A six-year-old boy got an extraterrestrial surprise when he went to collect eggs from his flock of hens and found a meteorite in his garden.
Josh Chapple found the egg-sized meteorite the morning after Britain was blitzed by the Perseid meteor shower.
The rock measures 6cm by 4cm and is black with a shiny crystal-like gleam. Josh first thought it was a lump of coal but when he showed it to his parents they realised what he had found.
The youngster said: "I saw it on the ground near our back door – there were burn marks all over it. I've never seen anything like it before. It w. . .
First planet that orbits in the opposite direction to the spin of its star discovered
(http://news.bbc.co.uk)
Astronomers have discovered the first planet that orbits in the opposite direction to the spin of its star.
Planets form out of the same swirling gas cloud that creates a star, so they are expected to orbit in the same direction that the star rotates.
The new planet is thought to have been flung into its "retrograde" orbit by a close encounter with either another planet or with a passing star.
The work has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal for publication.
Co-author Coel Hellier, from Keele University in Staffordshire, UK, said planets with retrograde orbits were th. . .
Planets form out of the same swirling gas cloud that creates a star, so they are expected to orbit in the same direction that the star rotates.
The new planet is thought to have been flung into its "retrograde" orbit by a close encounter with either another planet or with a passing star.
The work has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal for publication.
Co-author Coel Hellier, from Keele University in Staffordshire, UK, said planets with retrograde orbits were th. . .
Nasa finds monster black hole sucking up gas, dust and stars at centre of galaxy
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk)
Nasa has found a monster black hole 100 million times the mass of the Sun feeding off gas, dust and stars at the centre of a galaxy 50 million light-years away.
The star-ringed black hole forms the eye of a galaxy called NGC-1097 which was photographed by the US space agency's Spitzer Space Telescope in California.
A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational pull is so powerful that nothing, including whole planets, can escape being sucked in if they come within its reach.
The galaxy in the photograph is spiral-shaped, like our Milky Way, and extends long arms o. . .
The star-ringed black hole forms the eye of a galaxy called NGC-1097 which was photographed by the US space agency's Spitzer Space Telescope in California.
A black hole is a region of space in which the gravitational pull is so powerful that nothing, including whole planets, can escape being sucked in if they come within its reach.
The galaxy in the photograph is spiral-shaped, like our Milky Way, and extends long arms o. . .
The European Space Agency's Herschel telescope is up and running, with its first observations revealing water and carbon as well as dozens of distant galaxies.
The new space telescope, which launched on May 14 with its sibling Planck, has now carried out its first test observations with all of its instruments.
Herschel is the largest, most powerful infrared telescope ever launched into space. Its observations in the far-infrared to sub-millimeter wavelengths of light will allow astronomers to study some of the coldest objects in space, not visible in other wavelengths.
Hersche. . .
The new space telescope, which launched on May 14 with its sibling Planck, has now carried out its first test observations with all of its instruments.
Herschel is the largest, most powerful infrared telescope ever launched into space. Its observations in the far-infrared to sub-millimeter wavelengths of light will allow astronomers to study some of the coldest objects in space, not visible in other wavelengths.
Hersche. . .
The bathroom lines at the already crowded space shuttle and space station complex got a lot longer Sunday because of a flooded toilet.
One of two commodes aboard the international space station malfunctioned, right in the middle of complicated robotic work being conducted by the two crews. The pump separator apparently flooded.
Mission Control advised the astronauts to hang an "out of service" sign on the toilet until it could be fixed. In the meantime, the six space station residents had to get in line to use their one good toilet. And Endeavour's seven astronauts were restrict. . .
One of two commodes aboard the international space station malfunctioned, right in the middle of complicated robotic work being conducted by the two crews. The pump separator apparently flooded.
Mission Control advised the astronauts to hang an "out of service" sign on the toilet until it could be fixed. In the meantime, the six space station residents had to get in line to use their one good toilet. And Endeavour's seven astronauts were restrict. . .
The original recordings of the first humans landing on the moon 40 years ago were erased and re-used, but newly restored copies of the original broadcast look even better, NASA officials said on Thursday.
NASA released the first glimpses of a complete digital make-over of the original landing footage that clarifies the blurry and grainy images of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the surface of the moon.
The full set of recordings, being cleaned up by Burbank, California-based Lowry Digital, will be released in September. The preview is available at www.nasa.gov.
NASA . . .
NASA released the first glimpses of a complete digital make-over of the original landing footage that clarifies the blurry and grainy images of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the surface of the moon.
