New insight found in black hole collisions
Dallas TX (SPX) Feb 27, 2015 -
New research by an astrophysicist at The University of Texas at Dallas provides revelations about the most energetic event in the universe - the merging of two spinning, orbiting black holes into a much larger black hole. The work by Dr. Michael Kesden, assistant professor of physics at UT Dallas, and his colleagues provides for the first time solutions to decades-old equations that describe co ...
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New NASA Space Cowboy Deploys Its 'Lasso'
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 27, 2015 -
Like a cowboy at a rodeo, NASA's newest Earth-observing satellite, the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), has triumphantly raised its "arm" and unfurled a huge golden "lasso" (antenna) that it will soon spin up to rope the best soil moisture maps ever obtained from space.
Launched Jan. 31 from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Delta II rocket, SMAP is now literally riding tall ...
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New NASA Soil Moisture Mapper Completes Key Milestone
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 26, 2015 -
Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, today sent commands to unfurl the massive 20-foot-wide (6-meter) reflector antenna on NASA's new Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory, launched Jan. 31.
The deployment of the mesh reflector antenna, which supports the collection of SMAP's radar and radiometer instrument measurements in space, marks ...
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Russia's Yamal-601 Teleco Sat to b launched in 2018
Moscow, Russia (Sputnik) Feb 26, 2015 -
The Khrunichev Space Center and Gazprom Space Systems reached a deal on Wednesday to launch Russia's new Yamal-601 satellite in 2018.
Yamal-601 will provide telecommunications services to customers in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia.
The satellite will be launched by the Proton-M carrier rocket, and is set to replace the Yamal-202 at the end of its operational lifeti ...
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Three rockets launched near-simultaneously in Aegis test
Washington DC (XNA) Feb 27, 2015 -
The U.S. military launched three suborbital rockets near-simultaneously Tuesday as part of a ballistic missile defense (BMD) test involving the Aegis weapon system.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said in a statement that the rockets were acquired and tracked by sailors aboard two Aegis BMD destroyers while a third destroyer participated in associated operations.
Using this dat ...
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Study of Atmospheric 'Froth' May Help GPS Communications
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 27, 2015 -
When you don't know how to get to an unfamiliar place, you probably rely on a smart phone or other device with a Global Positioning System (GPS) module for guidance. You may not realize that, especially at high latitudes on our planet, signals traveling between GPS satellites and your device can get distorted in Earth's upper atmosphere.
Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pas ...
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How Did Multicellular Life Evolve
Moffet Field CA (SPX) Feb 26, 2015 -
Scientists are discovering ways in which single cells might have evolved traits that entrenched them into group behavior, paving the way for multicellular life. These discoveries could shed light on how complex extraterrestrial life might evolve on alien worlds.
The first known single-celled organisms appeared on Earth about 3.5 billion years ago, roughly a billion years after Earth formed ...
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Spacewalk to go ahead on Sunday despite helmet leak
Miami (AFP) Feb 27, 2015 -
Two US astronauts will go ahead with a spacewalk this weekend despite a flaw in one of the spacesuits that allowed water to seep into the helmet, the US space agency NASA said Friday.
Mission managers made the decision after discussing what NASA called "the minor seepage of water into the helmet of Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry Virts of NASA following the last spacewalk on February 25. ...
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NASA Hopes to Continue Cooperation on ISS Until 2024
Washington DC (Sputnik) Feb 27, 2015 -
NASA is ready to continue to cooperate with its International Space Station (ISS) partners, including Russia, for at least nine more years, the space agency has said in a statement.
"The Obama administration is committed to extending operation of the International Space Station to at least 2024," NASA said in the statement obtained by RIA Novosti on Thursday, adding that it welcomes "conti ...
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