Tag: Space
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Hanford’s scientists finally spill gravitational-wave secrets – but they still can’t tell all
The beamlines for the LIGO detector site at Hanford stretch out across the desert terrain of southeastern Washington. Each arm of the L-shaped detector is 2.5 miles long. (Credit: LIGO) HANFORD, Wash. – Physicists here had to keep mum for nearly five months about the gravitational-wave breakthrough they helped make, but they made up for their…
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Gravitational waves found! LIGO experiment watches two black holes smash together
A computer simulation shows two black holes shortly before they merge into one. (Credit: SXS) WASHINGTON, D.C. – After more than a decade of looking, scientists say they’ve detected the gravitational waves given off when two black holes merged into one bigger black hole. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have detected gravitational waves. We did it!” Caltech…
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Super Thursday: LIGO schedules the big reveal about its gravitational wave quest
This 3-D visualization shows the gravitational waves produced by two orbiting black holes. (Credit: NASA) It looks as if scientists have chosen Thursday as the day to announce a potentially Nobel Prize-winning discovery: the first detection of gravitational waves, a century after they were predicted by Albert Einstein. After months of rumors, simultaneous events have…
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NASA puts Pluto and its heart on a valentine
Pluto is all smiles in NASA’s valentine. (Credit: NASA) Say it with Pluto? After NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft spotted a heart-shaped region on Pluto, you had to know it was just a matter of time before the dwarf planet made its appearance on a valentine. Sure enough, this year’s crop of printable Valentine’s Day cards…
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Abort, retry, fail? Astronaut pokes fun at Windows XP during space training in Russia
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet undergoes training in a Soyuz spacecraft simulator in 2014 at Russia’s Star City cosmonaut training center. (Credit: ESA) Moscow, we have a problem: Russia’s cosmonaut training center in Star City might need to upgrade its Soyuz spacecraft simulators to Windows 10. Based on some snapshots tweeted by French astronaut Thomas Pesquet,…
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‘The Age of Aerospace’: Boeing sponsors TV series looking back at 100 years of high-flying history
“The Age of Aerospace” traces 100 years of history. (Credit: Science Channel) This year marks the Boeing Co’s 100th anniversary, and the company is using the centennial as an opportunity not only to celebrate its own history, but the history of aerospace as well. That celebration takes the TV spotlight starting tonight, in the form of…
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UW researchers trace a connection between the moon and the rain
Readings from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, shown in this artist’s conception, provided evidence to support a link between lunar tides and rainfall patterns. (Credit: NASA) When the moon is high in the sky, its gravitational pull warps the atmosphere enough to reduce rainfall ever so slightly. At least that’s the conclusion that researchers from…
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SpaceX’s Elon Musk wants to go into space by 2021 and start Mars missions by 2025
Elon Musk flashes a smile during the StartmeupHK Festival in Hong Kong. (Credit: InvestHK via YouTube) SpaceX founder Elon Musk says he has his heart set on going into space himself, perhaps in the next four or five years, and organize the first flights to Mars by 2025. Musk’s travel timetable came out this week…
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Stephen Hawking: Mad scientists could kill us all – that’s why we need space colonies
British physicist Stephen Hawking worries about humanity’s long-term future. (Credit: NASA) British physicist Stephen Hawking says we need to colonize other worlds because humanity will almost certainly face a disaster on Earth sometime in the next few millennia – perhaps a disaster of our own making. Among the risks he outlined in a report from the BBC…
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Space ventures get shout-outs in State of the State Address – and State of the Union
In his State of the State Address, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee pointed to Aerojet Rocketdyne, Blue Origin and SpaceX as aerospace success stories. (Credit: Office of the Governor) Even though they happened far from the Evergreen State, last year’s Pluto flyby and the rocket landings accomplished by Blue Origin and SpaceX were among the “big…