The Deadliest Place In the Solar System Is Beautiful [Space]

This is the deadliest place in the solar system, photographed as never before by NASA's new Solar Dynamics Observatory. It's one of the first humbling, terrifying, and beautiful images returned by the spacecraft. The video is equally impressive in HD:



SDO was launched on February in a five year mission to study the sun's magnetic field. Its image quality is ten times better that 1080p television, four times the resolution of the previous king of the Sun observers, the STEREO spacecraft.

The most spectacular sun view isn't the most spectacular anymore.

[Gizmodo via NASA]

Hubble Discovers God [NASA]

It's official: God exists. The Hubble caught Him out of his home, taking a walk on the Gemini constellation, about 5,000 light-years from Earth. Looking at His photo, God doesn't have a beard. Or maybe this isn't God.

In fact, NASA says that this image taken by the space telescope Hubble—which is turning 20 this year—is the Eskimo Nebula, NGC 2392. It began forming 10,000 years ago—which sounds about right because that's when God created Earth, as everybody knows. NGC 2392 was first discovered by William Herschel in 1787. In the middle you can see a dying star surrounded by some objects and gas.

The photography has been included in Hubble: A Journey Through Space and Time, a book published to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the space telescope.
[Gizmodo via Hubble: A Journey Through Space and Time]

Hubble confirms the accelerated expansion of the universe [Hubble]

Astronomers have been studying the results of the biggest survey ever conducted by the Hubble space telescope with an international team of scientists, led by Tim Schrabback of the Leiden Observatory and Ludovic Van Waerbeke of the University of British Columbia. The team has been poring over data covering more than 446,000 galaxies in the hopes to better understand cosmic expansion, using ground-based telescopes to compliment the data. What did they find? Not only is the universe getting larger, but it's getting larger at an accelerated rate.

The technique being used is called weak lensing, whereby astronomers study distortions to find out more about the characteristics of distant galaxies. The heart of the study has been on dark matter: 'Dark energy affects our measurements for two reasons,' the University of Bonn's Benjamin Joachimi said. "First, when it is present, galaxy clusters grow more slowly, and secondly, it changes the way the Universe expands, leading to more distant — and more efficiently lensed — galaxies. Our analysis is sensitive to both effects."

The study also calls back to Einstein, according to Martin Kilbinger from the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris: 'Our study also provides an additional confirmation for Einstein's theory of general relativity, which predicts how the lensing signal depends on redshift.'

As for the Hubble, its survey saw it circle the Earth 600 times, photograph the same area of the universe with a slight overlap 575 times, requiring 1,000 man hours of observation.

This clearer map, according to Harvard's William High, made all the difference: 'Before, most of the studies were done in 2D, like taking a chest X-ray. Our study is more like a 3D reconstruction of the skeleton from a CT scan. On top of that, we are able to watch the skeleton of dark matter mature from the Universe's youth to the present.'

[DVICE via spacetelescope.org via EurekAlert!]

Days Get Shorter Because of Chilean Earthquake [Science]

Apart from a colossal tsunami, here's another effect of the 66.6 exajoules liberated by this weekend's earthquake in Chile: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says that days will now be shorter because the quake shifted Earth's axis by three inches.

The change—which can only be measured thanks to computer models—will result in days that are 1.26 microseconds shorter than before. That's 0.00000126 seconds shorter. There may have been more visible changes, like islands changing its position. One of them, Santa María, may have raised two meters after the shattering land move.

This is not the first time this has happened, as every single earthquake has an effect on the planet's axis.
[Gizmodo via Business Week]

Hubble Detects Mysterious Spaceship-Shaped Object Traveling at 11,000MPH [Space]

Hubblehas discovered a mysterious X-shaped object traveling at 11,000mph. NASA says that P/2010-A2 may be a comet, product of the collision between two asteroids. Or a Klingon Bird of Prey. Either way, UCLA investigator David Jewitt is excited:
Click above to see the full resolution image

This is quite different from the smooth dust envelopes of normal comets. The filaments are made of dust and gravel, presumably recently thrown out of the nucleus. Some are swept back by radiation pressure from sunlight to create straight dust streaks. Embedded in the filaments are co-moving blobs of dust that likely originated from tiny unseen parent bodies.

