Aliens in meteorites?

NASA astrobiologist Dr Richard Hoover says he found microscopic fossils in not one but three asteroid fragments that are among the oldest in the solar system. He concludes that they are the remains of life that existed in deep space on the cosmic bodies that produced the meteorites in the first place. He researches a freshly sliced fragment from the meteorite which could not have been affected by any contaminents.

The claims are published online on a website of the Journal of Cosmology which has become famous for going boldly where others do not dare. There are many skeptics, but a keen supporter to Dr Richard in his researches is Chandra Wickramasinghe, director of the Astrobiology Centre at Cardiff University.

Of his own claims, Dr Hoover said: "I believe these findings indicate that life is not restricted to Earth, but is broadly distributed, even outside our solar system."

Maybe this is the way that life on Earth started to develop?

Image of fossils in the Orgueil meteorite (Journal of Cosmology)

Testing New Rover - Curiosity

Curiosity's stunt double takes a whirl around the Mars Yard.
On this video, you can see the look and design of new NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.
It will be, for sure, the best rover ever! Take a look!

Sun-Earth Day

Celebrate Sun-Earth Day, today, March 19, 2011

Today is the SUN-EARTH DAY 2011.

Here you can read more about it and enjoy in Sun-Earth events.

The Sun

Employees Assemble for Historic Photo

Employees at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, took a few moments to assemble for a historic photo. Thousands of workers stood side-by-side to form an outline of a space shuttle. The event was organised in honor of the Space Shuttle Program's 30-year legacy. Here you can see image of it, and HERE you can watch the whole video.

 It's interesting, take a look! -> VIDEO

Print-screen from video

Stacion Crew Unbox Robonaut 2

Flight Engineers Cady Coleman and Paolo Nespoli unpack the newest member of the Expedition 27 crew, Robonaut 2 - the first humanoid robot in space. If you want to read more about R2 (Robonaut 2) - click here. Now watch unpacking of $2.5 million robot, which will make space jobs much easier.

ISS - Change of Command Ceremony

Expedition 26 Commander Scott Kelly ceremonially hands command of the International Space Station over to Flight Engineer Dmitry Kondratyev, who will serve as Expedition 27 commander.

Slow-motion Giants

For more than 40 years, the twin crawler-transporters that first carried all the Apollo Saturn V rockets to the launch pad have borne every space shuttle on the last Earth-bound leg of their journeys to space. It's amazing how this machine-giant still works and how these powerful engines still do their jobs.

Metal Moon Water

If you are planning to visit the moon, you should bring a filter if you plan on drinking moon water. Water ice recently discovered in dust at the bottom of a crater near the moon's south pole is accompanied by metallic elements like mercury, magnesium, calcium, silver... Now you can add sodium to the mix, according to Dr. Rosemary Killen of  NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Discoveries of deposits of water on the moon were surprising because our moon has had a tough life. Intense asteroid bombardments in its youth, coupled with its weak gravity and the Sun's powerful radiation, have left the moon with almost no atmosphere. This rendered the lunar surface barren and dry, compared to Earth.

The point - don't drink the moon water, you can become a robot!

This image is not realistic!

Discovery Touches Down!

Discovery has completed his final mission, STS-133, for NASA's Space Shuttle Program landing on-time at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:57 a.m. EST, March 9, 2011 after 202 orbits around Earth and a journey of 5,304,140 miles (8.536.185 kilometers).  Welcome back astronauts! Discovery, we will miss you!

Spacewalk

Mission Control in Houston woke the space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station crews at 6:23 a.m. EST to the song "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" by Davy Knowels & Back Door Slam, played for Mission Specialist Nicole Stott.

Spacewalk preparations begin at 7:03 a.m. Walkers - Steve Bowen and Alvin Drew are scheduled to begin their excursion at 11:18.a.m. During the 6 hour, 30 minute spacewalk, the pair will install the J612 power extension cable, move a failed ammonia pump module to the External Stowage Platform 2, install a camera, install extensions to the mobile transporter rail and expose the Japanese "Message in a Bottle" experiment to space. Good luck!

