Curiosity Rover scooped its first soil samples yesterday and while scooping, took a picture of something that NASA cannot identify. It’s a small, silver metallic looking chip or flake of some kind. It could be something left over from the MSL descent mechanisms or some previously unknown soil anomaly.
Category: Astronomy and Space
SpaceX’s first operational mission goes off (almost) without a hitch – should dock with ISS on Wednesday
SpaceX’s first operational flight to the International Space Station went off without a hitch. Around 8:50 PM EST, SpaceX announced via Twitter, “Falcon 9 rocket booster has delivered Dragon to its target orbit!”, making history as the first commercial flight to ISS after NASA’s Space Shuttle program was shut down.
SpaceX makes historic first cargo run to International Space Station on Sunday 10/7/12
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) will be launching its first cargo mission to the International Space Station as part of a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to deliver supplies, this Sunday, 10/7/12 at 8:35 EDT. The company’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule will take off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Brightest comet (ISON C/2012 S1) in over a century is heading our way (but will probably not hit Earth) [UPDATE]
Russian astronomers have discovered a comet, named C/2012 S1, which is heading our way. It is scheduled to fly by Earth in December 2013. It is expected to be the brightest visitor to our solar system in over a century. Astronomers believe the comet will be considerably brighter than Halley’s Comet (1986) and Hale-Bopp (1997)…
570-Megapixel Dark Energy Camera aims to figure out the mysterious dark energy that fills our universe
NASA Curiosity Rover finds evidence of ancient flowing streams on Mars – UPDATED PICTURES
NASA announced today (on the evening of Sol 51), that Curiosity Rover has found evidence of an ancient flowing stream on Mars at a few sites. Round-shaped rocks, called clasts, have lead Geologists to the conclusion that they have been moved about by water. The clasts are too heavy to have been moved by wind.
ISS debris avoidance maneuver cancelled – NASA breathes sigh of relief
Record breaking deep space photo captures farthest-ever view into the universe – only .5 billion years short of the beginning of time
The new eXtreme Deep Field (XDF) photograph gives us a glimpse back 13.2 billion years into the universe’s past. Given that the universe is thought to be around 13.7 billion years old, this gives us a glimpse of the universe at its very earliest stages of development. To create the picture, Hubble returned to the…
Skydiver will go supersonic in record breaking jump from edge of space
Winners of the Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition
Each year, the Royal Observatory Greenwich‘s hosts its annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. Now in its fourth year and growing, they received over 800 photo submission. Winners were announced on Sept. 19 in four main categories — Deep Space, Our Solar System, Earth and Space, and Young Astronomy Photographer of the Year —…









