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Archives
Odd
Black Hole Defies Explanation
08 June 2004: Astronomers have found what appears to be a black hole 25
to 40 times the mass of our Sun, a weight class not previously known to
exist.
First
Aid Fixes For an Out-of-Control Earth
01 June 2004: We’ve known that Mother Nature can be cruel, but leave it
to Tinsel Town to make environmental chaos cool.
Star
Birth Gone Wild in 'Cosmic Hurricane'
25 May 2004: A shower of hot gas spewed from a galaxy loaded with pockets
of intense star formation offers a window to the more violent early universe.
Hubble
Examines Deceptive Space Shape
11 May 2004: Imagine smoke rings seen edge on and you may gain some insight
to what's going on with the deceptive Red Rectangle, which isn't a rectangle
at all.
The
Heartbeat of a Dying Star
04 May 2004 In a stellar version of the walking dead, one near-corpse
of a star jumpstarts the heartbeat of its close companion as the two spiral
toward an eventual embrace that will destroy them both.
Mars
Science Laboratory: New Rover, New Science Equipment
27 April 2004 WASHINGTON, D.C. -- NASA is not wasting time in moving forward
on its next rover that will strut its stuff across the far-flung sands
of the red planet.
Fun
with Titan: 'ET' Takes Forms of Dog and Dragon
20 April 2004: The most detailed images ever made of Saturn's moon Titan
reveal surface features in unprecedented clarity. What emerges -- in addition
to some useful science -- are a dog and a dragon imagined by playful European
scientists.
The
Dimming of the Universe
13 April 2004: Star formation across the cosmos peaked more recently than
astronomers had thought, according to a new study, but the universe continues
to gradually grow dimmer.
After
Hubble: Global Push for a World Space Observatory
06 April 2004: If NASA stands firm on its decision to let the Hubble Space
Telescope die in about 2007, scientists will lose among other things their
only tool for studying ultraviolet (UV) light coming from all corners
of the cosmos. To fill the need, astronomers around the world are advocating
the construction of a World Space Observatory they say could launch by
2009.
Bevy
of Black Holes Spotted in Andromeda
30 March 2004: Using a new technique astronomers have found 10 apparent
black holes near the center of the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest large
spiral galaxy to our own.
Outbreak
Alert: Sky High Eye on Epidemics
23 March 2004: Scientists are hoping to stem future outbreaks -- or at
least reduce their severity -- using not just medicine, but also Earth-watching
satellites.
Creature
Features: Fossil Hunting on Mars
16 March 2004: Those on-the-prowl Mars robots -- Spirit and Opportunity
-- are sending back extraordinary images and science data about the red
planet and its history of climate and water.
Hidden
Worlds: Dusty Stars Shroud Newborn Planets
02 March 2004: Recent observations and new computer modeling has strengthened
the growing expectation that a bounty of fledgling planets, perhaps even
some the size of Earth, exist around newborn stars.
Using
Titan to Understand Earth and Mars
17 February 2004: Plans have just been finalized for the Cassini spacecraft's
exploration of Saturn's moon Titan, a giant world with a composition that
resembles early Earth. Scientists expect the distant moon to help them
understand the general nature of wind, oceans and how things might once
have been on our home planet as well as Mars.
How
3-D Works: Mars Revealed by Human-Like Eyes
10 February 2004: When geologists first saw pictures of rock outcroppings
at the Opportunity landing site on Mars, they thought the mini-cliff was
perhaps as tall as a person. Some started calling it the "Great Wall."
Then the robot's 3-D cameras, a pair of eyes standing as tall as a person,
showed it was all a bluff.
Surviving
Space: Risks to Humans on the Moon and Mars
20 January 2004 There is no "biggest danger" in setting up a permanent
lunar presence or sending people to Mars, says John Charles, an enthusiastic
proponent of both ideas and a NASA analyst of the costs and risks of human
space flight: "There are several."
Biggest,
Brightest Star Puzzles Astronomers
06 January 2004: A team of researchers has found what appears to be the
most luminous known star around, one so massive that it shouldn’t have
formed in the first place.
The
Night Sky … from Mars!
30 December
2003: To see the surface of Mars, we rely on robots as our virtual eyes.
To see the Martian night sky, we need a computer program.
