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Philae snapped this photo after it seperated from the Rozetta module (ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA )via CBS If you were following mainstream media sources , the Rozetta orbiter mission to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is probably not new to you . The European Space Agency (ESA's) mission to the 4km wide comet that is travelling at 66,000 km/h marks the first time man (or in this case a unmanned vehicle) has attempted to land on a comet . The 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet is 6.4 Billion Kilometers away and it took Rozetta and its probe - Philae 10 years (launched in 2004) to complete the journey . Rozetta has successfully launched its probe - Philae and once it does reach the surface of the comet (afer a 7 hour journey, which will conclude at 11.03 AM E/T) , the probes built in ice screws and harpoon will tether it to the surface as the probes primary active thrust system that was supposed to keep the probe in place failed to launch . The probe , which weighs about 100kg...

An asteroid roughly the size of three football pitches that was expected to hurtle past Earth last night has been lost by astronomers, after attempts to track 2000 EM26 during its 27,000 mph fly-by were scuppered by frozen telescopes. The space rock was on course to pass Earth at a distance of around 1.62 million miles, close enough to earn it the classification of "Near Earth Object" (NEO) though not, NASA and researchers were keen to point out, any sort of suggestion that our planet might be in danger. Unfortunately, now they can't find it again. Astronomers at Slooh had planned to live-stream 2000 EM26's passing last night, using a robotic telescope sited at Mount Teide in the Canary Islands. Unfortunately weather problems at the observatory left the telescope frozen up and unable to move; now, in fact, there's only one known still image of what's believed to be the asteroid shooting past us. That was taken by the Dubai Astronomy Group, SpaceTravelFou...

A "jelly doughnut-sized" rock has appeared in front of the Opportunity rover on Mars, and scientists can't figure out where it came from, Discovery News reports. The discovery was revealed by Mars Exploration Rover lead scientist Steve Squyres in a "10 years of roving Mars" keynote at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory last night. "Mars keeps throwing new stuff at us!" he exclaimed, discussing past rover findings, but this time, he meant it literally. The rock, which scientists have dubbed "Pinnacle Island," appeared in front of Opportunity for one of two reasons, NASA says: the rover flipped the rock as it maneuvered, or the rock landed there after a nearby meteorite impact. Either way, the intrepid Opportunity now has something new to look at. "[The rock] obligingly turned upside down, so we're seeing a side that hasn't seen the Martian atmosphere in billions of years and there it is for us to investigate," Squyres s...

We’ve talked plenty about the comet ISON around here as it makes its trip towards the sun. The comet has the potential to put on one of the best light shows in recent history, assuming it survives its brush with the sun. The sun has already been doing a number on ISON, shrinking it smaller size as it gets closer to its Thanksgiving Day brush with the sun. Tomorrow ISON will make its closest pass by the sun and either break up or survive to go down in history as one of the brightest comets ever. Scientists estimate the ISON is currently thought to be less than 1.6 kilometers wide. If ISON survives, it could brighten enough to be seen with the naked eye during the day. If that happens, it will be the first time since the 1600s a comet has been visible in the day. The odds of a firey death or glowing survival story are so close scientists don’t want to lay odds on ISON’s fate. The comet is speeding up as it nears the sun. Back in January, the comet was moving at 64000kmh. Last Thurs...

We’ve been following the comet ISON since it was first discovered. The comet is making its way towards the sun and putting on quite a light show as it does. The comet will reach its closest approach to the sun around Thanksgiving day, assuming it doesn’t break apart before then. Amateur sky watchers wanting to get a look at the comet can now see ISON with a high quality set of binoculars or small telescope. The comet will make its closest encounter with the sun on November 28. That pass will bring the comet within 730,000 miles of the surface of the sun. Sky gazer Pete Lawrence from Selsey in the UK said: I have made my first confirmed binocular sighting of C/2012 S1 ISON as well. ISON’s head appears small and stellar through a pair of 15x70s optics. The comet can be seen near the constellation Virgo right now. It’s visible low in the predawn eastern sky. Right now the comet is said to be about the same brightness as a magnitude 8 star. That makes it too dim to see with the na...

A new analysis of Kepler Space Telescope data by Berkeley astronomers suggests that as many as 40 billion planets with climates similar to Earth’s may be calculated to exist in the Milky Way galaxy. Of those, 11 billion orbit stars similar to our sun. The rest of the hypothetical planets orbit red dwarf stars, which are the same size as our sun but cooler. New news nicely complements the more in-depth recent mineral analysis of the single planet Kepler Planet 78b. The data comes from four years of observation by the Kepler telescope launched in 2009 and currently orbiting the sun. Although the guidance system on the sun orbiter is now defunct, the data record is still valid. The analysis is based on occurrences of the telescope detecting possible planets passing in front of stars and causing shadows. The figure of 40 billion excludes planets that orbit too far or too close to stars to indicate a climate similar to Earth’s. The accounted-for planets exist in the Goldilocks Zone–neit...

