|
|
Subject | December Articles Date & Title |
---|---|
Planetary Exploration | December 30: Parachuting to Titan - Get ready for two of the strangest hours in the history of space exploration. That's how long it will take the Huygens probe to parachute to the surface of Saturn's mysterious moon Titan. |
Looking Up | December 22: Christmas Moon - A special full moon will brighten the nights around Christmas. |
Interstellar Matter | December 17: A Breeze from the Stars - This week the Sun is in the 13th house of the zodiac, and that means Earth is getting hit by a strange breeze from beyond the solar system. |
Fundamental Biology | December 10: Why do Workouts Work? - Most machines don't improve with use. Old pickup trucks don't gradually become Ferraris just by driving them fast, and a pocket calculator won't change into a supercomputer by crunching lots of numbers. The human body is different... |
Looking Up | December 06: The 2004 Geminid Meteor Shower - The best meteor shower of 2004 peaks on Dec. 13th. |
Subject | November Articles Date & Title |
---|---|
Looking Up | November 29: The Moon Eclipses Jupiter - Mark your calendar. On Tuesday, Dec. 7th, about an hour before sunrise, the crescent Moon will eclipse Jupiter. |
Earth Science | November 15: The Rise and Fall of the Mayan Empire - NASA scientists are using space satellites to unravel one of the great mysteries of the ancient world. The long-lost secrets they're discovering could help modern people in Central America avoid the fate of the Maya. |
Looking Up | November 02: Spellbinding Planets - You won't want to miss this: Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, will be beautifully close together just before sunrise on Thursday, Nov. 4th, and Friday, Nov. 5th. |
Subject | October Articles Date & Title |
---|---|
Fundamental Biology | October 28: Tumbleweeds in the Bloodstream - Tiny sensors, shaped like tumbleweed and small enough to fit inside a blood vessel, might one day ride to space inside astronauts' bodies, warning the space travelers when radiation is damaging their cells. |
Fundamental Biology | October 22: Blinding Flashes - Years after exposure to space radiation, many astronauts' vision becomes clouded by cataracts. Understanding why may shed light on cataracts suffered by elderly people. |
Looking Up | October 19: A Magical Morning - Would you like to see a piece of Halley's Comet streak past a planet that looks like an exploding star? This week you can, on Thursday, Oct. 21st, when the Orionid meteor shower peaks. |
Space Weather | October 18: Solar Minimum is Coming - Something strange happened on the sun last week: all the sunspots vanished. This is a sign, say forecasters, that solar minimum is coming sooner than expected. |
Lunar Eclipse | October 13: Total Lunar Eclipse - On Wednesday night, Oct. 27th, North Americans can see a total eclipse of the moon. |
NASA Technology | October 06: Electronic Nose - NASA researchers are developing an exquisitely sensitive artificial nose for space exploration. |
Subject | September Articles Date & Title |
---|---|
Interstellar Matter | September 27: Shields Up! - A stream of interstellar helium atoms almost as hot as the surface of the Sun is blowing through the solar system. |
Jupiter | September 14: Beware: Io Dust - Jupiter's moon Io is shooting tiny volcanic projectiles at passing spacecraft. |
Astrobiology | September 10: Secrets of a Salty Survivor - A microbe from the Dead Sea may hold the key to protecting astronauts from one of the greatest threats they would face during a mission to Mars: space radiation. |
Looking Up | September 09: Morning Planets - The morning sky this weekend is sparkling. Wake up early to see Mercury, Venus, Saturn and more. |
Meteors | September 03: Genesis Reentry - On September 8th, a daylight fireball will streak across the western United States. It's Genesis, returning samples of the Sun to Earth. |
Fundamental Physics | September 02: Gentlemen, start your gyros! - Four months after launch, NASA's Gravity Probe B spacecraft has begun its search for an elusive space-time vortex around Earth. |
Subject | August Articles Date & Title |
---|---|
Fundamental Biology | August 27: The Pathway Less Traveled - Altered gravity plays an unexpected role in obesity and weight loss. |
Fundamental Biology | August 19: Have Blood, Will Travel - The radiation astronauts encounter in deep space could put vital blood-making cells in jeopardy. |
Space Station | August 16: Soldering Surprise - There's nothing routine about working in space, as astronaut Mike Fincke found out recently when he did some soldering onboard the International Space Station. |
Looking Up | August 09: Horseflies and Meteors - Like bugs streaking colorfully down the side window of a moving car, Earthgrazing Perseid meteors could put on a pleasing show after sunset on August 11th. |
Subject | July Articles Date & Title |
---|---|
Living in Space | July 23: Spinning Brains - One day, astronauts could zip across the solar system in spinning spaceships. How will their brains adapt to life onboard a twirling home where strange "Coriolis forces" rule? |
