Who Owns Space History? In Lovell’s case, the checklist is so valuable because it contains Lovell’s hand written calculations he used to navigate the crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft after its
The Rings of Pluto In the distant outer Solar System, rings are nearly ubiquitous. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune all have rings, leaving Pluto as the only outer planet without
11 Solar Systems and 26 New Planets Found! NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered 11 new planetary systems - hosting 26 confirmed planets. These discoveries nearly double the number of verified planets and triple the number of stars known to have more than one planet that transits, or passes in front of, the star.
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Astronomy Without A Telescope As hobbies go, astronomy has a tough reputation. Too hard, too expensive is what I often hear. The problem is simply that people often start on the wrong foot. In particular, they imagine that the way to start is to buy a telescope. Wrong! The easiest and best way into astronomy is act
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Voice of ‘Lost in Space’ Robot Dies Will Robinson is on his own when he gets out of “danger” from now on. Dick Tufeld, whose vocal talents gave life to the Robot on the 1960s sci-fi classic “Lost in Space,” died at his home in Studio City, Calif., on Sunday. The 85-year-old passed away while watchi
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Space Adventures Planning For Lunar Tourism Eric Anderson, 37, is the founder of Space Adventures, a company that acts as the middleman for rich people who want to go to space and the Russian space program that sells the seats on the Soyuz rockets. Air & Space Magazine profiles Anderson and tells what it took
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NASA’s Manned Mission to Venus Scrubbed In the mid-1960s, before any Apollo hardware had flown with a crew, NASA was looking ahead and planning its next major programs. It was a bit of a challenge. After all, how do you top landing a man on the Moon? Not wanting to start from scratch, NASA focused on possible missi
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Star Changes Into An Incredible Diamond Planet Located about 4,000 light years away towards the Serpens (Serpent) constellation there is a small diamond planet that orbits so close to a pulsar that its gravity should really rip it apart. How can a star change into a diamond planet? Astronomical discoveries show that
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Rockets of the Future? Chances are you own a smart phone or some kind of electronic device with capabilities that would stun even an Apple engineer from ten years ago. We've come to expect that technology advances at a mind-boggling pace, but just how far has rocket technology advanced in say, the past three decad
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Largest Solar Radiation Storm Since 2003 Now isn't this interesting! I appeared on the ABC's program 'Star Stuff' a year or so back and made an announcement that the upcoming solar max and the period leading up to it would probably be the most violent in 100 years. I found out later that the convener of this thi
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Our Astronomy Nights Still Thrill. Last Tuesday night we had a fantastic night! A large crowd of people from 4 states and one overseas visitor enjoyed a 90 minute presentation and astro viewing by Astro Dave at our regular venue, the conference room at the Village Resort complex in Port Macquarie. Our new intr
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Ten Cool Moon Facts Think you know everything there is to know about the Moon? Think again! Here are 10 interesting facts about the Moon. Some you might already know, and some will be totally new to you. Enjoy! 1. The Moon formed out of the Earth Scientists now think that the Moon was formed when a Mars-sized objec
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Earth Probably Has Two Moons As residents of Earth, we've grown accustomed to having just one moon. Let Saturn and its 62 moons be the solar system's showboat; that just leaves us on this planet to enjoy our single natural satellite all the more. Or so we thought. According to a new study by an international team o
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NASA Designing a Comet Harpoon Comets are a source of endless fascination for astronomers. Those frozen balls of ice and dust could hold key information about the origin of the planets in our solar system, and of life itself. That might explain why NASA s cientists are developing a giant harpoon, intended to be
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What Happens When The Sun Dies? Our solar system is about 4.6 billion years old, counting from the time the Sun fully developed onwards. Still, someday, things will change, and the Sun will eventually reach the end of its burning cycle. Researchers now explain what will happen next. Our parent star is a massive
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Hotel/Space Package ... For A Price Imagine out of a tiny porthole in one glance being able to see the continents of Africa, Europe, and North America--at the same time. Imagine being able to cover your eye’s view of the planet Earth with one finger. Imagine being able to see the sun rise 15 times in one day, whil
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What To Do When Stuff Falls From The Sky In the past six months, it seems something has fallen from the sky every second minute. In September, the UARS satellite re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, causing a media frenzy. In October, the German satellite Rosat re-entered, with much less fanfare. Before Christmas,
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Proposal Would Keep Calendar Same Every Year Each year, Jan. 1 falls on a different day of the week, and the entire following year shifts accordingly. Schools, sports teams, businesses and banks spend many hours and millions of dollars calculating on what day of the week certain dates will fall, to schedule holida
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