The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft was released from the International Space Station’s robotic arm at 7:04 a.m. EDT Thursday. The capsule then performed a series of departure burns and maneuvers to move beyond the 656-foot (200-meter) “keep out sphere” around the station and begin its return trip to Earth. Credits:[Read More…]
Space
Impact Crater or Supervolcano Caldera?
Siloe Patera EU–(ENEWSPF)–21 May 2015. At first glance, the region covered by this latest Mars Express image release appears to be pockmarked with impact craters. But the largest structure among them may hold a rather explosive secret: it could be remains of an ancient supervolcano. The images presented here were[Read More…]
NASA TV Airs U.S. Cargo Ship Departure from International Space Station
SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule is seen here docked to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module of the International Space Station. SpaceX’s sixth commercial resupply flight arrived at the station on April 17. Credits: NASA Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–May 19, 2015. After delivering more than two tons of supplies and research to[Read More…]
Scientists at Keck Discover the Fluffiest Galaxies
A collection of unidentified blobs was discovered toward the Coma cluster of galaxies, using the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. One of these puzzling objects, Dragonfly 44, was studied in detail using the Keck Observatory and confirmed as an ultra-diffuse galaxy. Even though it is 60,000 light years across, It is so[Read More…]
Hubble Traces the Migration of White Dwarfs in Cluster 47 Tucanae
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have, for the first time, collected a census of young white dwarf stars beginning their migration from the crowded centre of an ancient star cluster to its less populated outskirts. The new results challenge our ideas about how and when a star loses[Read More…]
Water Was Plentiful in the Early Universe
Tel Aviv, Harvard University researchers discover water vapor may have formed in universe earlier than previously believed Tel Aviv-(ENEWSPF)- Astronomers have long held that water — two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom — was a relative latecomer to the universe. They believed that any element heavier than helium had[Read More…]
Hubble Catches Stellar Exodus in Action
(Click to enlarge) The heart of the giant globular star cluster 47 Tucanae in the Hubble Space Telescope image at left reveals the glow of 200,000 stars. The green box outlines the cluster’s crowded core, where Hubble spied a parade of young white dwarfs starting their slow-paced 40-million-year journey to[Read More…]
Delta Cephei’s Hidden Companion
Bow shock around star Delta Cephei. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/M University of Geneva-(ENEWSPF)- To measure distances in the universe, astronomers use cepheids, a family of variable stars whose luminosity varies with time. Their role as distance calibrators has brought them attention from researchers for more than a century. While it was thought[Read More…]
Astronomers Set a New Distance Record for Galaxies
CALIFORNIA–(ENEWSPF)–May 5, 2015 By Tim Stephens The galaxy EGS-zs8-1 sets a new distance record. It was discovered in images from the Hubble Space Telescope from the CANDELS survey. Yale and UC Santa Cruz astronomers measured its exact distance using the powerful MOSFIRE instrument on the Keck I telescope at the[Read More…]
NASA’s LRO Moves Closer to the Lunar Surface
The image is a visualization of the LRO spacecraft as it passes low over the moon¹s surface near the lunar South Pole. From this vantage point LRO will continue to make detailed measurements of the lunar surface, and now from its lower orbit near the South Pole will make unique[Read More…]
