Astronomy News Feeds
Astronomy Picture of the Day: Meteor between the Clouds
November 20, 2009
Meteor between the Clouds This bright meteor streaked through dark night skies over Sutherland, South Africa on November 15. Potentially part of the annual Leonid meteor shower, its sudden, brilliant appearance, likened to a camera's flash,...
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Universe Today (Top 5 items)
- Hayabusa May Come Home After All (Fri Nov 20 5:26 pm)
As we reported last week, it seemed as if the Hayabusa asteroid explorer mission was dealt a fatal blow when the third of its four ion engines failed. But the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced yesterday that it may have... - Astronaut Glove Challenge Winners Announced (Fri Nov 20 3:23 pm)
NASA's Astronaut Glove Centennial Challenge contest was held yesterday at the Astronaut Hall of Fame in Titusville, Florida, and two contestants walked away with a total of $350,000 in prize money for their improved designs of space suit... - Find the Answer to this Week's WITU Challenge (Fri Nov 20 2:34 pm)
If you're still wondering what this very strange image is, find out by going to the original WITU challenge post for this week. Have a great weekend, and check back next week for another Where In The Universe Challenge! © nancy for... - Video of Utah Fireball (Fri Nov 20 2:20 pm)
Early Nov. 18th, eyewitnesses reported an explosion in the atmosphere above Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho in the western United States. Some said the fireball "turned night into day" and produced shock waves that shook the ground when it... - Cassini/IBEX Data Changes View of Heliosphere Shape (Fri Nov 20 1:22 pm)
Though the Cassini mission has focused intently on scientific exploration of Saturn and it's moons, data taken by the spacecraft has significantly changed the way astronomers think about the shape of our Solar System. As the Sun and planets...
EurekaAlert Space News (Top 5 items)
- NJIT receives NSF funding to improve Big Bear Telescope, study solar energy (Thu Nov 19 11:00 pm)
- New method to measure snow, vegetation moisture with GPS may benefit farmers, meteorologists (Thu Nov 19 11:00 pm)
(University of Colorado at Boulder) A research team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder has found a clever way to use traditional GPS satellite signals to measure snow depth as well as soil and vegetation moisture, a technique expected... - Watching a cannibal galaxy dine (Thu Nov 19 11:00 pm)
(ESO) A new technique using near-infrared images, obtained with ESO's 3.58-meter New Technology Telescope, allows astronomers to see through the opaque dust lanes of the giant cannibal galaxy Centaurus A, unveiling its "last meal" in unprecedented... - SMOS satellite instrument comes alive (Wed Nov 18 11:00 pm)
(European Space Agency) The MIRAS instrument on ESA's SMOS satellite, launched earlier this month, has been switched on and is operating normally. MIRAS will map soil moisture and ocean salinity to improve our understanding of the role these... - AGU Fall Meeting: Press room update, book hotels by Nov. 19 (Tue Nov 17 11:00 pm)
(American Geophysical Union) This updates for the AGU 2009 Fall Meeting contains a press room update, reminder to book hotels by Nov. 19, how tosearch abstracts by affiliation, the blog roll and more.
Bad Astronomy Blog (Top 5 items)
- Sirius Stargazing (Fri Nov 20 3:00 pm)
I have few regrets in life, but if there’s one, it’s that I didn’t have access to all this amazing technology when I was a teenager and figuring out just how I was going to tackle my love for astronomy. How I would have loved... - NASA wants your junk (Fri Nov 20 12:31 pm)
While driving in Los Angeles recently, I was surprised to see this out my passenger window: Wow. I know NASA’s budget is small, but this seems a bit unnecessary. I wonder if Harry Broderick was driving? - Nerds rule: followup (Fri Nov 20 9:00 am)
Aha! The video I mentioned the other day featuring Watchmen advisor Jim Kakalios — about nerds running the planet — is now on YouTube! So I have embedded it below for those who are too busy to click an actual link. - Cosmospresso (Thu Nov 19 3:25 pm)
You know what "galaxy" means in Latin Greek, don’t you? Yeah, it’s Saturn, not the Milky Way, but still. That is made of awesome. I want to go to that coffee shop! Via Reddit. - Gorgeous 3D Mandelbrot sets! (Thu Nov 19 11:00 am)
Check. This. Out. You might think that’s an alien spore, or a crystal of some kind. But it’s actually what appears to be a rendering of a three-dimensional fractal! Fractals are very interesting. There are different ways to describe...
Space.com News (Top 5 items)
- Giant Cannibal Galaxy's Last Meal (Sat Nov 21 1:21 am)
New images show results of collision between giant galaxy and smaller neighbor. - Dark Energy Search Could Aid Planet Hunters (Sat Nov 21 1:21 am)
A proposed space mission that aims to measure dark energy could also detect planets that current surveys are unable to find. - 40 Years Ago: Apollo 12 - Truth of the Moon (Sat Nov 21 1:21 am)
Apollo 12 - the 2nd manned lunar landing - made a pinpoint landing in Nov. 1969 and helped reveal the moon's origins. - MISSION UPDATE: False Alarms Wake Astronauts Again (Sat Nov 21 1:21 am)
- New Hope for Plucky Japanese Asteroid Mission (Sat Nov 21 1:21 am)
Japanese engineers have devised a plan to combine parts from two partially-failed ion engines to resume the Hayabusa asteroid probe's journey back to Earth.
Science@NASA (Top 5 items)
- SOFIA Seeks Secrets of Planetary Birth (Thu Nov 19 12:00 am)
Imagine cutting retractable doors in the side of a 747 airliner, installing a 17-ton telescope, and flying to the stratosphere to solve one of astronomy's greatest puzzles. That's what NASA and the German Aerospace Center plan to do with... - LCROSS Finds Water on the Moon (Fri Nov 13 12:00 am)
The argument that the Moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water. At a press conference today, researchers revealed data from NASA's LCROSS mission indicating that water exists in a permanently shadowed lunar crater. Please... - Can Spirit be Freed? (Thu Nov 12 12:00 am)
On Monday, NASA will begin transmitting commands to its Mars exploration rover Spirit as part of an escape plan to free the venerable robot from its Martian sand trap. Please vote for this podcast at PodcastAlley! Get this podcast... - The 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower (Tue Nov 10 12:00 am)
The 2009 Leonid meteor shower peaks on Nov. 17th with a sprinkling of meteors over North America and a possible outburst over Asia. Please vote for this podcast at PodcastAlley! Get this podcast story. - A Tale of Planetary Woe (Fri Nov 6 12:00 am)
Long ago, something calamitous happened to Mars, transforming a hospitable world into the apparently lifeless desert we see today. Many scientists believe the Red Planet lost most of its atmosphere, but how? A new NASA mission named MAVEN...