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So Long, Kepler: NASA’s Crack Exoplanet-Hunter Falls to Mechanical Failure In the science press, the obituaries are already rolling out. Though many scientific experiments teach us something new about the world, few have been able to so clearly redefine our place in the universe as Kepler. Decades ago, the planets in our solar system were all we knew. Now, we’re practically swimming in them Full Article

So Long, Kepler: NASA’s Crack Exoplanet-Hunter Falls to Mechanical Failure

In the science press, the obituaries are already rolling out. Though many scientific experiments teach us something new about the world, few have been able to so clearly redefine our place in the universe as Kepler. Decades ago, the planets in our solar system were all we knew. Now, we’re practically swimming in them

Full Article

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A U.S. Spy Agency’s Leftover, Hubble-Sized Satellite Could Be on Its Way to Mars: Last year the National Reconnaissance Office—the U.S. government’s spy satellite program—surprised the world when it let on that it had two unwanted, Hubble-sized spy satellites just sort of sitting around. The Hubble Space Telescope, the great eye in the sky that has given us some of the best photographs in the universe, has a 7.9 foot-wide mirror. The NRO’s two leftover spy satellites also had 7.9 foot-wide mirrors. For satellites, the bigger the mirror the more detail in the photo. Where Hubble was designed to look off into space, the spy satellites were meant to look down at us. Some rough calculations by UNC-Charlotte associate professor Greg Gbur (otherwise known as Dr Skyksull) let us known that this telescope would be able to see things that are just 5 inches across. With some computer processing, you could probably pick out things on the ground that are just 2.5 inches wide. From space. But, the spy agency doesn’t want these satellites anymore, so they gave them to NASA. For the better part of a year, says Astronomy Now, NASA has been trying to figure out what exactly to do with these new satellites. Now, says Space.com, the idea is being floated that one of the satellites could be shipped to Mars. Scientists have proposed sending one of the powerful telescopes to Mars orbit, where it could look both up and down, giving researchers great views of the Red Planet’s surface as well as targets in the outer solar system and beyond. From orbit around Mars, says Space.com, researchers expect the satellite would be able to take photos that capture around 3.1 inches of the Red Planet per pixel. Such high-resolution imagery could help them build maps and study the planet in unprecedented detail. But that’s just one possible future for the NRO’s leftover satellites. NASA might also use them to hunt for dark energy or search for exoplanets. Or use them for any one of a number of other projects. Trust us, NASA has plenty of ideas for what to do with two gigantic satellites.

A U.S. Spy Agency’s Leftover, Hubble-Sized Satellite Could Be on Its Way to Mars:

Last year the National Reconnaissance Office—the U.S. government’s spy satellite program—surprised the world when it let on that it had two unwanted, Hubble-sized spy satellites just sort of sitting around. The Hubble Space Telescope, the great eye in the sky that has given us some of the best photographs in the universe, has a 7.9 foot-wide mirror. The NRO’s two leftover spy satellites also had 7.9 foot-wide mirrors. For satellites, the bigger the mirror the more detail in the photo.

Where Hubble was designed to look off into space, the spy satellites were meant to look down at us. Some rough calculations by UNC-Charlotte associate professor Greg Gbur (otherwise known as Dr Skyksull) let us known that this telescope would be able to see things that are just 5 inches across. With some computer processing, you could probably pick out things on the ground that are just 2.5 inches wide. From space.

But, the spy agency doesn’t want these satellites anymore, so they gave them to NASA. For the better part of a year, says Astronomy Now, NASA has been trying to figure out what exactly to do with these new satellites. Now, says Space.com, the idea is being floated that one of the satellites could be shipped to Mars.

Scientists have proposed sending one of the powerful telescopes to Mars orbit, where it could look both up and down, giving researchers great views of the Red Planet’s surface as well as targets in the outer solar system and beyond.

From orbit around Mars, says Space.com, researchers expect the satellite would be able to take photos that capture around 3.1 inches of the Red Planet per pixel. Such high-resolution imagery could help them build maps and study the planet in unprecedented detail.

But that’s just one possible future for the NRO’s leftover satellites. NASA might also use them to hunt for dark energy or search for exoplanets. Or use them for any one of a number of other projects. Trust us, NASA has plenty of ideas for what to do with two gigantic satellites.

