The construction of a large telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea which is opposed by the Hawaiians has permission now to go ahead. This has been opposed because the Hawaiians consider it sacred ground. The construction could start on the top of the 13,800 foot high mountain as early as April 2014. The mountain [...]

Bright objects appeared in maps in 2008 from data made with the South Pole telescope. These light sources interfered with the measurements that were being made of the cosmic microwave background radiation (the afterglow of the big bang). But this turned out to be a rare find in what was a large survey of the [...]

After a delay of almost two months caused by a technical glitch, the Air Force’s secretive X-37B space plane blasted off again from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on its secret, undisclosed mission. The launch is the third mission in three years launched by Boeing’s now-shuttered Building 31 in Huntington Beach, California, and is scheduled to spend [...]

Every 11 years the sun goes through a cycle. It is noticeable by the increase and decrease of sunspots which are dark patches on the Sun’s surface. The sunspots are counted by the solar maximum and solar minimum in a solar cycle. A solar maximum is the greatest number of sunspots in any solar cycle [...]

The carbon dioxide from climate change (global warming as it is called in the press) cools the atmosphere causing the thermosphere to contract? This would result in many more collisions and would be a major hazard for the ISS and other satellites. The thermosphere is the outermost layer of the atmosphere. This layer would contract [...]

Lots of varied articles this week including black holes, nuclear rockets, beam propulsion and quasars. One of the lowest mass black holes ever observed in the middle of a galaxy has been identified. By the Chandra Blog. Who would sign up for a 40-year journey, especially if it turned out to be a one-way trip? Thoughts [...]

Pictures of Uranus have been just a blob due to its distance from Earth. Now some much better images have been acquired at the Keck Observatory. This is due to a new technique which brings a much sharper focus onto Uranus. These new techniques involved using an infrared detector. Smaller more widely distributed weather features [...]

By Philip J Reed on behalf of Exede, a nationwide satellite Internet provider NASA is known for landing people on the moon and helping an entire generation dream of new horizons. However, many people don’t realize how the space program has impacted nearly every facet of our society. Over the years, NASA’s technological advances have [...]

Space X has recently launched its Falcon 9 rocket and docked its dragon ship to the International space Station (ISS). This is the first time a commercial spaceship has joined with the space station. Spaceflights take a major boost from this as the ISS requires constant resupply and is in continual need of resupply since [...]

This weeks carnival of space ranges from commercial space exploration to the Milky Way. TheSpacewriter muses on the end of 2011 and the upcoming 2012. Nextbigfuture comments on Future History that is space related from now to 2050. Original article by Marc Millis at Centauri Dreams. Nextbigfuture suggests other technology that could impact Future Space [...]

Hello and welcome to this weeks carnival of space. If you fancy contributing and have a blog or website to do with space then please follow this  guide on how to participate in the carnival of space which as you can see is well worth it. Even if you have a small blog please contribute. Discovery [...]

Vegaoo posts about the relation between the entropy from the Sun and the life on the Earth [In Spanish] This post by the Lounge of the Lab Lemming estimates the probability of finding a solar system like ours based on the Kepler planetary candidate database. Nuclear fission reactors in space? Think less “building sized” and more “suitcase [...]

A Chinese experimental satellite failed to reach its orbit after it’s rocket malfunctioned. Orbiter SJ-11-04 was propelled by a long March II-C rocket on Thursday. It has been speculated thatChinawas about to use the satellite as part of an operational early warning defence system but this cannot be confirmed. This is believed to be the [...]

China is getting to the forefront of space technology as theUSAbacks down. An experimental orbiter that is to launch on Thursday is another step forward for the Chinese. The orbiter, SJ-11-02 , will be carried into space byChina’s Long March II-C rocket. At the moment the satellite and rocket are waiting for the right conditions [...]

A hot spot on the far side of the Moon has turned out to be a small volcanic area created by the upwelling of magma. Because of the volcanic areas location and the composition of the lava being different to normal it gives clues to the moon’s thermal history. The hotspot is actually a concentration [...]

The farthest and largest Amount of water has been found in a quasar in the form of vapour. The quasar is one of the most powerful objects in the universe with energy output of 1000 trillion suns. The power of the quasar comes from matter that spirals into the centre where there is a supermassive [...]

Neptune  was discovered 165 years ago. In that time it has made one complete orbit of the Sun and is now in exactly the same place as when it was discovered all those years ago. The Hubble space telescope has taken anniversary pictures to celebrate this event. Neptune, as you probably know if you paid [...]

Hubble has used its wide field camera 3 to give the most detailed view of this Galaxy ever. The image shows detail that has never been seen before in the dusty portion of the Galaxy. Centaurus A is also known as NGC 5128 and is a relatively nearby galaxy in astronomical terms. It is close [...]

Here’s this weeks carnival of space with  spaceplanes, dark energy, cosmology and a lot more. Next Big Future posts about how the Skylon space plane got a thumbs up with a 52 page review from the UK space agency,  James Woodward talks about the scientific history of science, gravity and the Mach Effect and a post [...]

Particle jets erupting from a supermassive black hole have been captured in an image provided by radio telescopes located in the southern hemisphere. The image shows an area less than 4.2 light years across. This makes this image the highest resolution image of a galactic jet made to date. Jets and Lobes from the Black [...]