Two images from the test of a E-Cat device
performed on Nov. 20th 2012. Credit: Levi, Foschi et al.

Cold fusion has been called one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs that might likely never happen. On the surface, it seems simple – a room-temperature reaction occurring under normal pressure. But it is a nuclear reaction, and figuring it out and getting it to work has not been simple, and any success in this area could ultimately – and seriously — change the world. Despite various claims of victory over the years since 1920, none have been able to be replicated consistently and reliably.

But there’s buzz this week of a cold fusion experiment that has been replicated, twice. The tests have reportedly produced excess heat with roughly 10,000 times the energy density and 1,000 times the power density of gasoline.
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© nancy for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: cold fusion, Physics, Science

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A depiction of Larry Niven’s Ringworld. Credit: Hill/Wikimedia Commons

It’s a big galaxy out there. Even the most skeptical scientist has to accept that if a civilisation like our own exists, then there’s a good chance we’re not the only one to have ever done so. When most people think about SETI (the search for extraterrestrial intellgence), they imagine someone like Ellie Arroway searching the skies for radio transmissions. But what about looking in other ways? Perhaps a highly advanced alien civilisation might build structures large enough for us to see.
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© Markus Hammonds for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 3 comments |
Post tags: Dyson Sphere, SETI

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An artist’s conception of the Curiosity spacecraft landing on Mars. Credit: NASA

Is it just us, or has there been a lot — a LOT — of talk about getting humans to Mars lately?

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© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 10 comments |
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Three evening planets – Jupiter, Venus and Mercury — on May 23, 2013 at about 9pm CDT, as see from Salem, Missouri. The photographer noted a fourth planet is also visible in this photo: Earth! Credit and copyright: Joe Shuster.

Images are starting to come in of the bright planetary conjunction in the western sky at dusk! Jupiter, Venus and Mercury are snuggling up together, and we’ve got a wonderful weekend coming up with alignments including three separate conjunctions and ever-changing triangular arrangements as the nights go by. Mercury and Venus pair up on Friday; Mercury and Jupiter on Sunday and Venus and Jupiter on Monday. See our preview article for more detailed info on how to see the planetary trio each night, and there are more images below:

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© nancy for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Astrophotos, Jupiter, Mercury, planetary conjunctions, Venus

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On May 23, NASA hosted a Google+ Hangout from the Johnson Space Center with three recently returned International Space Station Astronauts. NASA astronauts Kevin Ford, Tom Marshburn and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield answered questions about daily living in a weightless environment, all the scientific research they did, the spacewalk conducted by Marshburn, how they hope they helped the people of Earth “fall in love with their planet,” and what it is like to return back to Earth after 5-6 months in space.

Below are two more astronaut videos. The first is a post landing interview with the very popular Chris Hadfield, and the second is a video with several ESA astronauts — including Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano who is heading for the ISS next week — talking about living and working in space.
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© nancy for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: astronauts, Google+ Hangouts, International Space Station (ISS)

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“Hubble: Galaxies Across Space and Time” is an award-winning IMAX Super Short film. In less than 3 minutes you can explore 10 billion years of cosmic history as you fly through one of Hubble’s iconic images, the Hubble Deep Field. These galaxies were photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope as part of the Great Observatory Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) project. Hubble scientists and imaging specialists worked for months to extract individual galaxy images, placing them in a 3-D model according to their approximate true distances.
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© nancy for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Hubble, Hubble Deep Field, IMAX, Videos

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Sceenshot of a satellite view from Google/Digital Globe of the destruction in Moore, Oklahoma after the May 20, 2013 tornado. Click image to have access to an interactive, zoomable version via NPR.

A new satellite map from Google and Digital Globe shows just-released satellite imagery of the damage from the tornado that struck the area of Moore, Oklahoma on May 20, 2013. It’s been called one of the most powerful and destructive tornadoes ever recorded — determined to be an EF5 tornado, the strongest rating for a tornado — and the destruction is heartbreaking. In the screenshot above, you can see how some houses were left undamaged, while others were completely destroyed.

Click on the image above to have access to an interactive map that shows hi-resolution views of the damage, providing details of where the buildings and houses once were. NPR put this map together, using satellite data from Digital Globe, along with property data from City of Oklahoma City, City of Moore, and Cleveland County. Satellite data like this are helping to assist the recovery and rescue teams on the ground.
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Read the rest of Astonishing Hi-Resolution Satellite Views of the Destruction from the Moore, Oklahoma Tornado (163 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 4 comments |
Post tags: Moore Oklahoma tornado, Natural Disasters, tornadoes

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Hubble Space Telescope view of the Ring Nebula. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

Sometimes the popular names given to an astronomical object hit the mark of describing its features. Other times…. not so much. Case in point, the Ring Nebula. While the distinctive loop shape and colorful beauty have made it one of the most famous celestial discs, it is not really a classic “ring.” And this recent image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows an amazing new level of detail in this iconic nebula.

