Science

50 Amazing Facts About Earth

April 22, 2013

Want to stay on top of all the space news? Follow @universetoday on Twitter Do you know how much material falls onto Earth from space every day? How many different species there are in the ocean? How far the continents move every year? In honor of Earth Day here’s a very cool infographic that answers [...]

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New Scripps Research Ship Will Honor Astronaut Sally Ride

April 17, 2013

Dr. Sally K. Ride, physicist, NASA astronaut, and first American woman to fly in space, will be honored with a U.S. Navy research vessel bearing her name, which will be operated by and homeported at San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “Dr. Sally Ride inspired millions of people, especially young women and girls, to reach for [...]

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Book Review: Vistas of Many Worlds

March 27, 2013

While many astronomy books are based around images that show us how the Universe appears to us right now, as seen through the sensitive electronic eyes of powerful space telescopes and observatories around the world, Erik Anderson’s Vistas of Many Worlds: a Journey Through Space and Time takes a different, but no less fascinating, approach [...]

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Dry Ice Drives Dramatic Changes on Mars

January 25, 2013

Mars may not be tectonically active but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing happening on the Red Planet’s surface. This video from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows the dramatic seasonal changes that take place in Mars’ polar regions when the frozen carbon dioxide — called “dry ice”  – coating the basalt sand dunes begins to thaw [...]

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NASA’s Lunar Orbiter Gets an Art Lesson with Lasers

January 17, 2013

In the ultimate example of science imitating art, engineers working with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter recently beamed an image of the Mona Lisa to the LRO and back via laser beam in order to measure the rate of transmission between the spacecraft and Earth. This allowed them to then calibrate their software to correct for [...]

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