The
Best of 2003: Top 10 Astronomy Images
23 December 2003: Seldom does astronomy enjoy a year with such avid and
widespread amateur participation, from first-timers watching compelling
sky events and photographing them, to a kid who stumped the experts with
one remarkable picture that enthralled the media and the public around
the world.
Artificial
Astronomers: Computer Programs that Research While You Wait
16 December 2003: A team of astronomers, seeking to streamline the capabilities
of telescope observation, has developed a computer program that can watch
the skies for them.
Alternate
Universe: Human Spaceflight Without NASA?
09 December 2003: Scientists would love to see humans returned to the
Moon or plans for a trip to Mars. But they disagree on how we should get
there.
Ready
to Explode: Inside Look at an Unstable Star
02 December 2003: A new close-up view of the violent surroundings of the
brightest known star in the Milky Way Galaxy confirms the unstable beast's
years are numbered.
The
Winners! Top 10 Sun Images from SOHO
25 November 2003 SPACE.com and America Online present the Top 10 images
of the Sun taken by the SOHO spacecraft, based on votes cast by the public.
Keeping
Watch for Interstellar Computer Viruses
11 November 2003: Microsoft may have to fork up big bounty bucks trying
to unearth future hackers, particularly when they are light years away
on distant worlds.
Step
by Step: SMART-1's Slow Path to the Moon
28 October 2003: In the slowest trip to the Moon ever attempted, the SMART-1
robotic spacecraft has completed 50 orbits around the Earth as mission
managers work on a glitch in a craft they purposely designed to frustrate.
SOHO's
Greatest Hits: Vote for Your Favorite Sun Image
21 October 2003: If robots had reality shows, SOHO would be the Space
Survivor, a craft that surpassed all expectations in the most challenging
circumstances.
Touchdown
or Splashdown? Titan Probe May Get All Wet
14 October 2003: No craft has ever landed in a lake or ocean beyond our
home planet. A new study suggests that could change in 2005 when the Cassini
spacecraft sends its detachable Huygens probe parachuting down to Saturn's
moon Titan.
New
Photos of 'Astounding' Mars
07 October 2003 Like a celebrity under constant photographic scrutiny,
Mars continues to show fresh and surprising faces. And as with an enigmatic
Hollywood star, more than 10,000 new images of the red planet reveal more
puzzles than answers.
Black
Hole Airs 'Dirty Laundry'
30 September 2003 New observations of the supermassive black hole at the
center of the Milky Way Galaxy reveal unexpectedly turbulent conditions
in the region where matter is sucked beyond the point of no return.
Journey's
End: Galileo Set for Fiery Finale
16 September 2003: The Galileo probe will create its own funeral pyre
as it burns up in the Jovian atmosphere, a fiery end to its 14 years of
space travel.
Asteroid
Scares: Why They Won't End
09 September 2003 Kevin Yates could not foresee the global media circus
and public anxiety he would fuel last week with a routine Web posting
about a potentially dangerous asteroid.
Top
10 Chandra Pictures: Four Years of X-ray Imaging
02 September 2003: The most popular and important images from the observatory.
Earth
vs. Mars: The Two Planets Weigh In
19 August 2003 Mars is the most Earth-like other world known. In this
tale of the tape, we present the most pertinent and interesting facts
that compare and contrast the two very different worlds.
Crazy
Names: The Solar System's Nomenclature Wars
12 August 2003: You might be surprised to learn that the outskirts of
the solar system are loaded with Plutinos, Centaurs, cubewanos and EKOs.
Astronomers didn't even know this a decade ago. In fact until 1992 they
hadn't even invented three of the terms.
Dark
Energy Confirmed: Shadow of Mystery Force Seen in New Study
05 August 2003: Observations of dark energy have so far been very indirect,
limited to examining the light from distant supernovae to determine the
state of the expansion at the time the light left the exploded stars.
The new study employed an entirely different method.
New
Theory: Catastrophe Created Mars' Moons
29 July 2003: The two moons of Mars -- Phobos and Deimos -- could be the
byproducts of a breakup of a huge moon that once circled the red planet,
according to a new theory.
