Research with tiny artificial muscles may yield a full-page active Braille system that can refresh automatically and come to life right beneath your fingertips. Yosi-Bar Cohen, a senior researcher at NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif, was inspired during a business trip to Washington, D.C., where a convention for … Continue reading
The Planck space telescope has begun to collect light left over from the Big Bang explosion that created our universe. The mission, which is led by the European Space Agency with important participation from NASA, will help answer the most fundamental of questions: How did space itself pop into existence … Continue reading
Astronomers have identified a storm cell on Titan the size of the country of India. The storm system appeared in April 2008 in the moon’s tropical region, an area not known for its cloudiness. Using the Gemini North Telescope and NASA Infrared Telescope Facility on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano, a … Continue reading
The high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has returned a dramatic oblique view of the Martian crater that a rover explored for two years. The new view of Victoria Crater shows layers on steep crater walls, difficult to see from straight overhead, plus wheel tracks left by NASA‘s Mars … Continue reading
A new study from two of NASA’s Great Observatories provides fresh insight into how some stars are born, along with a beautiful new image of a stellar nursery in our Milky Way galaxy. The research shows that radiation from massive stars may trigger the formation of many more stars than … Continue reading
NASA’s Mars Rover Opportunity is investigating a metallic meteorite the size of a large watermelon that is providing researchers more details about the Red Planet’s environmental history. The rock, dubbed “Block Island,” is larger than any other known meteorite on Mars. Scientists calculate it is too massive to have hit … Continue reading
NASA astronaut Patrick Forrester, whose hometown is Springfield, Va., will make his third journey into orbit on space shuttle Discovery’s next mission to the International Space Station. Discovery is targeted to launch at 1:36 a.m. EDT, Aug. 25, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. To cover the launch on-site, … Continue reading
Splat! There goes another bug on the windshield. Anyone who’s ever driven down a country lane has seen it happen. A fast moving car, a cloud of multiplying insects, and a big disgusting mess. The next time that happens to you, instead of feeling grossed out, try thinking of the … Continue reading
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has found evidence of a high-speed collision between two burgeoning planets around a young star. Astronomers say that two rocky bodies, one as least as big as our moon and the other at least as big as Mercury, slammed into each other within the last few … Continue reading