Apr 24, 2011 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Book Reviews, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, NASA, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space and Science, Space Research, Why Space
Exoplanets, Edited by Sara Seager; University of Arizona Press; Tucson, Arizona; $35.00 (Cloth); 2011. The editor of this volume, Sara Seager, is the Ellen Swallow Richards Professor of Planetary Science and Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of...
Apr 21, 2011 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, NASA, Planet Earth, Space and Science
Atmospheric sciences professor Stephen Nesbitt, left, and graduate student Daniel Harnos analyzed passive microwave satellite data to identify telltale structural rings in tropical storms that are about to intensify into hurricanes. Photo courtesy Univ. of Illinois/L....
Apr 19, 2011 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, International Cooperation, NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science, The Sun
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has been used to monitor the birth of a sunspot over a period of eight hours. Researchers at the University of Central Lancashire made use of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to observe the growth of the sunspot. How sunspots...
Apr 11, 2011 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Commercial Space, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, Space Race, Space Tourism, Spaceports
The call is out for astronaut-pilots to fly passengers on suborbital treks. Credit: Virgin Galactic Wanted: Pilot-Astronauts! The call is out from the private spaceliner group, Virgin Galactic, regarding its need for pilot-astronauts. Bankrolled by the UK’s Sir...
Apr 9, 2011 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Book Reviews, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, Space Race
Credit: Walker & Company Starman – The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony; Walker & Company, New York; $16.00 (Paperback); May 1, 2011. Despite the historic nature of the first voyage of a human in Earth orbit five...
Apr 8, 2011 | Blog, Education Station, Exploration, International Cooperation, Kids Space, NASA, Space Shuttle
Credit: Yuri’s Night An around-the-globe salute to human spaceflight is set for next week, April 12th. That date — 50 years ago — marks the first flight of a human into Earth orbit, the then Soviet Union’s cosmonaut – Yuri Gagarin, back on April 12,...
Apr 6, 2011 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Comets, Education Station, Exploration, International Cooperation, International Space Station, Kids Space, Mars, NASA, Space and Science
Space station research includes experiments to help look for life elsewhere. Credit: NASA The nearly complete International Space Station (ISS) is a research hub for various disciplines – including astrobiology and the search for life elsewhere. Gerda Horneck of the...
Apr 3, 2011 | Blog, China, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, Space Race, The Moon
Sinus Iridum: Possible landing site for China’s first robotic Moon rover. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University China space officials have announced that the Chang’e-2’s primary mission has been completed. The Moon orbiter has been on duty for some six...
Mar 29, 2011 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, NASA, Space and Science, The Sun
Credit: Jason Rowe – NASA/Kepler Mission NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has been on the prowl since 2009, busily sweeping space with a special photometer. That high-tech device continuously monitors the brightness of over 145,000 main sequence stars in a fixed field...
Mar 28, 2011 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Book Reviews, Education Station, Exploration, Hubble Space Telescope, International Cooperation, Kids Space, Mars, NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science, The Moon, The Sun, Why Space
Strange New Worlds – The Search for Alien Planets…and Life Beyond Our Solar Systemby Ray Jayawardhana ; Princeton University Press; Princeton, New Jersey; $24.95; (hard cover) March 2011. This delightful and engaging book tells the story of humankind’s quest to locate...