101
Amazing Earth Facts
22 July 2003: We live on a sphere of extremes and oddities. In fact it's
not really a sphere, but it is a wild planet, mottled with deadly volcanoes,
rattled by killer earthquakes, drenched in disastrous deluges. But do
you know which were the worst? Learn this and more.
The
10 Brightest Stars
15 July 2003: Stars come in different colors, sizes, shapes and ages.
One trait that makes a star unique is its brightness.
The
Heat is On: New Sun-watcher Finds Solar Flares Hotter than Hot
08 July 2003: A young NASA observatory trained on the Earth's parent star
found the flares even hotter than researchers originally thought, and
should bolster their understanding of the stellar phenomenon.
Age
of Aquarius: Astronauts Sink to Ocean Depths for Space Training
01 July 2003: Today's astronauts don't have to wait for a slot aboard
the space shuttle or the International Space Station (ISS) to experience
orbital living conditions.
As
Mars Gets Closer, Amateurs Take Pictures
24 June 2003: Amateur astronomers around the world are taking advantage
of Mars' proximity to photograph the red planet as it moves closer to
Earth each day.
Cave
Dwellers: ET Might Lurk in Dark Places
17 June 2003: Cold, slimy and pitch dark. Just add some acid and you’ll
make Diana Northup and Penny Boston happy. Northup, Boston and their colleagues—the
self-named slime team—study cave-dwelling microbes.
Rocket
Exhaust Leaves Mark Above Earth
10 June 2003: Water-laden exhaust from a space shuttle can drift over
the North Pole and create elusive high-altitude clouds visible only at
night, according to a surprising new study.
Planet
Puzzle: The Mystery of the Disappearing Disks
03 June 2003 The raw material for planet formation around several newborn,
Sun-like stars disappears rather quickly, a new study has discovered.
Astronomers are puzzled, but separate research may provide a simple and
convenient answer.
Fat
or Thin: What's in Your Galaxy?
27 May 2003: A hefty black hole in an otherwise spindly galaxy has astronomers
wondering if there is any limit to the range of configurations for galaxies
and the gravity wells they sometimes harbor.
Hot
Deal! Pluto, the Last Oasis for Life
20 May 2003: According to a new computer model designed to understand
how the conditions for life might arise in unlikely places, humble Pluto
and its surroundings will have warmed to downright pleasant temperatures
long after the Earth has been consumed by an expanding, dying Sun.
Top
10 Lunar Eclipse Facts
13 May 2003: What exactly is behind a total eclipse of the Moon? And why
do they occur on a seemingly erratic schedule? How long do they last?
Pluto's
Other Moons: Why They Might Exist and Who's Looking
06 May 2003: "To properly plan the Pluto encounter and gauge fuel needs,
we want to know if there are additional flyby targets in the Pluto-Charon
system."
Alien
Worlds through Artists' Eyes
29 April 2003 There are more than 100 known planets around other stars.
Yet so far all of these extrasolar worlds are known through limited data
and by their shadows. We "see" them only through artists' eyes.
Amazing
Mars: Wind Plays Starring Role in 11,664 New Mars Images
22 April 2003 The barren and windswept landscape of Mars comes into clearer
focus with NASA's release of thousands of new photos from the Mars Global
Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft.
Dark
Matter Exposed: Animation Offers Clues to Cosmic Mystery
15 April 2003 As if it weren't strange enough that the cosmos is loaded
with invisible and elusive matter, a new theory has the stuff wandering
through the early universe like a drunken sailor.
The
Whole Sky: Pretty Pictures, Hard Data from 6-Year Mapping Project
08 April 2003 A diverse and comprehensive array of photographs from the
world's first near-infrared all-sky survey has been released for professional
and amateur astronomers to explore and study.
What
is a Moon? Definition Lags Behind Soaring Satellite Tally
01 April 2003: In the old days of astronomy, before Galileo, there was
just the Moon. Then scientists had to accept the clear and visible evidence
of four objects orbiting Jupiter, satellites the master saw through a
crude telescope in 1610.
The
Greatest Myths, Hoaxes & Mysteries in Astronomy and Space Science
25 March 2003: Few scientific disciplines seem to generate as many mysteries
and falsehoods as astronomy and, by extension, the supporting space science
effort to explore the unknown. From alleged hoaxes and conspiracies to
unintentionally inaccurate accounts, there is plenty to debunk and correct.