One of the only ways for you to get anywhere near space if you don’t work for NASA is to buy a $250,000 ticket on Virgin Galactic. If you like the idea of traveling to the edge of space, but you want to do it for less than $250,000, a company called World View, which is a division of a private company called Paragon Space Development Corp. has a new plan to get passengers to the edge of space. World View plans to send passengers to an altitude of about 100,000 feet. That’s nowhere near the altitude that Virgin Galactic plans to carry passengers, which is approximately 68-miles above the surface of the Earth. What that means for World View passengers is that they won’t get the sensation of microgravity. What World View passengers will get is a nice view. Officials from World View note that passengers aboard its capsules will be able to have the beverage of their choice while the enjoy the view. Passengers can also stay aloft for days for research if need be with the typical fl...

What some classifies as one of the most dangerous asteroids ever discovered zipped past the Earth last month. The asteroid is called 2013 TV135 and the asteroid will again pass close by the Earth in about 20 years. The asteroid made headlines again when reports surfaced that there was a chance the Earth and the asteroid could collide on the next orbit. If asteroid 2013 TV135 hit the earth, it would reportedly release a force as powerful as a few thousand atomic bombs. It would be a massive impact indeed, and considering the damage done by the much smaller meteor that passed over Russia, the thought of the carnage should the asteroid impact Earth is chilling. However, NASA stepped up and was quick to try and calm people down stating that it was 99.998% sure when the asteroid passes by the Earth again in 2032 no impact will happen. NASA rates the odds of the asteroid hitting the earth at 1:63,000. People hit the lottery every month with odds significantly less likely than that. T...

The U.S. Department of Energy, with the help of researchers at Stanford University and other public and private institutions, have demonstrated the ability of a chip no larger than a grain of rice to accelerate particles 10 times faster than a conventional particle accelerator can do alone. The chip, which is specially nano-fabricated of fused silica, has the potential to drastically scale down the machinery necessary for particle research, security scanners, medical devices and other technology. The global effect of this advance could be just as revolutionary as silicon was. However, it may take some time before scientists can collect and snap together all the puzzle pieces of this technology. Although the specially ridged inner channel of the chip can intensify by many factors the energy of a particle in the later stages of acceleration, a conventional particle accelerator (such as the Large Hadron Collider, Fermilab or CERN of dubious “God particle” fame) is still needed to get th...

A graduate student named Andrew Rushby from the University of East Anglia in Britain recently created two equations able to estimate how long life on Earth can continue to exist. The two equations were designed to estimate the length of time that the Earth is expected to remain within our solar system’s habitable zone. The habitable zone of the solar system is the zone where the planet is neither too close to the sun to prevent liquid water from existing nor too far from the sun to prevent liquid water from being frozen solid. According to the equations, life on Earth has only 1.75 to 3.25 billion years left. It’s definitely a huge range, and it assumes that some other catastrophe doesn’t end life on Earth before then. According to the scientists, as our sun ages it will become a larger and brighter star. As it becomes larger and hotter, the Earth will move from being firmly in the habitable zone as it is now to being too hot to support liquid water. Once the planet moves out of ...

SETI's best known for its search for sentient life in the cosmos, but when the Hubble space telescop found a pair of new moons orbiting Pluto (at SETI's behest), it decided to do some planetoid naming, too. Today, SETI announced those names: Styx and Kerberos. The institute didn't grant titles to the moons itself, however. Instead, it put the onus on the public to come up with the proper names -- with instructions from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) that the nomenclature have something to do with the mythological underworld known as Hades. So, despite those wished for the moons to be named for Stephen Colbert or the Romulan home world, the IAU found those name to be unfit for the new moons. Instead, we have Styx (the river that separates earth from the underworld) and Kerberos (the three-headed dog that's serves as the guardian to the underworld). ...

The past two days have been full of what’s called “Supermoon” sightings due to the fact that the Earth has been as close to our moon as it’s going to be all year long. While the past two days have brought on a flood of “oh my goodness that’s the biggest moon I’ve ever seen” photographs, today we must face the facts: it wont just be another 365 days before we see this happen again. What you’ve got here is a bit of science for your Monday morning. While the moon was just 221,823 miles from the Earth yesterday, it’ll be moving outward once again for its approximately 14-month journey out, around, and back in toward our larger planetary body. This occurrence isn’t something that brings about the same results each 14-month journey, either. According to Amanda Thompson, planetarium presenter at the Museum of Science in Boston, the closest the moon will get to the Earth this century will be just 221,439 miles away, and that cycle wont be taking place until December 6th, 2052. Speaking w...