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Monarchs in Hibernation As shown above, the monarch butterfly population is so dense in their mountainous, winter residence of central Mexico that they cover the trees like leaves. Some branches noticeably sway from the weight of the myriad monarchs even though they each weigh less than a gram. Many of the butterflies on this tree have journeyed 3,000 mi (5,000 km) or further to get to this several-hundred-acre colony, near the village of Michoacan. They overwinter until March before winging their way north to the U.S. and Canada, where they’ll feed, most often on milkweed, until late summer. They begin their southern migration in early fall, and by the first few days of November, virtually all of them have arrived in Michoacan. The butterflies that make this arduous circuit are the great-great-grand-butterflies of the ones that left the subtropics the previous spring! Genetic programming related to the monarchs’ internal circadian clock guides them, likely using the Sun as a navigation aid, to their winter destination. — Steve Spiegel / Jim Foster

Monarchs in Hibernation

As shown above, the monarch butterfly population is so dense in their mountainous, winter residence of central Mexico that they cover the trees like leaves.

Some branches noticeably sway from the weight of the myriad monarchs even though they each weigh less than a gram. Many of the butterflies on this tree have journeyed 3,000 mi (5,000 km) or further to get to this several-hundred-acre colony, near the village of Michoacan. They overwinter until March before winging their way north to the U.S. and Canada, where they’ll feed, most often on milkweed, until late summer.

They begin their southern migration in early fall, and by the first few days of November, virtually all of them have arrived in Michoacan. The butterflies that make this arduous circuit are the great-great-grand-butterflies of the ones that left the subtropics the previous spring! Genetic programming related to the monarchs’ internal circadian clock guides them, likely using the Sun as a navigation aid, to their winter destination. — Steve Spiegel / Jim Foster

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abluegirl: US Navy Names Research Ship After Sally Ride The United States Navy’s first academic research ship to be named for a woman will be christened after NASA’s first female astronaut to fly in space. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced Friday (April 12) the next ocean-class auxiliary general oceanographic research (AGOR) ship will be named the R/V Sally Ride. “As secretary of the Navy, I have the great privilege of naming ships that will represent America with distinction as part of the fleet for many decades to come,” Mabus said in a statement revealing the names of seven ships, including the Sally Ride. “These ships were all named to recognize the hard working people from cities all around our country who have contributed in so many ways to our Navy and Marine Corps team.” Mabus named the future R/V Sally Ride in memory of the astronaut, who also served as a professor, scientist and innovator at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California in San Diego. Scripps will operate the R/V Sally Ride when it enters the Navy’s fleet in 2015. Ride, 65, died on July 23, 2012, to pancreatic cancer. She made history when she lifted off with the STS-7 crew on space shuttle Challenger in 1983. The first U.S. female astronaut to fly into space, she was only the third woman worldwide to reach orbit, following two Soviet cosmonauts, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 and Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982. Full Article What this article doesn’t mention is that Sally Ride was a lesbian, and it is also significant that a US Navy vessel is named after a gay person, two years after DADT is repealed.

abluegirl:

US Navy Names Research Ship After Sally Ride

The United States Navy’s first academic research ship to be named for a woman will be christened after NASA’s first female astronaut to fly in space.

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced Friday (April 12) the next ocean-class auxiliary general oceanographic research (AGOR) ship will be named the R/V Sally Ride.

“As secretary of the Navy, I have the great privilege of naming ships that will represent America with distinction as part of the fleet for many decades to come,” Mabus said in a statement revealing the names of seven ships, including the Sally Ride. “These ships were all named to recognize the hard working people from cities all around our country who have contributed in so many ways to our Navy and Marine Corps team.”

Mabus named the future R/V Sally Ride in memory of the astronaut, who also served as a professor, scientist and innovator at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California in San Diego. Scripps will operate the R/V Sally Ride when it enters the Navy’s fleet in 2015.

Ride, 65, died on July 23, 2012, to pancreatic cancer.

She made history when she lifted off with the STS-7 crew on space shuttle Challenger in 1983. The first U.S. female astronaut to fly into space, she was only the third woman worldwide to reach orbit, following two Soviet cosmonauts, Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 and Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982.

Full Article

What this article doesn’t mention is that Sally Ride was a lesbian, and it is also significant that a US Navy vessel is named after a gay person, two years after DADT is repealed.

