Esther Dyson: Tales of Cosmonaut Training
Dec 31, 2009 Space
What’s a nice lady like you doing in (a) space like this? Esther Dyson tells tales of her cosmonaut training. Recently returned from five months at the Yuri Gagarain Cosmonaut Training Center outside Moscow, she comes equipped with photos and stories – and a willingness to answer questions.
Voyager 2 on a ‘magic mission’ beyond Milky Way
Dec 31, 2009 Space
Holiday tidings come from NASA’s Voyager 2 this week, offering a view of deep space beyond our sun’s solar system. “This is a magic mission,” says space scientist Merav Opher of George Mason University. in Fairfax, Va.. “After all these years, Voyager 2 is still working and sending us first hand (on-site) data.”
Dec. 30, 1924: Hubble Reveals We Are Not Alone
Dec 31, 2009 Space
Edwin Hubble was born in Missouri in 1889 and moved to Chicago in 1898. In high school, he broke the state record in the high jump, and went on to play basketball for the University of Chicago.
Moon Rising (PICS)
Dec 31, 2009 Space
Moons as big as the one in the iconic scene from E.T are not only the preserve of Hollywood’s trousers. Today’s photographers are also able to capture the Earth’s satellite as it rises into the sky at such sizes.
Russia may Send Spaceship to Knock Asteroid Off Earth-Threat
Dec 31, 2009 Space
Earth could be in peril from a large asteroid and the only solution may be to send a spacecraft to knock it off its path, head of Russia’s space agency said. This counters U.S. NASA’s revised view that the asteroid is highly unlikely to hit earth.
Space Probe Gets Halfway to Pluto in Record Time
Dec 31, 2009 Space
The fastest man-made object ever built, the Pluto-bound New Horizons probe, is now closer to the former planet than Earth, just a little under four years.
Blue moon to shine on New Year’s Eve
Dec 31, 2009 Space
It happens only once in a blue moon — and scientists say a blue moon is exactly what we’ll see in the skies this New Year’s Eve.
The Pluto Files: The World Will Not End in 2012
Dec 31, 2009 Space
Neil deGrasse Tyson, the bestselling author and director of the world-famous Hayden Planetarium, chronicles America’s irrational love affair with Pluto, man’s best celestial friend, and explains the OBVIOUS reason why the world will not end on December 21, 2012.
Shuttle Flights Down to Final Five
Dec 31, 2009 Space
The space shuttle program is due to end in 2010, but the fleet has a lot left to do. After 29 years of space shuttle flights, NASA plans to wrap up the program with five missions to complete construction of the International Space Station and retire the fleet before the end of 2010.
Do Black Holes Create New Universes?
Dec 31, 2009 Space
Lee Smolin is author of “the fecund universes theory” of cosmology which suggests that the rules of biology apply on the grandest scales, and is often referred to as “cosmological natural selection”. The theory surmises that a collapsing black hole causes the emergence of a new universe on the “other side”.