Mar 5, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science, Space Research, Why Space
Europa is an icy moon of Jupiter – and may well be an astrobiology target of a future spacecraft mission. Thanks to NASA’s Galileo mission, that spacecraft showed Europa to be covered with a veneer of ice, a cracked façade that may cover a global ocean over 60 miles...
Feb 27, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education Station, European Space Agency, Exploration, International Cooperation, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Kids Space, NASA, Planet Earth, Space and Science, Space Research, The Sun
An international effort including Europe, the United States and Japan is focused on protecting the global satellite network from Sun-driven space weather. Satellites can be damaged by high energy charged particles in the Earth’s radiation belts, and during solar...
Feb 19, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, International Cooperation, Kids Space, Multimedia, NASA, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space Research, Why Space
The count is impressive! The search for exoplanets — planets beyond our own solar system — has taken off over the last decade. A huge tip of the celestial hat goes to NASA’s Kepler mission that was launched in 2009. This mission, encompassing a 100-member...
Feb 14, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Book Reviews, Education Station, Kids Space, Multimedia, NASA, Planet Earth, Space and Science, Why Space
A new PBS NOVA TV special offers a revealing look at Planet Earth thanks to an armada of space-based assets. Earth from Space has been produced in extensive consultation with NASA scientists, making extensive use of data gleaned by Earth-observing satellites This...
Feb 12, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Asteroid Exploration, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, International Cooperation, Kids Space, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space and Science
The up-coming close flyby of asteroid DA14 is stirring up considerable attention. On Friday, Feb. 15, the 50-meter-wide asteroid DA14 will pass within 17,000 miles of Earth, closer than a typical communications satellite. This space rock, if it were to impact our...
Feb 6, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Asteroid Exploration, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, NASA, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space and Science
It’s coming to a sky near you – a late Valentine’s Day gift from the heavens! On February 15, a small asteroid is flying by within 18,000 miles of Earth. The asteroid, known as 2012 DA14, was discovered last year and is roughly the size of a school gymnasium (130 to...
Jan 29, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, Mars, NASA, Space and Science
Yet more data about the Red Planet boosts the idea that the subsurface environment on Mars once had an active hydrology and could be a good place to search for evidence of past life. Using high-resolution images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, networks of...
Jan 25, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Augustine Committee, Blog, Commercial Space, Education Station, Exploration, International Cooperation, International Space Station, Space Shuttle, NASA, Kids Space, NASA, Space Shuttle, Why Space
In a special program sponsored by the Baker Institute, noted space policy experts reviewed the present status and future of NASA and the U.S. civil space program, as well as the need for a definitive national civil space policy. This event was held Jan 24, 2013 and...
Jan 22, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Asteroid Exploration, Blog, Book Reviews, Comets, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, NASA, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space and Science, Why Space
Near-Earth Objects – Finding Them Before They Find Us by Donald K. Yeomans; Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey; $24.95; 2013. This is a superb book that brings the reader up-to-speed on those menacing denizens of the deep – Near Earth Objects, or...
Jan 19, 2013 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, Multimedia, Planet Earth, Space and Science, Space Research
Space clutter and what to do about this menacing problem will demand creative solutions. Texas A&M Aerospace Engineering Professor Daniele Mortari, and his Ph.D. student Jonathan Missel, are developing a new and imaginative concept that reinvents the way the...