Steve Bowen and Alvin Drew - the spacewalkers!

Discovery's Launch

Space shuttle Discovery lifted off at 4:53 p.m. EST Thursday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with Commander Steve Lindsey leading the STS-133 crew to deliver the Permanent Multipurpose Module and Robonaut 2 to the space station. Watch the amazing power of these engines!

Glory!

NASA's Glory spacecraft is to launch Feb 23. atop an Orbital Sciences Taurus XL rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The spacecraft carries instruments to measure aerosols in Earth's atmosphere and research their effects on the planet's climate. The spacecraft also will provide researchers with detailed information about the sun's interaction with the atmosphere.

Spiral Galaxy's Glowing Newborn Stars

New Hubble photo! A stunning display of newborn stars studding a galaxy like bright blue jewels.

The spiral galaxy is NGC 2841. It lies in the constellation Ursa Major, about 46 million light-years from Earth. Hubble's newest instrument, the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), took the photo, in which newborn stars show up as bright blue clumps.

Enjoy in amazing display!

The galaxy NGC 2841 — shown here in a Hubble image — currently has a relatively low star formation rate compared to other spirals. It is one of several nearby galaxies that have been chosen for a new study, in which scientists are observing a variety of different stellar nursery environments and birth rates.
CREDIT: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration; M. Crockett and S. Kaviraj (Oxford University, UK), R. O'Connell (Univ. of Virginia), B. Whitmore (STScI) and the WFC3 Scientific Oversight Committee. 

Mars 500 Crew Landing on Fake Mars

Mars500 crewmembers testing their spacesuits out before a simulated journey to the Martian surface.
IBMP/ Oleg Voloshin

 An international crew of six volunteers - two from Europe, one from China and three from Russia, will take their first mock "Mars-walk" today (Feb. 14.) kicking their unprecedented 500 - day simulation of a mission to the Red Planet into a whole new gear. 

For the simulated landing, three members went through the motions of undocking a lander from their spaceship, plunging through Martian atmosphere and touching down on the planet's surface - and all that without leaving Earth.

They do this simulation - mission to Mars, from beginning to end, to better understand physical and psychological challenges "Marsonauts" will face on real deep space journeys. Mission started eight months ago, on June 3.

An exterior view of isolation facility at the Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow, Russia. The facility is host to the Mars500 study that will help us to understand the psychological and medical aspects of long spaceflights. A 105-day Mars simulation was held between March and July 2009, a longer 520-day study began in 2010.

Credit: ESA

International Space Station Everyday Updates

You can watch ISS everyday updates and find out what the crew done that day. I posted here the newest one, but here is the link where you can watch new update every day! 

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html

ISS Update - Feb. 11. 2011

French - Italian Border At Night

On this amazing image you can see city lights at night along the France-Italy border. It was photographed by an Expedition 23 crew member in the International Space Station (ISS). 

The brightly lit metropolitan areas of Torino, Lyon and Marseille stand out amidst numerous smaller urban areas in this dramatic photograph. The sea is ont the top of the image and Alps (not shown) are down. The full moon reflects brightly on the water surface. That and many more details make this image amazing.

Flutes in Space

Flight Engineer Cady Coleman demonstrates playing a flute on the International Space Station during an interview with National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." Listen the space flute!

Valentine's Day Gift From Space

Rings of gold are precious for sure, but what can you say about this? Absolutely stunning!

NASA released the black hole ring photo, yesterday on Feb. 9. The image was taken using several space telescopes across different parts of the light spectrum. Two interacting galaxies, known collectively as Arp 147, set the stage for the spectacular view!

Arp 147 is about 430 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cetus, the Whale.

This image of the two galaxies that form Arp 147 shows a vast cosmic ring of stars (blue) and black holes (pink) as seen by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope. Another galaxy is also visible (vertical at left), as well as a bright star and quasar (pink object at upper left). This image was released on Feb. 9, 2011.

