By Brandon Russell |
Scientists are eager to determine whether we’re alone in the universe. Evidence certainly suggests a planet such as Mars once supported microbial life, and many other findings point to plenty of Earth-like planets filling the cosmos. So if there are extraterrestrial beings out there, making…
By Adriana Lee |
Our “Major Tom,” the astronaut who has captivated the often fickle social webs, the man who brought interstellar awesomeness to social media via music, education and more is officially hanging up his space suit. After a 35-year career, Chris Hadfield is retiring on July 3. His…
By Brandon Russell |
In a matter of minutes, NASA will launch a rocket directly toward the Earth’s atmosphere in an effort to study early stars and galaxies, and how brightly their nuclear fuel burned. Equipped with a Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment (CIBER), the Black Brant XII suborbital rocket…
By Brandon Russell |
Acclimating to Earth’s gravity, after months on the ISS, is an arduous journey. It’s not like simply recovering from a hard workout; you can’t sleep it off. In fact, long-term affects when returning home include shrinking muscle mass, decreased bone density and chronic vision issues—you…
By Brandon Russell |
Some of today’s brightest individuals have aspirations beyond mere mortal boundaries. And steps are already being taken to shuttle mankind places we never imagined going. But even though Curiosity can safely explore the parched surface of Mars, it might not quite be so simple for…
By Brandon Russell |
The world of 3D printing is an exciting one, and it has the potential to change the world in a big way. It’s also terrifying. But as more news of 3D printed guns rears its head, researchers are focusing their attention on using the technology…
By Brandon Russell |
We’ve monitored the progress of NASA’s Curiosity pretty closely, and over that time the little rover that could has drilled in two separate locations in search for evidence of water on Mars. As it continues on to its eventual destination at Mount Sharp, Curiosity has…
By Adriana Lee |
If there’s one thing hi-res photography’s good for, it’s showing an amazing amount of detail. Users can see the minutiae just by zooming in, and depending on the scale, they can do it without necessarily having to sacrifice zoom-out macro views. Now here’s something that…
By Brandon Russell |
A meteorite the size of a small boulder recently struck the moon with such force the impact was visible down here on Earth—to the naked eye. That means had you or I been looking up at the moon at the precise moment of impact, we’d…
By Brandon Russell |
NASA’s Mars Curiosity has again drilled into the barren Martian planet, puncturing a section 2.6-inches deep. The rock, known as Cumberland, gave NASA researchers the opportunity to remove a powdered sample that will then be delivered to Curiosity’s onboard analyzing instruments. NASA previously drilled into…
By Brandon Russell |
NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover—not to be confused with Curiosity—has concluded a 20 month-long study of an area that researchers believe has been “intensely altered by water.” In the nine years since Opportunity has been on Mars, the data is unlike anything researchers have seen. The…
By Adriana Lee |
Global warming has been a hot-button controversy for years, but there’s a new app that could end the discussion once and for all. Novim, a research group from UC Santa Barbara, took on the daunting task of wrangling data from more than two centuries of research…
By Brandon Russell |
After nearly five months in space, three members of the International Space Station Expedition 35 crew safely landed in a clearing to the southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. “Boy, that was quite a ride home,” said Chris Hadfield after successfully touching down. Hadfield, most notably, is…
By Adriana Lee |
Chances are, you’ve sung into a mirror gripping a hairbrush or lost yourself in your own air guitar virtuosity at some point. And why not? It’s easy to let the creativity flow in the comfort of your own house. And, it seems, that’s true no…
By Brandon Russell |
After discovering the ISS was leaking vital coolant for its power systems, NASA on Friday made the decision to send astronauts on an emergency spacewalk to fix the issue. And on Saturday morning, Thomas Marshburn and Chris Cassidy successfully replaced the troublesome pump. Did everyone…
By Adriana Lee |
Ever had a virus infect your Windows computer? If you thought that headache and irritation over your home computer was bad, imagine how the astronauts on the International Space Station felt when a Russian cosmonaut brought in an infected laptop in 2008. The computer carried…
By Brandon Russell |
Astronauts on Thursday noticed frozen ammonia flakes leaking from the International Space Station, though NASA said the issue poses no immediate threat to the crew. A lot can—and apparently will—go wrong when you’re thousands of miles from Earth, especially with such complicated systems involved. The…
By Roy Choi |
Google posted some amazing timelapse images today of from 1984 to 2012. The satellite images were collected over 40 years during a collaborative effort by NASA and the United State Geological Society. Google started working with the USGS in 2009 to make this archive available online.…
By Adriana Lee |
You thought you were a geek’s geek. You can spout the latest mobile specs off the top of your head, know exactly how an four-core or eight-core chip would impact the user experience, and can tell the difference between a 720p and 1080p display blindfolded.…
By Brandon Russell |
Maybe you’ve taken a picture from the world’s tallest building, at a concert or simply at the dinner table. But from space? That’s a first. NASA did just that through its PhoneSat mission, a project meant to discern whether or not smartphones are capable of…
By Brandon Russell |
Virgin Galactic on Monday successfully completed a rocket-powered test of its SpaceShipTwo (SS2) aircraft, in the process breaking the sound barrier while soaring 55,000 feet high. In a flight that last around ten minutes, the momentous event is a first step toward Sir Richard Branson’s—who…
By Brandon Russell |
The above photo isn’t a world imploding in the Star Trek universe, but an actual hurricane currently ravaging Saturn’s north pole. It looks breathtakingly surreal, beautiful, something imagined you’d expect in a scene from the first Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. It’s absolutely real,…
By Brandon Russell |
New data collected by French research agency CEA suggests the Earth’s inner core—beneath the crust, mantle and core—is much, much hotter than originally thought. So hot, in fact, that researchers believe it’s just as hot as the surface of the Sun. Through X-ray analysis of…
By Ron Duwell |
Mad Men has enjoyed a successful run on AMC over the last few years, pulling in impressive ratings and slews of awards in the process. Its creators have done a fabulous job glamorizing the lives of 1960′s advertisers, but what about another important face of…