The full set of recordings, being cleaned up by Burbank, California-based Lowry Digital, will be released in September. The preview is available at www.nasa.gov.
NASA . . .
This month marks the 40th anniversary of humankind's first steps on the moon. Auspiciously timed is Craig Nelson's new book, Rocket Men--one of the most detailed accounts of the period leading up to the first manned moon mission. Here, we have ten little-known Apollo 11 facts unearthed by Nelson during his research.
1. The Apollo’s Saturn rockets were packed with enough fuel to throw 100-pound shrapnel three miles, and NASA couldn’t rule out the possibility that they might explode on takeoff. NASA seated its VIP spectators three and a half miles from the launchpad.
2. The Apollo . . .
1. The Apollo’s Saturn rockets were packed with enough fuel to throw 100-pound shrapnel three miles, and NASA couldn’t rule out the possibility that they might explode on takeoff. NASA seated its VIP spectators three and a half miles from the launchpad.
2. The Apollo . . .
Stephen Hawking: Why Isn't the Milky Way "Crawling With Self-Designing Mechanical or Biological Life?"
(http://www.dailygalaxy.com)
In his famous lecture on Life in the Universe, Stephen Hawking asks: "What are the chances that we will encounter some alien form of life, as we explore the galaxy?"
If the argument about the time scale for the appearance of life on Earth is correct, Hawking says "there ought to be many other stars, whose planets have life on them. Some of these stellar systems could have formed 5 billion years before the Earth. So why is the galaxy not crawling with self-designing mechanical or biological life forms?"
Why hasn't the Earth been visited, and even colonized? Hawking asks. "I discou. . .
If the argument about the time scale for the appearance of life on Earth is correct, Hawking says "there ought to be many other stars, whose planets have life on them. Some of these stellar systems could have formed 5 billion years before the Earth. So why is the galaxy not crawling with self-designing mechanical or biological life forms?"
Why hasn't the Earth been visited, and even colonized? Hawking asks. "I discou. . .
Neil Armstrong's historic moon landing will be shown in new light on Thursday when Nasa releases a new film of the first manned lunar excursion.
The footage shows US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first men to land on the moon on board the Apollo 11 space shuttle.
It has been restored and digitally enhanced using state-of-the-art technology and will be much clearer and less grainy than previously released footage of the 1969 landing.
It features 15 key moments from the historic lunar walk, and is part of Nasa's comprehensive Apollo 11 restoration project wh. . .
The footage shows US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first men to land on the moon on board the Apollo 11 space shuttle.
It has been restored and digitally enhanced using state-of-the-art technology and will be much clearer and less grainy than previously released footage of the 1969 landing.
It features 15 key moments from the historic lunar walk, and is part of Nasa's comprehensive Apollo 11 restoration project wh. . .
For all its might, the World Wide Web is still limited to, well, our world. But that's quickly changing with the advent of an "interplanetary internet" that planners say will revolutionize space communication.
The Disruption Tolerant Networking system, which entered another phase of testing this week, will allow astronauts to Google from the moon or tweet their observations from space.
But DTN provides far more than a connection to check your email. It's also essential for simplifying space command and control functions—such as power production or life-support systems—crucial for. . .
The Disruption Tolerant Networking system, which entered another phase of testing this week, will allow astronauts to Google from the moon or tweet their observations from space.
But DTN provides far more than a connection to check your email. It's also essential for simplifying space command and control functions—such as power production or life-support systems—crucial for. . .
Astronomers love their sky maps, and this latest is a doozie. It reveals thousands of previously undiscovered knots of cold cosmic dust, each a potential star waiting to be born.
The new atlas of dust covers the inner regions of our Milky Way Galaxy, where stars, gas and dust are all packed tightly together, where chaos reigns, where massive stars are born.
It's so dusty in there that optical telescopes can't see anything.
But cosmic material emits and reflects various forms of radiation besides the visible. The new observations were made in submillimeter-wavelength light, whi. . .
The new atlas of dust covers the inner regions of our Milky Way Galaxy, where stars, gas and dust are all packed tightly together, where chaos reigns, where massive stars are born.
It's so dusty in there that optical telescopes can't see anything.
But cosmic material emits and reflects various forms of radiation besides the visible. The new observations were made in submillimeter-wavelength light, whi. . .
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by the Space Shuttle Discovery in April 1990. It is named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Although not the first space telescope, the Hubble is one of the largest and most versatile, and is well-known as both a vital research tool and a public relations boon for astronomy. The HST is a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency, and is one of NASA’s Great Observatories, along with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.
During it’s. . .
During it’s. . .
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