NASA/CXC/MIT/S.Rappaport et al, Optical: NASA/STScI 

How Big is the Universe?

Our Universe. How big is it? It is for sure an enormous place! That's not secret. What stay for discussion is just how enormous it is. New research suggest it's a whopper - over 250 times the size of our observable universe - we can only see a really small part of it from our planet with our technology.

Cosmologists believe the Universe takes one of three possible shapes:

1) It is flat, like a Euclidean plane, and spatially infinite.

2) It is open, or curved like a saddle, and spatially infinite.

3) It is closed, or curved like a sphere, and spatially finite.

But, how can we reach that far? We can't. Light from any object outside of the Hubble telescope volume will never reach us because the space between us and it is expanding too quickly. According to the team's analysis, a closed universe would encompass at least 251 Hubble volumes. 

Primordial light from just after the birth of the Universe started traveling across the cosmos about 13.75 billion years ago. Since special relativity states nothing can move faster than a photon, many people misinterpret this to mean that the Universe must be 13.75 billion light years across. In fact, it is much larger! Not only has space been expanding since the big bang, but the rate of expansion has been steadily increasing due to the influence of dark energy. Special relativity doesn't factor in the expansion of space itself! Cosmologists estimate that the oldest photons have traveled a distance of 45 billion light years since the big bang. That means that our observable Universe is on the order of 90 billion light years wide.

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the distribution of dark matter in the center of the giant galaxy cluster Abell 1689, containing about 1,000 galaxies and trillions of stars. Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Coe (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, and Space Telescope Science Institute), N. Benitez (Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia, Spain), T. Broadhurst (University of the Basque Country, Spain), and H. Ford (Johns Hopkins University)

First Ever STEREO Images of the Entire Sun

Date: February 6, 2011: It's official: The sun is a sphere!

On Feb. 6th, NASA's twin STEREO probes moved into position on opposite sides of the sun, and now beaming back uninterrupted images of the entire star - front and back.

NASA released a 3D movie

"For the first time ever, we can watch solar activity in its full 3-dimensional glory. This is a big moment for solar physics. STEREO has revealed the sun as it really is - a sphere of hot plasma and intricately woven magnetic fields." says Angelos Vourlidas, a member of the STEREO science team at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, DC.

With this nice global model, human can track changes on the sun and predict solar storms heading toward. Many lives and billions of dollars can be saved that way!

Tiny Asteroid Zips Close By Earth

A tiny asteroid passed close by Earth Friday (Feb. 4) but posed no threat of impacting our planet - or even reaching the surface, NASA officials say.

The small asteroid, named 2011 CQ 1, passed within 5470 km (3400 miles) of Earth at about 2:40 p.m. EST (19:40 GMT). It was discovered just hour or two later by astronomer Richard A. Kowalski.

Asteroid 2011 CQ 1 is only 1.3 meters (4 feet) wide, so small that it would have incinerated in Earth's atmosphere before reaching the ground. "Even if it came closer, a rocky asteroid small as 2011 CQ1 would break apart in out atmosphere and cause no ground damage", Nasa Asteroid Watch scientists wrote in a Twitter post.

Robonaut 2 (R2)

Robonaut 2, will make its television debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb 6, 2011. Millions of viewers will be able to watch the state-of-the-art robot during a General Motors segment to air during the Super Bowl pre-game show on the Fox network.

Robonaut 2, or R2, was developed and built by NASA and General Motors via a Space Act Agreement. Using the latest technology, they created a new humanoid robot that can work side-by side with people. R2 is using edge control, sensor and vision technologies so will in future assist astronauts during hazardous space missions.

Like its predecessor Robonaut 1, R2 is capable of handling a wide range of tools and interfaces. It is capable of speeds more than four times faster than R1. It's more dexterous, and includes a deeper and wider range of sensing, which can really helps.

And one BIG advantage of a humanoid design is that Robonaut can take over simple, repetitive, or especially dangerous tasks on places such as the International Space Station. Will robots make spacewalks disappear? We will see in close future.