Earth and Moon | July 20: What Neil & Buzz Left on the Moon - A cutting-edge Apollo 11 science experiment left behind in the Sea of Tranquility is still running today. |
Solar Weather | July 13: Voyager 1, Prepare for Action - At the outer limits of our solar system, a solar shock wave is about to overtake NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft. |
Planetary Exploration | July 09: Saturn Hailstorm - When Cassini reached Saturn On June 30th, it dashed through a gap in Saturn's rings, twice. One of onboard science instruments recorded a flurry of ring-dust harmlessly striking the spacecraft. |
Looking Up | July 07: Blue Moon - There's a Blue Moon coming on July 31st. But will it really be blue? Believe it or not, scientists say blue-colored moons are real. |
Planetary Exploration | July 04: Titan's Surface Revealed - Piercing the smog enshrouding Titan, new images from Cassini reveal an exotic surface covered with a variety of materials. |
Subject | June Articles Date & Title |
---|---|
Looking Up | June 25: The 2004 Perseid Meteor Shower - Meteoroids in space since the Civil War will spice up this summer's Perseid meteor shower. |
Robots | June 21: Whatever happened to ... Virtual Reality? - Twenty years after the first wave of hype, VR is making a comeback in NASA laboratories. |
Fundamental Physics | June 16: Mob Rules - An experiment onboard the International Space Station is helping physicists decipher the group behavior of atoms and molecules. |
NASA Technology | June 10: Bacterial Integrated Circuits - By interfacing bacteria to silicon chips, NASA-supported researchers have created a device that can sense almost anything. |
Looking Up | June 02: The Transit of Venus: North American Viewer's Guide - The 2004 Transit of Venus will be visible from eastern parts of North America on June 8th. |
Subject | May Articles Date & Title |
---|---|
Looking Up | May 28: James Cook and the Transit of Venus - The best reason to watch the 2004 transit of Venus across the Sun is history. |
Earth Science | May 21: Why so Dry? - The western United States is facing another long, dry summer. But why? What causes droughts? Are they predictable? NASA scientists are using data from space to unravel the mystery. |
NASA Technology | May 18: Waste Not - NASA-supported researchers are working to develop a fuel cell that can extract electricity from human waste. |
NASA Technology | May 14: The Electric Border Collie - Using electric fields, NASA-supported researchers are learning to herd microbes for the benefit of astronauts and Homeland Security. |
Life in the Universe | May 13: Extreme Ecosystem - Microbiologists have found a community of extreme-loving microbes working together to survive at the bottom of California's Mono Lake. |
International Space Station | May 12: Jupiter and the Space Station - The International Space Station makes a series of bright passes over the USA this week. On May 13th it will eclipse the planet Jupiter. |
Fundamental Physics | May 06: Was Galileo Wrong? - Could one of the fundamental assumptions of modern physics be wrong? A group of NASA-supported researchers are going to find out by bouncing laser beams off the Moon. |
Looking Up | May 03: UFO Planet - The planet Venus, so bright it is often mistaken for an alien spaceship, reaches maximum brilliance this week. Through a small telescope or a good pair of binoculars, Venus looks like a beautiful crescent. |
Subject | April Articles Date & Title |
---|---|
Fundamental Physics | April 26: A Pocket of Near-Perfection - Right now, one of the most precise physics experiments ever attempted is orbiting Earth: Gravity Probe B. Its builders have created "a pocket of near-perfection" inside the spacecraft where spinning gyroscopes can sense the twisting of spacetime around Earth. |
Earth Science | April 23: Keeping an Eye on Central America - NASA-supported researchers have developed software anyone can use to fly, video game-style, over Central America and survey its current environmental conditions. |
Looking Up | April 21: A Gathering of Planets: Part II - Four planets, six moons, Earthshine, lunar mountains, the phases of Venus, a planet-sized hurricane and Saturn's rings: you can see them all this week. |
Fundamental Physics | April 20: In Search of Gravitomagnetism - Gravity Probe B has left Earth to measure a subtle yet long-sought force of Nature. |
Planetary Astronomy | April 14: The Missing Moon of Sedna - Astronomers examining Hubble Space Telescope images of distant Sedna say the planetoid is even more mysterious than they first thought. |
NASA Technology | April 13: Resilient Rockets - Spacecraft and automobiles could benefit from a new NASA technology that protects the insides of scorching-hot engines. |
Fundamental Physics | April 09: Mystery in a Cup of Tea - Using odds and ends from the space station pantry, researchers have learned something new about fluid physics. |
NASA Technology | April 07: A Black Box for People - Developed by NASA for astronauts, a mouse-sized device called "the CPOD" does for people what black boxes do for airplanes. |
