outer space

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New, Life-Sustaining Planet May Not Exist

Gliese 581g found only in minute, possibly incorrect measurements

(Newser) - US-based researchers may have gotten a tad carried away when they announced the discovery of a new, potentially life-sustaining planet a couple weeks back. Yesterday, a team of Switzerland-based astronomers said their own observations of star Gliese 581g didn’t back up the American team at all. “We do...

Scientists Find Planet With Possibility of Sustaining Life

So-called Goldilocks planet is 20 light years away

(Newser) - Astronomers have announced the discovery of a planet with conditions that may be suitable for habitation. NASA reports that a team studying Gliese 581g for over a decade thinks it's in a zone where water could exist on the surface. Steven Vogt, professor of astronomy at UC Santa Cruz, says...

UN May Tap 'Envoy' to Greet ET
 UN May Tap 'Envoy' to Greet ET 
Sep 27, 2010 3:16 AM CDT

UN May Tap 'Envoy' to Greet ET

(Newser) - ET, phone the General Assembly. United Nations scientific advisory committees are about to debate whether to place the organization's Office for Outer Space Affairs in charge of coordinating humankind's response if and when extraterrestrials make contact. The unit's boss is Malaysian astrophysicist Mazlan Othman, called "absolutely the nearest thing...

Planet-Hunters Make Biggest Find Yet: Vast New Solar System

Up to 7 planets spotted orbiting distant star

(Newser) - Astronomers have discovered the most planet-rich solar system outside our own ever discovered. At least five, and possibly seven, planets orbit a star 127 light years away called HD 10180. Researchers say they have clearly detected five Neptune-like planets and signs of two smaller ones. One is just 1.4...

Man Admits to Stealing Sally Ride's Flight Suit

Ex-wife snitched on sticky-fingered Texas man

(Newser) - File this under strange, but true: A Texas man pleaded guilty yesterday to stealing the flight suit worn by Sally Ride as she trained to be the first US woman in outer space. Calvin Dale Smith of Houston stole the suit and other NASA equipment while he was working for...

'Citizen Scientists' Find Rare Star

Spare computing power donated to sift through observatory data

(Newser) - Three regular people who volunteered to put their idle home computers to work crunching scientific data in off-hours have been credited with making a major discovery in deep space. The "citizen scientists"—two in Iowa and one in Germany—downloaded and processed the data that found a disrupted...

Hawking: Ditch Earth, Head to Space to Survive

But watch out for the aliens

(Newser) - If mankind is to survive we must leave earth for colonies on other planets within the next 100 years, warns renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. "I see big dangers for mankind. Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth but to spread out...

Carbon Spaceballs Spotted in Cosmic Dust

Telescope discovers giant 'buckyball' molecules

(Newser) - A type of carbon only seen before in Earth laboratories has been spotted in a cloud of cosmic dust by NASA's Spitzer telescope. "Buckyballs"—soccer ball-shaped molecules made up of 60 carbon atoms—are the largest molecules ever seen in space. Buckyballs have been made in labs by...

Physicists: We Need to Look for Alien Tweets

Scientists say SETI has the wrong approach

(Newser) - If aliens are out there and trying to communicate, they are most likely sending short messages—the interstellar equivalent of Tweets, the Telegraph reports. The theory of a cosmic Twitter is being put forth by two physicists calling for a new approach to the long-running Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence project....

Astronomers Discover Impossibly Huge Star

It's at least 265 times more massive than the sun

(Newser) - Astronomers have discovered a star so big and bright that it stretches the boundaries of what scientists believed was possible. The star, known so far only as R136a1, has an observed mass 265 times greater than our sun, and modeling suggests it was once 320 times bigger. “If it...

Space Probe Visits Biggest Asteroid Yet

Europe's Rosetta snapping photos of mysterious Lutetia

(Newser) - The European Space Agency is pulling off a nifty feat 280 million miles from home. Its comet-chasing space probe Rosetta is making a flyby of the biggest asteroid ever visited by a spacecraft, reports the BBC . Rosetta will be sending back photos of Lutetia, which was first spotted 150 years...

Space Telescope Captures Big Bang Radiation

Planck beams back microwave map of entire sky

(Newser) - The European Space Agency’s Planck space telescope has beamed back its first, much-anticipated image: a map of the entire sky, composed of microwave light. That bright line in the center of the image is our own Milky Way galaxy, and the lights surrounding it represent not stars but the...

The Sun Plays Music: Scientists
 The Sun Plays Music: Scientists  
in case you missed it
Jun 26, 2010 7:00 PM CDT

The Sun Plays Music: Scientists

Giant magnetic fields vibrate like guitar strings

(Newser) - The sun produces its own music, and scientists have been able to re-create and record it, the Telegraph reports. Astronomers analyzed magnetic loops that vibrate around the sun's atmosphere and found the "coronal loops" move—a little like violin strings, a little like wind inside a flute. By taking...

UFO Sightings Spike— After US Rocket Goes Up

Falcon 9 launch sets off false alarms

(Newser) - Darn those scientific explanations. UFO sightings were reported around the world yesterday, including three big cities in Australia, as the Melbourne Herald Sun notes. A party pooper at the Sydney Observatory would like to remind everyone that the the Falcon 9 rocket launched from the US yesterday. ''It's just gone...

Massive Space Mission to Test Einstein Theory

Three ships to fire lasers at each other near sun

(Newser) - NASA and the European Space Agency are preparing to shoot three spacecraft into orbit around the sun and have them fire laser beams at each other, in an attempt to detect gravitational waves—the last unproven piece of Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. They're calling the whole thing the...

NASA Releases Explosive Sun Shots

Historic images reveal high-def surface, flares

(Newser) - NASA has released astounding new photos and videos of the sun for the first time revealing high definition, close-up views of the solar surface and exploding flares. The images were captured by the space telescope of the Solar Dynamics Observatory, and are providing historic new insight into sun mechanics, notes...

Man Finds Likely Meteor Fragment

Probably came from asteroid belt between Mars, Jupiter

(Newser) - Scientists say an apparent fragment from a meteor that lit up skies over the US Midwest this week has been recovered in southwestern Wisconsin. The fragment weighs 0.3 pounds and is about the size of an unshelled peanut. The meteor had streaked across the sky about 10pm Wednesday and...

What Was That Giant Fireball Over Midwest?

Blast lights up sky in several states

(Newser) - Scientists are scratching their heads after a giant fireball lit up the midwestern sky, then vanished. The fireball rattled homes and shook the earth as it streaked across the sky and apparently triggered a sonic boom. Scientists speculate the phenomenon, that also lit up police station phone lines, was a...

Obama Says of the Moon: Been There, Done That

There's a lot more out there to explore, he says

(Newser) - President Obama insisted today that he's "100% committed" to NASA and future space missions. But the moon is old news, and it's time to think bigger. "We've been there before," he said at Kennedy Space Center, unswayed by critics who say his vision will bring an end...

NY Prof Urges UFO Degree
 NY Prof Urges UFO Degree 
Apr 14, 2010 2:40 AM CDT

NY Prof Urges UFO Degree

'Millions' of sightings require serious research

(Newser) - An American professor believes it's high time universities seriously study UFO sightings. "Millions" of sightings are reported each year, noted anthropology professor Philip Hasely. "It’s about time we looked into this as a worthy area of study," he tells the Buffalo News . "It's important that...

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