Moon
Mechanics: What Really Makes Our World Go 'Round
18 March 2003: A billion years ago, the Moon was much closer to Earth
than it will be tonight. Ever since, the Moon has had dramatic effects
on our planet and the life that inhabits it. Find out how things have
changed and what it all means.
Son
of Hubble: Last 'Great Observatory' Set for Launch
11 March 2003: In search of some of the most dark and ancient objects
in some of the dustiest regions of space, NASA's plans to send up the
fourth and last so-called Great Observatory this spring. The launch will
mark the beginning of the end for a program, started in the 1970s, designed
to study the universe at all wavelengths from above Earth's atmosphere.
The Impact Debate
(a 4-part series)
- Part
4: Action & Reaction
04 March 2003: The scientists discuss how we could respond to the threat
of an asteroid heading for Earth, and what sort of projects would best
serve future goals.
- Part
3: Nagging Little Problems
25 February 2003: Panelists discuss why asteroid search efforts focus
on very large rocks, and whether more public money should be spent to
look for smaller objects.
- Part
2: Media Hype
18 February 2003: Panel member discuss emphasis the media and others
place on the threat of asteroid and comet impacts. Given that large
bodies hit the Earth only very rarely, is the concern about impacts
unjustified?
- Part
1: The Good News
11 February 2003: Experts on asteroids and comets discuss the past,
present, and future effects of asteroid and comet impacts in this 4-part
Impact Debate. In Part 1 today, the scientists argue whether space rocks
have benefited Earth, the onset of life and even human existence.
How
Asteroids Trigger Volcanos
04 February 2003: One long-supposed incendiary side-effect is enhanced
volcanic activity, which can make life pretty miserable for survivors
who find themselves on or near the flanks of a newborn plume of molten
rock. Some scientists suspect the Hawaiian Islands were born of an asteroid
impact.
The
New History of Black Holes:
'Co-evolution' Dramatically Alters Dark Reputation
28 January 2003: Black holes suffer a bad rap. Indicted by the press as
gravity monsters, labeled highly secretive by astronomers, and long considered
in theoretical circles as mere endpoints of cosmic evolution, these unseen
objects are depicted as mysterious drains of destruction and death. So
it may seem odd to reconsider them as indispensable forces of creation.
Orbital
Oddities: Why Mars will be So Close to Earth in August
21 January 2003: Anyone who had a Spirograph drawing toy as a kid has
a head start in grasping why Earth and Mars will be closer to each other
this August than ever in recorded history.
Supernova
Hunting: The Search for Exploding Stars Heats Up
14 January 2002: New discoveries and others that are imminent are helping
unravel mysteries near and far.
Mysteries
of Mercury: New Search for Heat and Ice
31 December 2002: The European Space Agency's BepiColombo mission is designed
to withstand the rigors of a trip to the planet closest to the Sun, in
search of its hot secrets and also to look for ... ice?
Top
10 Space Science Images of 2002
24 December 2002: In several ways, 2002 was a year in which space came
down to Earth.
Here's
Looking at Nothing: New Probe to Examine Supposed Empty Space
17 December 2002: Cold, empty space is not quite as cold or empty as many
people might think.
Cyber
Planets: Building Virtual Worlds to Explore Signs of Real Life
10 December 2002: Somewhere between reality and the unknown, science fiction
has always flourished. The best sci-fi authors rigidly adhere to one principle:
Make it as real as possible, given what's known. Now, as if lifting a
chapter from an Isaac Asimov novel, NASA plans to create hundreds of "synthetic
planets" that might represent real worlds orbiting faraway stars.
The
10 Best Mars Images Ever
03 December 2002: Few pictures in the collective human eye have undergone
such frequent and dramatic alteration as our view of Mars.
Surviving
Space: How Bugs Might Travel Between Planets
26 November 2002: An overview and some recent twists in an old idea that
life on Earth came from elsewhere.
How
Life Might Have Formed in Martian Impact Craters
19 November 2002: Mars may be smaller than Earth, but it’s still huge
to a roving spacecraft that can cover only 100 meters a day. For that
reason, Mars mission planners must go to great lengths to find landing
sites that might still carry evidence that life once existed on Mars.