Learn more about Robonaut 2

Image above: Robonaut 2 surpasses previous dexterous humanoid robots in strength, yet it is safe enough to work side-by-side with humans. Credit: NASA. 

What's Up for February 2011?

What's Up for February? Don't forget to see Jupiter at sunset, Saturn at midnight and pretty moon with planet couples in - between. Have a look video with short overview for this, not so long, month. You can also read the story written by Jane Houston Jones from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. You can find the story HERE. Thank you Jane for this useful information.

Shuttle Discovery Reached Launch Pad

Shuttle Discovery reached Launch Pad 39A at 2:55 a.m. EST following its 3.4 mile trek on the crawler-transporter from the Vehicle Assembly Building. First motion began at 7:58 p.m. EST Monday.

Discovery reach the Pad, and history! It's his last flight to the International Space Station. I don't need to say anything more. It's all said here, on this video about Discovery. Enjoy!

Image above: Bathed in bright xenon lights, space shuttle Discovery makes its nighttime trek, known as "rollout," from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

What Is Engineering?

Have you ever wonder? What is engineering, and who exactly is an engineer? Learn  on this video. It's mostly made for the kids, but all can learn something from here. How things works, and how do they got fixed. It's a funny video and you will not regret for 3 minutes of your life! Enjoy!

How Would Planet Appear In The Sky If They Are Distanced As Our Moon?

Scale from Brad Goodspeed on Vimeo.

Have you ever asked yourself - How would planets appear in the sky if it shared an orbit with our Moon, 380.000 km from Earth. BradBlogSpeed.com explains and show us in fantastic video! He said he created it "to make you feel small." We ARE really small.


This is an amazing and  great story. You can notice the fantastic usage of mathematics to calculate some stuff that we can even imagine that is true. Great work!

Robotic Russian Cargo Ship Launched to ISS

An unmanned Soyuz rocket launches the robotic Progress 41 cargo ship toward the International Space Station at 8:32 p.m. EST on July 27, 2011 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
RSC Energia 

An unmanned Russian cargo ship is headed for the International Space Station to deliver three tons of supplies to the outpost's crew, including a tiny satellite and birthday gifts for the orbiting lab's commander - American astronaut Scott Kelly - who will celebrate his 47th birthday in space on Feb. 21.

Progress 41 - space freighter was blasted off from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 8:32 p.m. EST on January 27. It will arrive at the ISS Saturday at 9:40 p.m. EST (2:40 a.m. GMT).

The crew is impatiently waiting for cargo ship arrival!

The Universe's Most Distant Object

The Hubble Space Telescope zoomed into infrared Ultra Deep Field, first taken in 2009. It is a part of sky in the southern constellation Fornax. You can see the farthest identified object. Scientists believe it is 13.2 billion light - years far. That object, possibly is galaxy. It has red color because its light has been stretched by the expansion of the universe.When next time you say that your school or work is far from your house, just watch this video again and you will feel better!

Credit: NASA/ESA/G. Bacon, STScI (no audio)

1000 views!

Thank you all for visiting my blog and stay here to learn something new. I've reached 1000 views. Now i'm more experienced and I will do my best to keep blogging good and interesing posts and news about space, science and technology.

My blog posts are not so long and don't have much details so it will never take you more then a minute, maybe two to read whats new in space today.

Live curious! Learn something new!

And, thank you for following me!

This is not commercial for National Geographic. It is the way how people must see world, and every day learn something new! Live curious!

Alien Life Chances

A leading U.S. astronomer says there is no hope of finding alien life in space because all other planets discovered so far are to hostile for life.

Howars Smith, a senior astrophysicist at Harvard University, says he believes humans are alone in the universe. 500 planets that shows similar "Earth" conditions are analysed and they are all hostile to life as we know it. "We have found that most other planets and solar systems are wildly different from our own," he says. "They are very hostile to life as we know it". Other planets are too different from our own and even if they did support life it would be impossible for us to contact it.

