Archive for February, 2009

NASA's Swift and Fermi spacecraft are monitoring a neutron star 30,000 light years from Earth that is drawing ...

Space dust annoys astronomers just as much as the household variety when it interferes with their observations of distant stars. And yet space dust also poses one of the great mysteries of astronomy. “We not only do not know what the stuff is, but we do not know where it is made or how it gets ...

Even in space, someone has to clean the bathroom. Good housekeeping is essential when you're living in the close quarters of a tightly-sealed spaceship for months at a time. To make this possible, NASA scientists have developed a tricorder-like device called "LOCAD-PTS" that can track down microscopic bacteria and fungi. It helps astronauts do their ...

The discovery that butterfly wings have scales that act as tiny solar collectors has led scientists in China and Japan to design a more efficient solar cell that could be used for powering homes, businesses, and other applications in the future. Their study appeared in the Jan. 13 issue of ACS’ Chemistry of Materials, a ...

Teacher, scientist, world traveler, aquanaut, astronaut, Terp. NASA Mission Specialist Richard Arnold II has just about done it all on this earth. On February 12, he'll extend his experiences to another world... traveling to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Shuttle Discovery. During the 14 day ...