The
Power of a Shooting Star
12 November 2002: The faintest meteor that becomes visible to the average
viewer on Earth is typically about 0.6 millimeters across (less than one-tenth
of an inch or about the size of a sand grain). While such a speck is here
and gone in a flash, the energy involved could light a 100-watt light
bulb for about 2.5 seconds.
Ancient
Hidden Craters on Mars Revealed
05 November 2002: father-daughter science team has found what they say
are the oldest known impact craters on Mars, ghostly structures that could
only be discerned with special software and the latest elevation data.
Light
Shows: The Science and Scenes of Near Space
29 October 2002: Between Earth and space, between what geologists and
astronomers study, is the atmosphere. It separates the vastness of the
universe from the solidity of rock, yet the air we breathe is as tenuous
and untouchable as light.
Loony
Moons: Chaos, Order and Strange Behavior
22 October 2002: About the only thing the moons of our solar system have
in common is a penchant for strange behavior. A pair of new studies shows
that while a number of the more than 100 known satellites take predictable,
orderly paths that hint at their origins, other moons are governed by
total chaos. In between are all kinds of crazy antics.
Zoom
in on Mars: New Highly Detailed Images
15 October 2002: See the mysterious "Inca City" and one of the
highest resolution images ever of the Red Planet.
Shadow Moons
The
Unknown Sub-Worlds that Might Harbor Life
08 October 2002: Mounting discoveries of planets around other stars are
fueling anticipation among most astronomers that our solar system is a
reasonable model for the kinds of objects that probably exist around many
stars. If they are right, then the galaxy could be loaded with billions
of planets -- and a far greater number of moons.
Upgrades
to Boost SETI@home Alien Search
01 October 2002: The world's most popular ET-hunting program for home
users is about to get upgrades of both its software and the telescope
that feeds data into it. Meanwhile, the 4-million-subscriber mark is reached.
The
Search for the Missing Amazon Meteor
24 September 2002: The Araona people wanted $1 million before they would
let the NASA scientists pass through their territory in the remote Bolivian
Amazon. Given a budget of $20,000 for their entire expedition, the scientists
resorted to negotiating, and the indigenous people eventually agreed to
a payment of $500, plus 500 rounds of .22 ammunition and 200 D-cell batteries.
All to find precious evidence of a possible impact crater.
Northern
Lights Continue to Impress Lucky Viewers
17 September 2002: Waves and ripples of otherworldly light continue to
grace the night skies, leaving residents of the northern United States
and Europe in awe.
Top
5 Cosmic Myths
03 September 2002: How much astronomy do you know? I mean, really know.
Completely, self-assuredly, bet-your-bottom-dollar, 100 percent absolutely
certain you know. Hmmm…wanna bet?
New
Astronomy: Romance Fades as Technology Takes Over
27 August 2002: When Galileo Galilei first pointed his telescope at Jupiter
nearly four centuries ago, his tools were rather simple -- a tube, some
lenses and a lot of patience to observe the sky night after night. But
astronomers these days see space differently. In fact, they don't really
"see" it at all, since most of them use computers to do the observing.
New
Pictures Reveal 100,000 Galaxies
13 August 2002: Billed by astronomers as a "joyride to infinity," a photograph
of a relatively small patch of sky in the Southern Hemisphere peers through
a galaxy to reveal more than 100,000 distant galaxies.
SMART
Science: Europeans Prepare for First Mission to the Moon
30 July 2002: We've visited it in person. We've studied it with robots
in orbit. We've even crashed into it on purpose to try and kick up something
interesting. Yet our nearest celestial neighbor the Moon still holds mysteries.
Earth's Attic
Moon
Holds Ancient Terrestrial Secrets
23 July 2002: Tons
of rocks and dust long ago blasted from Earth by asteroid impacts lay
on the Moon's surface and could hold secrets to our home planet's early
history and the origin of life.
Mysteries
of the Sun
16 July 2002: If you've ever watched the lazy summer Sun redden as it
settles with a stalling sigh into the welcoming bosom of Earth's horizon,
you might have thought it grew a little fat around the mid-section. Others
have seen stranger things, like flashes of green light. We explain.
