Space

Virgin Galactic Reaches Milestone In Space Tourism Industry

3:27pm May 06, 2013

by Wendy Kaufman

Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson's space tourism venture, cleared a big hurdle Monday with its first powered test flight. Virgin Galactic plans to start taking "space tourists" for rides early next year. A ticket is expected to cost $200,000.

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Three PhoneSats, like the one seen here during a high-altitude balloon test, were launched into space on Sunday. The slightly modified cellphone satellites cost a few thousand dollars in parts.

Can You Hear Me Now? Cellphone Satellites Phone Home

6:59pm April 26, 2013

by Geoff Brumfiel

Never mind the big-budget NASA satellites. A team of young engineers has tricked out a few off-the-shelf cellphones and sent them to space. The smartphones are already above us, sending images and data back to ham radio operators on Earth.

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Science

Studying Earth To Learn About Mars

10:21am April 26, 2013

Southern Utah's landscape looks a lot like images from the Mars rovers. Marjorie Chan explains how Utah geology might help explain data sent back from Mars missions. Charles Killian describes how people are simulating what it might be like to one day live and work on Mars.

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The small squares superimposed on this image of the Milky Way galaxy show where in the sky the Kepler telescope is hunting for Earth-like planets. Kepler, which launched in 2009, has identified more than 100 planets.

Kepler Telescope Spots 3 New Planets In The 'Goldilocks Zone'

10:26pm April 18, 2013

by Joe Palca

The planets orbiting far-off stars are close to Earth-sized and are a distance from their suns that makes their surfaces neither too hot nor too cold. Since launching in 2009, the Kepler telescope has identified more than 100 planets.

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Several fragments of this unusual rock were discovered last year in Morocco. It's been hailed as the first meteorite from the planet Mercury, but where it came from in the solar system isn't certain.

Science

Origin Of 'Mercury' Meteorite Still Puzzles Scientists

8:18am April 12, 2013

by Geoff Brumfiel

The rock found in Morocco was even weirder than it looked. The olive green chunk, speckled with white and brown, has chemical and physical properties similar to the planet Mercury. But some experts doubt that the 4.56-billion-year-old meteorite is from the planet closest to our sun.

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Astronauts work to install the alpha magnetic spectrometer on the International Space Station on May 26, 2011.

Science

Sensor On Space Station May Have Seen Hints Of Elusive Dark Matter

8:50pm April 03, 2013

by Geoffrey Brumfiel

The finding could be a milestone in the decades-long search for the universe's missing material. But some scientists urge caution, saying it's possible the particles seen by the sensor on the International Space Station could have come from somewhere else.

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Science

How Cosmic Collisions Have Shaped Our Solar System

9:21am March 30, 2013

From the rocky fragments in Saturn's rings to Earth's own moon, our solar system bears signs of an ancient demolition derby. Planetary scientist Erik Asphaug describes the role of impacts in our planetary neighborhood, and looks ahead to a possible comet collision on Mars.

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Science

Studying Rocks Found On Earth For Clues About Space

9:11am March 30, 2013

With samples from over 1,800 separate meteorite falls around the world, ASU's Center for Meteorite Studies claims the world's largest university-based meteorite collection. Meenakshi Wadhwa explains how meteorites can teach researchers about the history of the solar system.

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Science

Curiosity Hits Paydirt: New Clues To Life On Mars

1:03pm March 15, 2013

Microbes may once have happily existed on the surface of Mars, according to chemical analysis of a sedimentary rock in the Red Planet's Gale crater. NASA geologist and exobiologist David Blake discusses evidence for an ancient freshwater lake in the crater, and describes the mineral-chomping microbes that may have thrived there.

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Science

A Natural Particle Accelerator, Far Above The Planet

1:03pm March 01, 2013

In 1958, James Van Allen described two belts of radiation that surround Earth. Daniel Baker says that when a satellite was launched to study the belts in 2012, it saw a third belt form, which lasted for about a month before being blasted away by an interplanetary shock wave.

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