OK, David, we will believe you until Jerry Bruckheimer finish his next movie, in which a 'comet' suddenly stops, turns to Earth, and starts firing anti-matter rays against our underpants.
The weirdest thing, however, is not only the prettyful X-shaped debris pattern, but the fact that its 460-foot-wide nucleus is outside the dust halo and separated from the trail. This behavior is something which has never been seen before in a comet or any other solar-system-swooshing object.

The images—taken by Hubble between January 25 and January 29—lead NASA to believe that this is a product of the collision of two asteroids. The nucleus would be the "surviving remnant of a hypervelocity collision:

'If this interpretation is correct, two small and previously unknown asteroids recently collided, creating a shower of debris that is being swept back into a tail from the collision site by the pressure of sunlight. The filamentary appearance of P/2010 A2 is different from anything seen in Hubble images of normal comets, consistent with the action of a different process.

In other words: They have no clue about what this is, and they are still speculating about how this object was formed. Maybe it's time to call Dr. Zarkov.
[Gizmodo via NASA]

Astronaut Posts First Real-Time Tweet from Space [Twitter]

Astronaut Mike Massimino, a.k.a. @Astro_Mike, may be credited with the first tweet from space, but technically it was “assisted,” and hence not live. Move over @Astro_Mike, @Astro_TJ just sent the first real-time tweet from space.

New software aboard the International Space State has made it possible to tweet live from space, and Astronaut Timothy Creamer wasted no time in sending the first digital message.
@Astro_TJ, as Creamer is known on Twitter, posted the first live update about eight hours ago while in orbit, saying: “Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station — the 1st live tweet from Space! More soon, send your ?s”
Of course live tweeting from space is pretty darn cool, but we’re even more impressed with the technology that NASA has employed to make the activity possible. The beauty is that the technology will also give astronauts the ability to use the web and connect with loved ones from space in a much more real-time fashion.
Here’s how NASA describes the new technology and what it means:

“This personal Web access, called the Crew Support LAN, takes advantage of existing communication links to and from the station and gives astronauts the ability to browse and use the Web. The system will provide astronauts with direct private communications to enhance their quality of life during long-duration missions by helping to ease the isolation associated with life in a closed environment.
During periods when the station is actively communicating with the ground using high-speed Ku-band communications, the crew will have remote access to the Internet via a ground computer. The crew will view the desktop of the ground computer using an onboard laptop and interact remotely with their keyboard touchpad.
Astronauts will be subject to the same computer use guidelines as government employees on Earth. In addition to this new capability, the crew will continue to have official e-mail, Internet Protocol telephone and limited videoconferencing capabilities.”

---

[Mashable]

NASA's Puffin Is a Stealthy, Personal Tilt-Rotor Aircraft [PopSci]

What's cooler than a hover-capable, electric-powered, super-quiet personal VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft? If you answered 'absolutely nothing,' do read on, because NASA is preparing to oblige you.
The space agency's Puffin aircraft design will be officially unveiled tomorrow, showing just how far personal, electrically propelled flight could change the ways we live and get around.

The Puffin is something of a personal V-22 Osprey, complete with vertical-takeoff and landing capability (but minus the squad of Marines). But rather than tilting the rotors forward for horizontal flight, the whole craft — cockpit and all — pitches forward, meaning the pilot flies from a prone position. During takeoff and landing the tail splits into four legs that serve as landing gear, and flaps on the wings deploy to keep the aircraft stable as it lifts and descends.