Wild
New Theory for Building Planets
09 July 2002: A radical and controversial new theory of planet formation
suggests our solar system was created in a faraway, chaotic environment
that has in recent years come to be viewed as largely inhospitable to
planets.
Protecting the
Planet
SPACE.com
Q&A with Asteroid Hunter David Morrison
02 July 2002: David Morrison figures his long effort to keep the world
safe from asteroids has been very successful. "In 11 years of protecting
the planet, not a single human has been killed," he pointed out to me
recently. That doesn't mean he isn't worried.
Coloring the Universe
Why
Reality is a Gray Area in Astronomy
25 June 2002: From Hubble Space Telescope pictures to the vocabulary used
to describe the stars, astronomers and the media are coloring our universe,
and they've been doing it for decades. While not intended to deceive,
the efforts can range from the overly subjective to the absurd.
X-ray Astronomy
40
Years of Seeing the Invisible
18 June 2002: Astronomers reflect on their past and revel in new discoveries.
Includes a timeline of missions.
Boom Times
Dramatic
Increase in Supernova Explosions Looms
11 June 2002: The center of our Milky Way Galaxy is inching toward an
era of intense fireworks when stars will be born 100 times more frequently
than today and many will die quick, explosive deaths.
Goldilocks Zone
Amid
the Universe's Chaos, a Few Habitable Places
28 May 2002: It took 4.5 billion years for Earth to generate and evolve
a life form that could think, reason, and finally fly off the planet.
That's a long time, even by cosmic measures. Perhaps too long.
The
Search for the Scum of the Universe
21 May 2002: The odds for extraterrestrial life on Earth-like planets
will be put at 1-in-3 in a soon-to-be published report in the journal
Astrobiology, but the smartest earthlings have no clue what that life
might look like or where to find it.
Other
Worlds Not So Strange, Top Planet Hunter Says
14 May 2002:
The popular conception of planets around other stars involves strange
worlds, all much larger than Jupiter on crazy paths in solar systems that
look nothing like our own. But within the planet-hunting community, that
view has changed.
Simulating
the Fate of Our Milky Way
07 May 2002: When cars collide, it’s an accident. When galaxies collide,
it’s Nature at work.
About Time
Why
the World Runs Like Clockwork
30 April 2002: Like most people at work, physicist Tom Parker watches
the clock. But unlike most people, it's Parker's job. He keeps an eye
on the world's most accurate timepiece, the F-1 Cesium Fountain Atomic
Clock.
New
Satellite Promises Better Weather Prediction
16 April 2002: Atmospheric scientists say they may soon be able to more
accurately predict next week’s weather today, simply by looking at more
of the Earth, with much more scrutiny, from space.
The
Music of Black Holes
09 April 2002: A CD of black hole music most likely can't compete with
Britney Spears or the Soggy Bottom Boys, but a new study shows these venerable
gravity instruments produce complex tunes whose underlying principles
are remarkably similar to pop, bluegrass, classical or any other style
you might think of.
The Dread Factor
Why
We Fear Ourselves More than Asteroids
26 March 2002: Sociologists and Psychologists explain why we spend billions
to thwart terrorism but comparatively little to protect the planet against
space rocks.
Sex
and Society Aboard the First Starships
19 March 2002: The crew might more resemble a tribal society than the
chain of command of traditional space missions. Procreation would be required.
The
New Milky Way
12 March 2002: After a decade when other astronomical targets got more
attention, the Milky Way has come back into vogue as a hot research subject
in the new millennium, leading to a whole new picture of how the galaxy
formed, how unimaginably huge it is, and what it looks like from afar.
Hubble's
New Vision
26 February 2002: What the telescope will see with its new camera.
Death of an Icon
New
Look at Fate of the Pillars of Creation
19 February 2002: Where the majestic structures of starlit gas and dust
now soar into space, marking the architecture of a stellar womb, nothing
but a few stars and black emptiness will reign in less than a million
years.
Our
Solar System as Seen by Alien Astronomers
12 February 2002: If alien astronomers from a nearby star system pointed
their version of the Hubble Space Telescope at Earth, astronomer Markus
Landgraf believes they would not see our planet but they would find hints
of our presence.
5
Great Cosmic Mysteries
A five-week series
that began in January.
Science
Tuesday Stories from 2001 >>>
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