15 Things You Didn’t Know About Outer Space [Infographic]
Since the dawn of history, outer space has always caught the imagination of people across the continents and different cultures. However most of what we currently know about space has been discovered since the beginning of the space age over half a century ago.
How NASA’s Juno Mission to Jupiter Works [Infographic]
Recently, on August 5, 2011, NASA launched a new space probe, called Juno, headed towards Jupiter. When it reaches its destination the spacecraft will be placed in a polar orbit in order to study the planet's composition, gravity field, magnetic field, polar magnetosphere, and the deep winds of its atmosphere.
Antimatter Discovered Around Earth
A ring of antimatter, more specifically antiprotons, has been recently discovered around the Earth. Since antiprotons are charged sub-atomic particles, they are confined by the planet's magnetic field lines.
Earth’s First Trojan Asteroid discovered by NASA’s WISE
NASA's WISE mission discovered asteroid 2010 TK7, an Earth Trojan, in a stable orbit around a Lagrangian point, possibly a future space destination.
How NASA’s Dawn Asteroid Mission Works [Infographic]
Explore NASA's Dawn spacecraft mission in orbit around Vesta, with plans to study Ceres, shedding light on the asteroid belt's origins and solar system history.
Astronomy Picture of the Week – Vesta from Orbit by Dawn Spacecraft
Explore Vesta, the second largest asteroid in the belt, in this captivating photo by the Dawn spacecraft. Get ready for a year of intriguing discoveries!
How China’s First Space Station Will Work [Infographic]
With the future of the International Space Station uncertain, the Chinese have announced their own space station program, instead of joining forces with the other space powers. China's space station will be named "Tiangong" which means "Heavenly Palace" in Mandarin.
The Solar System To Scale [Infographic]
The following is a huge infographic showing the true scale of the solar system with all its planets, minor bodies and the most famous probes we have sent out into deep space. Scientists measure distances in our solar system in astronomical units (AU).
NASA Mars Science Laboratory [Video]
This animation depicts the artist's vision of the key events of the future NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission. It is planned to launch in late 2011 and reach Mars in August 2012. The rover will be called "Curiosity".
Astronomy Picture of the Week – Mars as seen by Hubble
This is one of the best photos of Mars ever taken from Earth or Low Earth Orbit. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took this close-up of the red planet Mars when it was just 88 million kilometers away. This color image was assembled from a series of exposures taken within 36 hours of the Mars closest approach…
Non-Rocket Spacelaunch – Advantages and Difficulties of a Launch Loop
Unlike conventional rockets, launch loops can have many launches per hour, independent of weather, and are not inherently polluting. Rockets create pollution such as nitrates in their exhausts due to high exhaust temperature, and can also create greenhouse gases depending on propellant choices. Launch loops require power in the form of electricity and as such it can be clean.
Non-Rocket Spacelaunch – Launch Loop
A launch loop (also known as a Lofstrom loop) is a proposed design for a very efficient non-rocket spacelaunch method. It is a much simpler concept than the space elevator, but still more complex than tether propulsion systems such as the rotovator.