Apocalypse watch: The countdown to Sept. 28 has begun

Apocalypse watch: The countdown to Sept. 28 has begun

With the “blood moon” or total lunar eclipse expected to occur on Sept 28, the debate if the apocalyptic predictions that it is the end of the world would happen is once more resurrected barely three years after the Mayan calendar did. On one hand, NASA had issued a statement that the blood moon would […]

Comet dust over central Texas

Comet dust over central Texas

[CLICK ON IMAGE FOR HIGH RESOLUTION, Jared Tennant Dusty debris from periodic Comet Swift-Tuttle was swept up by planet Earth this week. Vaporized by their passage through the dense atmosphere at 59 kilometers per second, the tiny grains produced a stream of Perseid meteors. A bright, colorful Perseid meteor flash was captured during this 20 […]

Cosmic cherry tree from space mystifies Japanese priests, researchers

Cosmic cherry tree from space mystifies Japanese priests, researchers

A cosmic mystery is uniting monks and scientists in Japan after a tree grown from a cherry stone that orbited the Earth for eight months bloomed years earlier than expected — and with very surprising flowers. The four-year-old sapling — grown from a cherry pit that spent time onboard the International Space Station (ISS) — […]

Gravitational tow truck for world-shattering asteroids

Gravitational tow truck for world-shattering asteroids

How would you change the course of an Earth-threatening asteroid? One possibility – a massive spacecraft that uses gravity as a towline – is illustrated in this artist’s vision (Dan Durda (FIAAA, B612 Foundation)) of a gravitational tractor in action. In the hypothetical scenario worked out in 2005 by Edward Lu and Stanley Love at […]

An apocalypse that wiped out the dinosaur threat to us humans

An apocalypse that wiped out the dinosaur threat to us humans

The demise of the dinosaurs is the world’s ultimate whodunit. Was it a comet or asteroid impact? Volcanic eruptions? Climate change? In an attempt to resolve the issue, scientists at the Berkeley Geochronology Center (BGC), the University of California, Berkeley, and universities in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have now determined the most precise […]