Most powerful space telescope ever to launch in 2018
As the Hubble Space Telescope celebrates 25 years in space this week, NASA and its international partners are building an even more powerful tool to look deeper into the universe than ever before.
View ArticleImage: Inside NASA's giant vacuum chamber with the James Webb Space...
Inside NASA's giant thermal vacuum chamber, called Chamber A, at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the James Webb Space Telescope's Pathfinder backplane test model, is being prepared for its...
View ArticleAs astronomers mark 25 years of Hubble past, they predict more discoveries ahead
The Hubble Space Telescope survived decades of delays, glitches and blunders to fulfill predictions that it would rewrite science textbooks. But as it moves into the final years of its life, scientists...
View ArticleBeyond the James Webb, a future high-definition telescope could probe life on...
The James Webb Space Telescope will be Earth's premier space observatory for the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. However its scientific mission will be limited. Unlike Hubble,...
View ArticleAstronomers unveil the farthest galaxy
An international team of astronomers led by Yale University and the University of California-Santa Cruz have pushed back the cosmic frontier of galaxy exploration to a time when the universe was only...
View ArticleVideo: NASA's Webb 'strutting its stuff'
The newest video in the "Behind the Webb" series, called "Strutting its Stuff," provides a look at three "struts" or poles that fold and unfold the secondary mirror on the James Webb Space Telescope....
View ArticleVideo: Engineers conduct "heart surgery" on the Webb telescope
In this new NASA video, engineers from Airbus Defense and Space (DS), Ottobrunn, Germany, dressed in white protective suits and special white gloves, recently completed a delicate surgical procedure to...
View ArticleProfessors experiment with handheld DNA sequencer
In February, when snowfall closed campus and kept her away from the lab, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor who was stuck at home did the kind of work typically reserved for scientists with...
View ArticleNASA technology protects Webb telescope from contamination
Contamination from organic molecules can harm delicate instruments and engineers are taking special care at NASA to prevent that from affecting the James Webb Space Telescope (and all satellites and...
View ArticleEagles continue their advance along James River
The James River continues to be one of the best barometers of bald eagle recovery within the Chesapeake Bay and likely the nation. Not only does the breeding population continue to rise to new highs...
View ArticleIn a cosmic 'call to arms,' astronomer proposes new deep-space telescope to...
Astronomers usually spend their time contemplating the heavens above. But one group of dedicated stargazers has challenged the community to look instead to the future, envisioning the tools for...
View ArticleSeeking Earth-like planets with the James Webb Space Telescope
Almost 2000 exoplanets have been discovered to date, ranging from rocky Earth-like planets to hot-Jupiters, and orbiting every type of star. But how many of these distant worlds are habitable? Today's...
View ArticleWebb sunshield gives an 'open wide' for inspection
The sunshield on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is the largest part of the observatory—five layers of thin, silvery membrane that must unfurl reliably in space. The precision in which the...
View ArticleWhat's coming after Hubble and James Webb? The High-Definition Space Telescope
Decades after its momentous launch, the ever popular Hubble Space Telescope merrily continues its trajectory in low-earth orbit, and it still enables cutting-edge science. Astronomers utilized Hubble...
View ArticleImage: Test mirror segments for the James Webb Space Telescope
The Andromeda galaxy is one of the most distant objects that we can see in the night sky with the naked eye. The light that we see now left there 2.5 million years ago. While this might seem a lot, in...
View ArticleJames Webb Space Telescope backplane arrives at NASA Goddard for mirror assembly
One of the most crucial pieces of the James Webb Space Telescope, the flight backplane, arrived on Aug. 25, on schedule for Webb's 2018 launch date at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,...
View ArticleJames Webb Space Telescope's ISIM passes severe-sound test
A critical part of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope successfully completed acoustic testing during the week of Aug. 3. The Integrated Science Instrument Module, or ISIM, passed all of the "severe...
View ArticleScientist to drill to the Earth's mantle beneath the Atlantic Ocean
A researcher from the University of Southampton will join an international team of scientists, setting sail from Southampton today (26 October 2015) for the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, to drill rocks...
View ArticleCustom circuit board printer invention wins International James Dyson Award
Voltera V-One, a custom circuit board printer developed by University of Waterloo engineering students, has taken top prize in this year's International James Dyson Award competition, beating out a...
View ArticleNASA vs. cigarettes—a numbers game
People often criticize the amount of money spent on space exploration. Sometimes it's well-meaning friends and family who say that that money is wasted, and would be better spent on solving problems...
View ArticleJames Webb Space Telescope primary mirror fully assembled
The 18th and final primary mirror segment is installed on what will be the biggest and most powerful space telescope ever launched. The final mirror installation Wednesday at NASA's Goddard Space...
View ArticleFirst atmospheric study of Earth-sized exoplanets reveals rocky worlds
On May 2, scientists from MIT, the University of Liège, and elsewhere announced they had discovered a planetary system, a mere 40 light years from Earth, that hosts three potentially habitable,...
View ArticleDespite surprise, interactive content still shines in study
Even though a study on the persuasive power of different types of media by a University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) assistant professor of English had a surprising result in the interactive age,...
View ArticleA mechanical harmony to NASA's Webb Telescope sunshield
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has a giant custom-built, kite-shaped sunshield driven by mechanics that will fold and unfold with a harmonious synchronicity 1 million miles from Earth.
View ArticleX-rays detected from the dark side of Venus
Venus and Mercury have been observed transiting the Sun many times over the past few centuries. When these planets are seen passing between the Sun and the Earth, opportunities exist for some great...
View ArticleFinding a needle in a space haystack
Stephanie Bernard is one in 24 million. The University of Melbourne PhD candidate is the only Australian given access to NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and she is using her time to explore one of the...
View ArticleReal-life 'Q' is a woman, British spy chief reveals
The inventor behind James Bond's ingenious gadgets, codenamed "Q" in the spy films, exists in reality and is actually a woman, the head of Britain's MI6 espionage agency has said.
View ArticleDream Chaser spacecraft may be used for Hubble repair mission
The final servicing mission to the venerable Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was in 2009. The shuttle Atlantis completed that mission (STS-125,) and several components were repaired and replaced,...
View ArticleHot Jupiter KELT-16b offers unique opportunity for research
(Phys.org)—A large international team of researchers has found that a hot Jupiter called KELT-16b is likely to offer a unique opportunity for research for many years to come. In their paper published...
View ArticleHere's how we can detect plants on extrasolar planets
The past year has been an exciting time for those engaged in the hunt for extra-solar planets and potentially habitable worlds. In August of 2016, researchers from the European Southern Observatory...
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