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ucresearch:

Then & Now: Photographing the Moon

Top Image: a stereo card from the late 1800s taken by Joseph L. Bates.

Bottom Image: an image taken by elementary school students using a a camera attached to NASA’s GRAIL satellites (part of the MoonKAM project, led by Sally Ride Science and UCSD).

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abluegirl:

Data from the new Landsat satellite is here!

NASA has released the first images from the new Landsat satellite!  The satellite sees with 11 bands on the electromagnetic spectrum  allowing it to perceive features that are not visible to the human eye.

The first image is shown in natural color, and the second was created as a composite that includes infra-red bands.  Infrared can reveal features and phenomena that are not visible in the natural color image, such as the dark wildfire burn - the rust-colored area at the left of the photo, near the reservoir. 

You can read more about the Landsat Data Continuity Mission and how it captures its images @nasa.gov.

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ucresearch: The skeleton of “Hangar One” —a WWII blimp hanger— located at Moffett Airfield run by the NASA Ames Research Center.

ucresearch:

The skeleton of “Hangar One” —a WWII blimp hanger— located at Moffett Airfield run by the NASA Ames Research Center.

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explore-blog: Patent drawing for the Fisher Anti-Gravity Pen, a.k.a. the NASA “space pen” that popular legend says the Russians outsmarted with a mere pencil. 

explore-blog:

Patent drawing for the Fisher Anti-Gravity Pen, a.k.a. the NASA “space pen” that popular legend says the Russians outsmarted with a mere pencil. 

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Trace space back to you: 20 everyday items we have because of NASA

scinerds:

ikenbot:

alexob:

Have you ever wondered how space exploration impacts your daily life?

Every year since the mid-1970s, NASA has published a list of space technologies that have been integrated into everyday items. The tangible benefits span from life-saving medical devices to protective eyewear. To date, NASA has documented nearly 1,800 “spinoff” technologies. Here’s a short list. 

NASA did not invent:

  • Tang
  • Velcro
  • Teflon

So remember kids, whenever you hear a big ol bully bad mouthing space agencies abroad, let them know the deal.

Keep in mind that this was done with crap budget

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spaceplasma: Above the Clouds Space Shuttle Endeavour being ferried by NASA’s Shuttle Carrier Aircraft as it departs KSC. NASA pilots Jeff Moultrie and Bill Rieke are at the controls of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Photo taken by NASA photographer Robert Markowitz in the backseat of a NASA T-38 chase plane with NASA pilot Greg C. Johnson at the controls. Photo Date: September 19, 2012. Location: Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Photographer: Robert Markowitz Source: NASA - Flickr

spaceplasma:

Above the Clouds

Space Shuttle Endeavour being ferried by NASA’s Shuttle Carrier Aircraft as it departs KSC. NASA pilots Jeff Moultrie and Bill Rieke are at the controls of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Photo taken by NASA photographer Robert Markowitz in the backseat of a NASA T-38 chase plane with NASA pilot Greg C. Johnson at the controls.

Photo Date: September 19, 2012. Location: Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Photographer: Robert Markowitz

Source: NASA - Flickr

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8bitfuture: Inflatable module to be added to space station. NASA has announced a US$17.8 million contract to Bigelow Aerospace to provide an expandable module to the International Space Station. NASA says the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module will demonstrate the benefits of this space habitat technology for future exploration and commercial space endeavors. “The International Space Station is a unique laboratory that enables important discoveries that benefit humanity and vastly increase understanding of how humans can live and work in space for long periods,” NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said. “This partnership agreement for the use of expandable habitats represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably, and heralds important progress in U.S. commercial space innovation.” Further details are due to be released at a conference this Wednesday.

8bitfuture:

Inflatable module to be added to space station.

NASA has announced a US$17.8 million contract to Bigelow Aerospace to provide an expandable module to the International Space Station. NASA says the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module will demonstrate the benefits of this space habitat technology for future exploration and commercial space endeavors.

“The International Space Station is a unique laboratory that enables important discoveries that benefit humanity and vastly increase understanding of how humans can live and work in space for long periods,” NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said. “This partnership agreement for the use of expandable habitats represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably, and heralds important progress in U.S. commercial space innovation.”

Further details are due to be released at a conference this Wednesday.

