NASA has announced a news conference tomorrow (Thursday), wherein they will discuss...

...an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life.Of course, impact could mean anything from "we've tried to remove this giant squidlike thing from her head since Monday" to "We've come up with a new hypothesis that ( Read more... )

Scientists discover a nearly Earth-sized planet

We have long known about Gliese 581 d, but not confirmed that it was in the habitable zone. Until now :-)

And Gliese 581 e? Nice going!

To human consciousness, being told that there's a big all-seeing omnipotent good cop/bad cop playing man in the sky, who chooses whether you go to eternal bliss or damnation, is detrimental. Not only to your personal development, but to the development of peaceful society ( Read more... )

Space shuttle Discovery blasts off with bat stowaway

The animal was last seen clinging on the foam of the external tank of the space shuttle moments before the Discovery launched... (my emphasis)

...The crew of the Discovery safely docked at the International Space Station on Tuesday. It was unclear whether its stowaway was still clinging to the ( Read more... )

Where should Hubble search next? NASA wants you to choose :-)

So far the ARP 274 is at the top. I can understand why, even though it might not yield the most interesting results....

Nearest confirmed extrasolar planet : Epsilon Eridani b, distance: 10,5 light years or 99.337.669.962.098,4 km

Fastest space flight so far: The Apollo 10 crew, speed: 39.896 km/h

Using this, we could reach Epsilon Eridani b (which might be uninhabitable) after 284.237 Earth years.

Even if we find extrasolar planets around the nearest star ( Read more... )

50 years ago today, the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik

"Sputnik signaled the moment when humankind escaped the gravity well of the planet, but rather than propelling us to the stars, space technology keeps turning back toward terrestrial needs and desires."

[...]

"One result of Sputnik had nothing to do with space. It was the creation of the ( Read more... )