Reality Bites
This is what a black hole looks like.
A world-spanning network of telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope zoomed in on the supermassive monster in the galaxy M87 to create this first-ever picture of a black hole.
Source: The first picture of a black hole opens a new era of astrophysics | Science News
Richard Branson has officially declared that the Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space (previously known as the Spaceport America) is open for business in the New Mexico desert. Spacemen, rev your engines. More »
What costs a billion euros, can operate in temperatures in excess of 500 degrees celsius, and orbits the sun closer than any spacecraft in human history? More »
Those crazy genius at SpaceX have a new plan: fully reusable rockets. Their system is surprisingly simple, but they don’t know if it will work. But CEO Elon Musk says they are going to try it. Here’s how it works: More »
NASA recently repurposed a satellite called WISE that had completed its mission with all instruments intact and quite a bit of fuel. Renaming the mission NEOWISE, the space agency gave the satellite a new job: map the entire volume of space in the vicinity of Earth’s orbit around the sun, looking for every possible rock, boulder, or planetoid that could possibly smack into our Blue Marble. What they discovered caused them to build an entirely new model of the space debris in our immediate area (see image above).
Presumably feeling a little left out after being turned down from the global love-in that is the International Space Station, China’s decided to go it alone. The ever-expanding nation will be ready to launch the first module of it’s very own space station, the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace), by the end of this month. The initial launch will be unmanned, delivering an 8.5-ton module ready for docking practise and other interactions with three more spacecraft that are planned to join it later this year. Pegged for completion by 2020 and with a complete weight of over 60 tons, the Tiangong will look positively petite compared to the hulking 419-ton ISS, but is also said to be significantly cheaper. Meanwhile, we still await China’s take on the Robonaut.
China readies its own space station module for launch originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Sep 2011 08:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite that has been befuddling NASA scientists with its unpredictable reentry path has finally fallen back to Earth. We… just don’t know where yet exactly. But you’re safe to look up now. More »
This breathtaking time-lapse of Earth’s auroras as seen from the flying International Space Station is one of the most beautiful videos I’ve seen in my life. I can’t even begin to imagine the feelings that astronauts must experience when they watch this in real time. More »
Astronaut Ron Garan has shared some amazing photography from the International Space Station before. Now he’s snapped the southern lights from his privileged position on the ISS. More »
NASA got a new deep space exploration system, the Space Launch System. A new heavy rocket designed to take astronauts well beyond planet Earth’s orbit. It’s beautiful. It’s like the Saturn all over again, but better. More »
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s cameras have just captured some stunning photographs of the tracks that humans left behind at the landing sites of Apollo 12, 14, and 17. You can see everything from astronaut footprints, to the tire tracks from the lunar rovers. More »
For now at least, the moon is like the sea: everyone can use it, but no one can own it. In 1967 the U.S. and the Soviet Union negotiated the Outer Space Treaty, which states that no nation can own a piece of the moon or an asteroid. More »
Space.com reports that, with last week’s resupply failure putting NASA behind schedule, Russia needs to get its Soyuz craft back up to speed. If they don’t, the ISS will be an empty vessel after the last of the current crew leaves in November. More »
A company called Orbital Technologies has big plans to put a hotel in space, 217 miles above the Earth. Take a look at the cozy station where you could dream among the stars, for a mere $511,000. More »
For years, radiometric dating of lunar rock samples has suggested that the formation of the Moon occurred roughly 4.57 billion years ago — around the same time as the birth of the solar system itself. More »
It’s been known that private contractors would start making cargo runs to the International Space Station. But SpaceX finally got their first mission from NASA and they’re blasting off this November. More »
In the timeless masterpiece Armageddon, by auteur Michael Bay, Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck were sent into space to blow up an asteroid headed straight for Earth. Now, in real life, scientists are going to do the same thing. More »
It’s pretty hard not to notice the gigantic looming arrow in this picture of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. The striking, chevron-shaped formation is roughly the size of Texas. And while it may look like an enormous HUMANS, LOOK HERE sign, recently published research by NASA scientists suggests that it’s actually a gigantic storm making its way across the moon’s equatorial region. More »
NASA astronaut Ron Garan has captured something remarkable. A shooting star. Not in his hand or with his telescope, but with a camera. Still not impressed? He did this while orbiting above the meteor! More »
