Tag: NASA

No alien ‘signals’ from cigar-shaped asteroid: researchers

PARIS, France (AFP) — No alien signals have been detected from an interstellar, cigar-shaped space rock discovered travelling through our Solar System in October, researchers listening for evidence of extraterrestrial technology said Thursday. The object, dubbed Oumuamua, was spotted by several Earthly telescopes two months ago. Given its weird trajectory, surprised researchers immediately concluded it was from beyond our planetary system — the first interstellar object ever identified in our midst. The rock is thought […]

Continue Reading →

Artificial intelligence finds solar system with 8 planets like ours

by Kerry Sheridan Agence France Presse MIAMI, United States (AFP) — A solar system with as many planets as our own has been discovered with the help of NASA’s Kepler space telescope and artificial intelligence, the US space agency said Thursday. “Our solar system now is tied for most number of planets around a single star,” NASA said in a statement. However, none of the planets are expected to be hospitable to life. The eight-planet […]

Continue Reading →

New island offers clues in search for life on Mars: NASA

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) — The world’s newest island — formed during a volcanic eruption in the remote Pacific four years ago — may offer clues to how life potentially developed on Mars, NASA said Wednesday. The island of Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai rose from the seabed about 65 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa in late 2014-early 2015. Scientists initially expected the island — created when vast quantities of rock and […]

Continue Reading →

Trump tells NASA to send Americans to Moon

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump directed NASA on Monday to send Americans to the Moon for the first time in decades, a move he said would help prepare for a future Mars trip. “This time we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint,” Trump said at the White House as he signed the new space policy directive. “We will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars and perhaps […]

Continue Reading →

Space station crew begins final training before December launch

Reuters — The next crew of the International Space Station conducted final qualification training this week at the Gagarin Training Center in Star City, Russia. Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov, and flight engineers Scott Tingle of NASA and Norishige Kanai of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) posed for photos and took questions from the media ahead of their training. The crew are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on December 17 for […]

Continue Reading →

NASA building new rover for Mars 2020 mission

Reuters — NASA gave a sneak peek on Tuesday (November 28) of the rover being designed for their 2020 mission to Mars. Relying on many of the systems created for the 2012 Curiosity rover, the new rover looks similar, but will have seven new instruments, redesigned wheels, and more autonomy, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The 2020 mission plans to study areas of the planet considered to have once been habitable, searching for […]

Continue Reading →

NASA launches next-generation weather satellite

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Santa Barbara County, California (AFP) — NASA on Saturday launched a next-generation satellite into space designed to monitor weather around the world and help improve forecasts. The satellite, called the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1), is a joint venture between the US space agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which provides weather reports and forecasts. The satellite was launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket as scheduled at 1:47 […]

Continue Reading →

Orbital ATK launches eighth cargo mission to space

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — An unmanned cargo ship packed with 7,400 pounds (3,350 kilograms) of food and supplies for the astronauts living at the International Space Station blasted off Sunday from Wallops Island, Virginia. Orbital ATK’s barrel-shaped Cygnus cargo ship launched atop an Antares rocket at 7:19 am (1219 GMT), a day after a last-second delay due to an unexpected aircraft in the area. “Five, four, three, two, one and we have ignition,” said […]

Continue Reading →

Dog star: Scientist recalls training Laika for space

  by Marina LAPENKOVA Agence France-Presse   MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) – “I asked her to forgive us and I even cried as I stroked her for the last time,” says 90-year-old Russian biologist Adilya Kotovskaya, recalling the day she bid farewell to her charge Laika. The former street dog was about to make history as the first living creature to orbit the earth, blasting off on a one-way journey. The Soviet Union sent Laika up […]

Continue Reading →

The Noah’s Ark of animals sent in to space

  by Janet MCEVOY Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – Three and a half years before Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space, a dog called Laika was in 1957 the first living creature to orbit the Earth. The stray from Moscow is one of many animals who preceded humans in the conquest of space; like most of the others, she did not survive. “These animals performed a service to their respective […]

Continue Reading →

Mice, fish and flies: the animals still being sent into space

by Pascale MOLLARD-CHENEBENOIT Agence France-Presse   PARIS, France (AFP) – Sixty years after Laika the dog became the first living creature to go into orbit, animals are still being sent into space — though these days much smaller creatures are going up. Julie Robinson, chief scientist for the International Space Station programme, explains what we are still learning from animals in orbit.   Why no more dogs, cats or monkeys? When those animals were sent […]

Continue Reading →

NASA says interstellar object pays ‘visit’ to our Solar System

Reuters — A small asteroid or comet that has been spotted racing through our solar system may have come from elsewhere in the galaxy, U.S. space scientists say, possibly marking the first such interstellar visitor observed from Earth. The mystery object, so far known only as A/2017 U1, was discovered earlier this month by a researcher using a sophisticated telescope system at the University of Hawaii that continually scans the universe for such phenomenon. The […]

Continue Reading →
1 … 13 14 15 16 17 … 24