Archive for the ‘space’ category: Page 979
Jul 17, 2015
High-res image of Pluto’s moon Charon shows strange depressed mountain
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: space
We’re getting even crisper images of Pluto’s largest moon Charon. NASA just released the first high-resolution photograph of a section of Charon’s surface, zeroing in on a feature that looks like a…
Jul 16, 2015
NASA seeking to unlock secrets of longevity
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: life extension, space
SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket with NASA CRS 7 Dragon launches from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida photo credit Carleton Bailie SpaceFlight Insider.
Jul 14, 2015
How to plan the ultimate long-term project, from the team who got us to Pluto — By Daniel Terdiman | Fast Company
Posted by Odette Bohr Dienel in categories: space, space travel
One thing you don’t expect when planning a nine-year mission to the most distant planet in our solar system is the eventuality that Pluto might not be a planet once you got there.
Yet that’s exactly what went down in 2006. That January, NASA launched its unmanned New Horizons probe, a baby grand piano-sized, 1,054-pound spacecraft, on the first-ever route to Pluto. Then, in August 2006, the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto to the diminutive status of “dwarf planet.”
Sophia Nasr is a science writer for Simulation Curriculum’s free Pluto Safari app. You might guess that a small and distant world almost 40 times farther from the sun than the Earth is from the sun would not have an atmosphere, but in the case of Pluto, you’d be wrong. In fact, Pluto is a complex world, particularly when it comes to weather patterns.
Jul 12, 2015
Pluto’s Mysterious Dark Splotches Come Into Focus
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: space
At this point, it’s safe to say that we’re going to be receiving a new ‘highest resolution image ever’ of Pluto on a close to 24 hour basis. Yesterday, we got our first peek at geologic features on the dwarf planet’s surface. And today, New Horizons beamed back the best image to date of four mysterious dark splotches near Pluto’s south pole.
Jul 11, 2015
New Horizons Update: Latest Pluto Images Reveal ‘Tantalizing’ Surface Features
Posted by Sean Brazell in categories: space, space travel
After a journey of over nine years, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is finally close enough to discern surface features on the cold, dwarf planet.
Jul 10, 2015
Secrets of Bear Hibernation Could Help Us Get to Mars
Posted by Albert Sanchez in categories: space, space travel
By studying bears’ months-long lethargy, scientists may have stumbled on a way to prevent astronauts’ bone loss.
Jul 8, 2015
For the First Time an AI Machine Identified Galaxies All on Its Own
Posted by Sean Brazell in categories: robotics/AI, space
Researchers in the UK have developed a computer that can scan outer space and classify galaxy types on its own, without any human help. This image recognition AI could help develop robots that can “see” better on their own, possibly helping doctors spot tumors or airport security spot firearms.
Jul 8, 2015
Pluto’s Odd Dark Spots Continue to Puzzle Scientists (Photos)
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: space
The images reveal a great deal of variation and complexity across Pluto’s surface — including the four large dark patches near the equator first spotted by New Horizons late last month. “This object is unlike any other that we have observed,” New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said during a news briefing today (July 6). New Horizons captured the new photos last Wednesday (July 1) and Friday (July 3), shortly before suffering a glitch that sent it into a precautionary “safe mode” on Saturday (July 4).