A huge number of incredibly cool and impressive discoveries about our solar system and the universe in general have been made using the Hubble space telescope. One of the latest discoveries made by scientists using the space telescope is signs of Earth-like planets discovered in the atmospheres of a pair of burnt out stars in a nearby star cluster. The stars in question are white dwarfs with atmospheres said to be polluted by debris from asteroid-like objects falling onto them. According to scientists, this discovered indicates that the formation of rocky planets with the common in star clusters. A white dwarf is a smaller, dim remnant of a star once like our sun. The stars in question are 150 light-years away from the area in the Hyades star cluster. That cluster is part of the constellation of Taurus. Astronomers say that of the approximately 800 known exoplanets, only four are known to orbit stars in a cluster. However, the astronomers believe that the reason planets aren’t c...

We’ve been hearing talks of the future formation of a colony on Mars, and it seems that space agencies and companies are quite adamant to get it going. In particular, a non-profit organization by the name of Mars One is planning to put four astronauts on Mars in 2023 to begin the process of forming a Mars colony, and they will begin the recruiting process in July. Mars One will begin accepting video submissions for this first round of astronauts, and while anyone can apply, the organization is looking to weed out the spammers and time-wasters by instituting a $25 entry fee, which certainly isn’t a lot, but it could help with separating the serious candidates from the ones who simply just want to have fun. The fee will also be put towards funding for the entire project. Mars One hopes to raise millions of dollars from the application process alone, and they expect that a million applications will be sent in, and some of the video applications may end up going viral, which hints...

On Thursday, April 11, the sun let off an M6.5 solar flare and its accompanying coronal mass ejection, more commonly called a CME, which is directed at Earth. The solar particles that result from such an event are traveling at a speed of about 600 miles per second, and are expected to reach Earth Friday night into the weekend. Such an event disrupted some radio communications. Before you begin imaging a scenario similar to certain end-of-times movies where characters go from innocently watching television to being shrouded in darkness and chaos, keep in mind this event will be far less eventful, possibly disrupting radios and GPS starting Friday night. Because the event was observed, some preparations can be made in anticipation of the incoming solar particles, helping protect satellites and other vulnerable equipment from damage. A CME that is Earth-bound, according to NASA, can result in a geomagnetic storm as it colides with the magnetosphere. In addition, this particular even...

A few years ago Jupiter was hit by several chunks of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 after the comet broke apart. The massive gravity of Jupiter ripped that comet into pieces and those chunks collided with the planet. Since Jupiter has such a thick atmosphere, all we could see were the effects the impact had on the thick atmosphere. I’m sure I’m not alone in wondering exactly what the impact caused by those comets did to the surface of Jupiter underneath that thick blanket of atmosphere. We may get an idea of exactly how much damage a fast-moving comet can do to the surface of a planet next year. Astronomers say that there is a small chance that Mars could be struck by a comet in 2014. The interesting part about a potential comet strike on the surface of Mars is that we currently have probes on the ground and satellites in orbit around the planet that could gather an incredible amount of information for scientists. Another interesting fact is that Mars has no thick Jovian atmosphere t...

Sky gazers are in for a treat tonight in the northern hemisphere. Starting on March 8, a comet dubbed C/2011 L4 Pan-Starrs should be visible in the northern hemisphere using binoculars or telescope. The icy mass may become even brighter in the following days. BBC News reports that the comet could become so bright in the days following March 8 that it can be seen with the naked eye. Astronomers say that right now they have no idea how bright the comet will get, but they are keeping their fingers crossed that it will be an impressive celestial event. The comet was first discovered in June of 2011 using the Pan-Starrs telescope in Hawaii. When the telescope discovered the comet, it was more than 1,000,000,000 km away from the earth. Astronomers believe that the comet originated in the Oort Cloud, which is a region of space packed with the icy masses that hurls them towards our sun with regularity. The astronomers also believe that this particular comet is non-periodic. What that means...

Following close on the heels of NASA‘s Curiosity rover being moved from safe mode back into active status following an issue with one of its on-board computers, the space agency has now put it into sleep mode due to the threat of a giant solar flare. The solar flare is expected to hit Mars later this week, and the Curiosity rover is in the hot zone. The solar flare, which is called a coronal mass ejection (CME), was spotted by NASA a couple days ago. Because the CME is heading towards Mars – specifically an area of Mars where the Curiosity is – the agency pushed out the decision to put Curiosity into sleep mode to help protect against possible damage from radiation. Fortunately, the radiation from these events isn’t typically harmful to rovers and such. This isn’t the first time the Curiosity rover has been faced with a solar flare, having been blasted with a class M1 ejection back in 2012 during its trip to the Red Planet. Still, the possibility exists that the rover could be dama...

"one small step for a man ,but a giant leap for mankind"   These words still echo in our minds as we say farewell to the first person to walk on the moon May you rest in peace Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.4