Spectacular meteor 'fireball' explosion over Britain leaves stargazers buzzing ahead of Geminid space shower

A dramatic meteor “fireball” exploded over Britain on Wednesday night, creating a spectacular light show the length of the country ahead of the Geminid space shower.

The “very bright” meteor lit up the skies from Somerset to Aberdeen, leaving the astronomy world abuzz.

Despite lasting just five seconds, witnesses thought they were watching a rare meteor shower because it was such a dazzling display.

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Is Time Disappearing from the Universe?

Remember a little thing called the space-time continuum? Well what if the time part of the equation was literally running out? New evidence is suggesting that time is slowly disappearing from our universe, and will one day vanish completely. This radical theory may explain a cosmological mystery that has baffled scientists for years.

Scientists previously have measured the light from distant exploding stars to show that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. They assumed that these supernovae are spreading apart faster as the universe ages. Physicists also assumed that a kind of anti-gravitational force must be driving the galaxies apart, and started to call this unidentified force "dark energy".

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Weird Object Zooming by Earth Wednesday is Likely an Asteroid

A weird object that left some observers wondering if it was a piece of space junk is most likely just a small asteroid, and will zoom close by Earth Wednesday, NASA scientists say. It may be visible to seasoned amateur astronomers as it passes harmlessly by the planet.

The space rock won't hit the Earth, but it will make its closest approach at 7:45 a.m. EST (1245 GMT) when it comes within 80,000 miles (130,000 km) of our planet. That's nearly one-third the distance between the Earth the moon.

Astronomers announced the discovery of the asteroid, which they named 2010 AL30, on Monday. It is relatively small, about 36 feet (11 meters) wide, NASA researchers said.

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NASA's Kepler probe finds five strange new planets

In what astronomers called an exciting step toward detecting Earth-like planets, a spacecraft operated by NASA's Ames Research Center has found five strange new planets, beginning to reveal how the structure of our solar system fits into the rest of the universe.

The five planets announced Monday by scientists working on the Kepler probe are an exotic bunch, one with a density as light as styrofoam. The large planets orbit so close to their stars that they may glow with the heat of a blast furnace, as hot as the melting point of iron.

"It's certainly no place to look for life," said Bill Borucki, the principal investigator with the Kepler mission at Ames. "That will be coming later."

Launched in March, the 2,300-pound spacecraft detects the transit of a planet across the star's face. These are the first new planets found by the probe.

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A Weird, Wonderful Waterworld?

With the count of exoplanets (planets known to orbit other stars) now at 415, it's not often that a new find makes much of a splash in the astronomical world, let alone the news media. And the competition for getting noticed is going to get harder, now that NASA's Kepler mission is working on its quest to find even small, Earthlike worlds out in the Great Beyond.

An artist's concept of the dim red dwarf GJ 1214 and its close-orbiting waterworld. The planet is actually one-eighth the apparent diameter of the star.
David A. Aguilar / CfAFor example, so far this month, ground-based planet hunters headed by Paul Butler and Steven Vogt announced that a total of three smallish worlds (with minimum masses of 5, 18, and 24 Earths) orbit the star 61 Virginis, a near-twin of the Sun just 28 light-years away. And the same group announced an 8-Earth-mass world, and hints of two more, orbiting HD 1461, a close copy of the Sun 76 light-years away in Cetus.

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Fossils of Martian bugs found on meteorite that landed on Earth 13,000 years ago

New evidence has made it more likely that remnants of Martian microbes were transported to Earth in a meteorite, it was revealed today.
A study by scientists from the American space agency Nasa has found chemical signatures in the rock strongly associated with life.
The discovery strengthens the case for believing that worm-like structures in the meteorite are 'microfossils' of ancient Martian bugs

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Asteroid passes just 8,700miles from Earth - with only 15 hours warning

Although no one noticed at the time, the Earth was almost hit by an asteroid last Friday.
The previously undiscovered asteroid came within 8,700miles of Earth but astronomers noticed it only 15 hours before it made its closest approach.

Its orbit brought it 30 times nearer than the Moon, which is 250,000 miles away.

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NASA Preps for Ares I-X Rocket Launch

Engineers made final preparations Tuesday morning for the long-awaited launch of NASA's towering Ares I-X rocket - the 33-story centerpiece of a $445 million test flight expected to generate valuable engineering data for development of a post-shuttle replacement.

The planned launch comes on the heels of a report by a presidential panel of space experts that concluded NASA's current plans to build new Ares rockets and establish bases on the moon by the early 2020s is not feasible without an additional $3 billion to $6 billion a year.

The slender Ares I-X, its second stage wider than the first, stands twice as tall as a space shuttle "stack." But its pencil-thin appearance quickly led to a somewhat derisive nickname: the "stick."

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Tourists may land on the moon by 2020

AUSTRALIAN astronaut Andy Thomas says NASA's groundbreaking space rocket test could help put tourists on the moon by 2020.

