Thousand foot chunk of rock passing dangerously close to Earth in 2029

A thousand foot chunk of rock, named Apophis, is on schedule to buzz the Earth on April 13, 2029. For those superstitious types, that’s Friday the 13th. Apophis is expected to pass a mere 23,600 miles from Earth which is a “close call” by astronomical measurements.

In a rare find, scientists identified a new species of monkey found in the remote forests of Congo – the lesula. It has been nearly three decades since scientists identified a new monkey species. The lesula was known to local hunters, they just never thought to mention it to anyone else.

The Snapping Shrimp has a unique large claw that creates a wave of bubble that generates huge acoustic pressure when snapped. The bubble it produces reaches speeds up to 60 mph with a sound so loud it can kill a small fish.

It might not be accurately termed “a snowball’s chance in hell” but it comes close. NASA thinks it might be snowing on Mars, just not the sort of snow we’d expect. NASA has obtained evidence that it snows Dry Ice, the stuff we use to simulate fog in haunted houses. That’s pretty cool given that…

For those anxiously awaiting December 21, 2012, here’s a little thriller for you. In a few hours, an asteroid (named 2012 QG42) the size of three football fields will be making a close pass by Earth. We would have warned you earlier but, eh, the astronomy geeks just spotted it a few weeks ago.

It’s official, there is enough wind on the plane to supply all the world’s power requirements. Affordability however, is an altogether different matter.

NASA spacecraft have captured pictures of a huge filament of super-hot plasma being ejected from the Sun on August 31, 2012. The Sun is approaching a period of peak activity (in 2013) and coronal mass ejections (CME’s) such as this may become more common. NASA estimates the size of the eruption as 186,000 miles long…

Amazing pictures from teenager who sent camera into space using a balloon

The pictures below look like they were taken by a multi-billion dollar NASA satellite but these photos were actually taken by a 19-year-old teenager using a camera attached to a helium-filled balloon. Adam Cudworth, from the United Kingdom made his aerial device in just under 40 hours using a insulated box, GPS tracker…

The $2.5 billion dollar, nuclear powered Mars Curiosity Rover is not autonomous. On Earth, NASA engineers manually drive the robot around the surface of Mars. If you are picturing a NASA geek, red hand clinched tightly around a joystick, with a ear-to-ear grin – you’d only be partially correct. Driving Curiosity is not done in…

Scientists have just generated the world’s fastest laser light pulse, a beam that shoots for 67 attoseconds, or 0.000000000000000067 seconds. Such a quick burst is useful for allowing scientists to view extremely fast quantum mechanical processes, such as movement of electrons during chemical reactions. According to Wired magazine: To achieve their record-setting blast, the researchers…