NASA

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Asteroid Barely Misses Earth

Rock small enough that Earth's gravity bends its path

(Newser) - An asteroid all but buzzed Earth on Friday, NASA has revealed. The asteroid, known as 2011 CQ1, passed just 3,405 miles above the Earth’s surface as it hung a sharp turn around the planet. That's the closest near-miss ever recorded, beating a record set by a rock in...

Scientists Spar Over Asteroid Apocalypse in 2036

1-in-250,000 chance that Apophis will hit Earth

(Newser) - If that whole end-of-the-world thing doesn't work out next year, maybe the jig is up in 2036: Scientists are now saying that's the year an asteroid previously thought harmless (after having been deemed catastrophic before that) might just plow into the Earth. A few Russian scientists are warning that Apophis,...

Giffords's Husband Will Lead April Shuttle Flight

Mark Kelly to fly Endeavour's final mission

(Newser) - Gabrielle Giffords’s husband has decided to lead the space shuttle Endeavour’s last mission, set to lift off April 19 for two weeks, NASA announced today. His wife’s condition had prompted doubts over whether Mark Kelly would undertake the flight, his fourth; she's currently in a rehab clinic...

Observatory to Unveil Search for Other Earths, Life

Kepler observatory to release early findings this week

(Newser) - There's a roving eye watching deep space for signs that the truth—or at least other Earth-like planets or even life—is out there, and we're going to get a glimpse this week. The $600 million Kepler observatory is tracking a small piece of sky filled with some 4.5...

Giffords' Husband Must Decide Soon on Shuttle Mission

Mark Kelly is scheduled to pilot Endeavour in April

(Newser) - The husband of Gabrielle Giffords has another concern that's likely weighing on his mind: whether he should return to space as scheduled in April. Astronaut Mark Kelly is on temporary leave from NASA, but he'll need to decide in fairly short order whether to pilot the shuttle Endeavour on its...

NASA Marks 25th Anniversary of Challenger Disaster

Agency pays tribute to fallen astronauts

(Newser) - NASA officials will gather at Kennedy Space Center today to mark the 25th anniversary of one of the worst disasters in the history of space travel. The space shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after take-off on Jan. 28, 1986, killing all seven astronauts aboard. The widow of Challenger commander...

Zeta Ophiuchi: NASA Spots Runaway Star
 NASA Spots Runaway Star 
Jan 26, 2011 12:32 PM CST

NASA Spots Runaway Star

Supernova sent Zeta Ophiuchi bolting through space

(Newser) - NASA's latest find is a runaway star with about 20 times the mass of our sun, slamming through space at an eye-popping 54,000 miles per hour, reports Space.com. NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) caught Zeta Ophiuchi in a spectacular infrared image that shows a massive star blanketed...

NASA: Nearby Black Hole Is Enormous
NASA: Nearby Black Hole
Is Enormous
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Jan 15, 2011 12:35 PM CST

NASA: Nearby Black Hole Is Enormous

M87 is bigger than six billion suns

(Newser) - NASA has taken new measurements of a black hole that’s just one galaxy over—and the results are staggering. The black hole, known as M87, is so big that you could fit roughly 6.6 billion of our suns inside it. Black holes that huge are a rare find,...

NASA Picks Backup for Gifford's Husband

Shuttle commander Mark Kelly may miss April's Endeavour mission

(Newser) - Mark Kelly has been temporarily replaced in his duties as an astronaut so he can stay with his wife—Gabrielle Giffords. Kelly has been at his wife's bedside since last weekend's shooting, but he's scheduled to command the shuttle Endeavour when it blasts off in April. The crew needs to...

NASA Finds Smallest Planet Outside Our Solar System

But Kepler-10b is too hot for human habitation

(Newser) - The Kepler space telescope has discovered a rocky planet that’s just 1.4 times the size of Earth orbiting a distant star—making it the smallest planet NASA has ever discovered outside of our solar system, and the only rocky one, NASA announced today. The bad news: The planet,...