Some other scientists remain confident life will be found. But if they find it, how will they contact other civilization many light-year far away? Smith maybe have right, but maybe not. It's upon you in which story you want to believe.

Magnificent 7 on Mars

NASA's Opportunity rover celebrates seven years on Mars, and that was a only 90 - day mission. But curious rover still research red planet for us! Stop for a minute to see one great video about his story.

New Year's Aurora

Aurora are one of the most amazing things you can see on our planet. Auroras are created when charged particles flow along Earth's magnetic field lines. The particles hit the atmosphere at the Poles and excite air molecules, which release the extra energy as light, in this case beautiful green light.

The new year's first big display of northern lights - aurora borealis was into the mountains near Tromso in northern Norway on January 7.

Photograph: Thilo Bubek

The another amazing showing of aurora was on January 8. above the island of Kvaloya, again in northern Norway. According to a report on spaceweather.com  the northern lights were so bright they could be seen from as far away as Northern Ireland.

Photograph: Fredrik Broms

Taking the "Boom" Out of Booms - NASA Chat

Sonic booms usually mean something cool. The space shuttle is coming in for a landing or a jet fighter is flying overhead. We don't hear them very often, so when we do it's an event. But how will be if every single plane that is flying above our heads every time create sonic boom? Normal life would not be possible! And that is a major problem why airplanes for passengers and cargo are not climbing up to supersonic speeds over land. Sonic booms would be happening all the time; and they're loud and annoying. Noise regulations in most countries wouldn't allow it to fly over land because of the sonic booms it generated.

We have to figure out how to turn down the volume on sonic booms.

NASA has been doing flight tests and simulations and ground experiments. All of them have cool names: "Quiet Spike," "SonicBOBS," "SonicBREW," "LaNCETS," "House VIBES," "Low Boom/No Boom".

On the front of the airplane they put some kind of a spike. It's testing now, but who knows... Maybe that will be new system in the future to avoid sonic booms and to create high speeds for more enjoyable and shorter.

On Tuesday, January 25, at 3:00 p.m. ET, you can ask NASA aerospace engineer and "sonic boom guru" Ed Haering about what it's like to try to tame a sonic boom.

To join a chat, simply go to this PAGE on January 25. The chat window will opet at the bottom of that page starting at 2:30 p.m. ET. You can log in and ask questions at 3:00 p.m.

Artist's concept of a future supersonic cruise vehicle designed to have low-level sonic booms. Credit: Frassanito & Associates

NASA aerospace engineer Ed Haering and the Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstrator aircraft. Image credit: NASA/Tony Landis

ISS Resupply

A quick succession of international space supply trucks will arrive on the International Space Station's loading docks early in 2011, dropping off more than 11 tons (10,000 kilograms) of food, computers, medical equipment and supplies, spare parts and experiment gear - not to mention the necessities of everyday human life in orbit. Space trucks from Japan, Europe and Russia will launch to the station in January and February, followed quickly by the space shuttle Discovery. More about this topic and more about equipment and cargo ships you can find HERE.

When HTV2 (Japaneese Cargo Ship) approaches the station, Expedition 26 astronauts will use the station's robotic arm, known as "Canadarm2" to grapple and berth it to the port.

First ISS Spacewalk of 2011

Two Russian cosmonauts will venture outside the International Space Station on Jan. 21. to complete installation of a new high-speed data transmission system, remove an old plasma pulse experiment, install a camera for the new Rassvet docking module and retrieve a materials exposure package. Engineers Dmitry Kondratyev and Oleg Skripochka are scheduled to float outside the Pirs airlock at 9:20 a.m. EST to begin six-hour excursion. They will wear Russian Orlan-MK spacesuits.

Cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev has described in his blog in the web-site of Roscosmos how a spacesuit used by cosmonauts during time outside the station works. - "A spacesuit is a small spaceship. Spacesuit systems provide a supply of oxygen and dispose of carbon monoxide, maintain a comfortable temperature for a cosmonaut and also provide a radio connection"


On images below you can see (from left to right) Oleg Skripochka, Dmitry Kondratyev and Orlan-MK Spacesuit.

