Review: NASA’s Moonbase Alpha.

 
    
  It’s hard to weld in a spacesuit… This week, we take a look at Moonbase Alpha. No, this isn’t a resurrection of the 70’s TV series Space: 1999 re-imagined, but NASA’s new online interactive game. We’ve been playing it for a few weeks now since its release in early July. Just how does its authenticity, educational use, [...]

Review: Voyager by Stephen J. Pyne.

 
   Ours may be an age of discovery like no other. This week, we look at Voyager: Seeking Newer Worlds in the Third Great Age of Discovery, by Stephen J. Pyne, out July 26th, 2010 from Viking Press. This fascinating work delves into the Voyager series of spacecraft missions from a unique perspective, juxtaposing it as a [...]

25.06.10- MRO and the Case of the Martian Spirals.

 
 
   Scientists may have solved the formation of one of the more curious features on Mars; the formation of its polar ice spirals. First spotted by NASA’s Mariner 9 spacecraft in 1972, these strange swirling patterns etched in the polar ice caps have remained a mystery. For example, the ice formation actually tends to form [...]

24.06.10: SOFIA takes flight.

SOFIA in action! (Credit: NASA/Jim Ross).

 
   A unique airborne telescope is now open for business after what has seemed like endless delays. On May 26th, NASA’s SOFIA, or the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy took flight to perform its first nighttime observations of the far infrared sky. And what a long road to flight it’s [...]

23.06.10- Swift Spies Black Holes Feeding on Galaxy Mergers.

 
   NASA’s orbiting Swift telescope is in the news again, this time providing a key link between energetic nuclei and active galaxy mergers. The findings come after a survey conducted since 2004 by Swifts’ Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) of active galactic nuclei. A small percentage of these (less than 1 %) are extremely active, emitting 10 [...]

20.06.10: The Low Down on WASP-12b.

 
   A bizarre exo-world just got stranger in the past month, but not in the way many news outlets would have you believe. WASP-12b is destined for a short life, one that we many have been fortunate enough to catch it in the middle of. The story starts in 2008, with the transiting exoplanet’s discovery by [...]

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