The test launch of Ares I-X, expected to take place late tonight (11pm AEST), will deliver the agency vital technical information that could help it set up a manned space station on the moon within a decade.

Thomas, 58, said moves towards commercial funding for NASA could mean tourists would have the chance to experience space soon after professional astronauts arrived on the moon.

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Found: first 'skylight' on the moon

A deep hole on the moon that could open into a vast underground tunnel has been found for the first time. The discovery strengthens evidence for subsurface, lava-carved channels that could shield future human colonists from space radiation and other hazards.

The moon seems to possess long, winding tunnels called lava tubes that are similar to structures seen on Earth. They are created when the top of a stream of molten rock solidifies and the lava inside drains away, leaving a hollow tube of rock.

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NASA surprised with strange ribbon circling solar system

THE NASA spacecraft IBEX is making a comprehensive map of the heliosphere, the magnetic boundary formed by the solar wind at the edge of the solar system--around 75 to 90 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun (where one AU is the mean distance between the Sun and Earth).

Unexpectedly, the IBEX spacecraft imaged a “bright, winding ribbon of unknown origin” that goes about 80% around the solar system

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Asteroid collision 'less likely'

Refined calculations of the asteroid Apophis's path show it is far less likely smash into Earth in 2036 than was previously thought.

Earlier calculations put the probability of a collision at one in 45,000; the revised estimate puts the odds at one in 250,000.

Researchers from the US space agency Nasa showed that in 2029, Apophis will pass within just 30,000km of Earth.

The work will be presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

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Nasa Moon bombing: LCROSS mission crashes into Moon

The Nasa LCROSS mission to discover how much water is on the Moon has crashed into the surface of the satellite, causing a plume of rock and dust that was viewed live by millions worldwide.

At 12:31pm British time an empty rocket plunged into the Moon's south pole at 1.6 miles per second. A probe followed close behind, flying through the six-mile-high shower of debris kicked up by the impact, before crashing into the surface itself four minutes later.

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New ring detected around Saturn

A colossal new ring has been identified around Saturn.

The dusty hoop lies some 13 million km (eight million miles) from the planet, about 50 times more distant than the other rings and in a different plane.

Scientists tell the journal Nature that the tenuous ring is probably made up of debris kicked off Saturn's moon Phoebe by small impacts.

They think this dust then migrates towards the planet where it is picked up by another Saturnian moon, Iapetus.

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Space telescope captures galaxy giving birth to stars

A space telescope has pictured the galaxy forging a new generation of stars.
A British scientist involved in obtaining the pictures said they showed the galaxy in ''a very turbulent process'', constantly creating new generations of stars.

The images were produced by the Herschel Space Observatory using, for the first time, the UK-led Spire camera in tandem with the satellite's other camera, Pacs.

Herschel, launched in May, was designed to view the universe at far infrared wavelengths and carries the largest telescope ever flown into space.

Together, the cameras not only reveal new material in the galaxy but provide astronomers with information about how much material there is, its mass, temperature and composition, and whether or not some of it is collapsing to form new stars.

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Water Found On The Moon

A surprising amount of water has been found to exist in the Moon's soil.

Data from three spacecraft, including India's Chandrayaan probe, shows that very fine films of H20 coat the particles that make up the lunar dirt.

The quantity is tiny but could become a useful resource for astronauts wishing to live on the Moon, scientists say.



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Architect Plans To Build On The Moon

Having left the capitals of half the world studded with towers, tents, gherkins and globes, the architect Lord Norman Foster is now gazing into the heavens.

His firm, whose most famous projects include the British Museum's Great Court and the rebuilt Reichstag in Germany, is joining a European consortium pitching for the farthest frontier.

The project would be part of the Aurora programme of the European Space Agency.

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Planetary Nebulae Mystery Solved

Astronomers have resolved a 30-year-old argument, ruling out a one-size-fits-all mechanism for shaping some of the most beautiful objects in space – the "planetary nebulae".

Planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets, but are enlarged glowing objects that is stars late in their lives which have shed much of their gas into space. Some appear as round blobs and can look like an eye, an ant or an hourglass.

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Amazing Hubble Photos

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is back in business, ready to uncover new worlds, peer ever deeper into space, and even map the invisible backbone of the universe. The first snapshots from the refurbished Hubble showcase the 19-year-old telescope's new vision. Topping the list of exciting new views are colorful multi-wavelength pictures of far-flung galaxies, a densely packed star cluster, an eerie "pillar of creation," and a "butterfly" nebula. With its new imaging camera, Hubble can view galaxies, star clusters, and other objects across a wide swath of the electromagnetic spectrum, from ultraviolet to near-infrared light.

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The Cannibal Galaxy

The vast Andromeda galaxy appears to have expanded by digesting stars from other galaxies, research has shown.

When an international team of scientists mapped Andromeda, they discovered stars that they said were "remnants of dwarf galaxies".

The astronomers report their findings in the journal Nature.

This consumption of stars has been suggested previously, but the team's ultra-deep survey has provided detailed images to show that it took place.

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