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The White House Science Fair and an Earful for Bolden
I meet the future of science in the United States, and I speak directly to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden about my concerns for Planetary Science funding.
CSI Jamestown: Anthropologists lay out evidence of colonial cannibalism
Experts have provided the grisly goods to back up 17th-century accounts of cannibalism during the Jamestown colony's "starving time" — including a skull that shows signs of being chopped at and pried apart.
"Our team has discovered partial human remains before, but th …
NASA's Osiris sets sail to comet Bennu in 2016
NASA's Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will visit the asteroid now called Bennu, named after an important ancient Egyptian avian deity. read more
Chandra explores a giant gas cloud in system NGC 6240
Astronomers at NASA have used the Chandra X-Ray Observatory to conduct a detailed study of an enormous cloud of hot gas enveloping two large, colliding galaxies. read more
Planetary Society Hangout: Naming Bennu, with Mike Puzio and Dante Lauretta
In this week's Hangout at a special time, Emily Lakdawalla will host Mike Puzio and Dante Lauretta in a discussion about the naming of OSIRIS-REx' asteroid target. Join me TODAY at 2:30pm Pacific / 5:30pm Eastern / 21:30 UTC.
We have a winner! The OSIRIS-REx asteroid's name is: Bennu!
We received more than 8000 entries from all over the world in the Name That Asteroid contest, and we can finally announce the winner. The asteroid formerly known as 1999 RQ36 is now formally named (101955) Bennu, for a heron associated with the Egyptian god Osiris.
Aurora Happening Now! (May 1, 11:00 ACST)
The Australian IPS has just issued an aurora alert for high latitudes. Confirmed aurora have been reported in Tasmania (see this image just sent through), but the rising Moon may interfere with observing aurora.Look to the south for unusual coloured glows. Best bets to see something are dark sky sites.
Southern Skywatch is 15! (and the May, 2013 edition is now out)
Partial Eclipse as seen from Cairns at maximum eclipse, 8:48 am AEST on May 10.Southern Skywatch is 15! Well, 15 and a bit. The first edition was produced on 1 April 1998. It seems like only yesterday that I started.The original inspiration...Show More Summary
NASA uses Soyuz deal to push for commercial crew funding
On Tuesday, NASA announced it had extended a deal with the Russian space agency Roscosmos to provide crew transportation services to and from the International Space Station. The deal covers bringing six astronauts up to the ISS in 2016 and rescue and return services through 2017. The price: $424 million, or about $70 million per [...]
Astronomers warn about NASA planetary funding cuts
When President Obama spoke Monday at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, to mark that institution’s sesquicentennial, space got only the briefest of cameos in his address, and even that managed to rub some scientists and space activists the wrong way. “Today, all around the country, scientists like you are developing therapies to regenerate [...]
End of the University Part II/III : online education
Oh dear. Everybody knows you should never write Paper I unless you really are going to do Papers II, III etc. Posterity looks unkindly on failed pomposity. Back in November I wrote End of the University : Part I which was about the Browne report and a naive approach to “student choice”. I think perhaps [...]
Six years after zero-G flight, Stephen Hawking is still up for a space trip
It's been six long years since world-famous physicist Stephen Hawking got a taste of weightlessness during a zero-G airplane flight from NASA's Kennedy Space Center — but he still wants to feel the real deal aboard Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane.
The 71-ye …
2011 HM???: A new companion for Neptune
This month my latest paper made it to print in the Astronomical Journal. It's a short piece that describes a serendipitous discovery that my collaborators and I made while searching for a distant Kuiper Belt Object for the New Horizons spacecraft to visit after its 2015 Pluto flyby.
Space station skipper gives Canada's new $5 bill an out-of-this-world debut
Canada's new printed-polymer $5 bill has received the country's highest sendoff, altitude-wise, from International Space Station commander Chris Hadfield. Tuesday's ceremony in space was just the latest in a series of achievements that have drawn attention to Canada's best-known …
American Astronomical Society Criticizes NASA Planetary Science Budget
The AAS made a strong critique of proposed cuts to NASA's Planetary Science program today.
NASA's LADEE can help us understand other worlds
Earth’s atmosphere is critically important to all of us. In addition to providing us with air to breathe, it protects us from temperature extremes, harmful space radiation, and vast numbers of incoming meteoroids. read more
The Sky This Week - Thursday May 2 to Thursday May 9
The Last Quarter Moon is Thursday May 2. Full Moon is Friday May 10 and there is an annular solar eclipse on this day. Jupiter is low in the early evening sky. Saturn is high in the evening skies. Mercury is lost to sight. Eta Aquariid meteor shower mornings April 7-9. Show More Summary
Annular Solar Eclipse, May 10, 2013
Partial Eclipse as seen from Adelaide at maximum eclipse, 8:18 am ACST. Simulated in Celestia. Partial Eclipse as seen from Cairns at maximum eclipse, 8:48 am AEST. Partial Eclipse as seen from Hobart at maximum eclipse, 8:59 am AEST. Show More Summary
Who knew a monstrous Saturnian hurricane could look so lovely?
The eye of a super-hurricane at Saturn's north pole looks like a peaceful red rose in a fresh bouquet of pictures from NASA's Cassini orbiter. But don't be fooled: That rosy appearance is merely due to the false colors ascribed to infrared wavelengths. This storm's eye measures 1 …
Billionaire Richard Branson can't wait for his own SpaceShipTwo trip
British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin companies operate airplanes and trains, sell music and phones, offer games and radio shows. He's an adventurer who has flown balloons over oceans, has swum with sharks and whales, and has even started up his own ocean exploration ventu …
- Hubble Space Telescope
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- SpaceX Dragon
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- Neil Armstrong
- NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
- NASA
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- Saturn