Don't let the cuddly name fool you; as far as specs are concerned the Puffin is no slouch. Its 12-feet height and 13.5-feet wingspan mean it's big, but of manageable stature. In theory it can cruise at 150 miles per hour and sprint at more like 300 miles per hour. Since the craft is electrically propelled it doesn't need air intake, so thinning air is not a limitation, meaning it can reach — again, in theory — 30,000 feet before limitations on battery power force it to descend (clearly the pilot would need a pressurized cabin or oxygen tanks at that altitude, but we're just talking raw physical capability here).

The Puffin's range would be the most limiting characteristic, at just 50 miles, but that's simply a matter of battery density. Batteries are growing more dense by the day, so in coming years that range could be drastically improved.

Of course, the Puffin is so far just a cool digital rendering in a NASA-branded video, but let's not forget exactly who put men on the moon before we call the concept unfeasible. The coolest thing about the Puffin design is that it shows just how electric flight could revolutionize personal transportation. Aside from the military applications (super-stealthy troop insertions with very low thermal signatures?) the quiet, uncomplicated, low-powered electric lift — just 60 horsepower gets pilot and craft airborne — shows how a world in which everyday folks get around modern cities via personal aircraft may not be as sci-fi as was once thought.


[Gizmodo via Scientific American]
Popular Science is your wormhole to the future. Reporting on what's new and what's next in science and technology, we deliver the future now.

Voyager Unveils the Mystery of the Interstellar Fluff from Hell [Space]

For years, astronomers have been puzzled by the fact that our solar system is crossing a cloud of interstellar hell. One that shouldn't be there at all. Intergalactic plot to keep us isolated or cosmic event? Voyager got the answer.

Using data from Voyager, we have discovered a strong magnetic field just outside the solar system. This magnetic field holds the interstellar cloud together—"The Fluff"—and solves the long-standing puzzle of how it can exist at all.
The Fluff is much more strongly magnetized than anyone had previously suspected. This magnetic field can provide the extra pressure required to resist destruction.
The Voyagers are not actually inside the Local Fluff. But they are getting close and can sense what the cloud is like as they approach it.

At least, that's what NASA's Heliophysics Guest Investigator from George Mason University Merav Opher says in the December 24 issue of Nature. I lean to the intergalactic plot to keep our primitive world from entering the Federation of Advanced Civilizations. That, or Ming of Mongo trying to crush our puny asses.
It's ironic how the whole thing works. Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere protects us from the Sun's magnetic field and radiation. Then, the Fluff is not destroying us thanks to the Sun's magnetic field and the solar winds, which is what form the 6.2-billion-mile-wide heliosphere. So my question is: Who protects the Fluff?
I will leave you with that. Go think, my little Earthlings, go.
[Gizmodo via NASA]

Unbelievable Hubble Shot Captures the Biggest "Star Nursery" Nearby [Space]

This absolutely gorgeous shot is the most detailed ever taken of what HubbleSite describes as the 'largest stellar nursery in our local galactic neighborhood.' Get ready to pick your jaw up off your lap.
In the words of experts who understand more about this stuff than 'OMG so pretty!':

The massive, young stellar grouping, called R136, is only a few million years old and resides in the 30 Doradus Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. There is no known star-forming region in our galaxy as large or as prolific as 30 Doradus. Many of the diamond-like icy blue stars are among the most massive stars known. Several of them are over 100 times more massive than our Sun. These hefty stars are destined to pop off, like a string of firecrackers, as supernovas in a few million years.

This shot (full, massive size can be found here) were taken between October 20th and 27th of this year by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. The blue lights are from the hottest, biggest stars, while the green is oxygen and the red is hydrogen. Whoa, you guys. Whoa. Check out this thread on Reddit for some desktop-wallpaper-scaled versions of the shot.
[Gizmodo via HubbleSite]

NASA Launches New Infrared Telescope to Capture Hidden Space Objects [Space]

NASA just launched the new Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, this morning. It'll be used to detect light- and heat-emitting objects that the Hubble might miss. Such as spaceships, I'll bet!!!
The WISE will be in orbit for the next nine months, snapping a photo every 11 seconds to map the entire universe in infrared. Eventually it'll cover the entire sky 1.5 times over.
It'll be looking for any objects that have a potential of hitting Earth as well as distant objects such as brown dwarfs and far-away galaxies shrouded in dust. Also, alien spacecraft. I mean, duh.
[Gizmodo via CNN, image Boston.com]