Earth Science | April 02: The Nameless Hurricane - Last week a surprising hurricane crashed into Brazil--surprising because hurricanes aren't supposed to be in that part of the world. What made this one different? |
Subject | March Articles Date & Title |
---|---|
Looking Up | March 31: Venus and the Pleiades - This weekend, the planet Venus will have a rare close encounter with the Pleiades star cluster. |
Fundamental Physics | March 26: Evicting Einstein - A physics experiment on the drawing board for the International Space Station could help find the grand unifying "Theory of Everything." |
Looking Up | March 19: A Gathering of Planets - The five brightest planets in the Solar System are gathering in the evening sky for a rare after-dark display. |
Solar Physics | March 17: Cold Peril: The Continuing Adventures of Ulysses - The NASA/ESA Ulysses spacecraft is perilously cold as it begins a newly extended mission to study the sun. |
Planetary Astronomy | March 15: Mysterious Sedna - Astronomers have discovered a strange planet-like body in the distant reaches of the solar system. |
Earth Science | March 12: Outbreak Alerts from Space - With the help of Earth-watching satellites, scientists can identify high-risk hot spots for deadly diseases before outbreaks strike. |
Climate Science | March 05: A Chilling Possibility - By disturbing a massive ocean current, melting Arctic sea ice might trigger colder weather in Europe and North America. |
Jupiter | March 03: A Close Encounter with Jupiter - This week, Earth and Jupiter are only 400 million miles apart--the nearest the two worlds will be all year. |
Mars Exploration | March 02: Meridiani Planum: "Drenched" - Long ago, parts of Mars were soaked in liquid water, say scientists analyzing data from NASA's Mars rover Opportunity. |
Subject | February Articles Date & Title |
---|---|
Life Science | February 25: Greenhouses for Mars - When humans go to the moon or Mars, they'll probably take plants with them. NASA-supported researchers are learning how greenhouses are going to work on other planets. |
Fundamental Biology | February 23: Microscopic Astronauts - It's unavoidable: Humans can't go to space without taking trillions of microbes with them. An experiment onboard the ISS aims to find out how bugs behave in orbit. |
Looking Up | February 20: Radio Storms on Jupiter - Giant Jupiter is a source of strange-sounding radio noises. Now anyone can listen to them using a NASA-sponsored audio stream on the Internet. |
Black Holes | February 18: Black Hole Mayhem - NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has caught a supermassive black hole in the act of ripping a star apart. |
Cosmic Rays | February 17: Can People Go to Mars? - Space radiation between Earth and Mars poses a hazard to astronauts. How dangerous is it out there? NASA scientists are working to find out. |
Fundamental Physics | February 12: A New Form of Matter: II - NASA-supported researchers have discovered a weird new phase of matter called fermionic condensates. |
Fundamental Biology | February 03: The Fruit Fly in You - NASA-supported researchers are going to send fruit flies to the International Space Station to learn what space travel does to the genes of astronauts. |
Subject | January Articles Date & Title |
---|---|
Mars Exploration | January 26: Interplanetary Hole in One - After traveling 300 million miles, Spirit's twin rover Opportunity landed on Mars in a small shallow crater--the perfect place to look for signs of ancient martian water. |
Fundamental Physics | January 23: Spooky Atomic Clocks - NASA-funded researchers are using a spooky property of quantum mechanics called "entanglement" to improve atomic clocks--humanity's most precise way to measure time. |
Mars Exploration | January 22: Destination: Meridiani Planum - On January 24, 2004, NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is scheduled to land on a Martian plain in search of evidence for water. |
Mars Exploration | January 20: Mars Mice - In 2006 a group of mice-astronauts will orbit Earth inside a spinning spacecraft. Their mission: to learn what its like to live on Mars. |
Comets | January 16: Stardust Surprise - When NASA's Stardust spacecraft flew by Comet Wild 2 earlier this month, the probe saw something that surprised astronomers. |
Mars Exploration | January 15: Spirit Rolls - NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit successfully drove off its lander platform and onto the soil of Mars early today. |
Earth Science | January 12: Storm Warnings - A new device onboard two NASA satellites could improve 3- to 12-hour forecasts of severe weather. |
Chandra X-ray Observatory | January 08: In Colliding Galaxies: Planetary Ore - NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered rich deposits of neon, magnesium, and silicon in a pair of colliding galaxies known as The Antennae. |
Mars Exploration | January 05: Spirit Hits the Sweet Spot - NASA's Mars rover Spirit has landed just where scientists hoped it would go: inside Gusev Crater, in a vast flatland perfect for roving. |