Submitted by Matt Shields / UGC |
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The shuttle Endeavour's launch at 4:14 a.m. ET Monday creates a false dawn in
this photo, taken by Matt Shields at the Kennedy Space Center's visitor complex.
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The night launch of a space shuttle is a wonderful sight. Sadly, it's a sight we may never see again. But the view gets even better when you're in space, and anyone with an Internet connection can take a virtual tour.
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Brian Lockett / Air-and-Space.com |
SpaceShipOne pilot Mike Melvill holds a sign reading "SpaceShipOne, Government
Zero" after the rocket plane's first spaceflight in June 2004. NASA's latest plans
have raised fresh questions about government-run vs. commercial space ventures.
Check Air-and-Space.com for more pictures of aerospace milestones.
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First NASA laid out its new vision for human spaceflight, putting the moon on hold and focusing instead on new technologies and space commercialization. Then Congress weighed in. Now former astronauts, an aerospace guru and Hollywood's hottest director are boosting the debate to a higher level.
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Who’ll win the Super Bowl? There’s a market for that. The Oscars? There’s a market for that. How well will Apple’s iPad do? Yep, there’s a market for that, too. Prediction markets, which started out as a political phenomenon, are becoming routine.
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M. Buie / SwRI / NASA / ESA |
Click for video: Hubble Space Telescope images, taken in 2002-2003, were
combined to produce these maps of Pluto. Click on the image to watch Pluto spin.
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Pluto hasn't been getting much respect lately, but today the Hubble Space Telescope's team unveiled maps of the dwarf planet that are just a foretaste of the extreme close-up to come.
The maps spark fresh questions about the icy world that was discovered 80 years ago this month: Why has Pluto's northern hemisphere brightened so quickly over the course of just a few years? What's causing darker spots in the south? And why is Pluto getting redder all over?
"We think these changes are actually driven by seasonal changes," said Marc Buie, a planetary scientist at the Colorado-based Southwest Research Institute.
Huge amounts of methane and nitrogen ice appear to be moving from one part of the world to another through Pluto's wisp of an atmosphere. One particularly bright spot appears to be rich in frozen carbon monoxide.
So what's the precise mechanism for the shift? "That's a mystery," Buie said. The complete answers might well have to wait until 2015, when NASA's New Horizons probe swings past Pluto and its moons.
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TheGrio |
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TheGrio's "100 History Makers in the Making" include 10 scientists, engineers and
environmentalists. Clockwise from top left are Charles Bolden, Tony Hansberry,
Derrick Pitts, Lisa Jackson, James McLurkin, Agnes Day, Shelton Johnson, Robert
Bullard, Beverly Wright and Jerome Ringo.
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Black History Month is an occasion for looking back at the past achievements of African-Americans - including the discoveries made by George Washington Carver and Benjamin Banneker. But it's also an occasion for looking ahead to future achievements - and that's what TheGrio is doing this month with its list of "100 History Makers in the Making."
The list includes 10 scientists, engineers and environmentalists who are making an impact even now.
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ABC |
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Benjamin Linus (played by Michael Emerson) sets off a time-travel effect by
pushing a wheel through a nexus of exotic energy in the ABC television
series "Lost." Physicist Sean Carroll takes readers through a more scientifically
grounded exploration of time's flow in his book, "From Eternity to Here."
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The last season of "Lost" might clear up some fictional time-travel mysteries, but the true mysteries of time can be found in a new book titled "From Eternity to Here."
If the laws of physics are reversible, why can we change the future - but not the past? Why is it virtually impossible to unscramble an egg, or unstir the cream in our cup of coffee? Why does the arrow of time move in only one direction?
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Sierra Nevada |
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NASA calls for the International Space Station to be serviced by private-sector spaceships such as Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser craft, shown in this artwork.
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"Apollo on steroids"? Forget about it. Back to the moon? Not anytime soon. NASA's new vision for space exploration is less specific on a destination, but more focused on making room for new technologies and new players in spaceflight.
Some critics in Congress say they'll fight to keep some elements of the moon plan in place - but one of the most influential critics says it would be "very difficult" to change NASA's new course.
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