On 30 June 1908, a powerful explosion occurred over an isolated region of Siberia near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River. The blast was 1000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, registered 5 on the Richter scale and is thought to have knocked down some 80 million trees over an area of 2000 square…
Category: Astronomy and Space
Ready for dark matter? International Space Station’s AMS antimatter detector discovers first evidence of dark matter
Scientists at CERN today announced that the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on board the International Space Station has detected its first hints of dark matter, the mysterious and as yet unexplained stuff that makes up the majority of the universe. The evidence presented is based on an excess in the cosmic production of anti-electrons, also known…
NASA tweets nearby floating “debris” photos from ISS which clearly shows saucer-shaped UFO
NASA and ISS may be slowly loosening their tight lips with regards to the normally hush-hush UFO phenomenon. Today, Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut and the commander of Expedition 35 on the International Space Station, tweeted pictures of a huge piece of debris that he captured on film floating near ISS. Upon closer inspection, the object…
Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket engines recovered from floor of Atlantic
Two of the five Saturn V rocket engines that powered NASA’s July 19, 1969 Apollo 11 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, has been recovered from the Atlantic ocean floor in an expedition sponsored by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. The rockets, which had a shelf life of only 165 seconds, were jettisoned into the waters…
Mars Curiosity rover drills hole in Mars for the first time – powder samples collected for testing
The Mars Curiosity Rover has drilled a hole in Mars for the first time yesterday. Curiosity used the drill at the tip of its robotic arm to drill a small .8 inch (2 centimeter) hole into the Martian rock affectionately named “John Klein”. The so-called “mini-drill test” marked the first time Curiosity used both the…
New impact debris measurements nail Giant Asteroid impact to within 11K years – precisely when dinosaurs disappeared
Paul Renne, a geologist at the Berkeley Geochronology Center (BGC), along with colleagues from U.C. Berkeley as well as researchers from the UK and Netherlands, has resampled radio-isotope measurements from impact debris. It has been over two decades since the debris was analyzed to determine the impact date that theoretically doomed the dinosaurs. The new…
Incoming asteroid Feb 15 – NASA says they’ve never seen an object this big get so close to Earth
On February 15, 2013, an asteroid about half the size of a football field will pass by the Earth with only 17,200 miles to spare. The asteroid, named 2012 DA14, will pass Earth closer than many man-made satellites. Don Yeomans of NASA’s Near Earth Object Program at JPL told reporters that this is a record-setting…
NASA’s NEXT ion thruster engine sets new world record
NASA Glenn has been developing the next generation of ion thrusters for future missions. NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) Project has developed a 7-kilowatt ion thruster that can provide the capabilities needed in the future. The ion propulsion system’s efficient use of fuel and electrical power enable modern spacecraft to travel farther, faster, and cheaper…
Newly released European Space Agency photograph shows massive supergiant star hurling towards mysterious “dusty wall”
Betelgeuse, the supergiant bright red star in the picture above, lies in the shoulder of Orion and has dozens of times the mass of the Sun. Scientists believe Betelgeuse is ready to detonate as a supernova at any time. The European Space Agency yesterday released the photograph above showing Betelgeuse ploughing through interstellar space at…
Probe finds strongest evidence yet that Mars may have (or does) support life
On Sunday, January 20, officials announced that data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft provides evidence of a wet underground environment, and clues that suggest a groundwater-fed lake could have existed in McLaughlin Crater, a crater fifty-seven miles in diameter and 1.4 miles deep. According to NASA: “A combination of…