Live Web Chat With Planetary Scientist

On Thursday, Jan. 20 from 3:00 to 4:00 EST (20:00 - 21:00 GMT), NASA planetary scientist Dr. Renee Weber will answer your questions about the inner workings of our nearest neighbor. Joining the chat is easy! Go to this PAGE a few minutes before 3:00 p.m. EST on Thursday, Jan. 20. The chat module will appear at the bottom of that page. After you log in, wait for the chat module to be activated, then ask your questions! Prepare good questions! And enjoy the chat!

Dr Renee Weber. (NASA/MSFC)

Craggy Craters on Rhea

This image obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft of Saturn's moon Rhea shows craters on the icy moon. Cassini's camera was about 200 kilometers (100 miles) away from Rhea's surface. Once again, Cassini done great job.

Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI

NASA'S Kepler Mission Discovers Its First Rocky Planet

NASA's Kepler spacecraft has discovered Kepler-10b, its first confirmed rocky planet discovered to date. Kepler-10b is 1.4 times the size of Earth and orbits its star in only 0.84 days. Its not habitable zone, liquid water cannot exist.

For more information about the Kepler mission - www.nasa.gov/kepler 

Here is an interesting video with some amazing mathematics in space. Enjoy!

Tourist Flights to ISS

The Russian Space Agency and the Rocket Space Corporation Energia have agreed to build additional Soyuz spacecraft to carry paying customers to the International Space Station starting in 2013.

"We've got a number of people who have expressed interests over the years who are waiting with bated breath for us to come out with the dates for these new opportunities. So a lot of things are going to start happening as of today" said Eric Anderson, chairman of Space Adventures, told CBS News.

Seat on a Soyuz is believed to run between $30 million and $40 million.

image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

A First Look at Flight in 2025

In late 2010, NASA awarded contracts to three teams - Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, The Boeing Company - to study advanced concept designs for aircraft that could take to the skies in the year 2025.

Each design looks different, but they are all designed for one goal - to protect environment. Less noise, cleaner exhaust and lower fuel consumption - future aircrafts will do that all at the same time. The aircraft will be operated in safely and more modernized air traffic system. Take a look at some images of concepts...

Artist's concept of an aircraft that could enter service in 2025 from the team led by The Boeing Company. Image credit: NASA/The Boeing Company

Artist's concept of an aircraft that could enter service in 2025 from the team led by Lockheed Martin. Image credit: NASA/Lockheed Martin 

NASA Research Team Reveals Moon Has Earth-Like Core

State of the art seismological techniques applied to Apollo-era data suggest our moon has a core similar to Earth's.

The team's findings suggest the moon possesses a solid, iron-rich inner core with a radius of nearly 150 miles and a fluid, primarily liquid-iron outer core with a radius of roughly 205 miles. The research indicates the core contains a small percentage of light elements such as sulfur, echoing new seismology research on Earth that suggest the presence of light elements - such as sulfur and oxygen - in a layer around our own core.

(NASA/MSFC/Renee Weber)

Hinode Observes Annual Solar Eclipse

On January 4, the Hinode satellite captured these breathtaking images of an annual solar eclipse. That happens when the moon moves directly between Earth and the sun. The moon is smaller than the sun so observers see bright ring of fire! Here, you can see image and timelapse video that Hinode captured.

and video...

This timelapse video shows Hinode's view of the eclipse. Credit: Hinode/XRT

Music of the Sun

Scientists at the University of Sheffield have recorded the 'music' produced by the magnet ic field of the Sun. The huge magnetic loops coil away from the outer of the Sun's atmosphere, vibrate like strings on a musical instrument (gutar). Professor Robertus von Fay-Siebenburgen said: "It was strangely beautiful and exciting to hear these noises for the first time from such a large and powerful source. It is a sort of music as it has harmonics. It is providing us with a new way of learning about the sun and giving us a new insight into the physics that goes on at in the sun's outer layers where temperatures reach milions of degrees." Here is video where you can hear noises from the sun.