MESSENGER’s Second Flyby of Mercury: Awaiting Data
[/caption] This morning at 4:40 am EDT, the MESSENGER spacecraft passed only 200 kilometers (124 miles) above Mercury’s surface as…
Astronaut Diary Survives Columbia Accident
[/caption] Pages from an astronaut's diary survived the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003, and on Sunday, selected…
Podcast: Running Out of Gravitons and Hitting the Brakes at Light Speed
[/caption] Another week, another roundup of your questions. This week listeners asked: if forces are communicated through particles, can we…
Podcast: The Life of the Sun
[/caption] We've talked about the Sun before, but this time we're going to look at the entire life cycle of…
Book Review: The Haunted Observatory
[/caption] Curious and curiouser things began happening when telescopes opened up to the skies. Richard Baum's book entitled "The Haunted…
Was Life on Mars Extinguished Prematurely by a Huge Impact?
[/caption]We keep sending missions to Mars with the key objective to search for past or present life. But what if…
Meteorites Could Preserve Evidence of Alien Life
[/caption]In an effort to understand how organic chemicals might survive after a period in the vacuum of space and then…
2012: No Geomagnetic Reversal
[/caption]Apparently, on December 21st 2012, our planet will experience a powerful event. This time we're not talking about Planet X,…
Surface of Uranus
[/caption] Uranus is a ball of ice and gas, so you can't really say that it has a surface. If…
What is the Weather Like on Uranus?
We understand the weather on Earth. The Sun heats the air at the equator, causing it to rise. The warm…