space stories

520-day mission to Mars gets ready to land next month

Kevin Hall
Friday, January 21, 2011 - 1:31pm
 
It sounds crazy, but 233 days ago a team of six scientists entered a sealed simulator in Russia. Their mission? Recreate the conditions of a 520-day round trip to and from Mars, realistically cutoff from the rest of the world. Come February they'll finally reach the Red Planet, but the hardest part of the journey will still be ahead.

Image of the Day: quasar-illuminated gas blob

Megan Wollerton
Thursday, January 13, 2011 - 6:00am
 
A mysterious green blob of gas known as Hanny's Voorwerp (that's Hanny's Object in Dutch) was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. What we can see is all that remains of a 300,000-light-year-long streamer of gas floating near neighboring galaxy, IC 2947. Hanny's Voorwerp was made visible by a quasar, which may have turned off as long as 200,000 years ago.

Squishy beanbag-like wheels can roll over anything

Kevin Hall
Monday, January 3, 2011 - 1:12pm
 
Remember that balloon-like robot hand that could pick up everything even without fingers? Engineers in Canada are taking a similar approach in redesigning the wheels for rovers headed to other planets, using a beanbag-like form that would be able to tackle all kinds of terrain.

Image of the Day: storms rock the sun

Megan Wollerton
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - 6:00am
 
The entire sun experienced a series of violent explosions back in August. And thanks to a new sun-observing satellite, NASA captured the whole thing. Not only are the images amazing, but they also helped researchers determine that solar activity occurring simultaneously may not always be a coincidence.

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