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Tech NewsNovember’s “Astronomical Blackout” is Unmitigated Bullshit
For fifteen days in November, the Earth will be blanketed in darkness during an astronomical blackout like nothing you’ve seen before! Except it won’t, because what the fuck is an “astronomical blackout”? Isn’t the universe cool enough without making shit up? According to hoax-originators Newswatch33, the blackout will be between November 15, 2015 and November … Continued
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Tech NewsBears Enjoy Long Walks on the Beach, Munching on Clams
Long claws make for excellent clam-digging. Every year when coastal brown bears emerge from their winter lairs, groggy from a long hibernation, they go questing for a good dinner. They’re opportunistic feeders, eating vegetation, intertidal invertebrates, berries, and salmon. Bears are unbelievably effective clammers:during a study watching bears go clamming for 233 days over 3 … Continued
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Tech News
Spotted Skunks Dance Better Than You, Then Spray You in the Face
Practiced for hours and feeling proud of your handstands? Spotted skunk will put you utterly to shame with its elaborate dance warning any who dare approach that it’s locked, loaded, and ready to spray. The skunks can store about 15 grams (1 tablespoon) of a noxious oil at a time, and are capable of releasing … Continued
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ScienceHealth
This is Your Brain Without Gravity
What happens to your brain when you have no sense of up? Researchers are scanning the brains of astronauts to track just how badly space messes with our ability to think. Without a sense of up or down, astronauts experience perceptual illusions: switching feelings of orientation (like right-side-up or upside-down) without actually moving. They also … Continued
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Tech News
The Rivers of Paraguay Want Nothing to do with Each Other
Rio Paraná and Rio Paraguay are like spoiled kids refusing to shake and make up in this photo from the International Space Station, one clear blue and the other dark with orange sediments. The sediment-laden Rio Paraná runs 4,880 kilometres (3,030 miles) through Brazil, Paraguay,and Argentina as the second-longest river in South America. The meandering … Continued
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Tech News
This Robot is All Eyes to Inspect Satellites in Orbit
A self-repairing robot on the space station just isn’t enough to satisfy NASA’s mad quest to bring the robot uprising that much closer to reality. It may be cute in a lopsided Wall-E sort of way, but one day it’ll break free to independently inspect satellites if we want it to or not. VIPIR looks … Continued
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Tech News
Head to Space as NASA’s Newest Astronaut
Now hiring: astronauts. Must be willing to travel. NASA is bolstering its current active corps of 47 astronauts by opening job applications for the next class. Successful candidates will potentially go to the International Space Station, or ride on any of the spacecraft currently under development: Boeing Starliner, SpaceX crew Dragon, or even Orion. What … Continued
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Tech News
We’re One Step Closer to Green Rocket Fuel
Is it possible to have an eco-conscious rocket? While that may seem like a laughable concept, NASA is testing new green propellants to replace hydrazine, the current toxic and corrosive standard moseying around space. Nearly every satellite depends on hydrazine, the highly toxic and corrosive fuel that played a starring role in The Martian. NASA … Continued
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Tech NewsBe Mesmerized by the Shifting Complexity of our Sun
Sit back, relax, and look straight at the sun just this once. The Solar Dynamics Observatory keeps a close watch on our sun, tracking sunspots, coronal mass ejections, and everything in between to learn more about our nearest star. Now you can bask in the beauty of our weird and wonderful Sun, twisting gas warped … Continued
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Tech News
Owl Feet Make Truly Awful Telescope Lenses
Hey! Hey, you! Buzz off, we’re trying to stargaze! …freaking owls, landing on the freaking telescope when the skies are finally clear for some good observing time… Grumble, growl, grouch. An owl perched directly on the lens of a telescope at NASA’s Marshall Space Center, providing an excellent view of wrinkly toes and sharp talons … Continued
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Tech News
NASA is Sending a Robot Geophysicist to Investigate the Interior of Mars
What lurks beneath the dusty red surface of Mars? NASA’s InSight Lander is launching next spring to go delving deeper than ever before as the first Martian geophysicist. Propulsion and leak testing 0n October 31, 2014. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin Where the Curiosity Rover was NASA’s first true robotic geologist, the InSight Lander is branching … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
Holy Crap, We’ve Been Living in Space for 15 Years!
One minute you’re fooling around in a couple of short-lived space stations that stumble into the atmosphere and burn up, the next you’ve spent a decade and a half with continuous habitation of a major International Space Station. Time flies when you’re outside the gravity well! The First Days on the Space Station December 6, … Continued
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Tech News
What Happens When Neutron Stars Collide?
One of two things happens when neutron stars collide: they merge together to form a new, larger neutron star, or they collapse into a black hole. But which happens when? That leads to another, trickier question: How big can a neutron star get? This is going to sound weird, but mathematically speaking, we aren’t entirely … Continued
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Tech News
Cyclone Chapala Still Looking Nasty as it Advances on Yemen
Yemen is in for a mess as last week’s rapidly-growing Cyclone Chapala continues to hold it together while approaching the dry desert air. If it makes landfall, it’s anticipated to be the largest storm to hit the country since we started recording them. Based on the latest reports from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, the … Continued
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Tech News
Is it Still a Launch if the Main Engine Never Fires?
What happens to a space shuttle if the main engine never fires during launch? NASA researchers tested for that in this scale-model test May 1988. The answer? It’s not exactly catastrophic, but it sure means no one is going to space that day. Image credit: NASA Contact the author at [email protected] or follow her at … Continued
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Tech News
The Earth Today, Seen from Space
It’s only fitting that the camera dedicated to sending home a steady stream of photos of what our planet looks like right now wears the name EPIC. Living in the future is awesome. The Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) is on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). The satellite was originally built in the 1990s … Continued
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Tech News
Here’s How we Started Measuring the Oceans from Space
February 8, 1973: Biologist Ellen Weaver creates a sensor package to measure ocean temperature and detect chlorophyll levels. The sensors were loaded onto communications and weather satellites in NASA’s first foray into sea productivity monitoring. In the early 1970s, NASA put together a team of researchers including legendary explorer Jacques Cousteau, and associate professor at … Continued
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Tech News
The Slow Creep of Time Reveals a Skull Emerging from the Earth
Over millennia, wind and water have carved this 100-million-year-old granite into an eerie skull to glare at daring hikers in Joshua Tree National Park. The iconic Skull Rock is the perfect way to welcome the growing gloom of dusk on this All Hallows’ Eve. Top image: Skull Rock in Joshua Tree National Park. Credit: Thomas … Continued
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Tech News
Is This the Very Youngest Crater on Pluto’s Moon Charon?
Of all the craters on Pluto’s moon Charon, this one is unlike the others. The bright green marks a unique splash of frozen ammonia at a concentration higher than any other crater examined in detail on the massive moon. But does that mean it’s the youngest? The abnormal crater is on the Pluto-facing side of … Continued
Mika McKinnon
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