Nov 9, 2010 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science
NASA’s New Horizons is more than half-way to an encounter with distant Pluto. Launched in January 2006, the spacecraft today enters its next wakeup period from hibernation. According to New Horizon’s principal investigator, Alan Stern, the main purpose of the 10-day...
Nov 4, 2010 | Blog, Education Station, Exploration, NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science
NASA’s EPOXI mission has flown by comet Hartley 2 today, producing staggering images of the object. “This is a day that scientists live for,” said JPL scientist, Don Yeomans, an asteroid and comet expert. More than one jet was caught shooting out from the comet, he...
Nov 3, 2010 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, International Cooperation, NASA, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space and Science, Why Space
If you’re concerned about incoming asteroids smacking into the Earth, now you can calculate ahead of time the calamity a comet or space rock would cause if it hit our home planet. Researchers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana have unveiled Impact:...
Nov 3, 2010 | Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science
NASA’s EPOXI mission is closing in on its target – comet Hartley2. The spacecraft is to fly within 700 kilometers (435 miles) of the comet’s nucleus on Thursday, November 4. Closest approach of comet Hartley 2 is expected to occur at roughly 9:50 am EDT, 6:50 am PDT)....
Nov 1, 2010 | Blog, Education Station, Exploration, NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science
NASA’s EPOXI mission is set for an up close and personal look at comet Hartley 2 on Thursday, November 4. Cameras onboard the mission spacecraft will get within 700 kilometers (that’s about 435 miles!) of the comet. The name EPOXI itself is a combination of the...
Oct 26, 2010 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, International Cooperation, NASA, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space and Science
If a medium-sized asteroid smacked into deep ocean waters here on Earth, what are the consequences? Elisabetta Pierazzo, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) in Tucson, has some bad news. An asteroid crashing into the deep ocean could have...
Oct 17, 2010 | Blog, Book Reviews, Education Station, Exploration, Kids Space, NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science
From Jars to the Stars – How Ball Came to Build a Comet-Hunting Machine by Todd Neff; Earthviewmedia; Denver, Colorado; $24.95 (trade paperback); 2010. Here’s a fascinating book that’s perfect for reading as NASA’s Deep Impact/EPOXI spacecraft makes a breathtaking...
Oct 15, 2010 | Ask the Expert, Blog, Education Station, Exploration, International Cooperation, NASA, Our Solar System, Planet Earth, Space and Science
How best to deal with an incoming Near Earth Object – or NEO for short — is getting increased attention in Washington, D.C. It’s called planetary defense, an ability to fend off an asteroid on a trajectory that will strike Earth. That vision has moved from...
Oct 9, 2010 | Blog, Education Station, Exploration, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Our Solar System, Space and Science
There’s heightened excitement by officials at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Analysis of the tiny contents within the Hayabusa sample capsule that returned to Earth from asteroid Itokawa may indeed be minute particles of the visited space rock....
Oct 8, 2010 | Blog, Education Station, Exploration, International Cooperation, NASA, Our Solar System, Space and Science, Space Research
Titan is Saturn’s largest moon, enshrouded by a smog-like haze. Work by a University of Arizona (UA) research team has simulated that haze, finding amino acids and nucleotide bases – the most important ingredients of life on Earth. “Our team is the first to be able to...