A few weeks ago, NASA announced the members of the astronaut class of 2009. I also wanted to be an astronaut. Alas, fate has taken me in a different direction in life. But for others like me, being a well-informed layman is often not enough. Here are 10 ways the general public can have a hands-on experience with different NASA programs.
\"What are the chances that we will encounter some alien form of life, as we explore the galaxy?\" If the argument about the time scale for the appearance of life on Earth is correct, Hawking says \"there ought to be many other stars, whose planets have life on them. Some of these stellar systems could have formed 5 billion years before the Earth.
If Earth received this message from deep space, could we decode it? The people from the Cosmic Call project sent the above image as the first page of a longer message. The message was broadcast toward local stars by radio telescope during the summer of 1999. Another message was sent in 2003. The single-dish 70-meter diameter telescope that send...
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), NASA\'s souped-up 1-tonne rover due for launch in 2011, needs yet more money. The latest budget overrun could for the first time delay other missions in the agency\'s cash-strapped planetary-science division.
What has duct tape and lightning got to do with the Apollo Program? Actually, quite a lot. Have a browse through these lesser known facts of the Apollo missions and take a quick journey back to the moon, pausing to examine some of the lesser-known facts along the way.
What lights up this castle of star formation? The familiar Eagle Nebula glows bright in many colors at once. The above image is a composite of three of these glowing gas colors. Pillars of dark dust nicely outline some of the denser towers of star formation. Energetic light from young massive stars causes the gas to glow
The Antikythera mechanism, so named because it was found in 1901 in a Roman shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, is thought to have been made about 100 BC. Its purpose was a mystery for more than 100 years, but in 2006, researchers concluded that the device originally contained 37 gears that formed an astronomical computer.
An international research team announced a breakthrough in self-replicating plasma crystals which could be an early form of inorganic life. New studies of dust that form lifelike structures suggest that extraterrestrial life may not be carbon-based at all....
Buzz Aldrin has a few words for those wondering what it was like to be one of the first men on the moon. Unfortunately, they might not be the exact words that you were hoping for.
Did dark matter destroy the universe? You might be looking around at the way things \"exist\" and thinking \"No\", but we\'re talking about ancient history.
New Images Show Where Tomorrow\'s Stars Will Be Born , Submillimeter light reveals vast, chaotic area of dust, gas at center of our own Milky Way galaxy.
A new protocol which could one day handle deep-space communications is now being tested aboard the International Space Station. The the newly installed system aboard the ISS could one day allow data to flow between Earth, spacecraft, and astronauts automatically, creating what is being dubbed the \"interplanetary internet\".
Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, one of the first two people to set foot on the moon, would like to see the United States train an international partnership to return to the moon while it sets a national goal of getting to Mars.
A hero to millions, Neil Armstrong has consistently shunned the limelight. To mark the 40th anniversary of the first manned Moon landing, author Andrew Smith travelled across America to discover why the man who first set foot upon the Moon remains such an enigma.
Onboard cameras capture the amazing journey of Atlantis into space, and the dramatic return of the solid rocket boosters. Fast-Forward to 2:25 to get to the really cool part!