“The nebula is not like a bagel, but rather, it’s like a jelly doughnut, because it’s filled with material in the middle,” said C. Robert O’Dell of Vanderbilt University, who led a research team that used Hubble and several ground-based telescopes to obtain the best view yet of the Ring nebula. The images show a more complex structure than astronomers once thought and have allowed them to construct the most precise 3-D model of the nebula.
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© nancy for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Hubble Space Telescope, Large Binocular Telescope, Ring Nebula

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The Pavlof Volcano in Alaska on May 18, 2013. The oblique perspective from the ISS reveals the three dimensional structure of the ash plume, which is often obscured by the top-down view of most remote sensing satellites. Credit: NASA

The Pavlof Volcano began erupting on May 13, 2013, shooting lava into the air and spewing an ash cloud 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) high. This image from the International Space Station was taken on May 18, and provides a unique oblique (sideways) glance at the action. When the photograph was taken, the space station was about 475 miles south-southeast of the volcano (49.1° North latitude, 157.4° West longitude). The volcanic plume extended southeastward over the North Pacific Ocean.

NASA says the oblique perspective reveals the three dimensional structure of the ash plume, which is usually not visible from the top-down views of most remote sensing satellites.
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Read the rest of Awesome View of the Active Pavlov Volcano, as Seen from the Space Station (92 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 3 comments |
Post tags: Earth Observation, International Space Station (ISS), Pavlov Volcano, volcano

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The two main smoke trails left by the Russian meteorite as it passed over the city of Chelyabinsk. Credit: AP Photo/Chelyabinsk.ru

It’s been about three months since that infamous meteor broke up over Chelyabinsk, Russia. In that time, there’s been a lot of conversation about how we can better protect ourselves against these space rocks with a potentially fatal (from humanity’s perspective) gravitational attraction to Earth.

This week, the European Space Agency officially inaugurated a “NEO Coordination Centre” that is intended to be asteroid warning central in the European Union. It will be the hub for early warnings on near-Earth objects (hence the ‘NEO’ in the name) under ESA’s space situational awareness program.

ESA estimates that of the 600,000 asteroids and comets that orbit the Sun, about 10,000 of them are NEOs. (They define NEOs as asteroids or comets with sizes of several feet up to several tens of miles.)

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Read the rest of With Russian Meteor Fresh In Everyone’s Memory, ESA Opens An Asteroid Monitoring Center (329 words)

© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: charles bolden, Chelyabinsk, european space agency, meteor, meteors, meteors hitting earth, NASA

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A new view of the spectacular stellar nursery IC 2944 (ESO)

This Saturday will mark 15 years that the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) first opened its eyes on the Universe, and ESO is celebrating its first-light anniversary with a beautiful and intriguing new image of the stellar nursery IC 2944, full of bright young stars and ink-black clouds of cold interstellar dust.

This is the clearest ground-based image yet of IC 2944, located 6,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Centaurus.

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Read the rest of An Amazing Anniversary Image from the VLT (285 words)

© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: anniversary, Bok Globules, ESO, IC 2944, nebula, space, stars, telescope, VLT

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A rare and massive merging of two galaxies that took place when the Universe was just 3 billion years old.

Even though the spacecraft has exhausted its supply of liquid helium coolant necessary to observe the infrared energy of the distant Universe, data collected by ESA’s Herschel space observatory are still helping unravel cosmic mysteries — such as how early elliptical galaxies grew so large so quickly, filling up with stars and then, rather suddenly, shutting down star formation altogether.

Now, using information initially gathered by Herschel and then investigating closer with several other space- and ground-based observatories, researchers have found a “missing link” in the evolution of early ellipticals: an enormous star-sparking merging of two massive galaxies, caught in the act when the Universe was but 3 billion years old.

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© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 4 comments |
Post tags: elliptical, esa, galactic collision, galaxy, Herschel, infrared, merger, NASA, star formation, universe

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Poster by Start Motion Pictures.

The producers of a new movie called “Europa Report” have released a new trailer about their film, which features a near-future mission to Jupiter’s moon, Europa, in search of extraterrestrial life. From the trailer, the film looks to be of extremely high quality, and it stars Sharlto Copley (District 9), with music score from composer Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica, Eureka).

And while this is a sci-fi flick, the makers of “Europa Report” say they have steeped it in real science. JPL scientists acted as advisers on the film, and it’s been called “One of the most thrilling and realistic depictions of deep-space exploration since ‘Moon’ and ’2001: A Space Odyssey’” by Space.com

Enjoy the trailer below.

