Space & Spaceflight

These Tiny Telescopes Could Save the Earth from a Deep Impact

A 50-foot wide, 10,000-ton meteor that packs triple the force of the nuke dropped on Hiroshima is nothing to scoff at. But in the grand scheme of things, the meteor that hit Chelyabinsk, Russia, last week is a cosmological runt. Space rocks as much as 100 feet across are estimated to strike every hundred years…

Evidence of Martian Life May Be Waiting In this Scoop of Dirt

Like a Danish gourmet, the Mars Curiosity Rover is about to eat a scoop of ground dirt—the one you can see here. This is the first sample of powdered Martian rock extracted using the rover’s drill. This image—obtained by by Curiosity’s Mast Camera on Feb. 20, or Sol 193, Curiosity’s 193rd Martian day of operations—shows…

Watch as Last Week’s Asteroid Decides to Fly by Instead of Destroying Us All

That little, white pixelated bean spinning around above might look more like a bad 80s video game than the near-messenger of quick and devastating apocalypse, but that’s what happens when you’re taking shots 74,000 miles away from your subject. What you’re seeing is, in fact, 2012 DA14 at a resolution of around 13 feet per…

Never-Before-Seen Video Shows Fire Raining On the Sun

“On July 19, 2012, the Sun produced a medium-size solar flare,” NASA says on this new video captured by its Solar Dynamics Observatory, “what occurred with the flare was amazing.” It’s true. It’s amazing. Fire started to fall down like rain—a hell waterfall many times the size of planet Earth. You have to watch this…

Hubble Captures Extraordinary Galactic Train Collision

See that V in the sky, surrounded by galaxies? It’s uninspiring name is IC 2184 and it is one of the weirdest galaxies you will ever see. In fact, it’s still two galaxies, captured in the middle of a collision that will result in a completely new galactic shape a few million years from now.…

Mercury Sure Looks Good in Blue

It might look like poor old Mercury is feeling a bit blue, but fear not – these are false-colour images produced by NASA’s Messenger space probe. To the human eye, the closest planet to the sun is covered in a dull mottling of brown-grey splodges. Filtering the light from its surface lets researchers see chemical,…

This Is Neither Mars Nor Mercury—This Is Earth

Commander Chris Hadfield—god bless his astrochops—just took this photo of Earth with the following caption: “Mars is a very interesting planet, with its rugged, ancient surface. But this is Earth.” Absolutely oooohstanding. [Twitter]

Russian Meteorite Exploded With “30 Times the Energy Released by the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb”

Following last week’s meteorite explosion, scientists have finally had chance to sit down and figure out exactly what happened—and the results help explain why it shook Russia so hard. https://gizmodo.com/meteorite-explodes-over-russia-panic-spreads-5984476 Peter Brown, from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, has been using the extremely low frequency sound waves detected during the incident to work out…

Here Is a Map That Shows Every Meteorite That Has Hit Earth Since 2300 BC

If we somehow get lucky and don’t kill ourselves first, we’re probably all going to die when a gigantic meteorite slams the crap out of our blue marble. Meteorites hit Earth more than you think! Since 2300 BC, you can see all the meteorites that have pockmarked Earth. Hell, there might be even more than…

Amazing Astronomy + Animated GIF = Stunning 3D Nebula

If you thought stunning images of nebulous gas clouds in space couldn’t get any prettier, think again. Finnish astrophotographer J-P Metsävainio has combined art and science to make these stunning 3D-esque animated GIFs of nebulae. He uses a technique known as volumetric rotation to create a sense of 3D: by using known and approximate distances…

How The Sun Might Protect Us From Future Asteroid Disasters

Two large flying space rocks have hit or almost hit Earth lately. I think everyone agrees that this needs to not be happening. So two California researchers are developing a plan for destroying asteroids in space. Get after it. https://gizmodo.com/congress-plans-to-hold-hearings-over-our-little-asteroi-5984672 The idea is to use the sun’s intense energy to vaporize asteroids as big as…

ISS Commander Chris Hadfield is AMAing on Reddit right now! [Reddit]

Russia’s Meteorite Explosion Was “Heard” Half-Way Around the World

A big ol’ meteroite exploded over Russia last Friday, and while the shock waves that shot across the Internet were definitely strong, the ones that shot through the atmosphere were pretty impressive too. The blast was loud enough for infrasound sensors as far as half-a-world away to hear. https://gizmodo.com/meteorite-explodes-over-russia-panic-spreads-5984476 A lot of this “noise” probably…

What’s the Difference Between an Asteroid and a Meteor?

Today, we dealt with an asteroid and a meteor. The 2012 DA14 asteroid zipped passed Earth today and a meteor exploded over Russia. What the heck is the difference between an asteroid and a meteor? And a meteorite? And a meteoroid? Not too much, apparently! https://gizmodo.com/were-safe-the-asteroid-goes-away-5984606 An asteroid is a rocky object in space that’s…

Congress Plans to Hold Hearings Over Our Little Asteroid Problem

In case you felt like the Armageddon simulation we’ve been living in wasn’t realistic enough already, Congress’s Science, Space, and Technology Committee will soon hold a hearing “to examine ways to better identify and address asteroids that pose a potential threat to Earth.” Cue Aerosmith. https://gizmodo.com/what-would-happen-if-the-asteroid-actually-hit-earth-to-5984469 This morning’s meteor explosion in Russia resulted in more…

The World’s Biggest Solar Sail Launches Next Year

Space is noticeably short on gas stations, requiring spacecraft to carry huge reserves of expensive and cumbersome propellant which limits their range. But with NASA’s newest Sun-powered propulsion concept, future astronauts could sail to the stars on solar winds. Built by L’Garde Inc. of Tustin, California, the Sunjammer demonstrator is the largest solar sail ever…

How Common Are Meteor Strikes?

A meteorite has fallen to Earth in Russia overnight—and the fall-out, including 500 causalities, is pretty bad. But you might not realize that giant space rocks crash into Earth all the time. https://gizmodo.com/meteorite-explodes-over-russia-panic-spreads-5984476 Speaking to AP, Addi Bischoff, a mineralogist at the University of Muenster in Germany, explained that there are typically five to ten…

Did NASA Discover an Awesome Spaceship or Is This Pulsar Just Happy to See Us?

NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory has captured this incredible image of an object 1,000 light years away from Earth. It looks like an awesome Klingon spaceship accelerating to Warp 10. Or a majestic 12-mile-long Cylon Basestar that flies through the cosmos rotating eleven times every second. It’s name is Vela and it is a pulsar that…

What Are The Chances of an Asteroid Demolishing Your Home Tomorrow?

In case you’ve been been blissfully unaware, in just 24 hours, a 143,000 ton, obscenely expensive asteroid is going to buzz peacefully past Earth, giving us a nice little show and a new appreciation for our lives all at once. Or so they’ll have us believe. But even if NASA’s “scientists” are right about this…

These Stunning Images of the Sun Were Snapped From a Dude’s Backyard

Images like this might not look like anything new, but they’re usually acquired by the likes of NASA. These pictures, however, were taken by a dude in his humble backyard. https://gizmodo.com/how-scientists-observe-the-sun-in-every-possible-way-5978448 Captured using a telescope and webcam by Alan Friedman of Buffalo, New York, the most important component he has at his disposal is a…