NASA Studying Strange, Star-Creating Blob

Hanny's Voorwerp creating 'lonely' stars 'in the middle of nowhere'

(Newser) - The Hubble Telescope has turned its gaze to a mysterious glowing green blob that’s creating stars where stars shouldn’t normally form. Dubbed Hanny’s Voorwerp, after the Dutch elementary school teacher who first discovered it in 2007, the blob is a swirling mass of hydrogen gas, caused by...

NASA Forced to Spend $500M on Canceled Rocket Program

But much needed upgrades to Kennedy Space Center delayed indefinitely

(Newser) - Thanks to congressional inaction, NASA is being forced to spend $500 million on canceled projects—but can't begin much-needed modernization programs, reports the Orlando Sentinel . NASA's Constellation program, designed to return people to the moon, was canceled earlier this year by President Obama. But lawmakers inserted language into the budget...

Private Spacecraft Returns From Orbit in Historic First

SpaceX plans to run supplies to space station next year

(Newser) - The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off into orbit today, and its on-board capsule successfully returned to Earth about 3 hours later—the first time a private company negotiated a re-entry from orbit, reports AP . The test flight by SpaceX is a big step toward NASA's goal of privatizing certain space...

Scientists Blast NASA's Arsenic-Based Life Paper

Researchers refuse to respond directly to criticism

(Newser) - Scientists are coming out of the woodwork to deride NASA’s finding of arsenic-based life as flim-flam. “I was outraged at how bad the science was,” one microbiology professor tells Slate , and she wasn’t alone; Slate tracked down dozens of experts to ask their opinion of the...

Felisa Wolfe-Simon Is the Young NASA Scientist Who Led the 'New Life' Research
 Girls, Meet Your 
 New Role Model 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Dec 5, 2010 10:36 AM CST

Girls, Meet Your New Role Model

Felisa Wolfe-Simon is the young scientist behind the 'new life' discovery

(Newser) - Jezebel has a girl crush, and it's a good one. Meet Felisa Wolfe-Simon, the lead scientist behind the whiz-bang discovery about potential new life forms . Though only in her early 30s by "standard graduation-year math," she is already "insanely accomplished by anyone's standards," writes Irin...

NASA Discovers New Form of Life

Arsenic-based lifeforms found on Earth are unlike any previously observed

(Newser) - NASA has discovered a totally new kind of life form, but it’s not an alien—it’s here on Earth. Astrobiologists have found a bacteria living in a poisonous California lake that’s actually partially made of arsenic, it announced in a much-hyped press conference today. Whereas every other...

NASA Press Conference Ignites ET Rumors

Alien idea debunked, but speculation rages

(Newser) - NASA has announced a press conference tomorrow “to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life,” and alien enthusiasts have been wondering: have scientists found ET? An insider’s tweet debunked that rumor, but the net remains abuzz with curiosity over what...

NASA Probe Passes 'Snow Globe' Comet

Hartley covered with golf ball-size 'snowballs'

(Newser) - NASA's Deep Impact probe soared past a comet earlier this month, revealing the mass to be peppered with "snowballs," the BBC reports. Comet Hartley, encountered some 14 million miles from Earth, "looks like a 'snow globe' that you've just simply shaken,” said a scientist. Another noted...

Ohio NASA Facility Locked Down, Reports of Gunman

Spokesperson will not confirm whether gunman is involved

(Newser) - A sprawling NASA research center next to Cleveland's airport is under lockdown amid reports of a possible gunman. NASA Glenn Research Center spokeswoman Sally Harrington wouldn't say whether police were checking for a gunman but she says the complex was placed under "complete lockdown" this morning.

NASA Probe Sweeps Past 'Space Peanut'

Hartley 2 comet is spewing out cyanide gas

(Newser) - NASA's Deep Impact probe is sending back amazing images from the comet Hartley 2, say team scientists. The probe, after a journey of 2.9 billion miles, came to within 435 miles for a fly-by of the intriguing peanut-shaped comet, the BBC reports. The comet is roughly 1.4 miles...

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