Monthly Archives: March 2015

Explore Vesta with Vesta Trek

Posted on March 31, 2015 by robbyks

Today, NASA released Vesta Trek, a free web-based application that provides a detailed visualization of Vesta, one of the largest asteroids in the Solar System. This was made possible by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, which studied Vesta from July 2011 to September 2012. This application includes interactive maps, the ability to print Vesta in a 3-D printer, […] Continue reading →

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United States Space Force

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Marissa LePore

It’s actually called the Air Force Space Command, and it has its headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. Space Command is relatively new, and the programs it has consolidated and eradicated to get to this point is impressive and a bit dizzying, but I think important to understand how the Air Force came to […] Continue reading →

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Mercurial Art

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Marissa LePore

“It appears that Mercury may well be a painted planet,” said Prof Peter Schultz, a co-author from Brown University. Mercury’s dull surface has long been a point of perplexion in the field of planetary geology. Scientists have thought that there must be a mystery darkening agent contributing to the planet’s low reflectance. A new study has given […] Continue reading →

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The Goldilocks Zone: Not as elusive as previously thought?

Posted on March 26, 2015 by jclyncmp

New research from the Australian National University and the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen has calculated that billions of the milky Way star’s have one to three planets in the habitable zone (or nicknamed: “The Goldilocks Zone” because…

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Do we have Jupiter to thank for Earth?

Posted on March 26, 2015 by jclyncmp

A new study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed that Jupiter may just be more than the largest gas giant planet in our solar system. We little earthlings may be here thanks to Jupiter and its…

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Solar Eclipse

Posted on March 20, 2015 by serenakumar

Today, residents of Europe got to see something truly spectacular. In the early morning hours, a solar eclipse occurred (a total solar eclipse was viewed by residents of islands in the far North of Europe). This eclipse coincided with the Spring equinox (which occurs on the first day of Spring) as well as a Supermoon, which… Continue reading →

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Climate Change

Posted on March 20, 2015 by serenakumar

Today, one of the most pressing issues in society is climate change. The Earth, due to pollution and the ensuing increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, is experiencing global warming. Average temperatures around the globe have increased a few degrees Celsius in the past few decades. While that may not seem like a lot,… Continue reading →

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The deep blue under the crust

Posted on March 16, 2015 by farhannshabab

NASA’s Cassini mission scientists announced recently that Saturn’s sixth-largest moon, Enceladus, has a warm ocean at its southern pole. The ocean is 9.7 km deep and resides under the moon’s icy crust of about 40 km. Tiny grains of rock were detected by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft near Saturn. This indicates that there may be hydrothermal […] Continue reading →

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Other Life in our Solar System?

Posted on March 16, 2015 by christophermfitzgerald

Through the use of computer modeling, a team of NASA scientists have confirmed that Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede, contains water under its icy top layers. New modeling that takes into account salinity of the planet’s water suggests that below the surface … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Nuclear Fission or Fusion?

Posted on March 16, 2015 by christophermfitzgerald

Fusion involves the combination of nuclei between two atoms and fission is the process of splitting the nuclei of atoms. When looking at the release of energy from nuclear fission versus nuclear fusion there is a clear winner: Nuclear Fusion. Through … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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