NASA developing an airbag for helicopters — for the entire 'copter [NASA]

NASA's "deployable energy absorber" may appear to be a couple of oversized sponges attached to the bottom of a helicopter, but you could be looking at a safety system that helps occupants survive a helicopter crash — or even any kind of air-to-ground impact.
It's a bit like an airbag for helicopters, one that NASA aerospace engineer Karen Jackson, one of the driving minds behind the project, said of the technology that she'd 'like to think the research we're doing is going to end up in airframes and will potentially save lives.'

Right now, though, things are still very early. The test you see in the video above is of a helicopter falling rather gently from a height of 35 feet. Even still, the dummies inside didn't look so stressed out after it. Wait — do crash dummies ever show signs of stress?

[DVICE via CNET]

Newly Discovered Hole On Moon Leads To Network Of Tubes [Space]

Images have revealed a hole on the Moon's surface that is at least 260 feet deep and may lead to an underground tunnel more than 1,200 feet wide which is part of an entire network of such winding tubes.
Scientists are hoping for clearer shots from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, but the impression so far is that such a tunnel network could provide shelter for astronauts or potential future Moon colonists.
I just plain wonder if they could combine it with the recent discovery of water for one kickass underground waterpark.
[Gizmodo via New Scientist via Pop Sci]

Missions to Mars Graphic Shows 52.4% Failure Rate [Data Visualization]

Mars. There has to be little green men with ACME weapons living there. Or we have some incredibly bad luck when it comes to sending spacecrafts to the Red Planet. Most of them fail, for one reason or the other.
Zoom in to enjoy the graphic in HD
Out of 42 missions, only 20 have succeeded. That's less than 50% chance of survival. And it gets worse: Of those, only eight were actually programmed to land on Mars, which is actually the theoretically difficult part.
While the success rate increased after 1971, I would be very nervous if I were a budding astronaut wanting to go up there—and still, I wish I was that astronaut. Better go in style while trying to reach the glory, than staying down here, slowly turning to dust. [Gizmodo via Shnelll via Fastcompany]

Ares I-X Rocket Unveiled, Rolls Out to Launch Pad [Space]

At last! The new Arex I-X rocket—the first iteration of the rocket that will take humans back to the Moon and beyond—is out of NASA's assembling facilities, and is now at Launch Pad 39B, getting ready for launch.
The assembled Ares I-X was mounted aboard NASA's sandcrawler at Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building at 1:39 a.m. It arrived at Launch Pad 39B around 7:45 a.m.
The Ares I-X will test the viability of the 100-meter high Ares I, NASA's tallest, most powerful rocket since the Saturn V. The Saturn V was ten meters higher than Ares, and it remains the biggest, most powerful rocket ever launched.
If everything goes well, Ares I-X will blast into the sky on October 27, reaching 40 kilometers up in the air, and sending vital information about its performance. The first stage, a solid rocket engine, will return to Earth. The dummy upper stage will fall down to the ocean.

Arex I-X is the first major milestone for the Constellation program, which in theory would take over the shuttle, and also bring humans back to the Moon and Mars. If el Sr. Presidente gives the go ahead, that is. At this point, the Constellation program is being evaluated by the Augustine Commission. Their final report, that will seal its fate, will be handed in to the White House this week.
In other words, enjoy this one while it lasts.
[Gizmodo via NASA]

Surfing Titan's waves in a nuclear-powered boat

Planning a trip to Titan, one of Saturn's moons? Well, you're going to want to go prepared. Why not bring along a nuclear-powered boat for sailing the seas of ethane, methane and propane?