The film will be released on for download on June 27th and theatrically on August 2nd through Magnolia Pictures. The premiere showing of the film will be in the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History on August 1st.
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© nancy for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 21 comments |
Post tags: movies, Sci-Fi

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New research led by a Johns Hopkins mathematical physicist focuses on the “misbehavior” of magnetic fields in solar flares. In this image, the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured an X1.2 class solar flare, peaking on May 15, 2013. Credit: NASA/SDO

What’s more fun than something that misbehaves? When it comes to solar dynamics, we know a lot, but there are many things we don’t yet understand. For example, when a particle filled solar flare lashes out from the Sun, its magnetic field lines can do some pretty unexpected things – like split apart and then rapidly reconnect. According to the flux-freezing theorem, these magnetic lines should simply “flow away in lock-step” with the particles. They should stay intact, but they don’t. It’s not just a simple rule they break… it’s a law of physics. (...)
Read the rest of Ain’t Misbehavin’ – Turbulence, Solar Flares and Magnetism (835 words)

© tammy for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 5 comments |
Post tags: Flux-Freezing Theorem, Magetic Field Lines, plasma, solar flare, Solar Phyiscs

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A dense network of small rivers or swampy areas appears to connect some of the seas on Saturn’s moon Titan, as seen in this comparison of data of the same area from two instruments on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Images from the radar instrument are on the left and images from the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) are on the right. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Are there waves on Titan’s lakes and seas? Cassini scientists say that the best chance of answering this question is with the May 23 flyby of Titan, when the Cassini spacecraft will be just 970 km (603 miles) over Titan’s biggest ‘lake,’ the northern sea named Ligeia Mare.

Lakes, seas, and rivers were discovered on Titan by Cassini in 2005, and since then, scientists and space enthusiasts have been intrigued about the possibility of what could be found in these bodies of hydrocarbon liquid. Future potential missions such as paddleboats have even been proposed.
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© nancy for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Cassini, Saturn, Titan

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Three bright planets gather in the northwestern sky this week. This map shows the sky 30 minutes after sunset from the mid-northern latitudes. Stellarium

Planning a barbecue this weekend? You may want to top it off with a look at three bright planets shuttling about the western sky at dusk. Jupiter, Venus and Mercury gather for nearly a week of delightful alignments including three separate conjunctions staring right now. Mercury and Venus pair up on Friday; Mercury and Jupiter on Sunday and Venus and Jupiter on Monday. All three form a series of ever-changing triangular arrangements as the nights go by.
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© Bob King for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: conjunction, Jupiter, Mercury, planets, Venus

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The International Space Station may soon have its very own Star Trek food replicator.

Earlier this week, NASA awarded a $125,000 six month grant to the Systems & Materials Research Cooperation to design a 3D printer capable of printing a pizza from 30-year shelf stable foodstuffs.
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© David Dickinson for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 3 comments |
Post tags: 3d printer iss, 3D printing, 3d printing pizza, 3d printing technology, made in space, mars 2018, Mars One, reprap, space food

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The Dream Chaser space plane atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Image Credit: SNC

It was surely one of those moments where NASA could hardly wait to tear off the shrink wrap. Sierra Nevada Corp.’s privately constructed Dream Chaser spacecraft engineering test article arrived at the Dryden Flight Research Center last week — wrapped in plastic for shipping protection — ahead of some flight and runway tests in the next few months.

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© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 4 comments |
Post tags: dream chaser, Sierra Nevada

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Sol-X Chief Technology Officer Blaze Sanders wearing a Final Frontier Design space suit. Credit: Solar System Express.

Editor’s note: This guest post was written by Ron Atkins, a life-long supporter of human space exploration and an ardent advocate of “NewSpace” and Commercial Spaceflight. He curates and maintains “The NewSpace Daily” on Scoop.it

Tony Stark has been to a lot of cool places in that Iron Man get-up of his. But low Earth orbit might still be a bit beyond his operational flight envelope. Not so for the developers of the revolutionary RL Mark VI Space Diving suit. A hi-tech ensemble consisting of augmented reality goggles, power gloves, control moment gyros, and a low-cost commercial space suit, the RL Mark VI will allow future thrill seekers and space tourists an experience that up until now could only be imagined in the boldest science fiction.
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Read the rest of Revolutionary New Space-Diving Suit Will Rival Anything You’ve Ever Seen In The Movies (1,968 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 4 comments |
Post tags: Space Diving, Space Exploration, Space Flight

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NASA astronaut Sally Ride, who died in 2012. Credit: NASA

Sally Ride was only 32 years old when she flew into space for the first time 30 years ago, in June 1983. She died last year at 61, at an age that many considered very young. In that generation of time, however, the exploits of America’s first woman in space in flight and education touched countless Americans.

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Read the rest of Tributes Mount As Sally Ride’s 30th Anniversary In Space Approaches (532 words)

© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: john f. kennedy center for the performing arts, leland melvin, pam melroy, Sally Ride, smithsonian national air and space museum

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