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1. T-0 Launch Abort for Dragon
   SpaceX’s attempt to launch their Falcon 9 rocket with the Dragon spacecraft was aborted by the computer at T-0 due to a high pressure reading on engine 5 of the first stage. The rocket’s nine main engines were ignited, but were automaticalaly shut down before liftoff. The vehicle was safed with no apparent other issues. [...]
2. SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Poised at Pad to Open New Space Era
   The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is now poised at the launch pad and set to open a completely new era in spaceflight. Hopes are sky high that Saturday mornings Falcon 9 launch represents the dawn of the commercial era in spaceflight akin to the startup of the commercial airline industry early in the 20th Century [...]
3. Doomed Mercury-Sized Exoplanet May Be Turning to Dust
   The old saying of the universe being stranger than we can imagine definitely applies to a newfound exoplanet orbiting a star about 1,500 light years from Earth. Researchers using the Kepler space observatory have detected what appears to be a planet about the size of Mercury literally turning to dust. A long tail of debris [...]
4. Launch Day Timeline for SpaceX’s Dragon
   Saturday morning’s launch window for SpaceX’s historic test flight to the International Space Station lasts just one second. Company President Gwynne Shotwell predicted they have “better than a 50-50 shot on whether we lift off tomorrow,” she said at a press conference today, adding, “If we lift off, we’ll get to orbit.” Shotwell and NASA [...]
5. What Will Happen During Tomorrow’s SpaceX Launch:
   With less than a day left before SpaceX’s historic launch of the first commercial vehicle to the ISS, slated for 4:55 am EDT on Saturday, May 19, here’s a video of what will happen once the Falcon lifts off. (Part of me really wishes that they’ll be pumping out some dramatic music when it launches!) [...]
6. The Awesome Complexity of Hypersonic Flight
   Researchers at Stanford University are working on solutions to the inherent difficulties of hypersonic flight — speeds of over Mach 5, or 3,000 mph (4828 km/h) — and they’ve created one amazing computer model illustrating the dynamics of air temperature variations created at those intense speeds. (...)Read the rest of The Awesome Complexity of Hypersonic [...]
7. Watch Jupiter as a ‘Space Invader’
   This great video created from images taken by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) on May 13 and 14 show Jupiter as it comes close to the Sun (from our vantage point) in a solar conjunction. But what it really looks like is the old “Space Invaders” video game, with Jupiter marching across the screen. [...]
8. Can You Find a Hubble Hidden Treasure?
   Just look at the kind of stunning images that are buried in the archives from the Hubble Space Telescope! Here, Hubble turned its powerful wide field Advanced Camera for Surveys towards this spiral galaxy and took this close-up of its northern half. The entire galaxy, called NGC 891, stretches across 100,000 light-years and we see [...]
9. How Big Are Sunspots?
   The short answer? Really big. The long answer? Really, really big. (...)Read the rest of How Big Are Sunspots? (258 words) © Jason Major for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Post tags: active region, CME, Earth, Jupiter, SDO, size, solar, solar max, sun, sunspots Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
10. Family Guy Creator To Bring Back COSMOS
    COSMOS. Seth MacFarlane. Neil deGrasse Tyson. Need we say more? (If you DO want to find out more, read Dorothy Pomerantz’s write-up for Forbes here.) “I never met Carl Sagan, but this is my way to give something back to him for all of the things he gave to me.” – Seth MacFarlane © Jason [...]