(via 8bitfuture)

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thescienceofreality: This is Your Web on Drugs “In 1995 a group of NASA scientists experimented with drugs, literally. They studied the effects that various legal and illegal drugs have on house spiders, and specifically on the way they weave their webs. The results are both surprising and… not. The NASA scientists suggested the possibility of analyzing the periodic structure of the spiderwebs (or lack thereof) as a means of determining the relative toxicity levels of drugs. They do not seem to have continued down that road, however; one obstacle may have been the difficulty of extrapolating a given drug’s toxicity to humans from its toxicity to spiders. Though similarities between effects on the two species do seem to exist, I’m not sure caffeine makes me feel quite like THAT. In fact, if I wove spiderwebs, that one would probably be pre-morning-cup-of-coffee. Such questions as what the research had to do with space shuttles or Mars rovers, where the scientists got the drugs, and what happened to the spiders later unfortunately cannot be answered here. The relevant NASA briefs are cited by other academic papers and New Scientist Magazine, but aren’t themselves published on the web. The world wide one, that is.” Read more here and here, and see what happens to their mental state here.

thescienceofreality:

This is Your Web on Drugs

“In 1995 a group of NASA scientists experimented with drugs, literally. They studied the effects that various legal and illegal drugs have on house spiders, and specifically on the way they weave their webs. The results are both surprising and… not.

The NASA scientists suggested the possibility of analyzing the periodic structure of the spiderwebs (or lack thereof) as a means of determining the relative toxicity levels of drugs. They do not seem to have continued down that road, however; one obstacle may have been the difficulty of extrapolating a given drug’s toxicity to humans from its toxicity to spiders. Though similarities between effects on the two species do seem to exist, I’m not sure caffeine makes me feel quite like THAT. In fact, if I wove spiderwebs, that one would probably be pre-morning-cup-of-coffee.

Such questions as what the research had to do with space shuttles or Mars rovers, where the scientists got the drugs, and what happened to the spiders later unfortunately cannot be answered here. The relevant NASA briefs are cited by other academic papers and New Scientist Magazine, but aren’t themselves published on the web. The world wide one, that is.”


Read more here and here, and see what happens to their mental state here.

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kqedscience: Astronaut Chris Hadfield Tweets from space “Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is Tweeting his views of the world from space, and the world is responding with thousands of follows. Hadfield has been a prolific Tweeter since boarding the International Space Station in December. He’s updated about life on board and sent several photos per day.” Nachos in space.. not even Sagan envisioned this much glory.

kqedscience:

Astronaut Chris Hadfield Tweets from space

“Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is Tweeting his views of the world from space, and the world is responding with thousands of follows.

Hadfield has been a prolific Tweeter since boarding the International Space Station in December. He’s updated about life on board and sent several photos per day.”


Nachos in space.. not even Sagan envisioned this much glory.

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Apollo A new print entitled ‘Apollo’ designed by Berg and arriving in the Editions of 100 online store sometime soon.

Apollo

A new print entitled ‘Apollo’ designed by Berg and arriving in the Editions of 100 online store sometime soon.

(via sagansense)

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heythereuniverse: Double-Star Systems Can Be Dangerous for Exoplanets | Space.com Alien planets born in widely separated two-star systems face a grave danger of being booted into interstellar space, a new study suggests. Exoplanets circling a star with a far-flung stellar companion — worlds that are part of “wide binary” systems — are susceptible to violent and dramatic orbital disruptions, including outright ejection, the study found. Such effects are generally limited to sprawling planetary systems with at least one distantly orbiting world, while more compact systems are relatively immune. This finding, which observational evidence supports, should help astronomers better understand the structure and evolution of alien solar systems across the galaxy, researchers said. [Read more]

heythereuniverse:

Double-Star Systems Can Be Dangerous for Exoplanets | Space.com

Alien planets born in widely separated two-star systems face a grave danger of being booted into interstellar space, a new study suggests.

Exoplanets circling a star with a far-flung stellar companion — worlds that are part of “wide binary” systems — are susceptible to violent and dramatic orbital disruptions, including outright ejection, the study found.

Such effects are generally limited to sprawling planetary systems with at least one distantly orbiting world, while more compact systems are relatively immune. This finding, which observational evidence supports, should help astronomers better understand the structure and evolution of alien solar systems across the galaxy, researchers said.

[Read more]

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