the Light from an Alien Super-Earth
May 8, 2012
Science@NASA Headline News — 2012
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected light emanating from a "super-Earth" beyond our solar system for the first time.
NASA to Hold News Conference on Dawn Mission Results
May 8, 2012
NASA will host a news conference on Thursday, May 10, at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) to present a new analysis of the giant asteroid Vesta using data from the agency's Dawn spacecraft.
Hubble to Use Moon as Mirror to See Venus Transit
May 8, 2012
This mottled landscape showing the impact crater Tycho is among the most violent-looking places on our moon. Astronomers didn't aim NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to study Tycho, however. The image was taken in preparation to observe the transit of Venus across the sun's face on June 5-6.
Paydirt at 8-Year-Old Mars Rover's 'New Landing Site'
May 4, 2012
A report in the May 4 edition of the journal Science details discoveries Opportunity made in its first four months at the rim of Endeavour Crater, including key findings reported at a geophysics conference in late 2011.
Catch a Glimpse of Halley's Comet Debris -- Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower
May 4, 2012
Each spring as Earth passes through the debris trail from Halley's Comet (1P/Halley), the cosmic bits burn up in our atmosphere and result in the annual Eta Aquarid meteor shower. This year the peak will occur on the night of May 5 and into the morning of May 6, with meteor rates of about 40-60 meteors per hour under ideal conditions.
HuScience Nugget: Lightning Signature Could Help Reveal the Solar System's Originsbble Sees the Eye of the Storm in Galaxy Cluster
May 4, 2012
As lightning flashes, it creates low frequency waves that circle Earth, a phenomenon known as Schumann Resonance, which tells scientists what kinds of atoms exist in a planet's atmosphere.
Perigee "Super Moon" On May 5-6
May 2, 2012
Science@NASA Headline News — 2012
Another "super-Moon" is in the offing. The perigee full Moon of May 5-6 will be as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons of 2012.
Cassini to Probe Enceladus Gravity, Take Pictures
May 2, 2012
NASA's Cassini spacecraft will be flying within about 46 miles (74 kilometers) of Saturn's moon Enceladus on Wednesday, May 2, aiming primarily to learn more about the moon's internal structure. The flyby is the third part of a trilogy of flybys -- the other two took place on April 28, 2010, and Nov. 30, 2010 -- for Cassini's radio science experiment.
NASA's ER-2 Completes MABEL Validation Deployment
May 2, 2012
The flight, ground and science team that supported the MABEL laser altimeter validation flights over Greenland gathered by NASA's ER-2 for a group photo before pilot Stu Broce (in pressure suit) took the aircraft aloft on its return flight from Keflavik, Iceland to Palmdale, Calif. April 27.
NASA Langley Aircraft Joins Operation IceBridge
April 30, 2012
A NASA research airplane took wing today for Greenland, where it is joining an extensive airborne survey of Earth's polar ice.