[SEE HIGH RES IMAGE] A quintet of Saturn’s moons come together in the Cassini spacecraft’s field of view for this portrait. Janus (179 kilometers, or 111 miles across) is on the far left. Pandora (81 kilometers, or 50 miles across) orbits between the A ring and the thin F ring near the middle of the […]
How would you change the course of an Earth-threatening asteroid? One idea – a massive spacecraft that uses gravity as a towline – is illustrated in this dramatic artist’s view of a gravitational tractor in action. In the hypothetical scenario worked out in 2005 by Edward Lu and Stanley Love at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, […]
Click here for high-resolution image. From fresh rover tracks to an impact crater blasted billions of years ago, a newly completed view from the panoramic camera on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the ruddy terrain where the voyaging robot spent the Martian winter. This scene, recorded from the mast-mounted color camera includes the rover’s […]
Magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 4565 is viewed edge-on from planet Earth. Also known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile, bright NGC 4565 is a stop on many telescopic tours of the northern sky, in the faint but well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. This sharp, colorful image reveals the galaxy’s bulging central core cut by […]
Humanity’s robot orbiting Saturn has recorded yet another amazing view. That robot, of course, is the spacecraft Cassini, while the new amazing view includes a bright moon, thin rings, oddly broken clouds, and warped shadows. Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, appears above as a featureless tan as it is continually shrouded in thick clouds. The rings […]
You wake up one morning and discover that the only safeguard standing between you and impending death has been obliterated. Death is coming. It is relentless and swift. You have three weeks remaining. Suddenly, years lose their meaning. Every second counts. How will you spend them? This is the scenario constructed in Seeking a Friend […]
A 100 kilometer-wide crater has been found in Greenland. The 3 billion year old impact crater – the result of a massive asteroid or comet impact – was found near the Maniitsoq region of West Greenland. The image above is an artist’s interpretation of how a large meteorite impact into the sea might have looked […]
Who will protect us from a killer asteroid? A team of ex-NASA astronauts and scientists thinks it’s up to them. In a bold plan unveiled Thursday, the group wants to launch its own space telescope to spot and track small and mid-sized space rocks capable of wiping out a city or continent. With that information, […]
The glare of Alpha Centauri, one of the brightest stars in planet Earth’s night sky, floods the left side of this southern skyscape. A mere 4.3 light-years distant, Alpha Centauri actually consists of two component stars similar in size to the Sun, locked in a mutual orbit. Much smaller and cooler, a third member of […]
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said he felt “called” to leave the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), or Mormon Church, to join the Catholic Church in a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Rubio – who is currently being considered as a vice presidential nominee by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who […]