That's what NASA-funded geologist Ellen Stofan suggests with her design, seen above. The Titan Mare Explorer (or TiME for short) uses nuclear power rather than solar power because the methane raine in Titan's atmosphere cuts down the suns rays considerably (as does the distance from the sun). It'll be powered by a new kind of nuclear power cell known as the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG). Cool! Be sure to send a postcard when you get there and let us know how the weather is.

[DVICE via Space via io9]

New Gigantic, Glowing Saturn Ring Discovered [Astronomy]

See that tiny dot in the middle of that ring? That's Saturn. And the newly-discovered glowing ring is 13.4 million miles in diameter. The proverbial 800-pound gorilla has been discovered by the Spitzer Space Telescope, leaving every single astronomer speechless.
The ring hasn't been discovered till now for because it's so diffuse that it reflects very little sunlight. That makes it undetectable by optical telescopes. The particles in it, however, glow with heat radiation, which was captured by the Spitzer's infrared instruments.
This image is an artist representation of what Spitzer's discovered, showing us, once again, that we are still bloody clueless when it comes to almost everything around us. I can't wait to see the actual image.
[Gizmodo via NASA]

New Videos Show Most Powerful Space Engine In Action [Space]

These beautifully stunning videos show the formidable power of the Ad Astra's VASIMR VX-200, the most powerful space engine in existence. Running at 1,800,000ºF, it looks like Satan opened the peephole of the doors of hell.

The plama engine was tested on September 30, breaking the 200kW maximum power milestone. According to the company, the design has exceeded the predicted performance by 25%. The VASIMR VX-200 has two electromagnetic stages: The first one runs at 32kW and generates plasma from Argon gas, while the second one uses the plasma to output an additional 168kW.


















This plasma engine will cut the need for massive amounts of fuel, taking down the current consumption of 7.5 tons of propellant per year—used in the shuttle and other spaceships—down to 0.3 tons. It will also be extremely fast, cutting down the travel to Mars from six months to just 39 days.
The VASIMR will be tested in late 2013 at the International Space Station. Hopefully those guys will pull the handbrake before they find themselves halfway to Saturn.
[Gizmodo via Universe Today—Thanks Gonzalo Oxenford]

NASA Can Now Create Objects Using Electron Beams [Manufacturing]

Instead of using traditional 3D manufacturing, NASA has developed an electron beam fabrication system capable of creating any object. And hey, if it uses electron beams that means it's awesome, no matter what.

The new method, called Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication (EBF3), uses the electron beam to melt raw material inside a vacuum. The beam can create any mechanical part you want for a small fraction of the cost of previous methods:

Normally an aircraft builder might start with a 6,000-pound block of titanium and machine it down to a 300-pound part, leaving 5,700 pounds of material that needs to be recycled and using several thousand gallons of cutting fluid used in the process.
With EBF3 you can build up the same part using only 350 pounds of titanium and machine away just 50 pounds to get the part into its final configuration. And the EBF3 process uses much less electricity to create the same part.

NASA says that this method will not only help aircraft manufacturers on Earth, but also astronauts, who may one day use it to make replacing parts during missions in remote bases. [Gizmodo via NASA]

Water On The Moon

For all you space buffs who like to keep track of where the water is, it looks like you can add our very own moon to your list. Because according to a trio of papers appearing in the journal Science , the lunar surface is wetter than we realized. [More]

[Scientific American]

NASA lights up the East Coast

East Coasters, did you see any weird clouds Saturday night? Some people did as the event caused reports and calls from Boston all the way down the coast to Florida. But you have nothing to fear, the aliens from Independence Day didn’t make them, NASA did.
By using the exhaust particles from the fourth stage of a NASA Black Brant XII suborbital sounding rocking, NASA briefly created noctilucent clouds which are also known as night-shining clouds. These are the highest clouds naturally found on Earth and are normally found around 50 miles above Earth at high latitudes. NASA conducted this test not only to spark a bit of hysteria, but also to study the effect of rocket exhaust in the upper atmosphere. We just think that NASA likes to remind everyone that they are still around.
[photo credit: Space.com & Veres Viktor]