UK astronomers are set to expand our knowledge of the history of our Universe with a new project to map the inception and formation of galaxies.Making use of an Infrared Array Camera on NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, the Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS) will make a very large map of the sky, capable of detecting extremely faint galaxies. The primary aim is to chart the distribution of stars and black holes from when the Universe was less than a billion years old to the present day.The survey is one of the largest ever awards of observing time on a space-based observatory [more]

Different wavelengths of light provide new information about the Orientale Basin region of the moon in a new composite image taken by NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, a guest instrument aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. The Moon Mineralogy Mapper is the first instrument to provide highly uniform imaging of the lunar surface. Along with the length and width dimensions across a typical image, the instrument analyzes a third dimension – color. A two-image figure, and other data from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper Instrument, can be found at:http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA11727 [more]

The US has successfully struck a disabled spy satellite with a missile fired from a warship in waters west of Hawaii, military officials say. Operatives had only a 10-second window to hit the satellite - USA 193 - which went out of control shortly after it was launched in December 2006. Officials were worried its hydrazine fuel could do harm, but it is not yet known if the fuel tank was destroyed. The controversial operation has been criticised by China and Russia. On Thursday, China called on the US to provide more information about the mission.Russia suspects the operation was a cover to test [more]

An Ariane rocket was successfully launched Saturday from the Kourou space center in French Guiana, sending two communication satellites into orbit. Europe's Arianespace broadcast live the launch. The Ariane 5-ECA rocket was blast off from Kourou center at 22:35 GMT. The rocket carried two Eutelsat communication satellites, Hot Bird 9 and W2M, which separated from the rocket soon after it reached the outer space. The satellites remain in temporary orbit before entering the geosynchronous orbit a few days later. Hot bird 9, built by EADS-Astrium, will beam television programs [more]

U.S. space shuttle Atlantis was moved to its Florida launch pad on Thursday, waiting there for a flight to the Hubble telescope next month. Rolling slow and steady atop an carrier vehicle, Atlantis headed for its Pad 39A launch site at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Fla., NASA TV showed. "It's going very well," said NASA spokesperson Candrea Thomas. But a technical problem with the hookup between the shuttle and its external fuel tank might stalled the launch pad operations. In the mean time, NASA officials is tracking a series of tropical storms over the [more]

A NASA’s orbiting spacecraft has discovered the mineral evidence for a water environment capable of supporting life on Mars, according to media reports Friday. Deposits of the 3.6 billion-year-old carbonate were spotted in the bedrock at the edge of a 930-mile-wide (1,490-km-wide) crater. The deposits are about the size of football fields and are visible in images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It is the first time scientists have found a site where carbonate formed. "Obviously this is very exciting," said John Mustard of Brown University in Rhode Island. "It's [more]

NASA has announced plans to give away its space shuttles once they retire in the year 2010, according to media reports Friday. The space agency plans to donate space shuttle Discovery to the Smithsonian museum, and give the others to "educational institutions, science museums, and other appropriate organizations." "These are national assets, national treasures and something that NASA feels the public would want to see displayed publicly for years to come," NASA spokesman Michael Curie said. [more]

Brazil's National Institute of Space Investigations (INPE) has begun additional tests on two satellites that are expected to be launched in five years as part of a joint program with China. The INPE announced on its web site Sunday that scientists are testing dynamic resistance, sine-wave and acoustic vibrations on the satellites of the Chinese-Brazilian Remote Vigilance Program (CBERS). The tests are being conducted in the INPE labs in the southern city of Sao Jose dos Campos. The satellites CBERS-3 and CBERS-4 are scheduled to be launched in 2010 and 2013 respectively. The CBERS [more]

Do you know whay albert einstein got a nobel??? Because he found Photoelectrocity. Do you know what is this?? it mean that light wave can be a particel. Albert einstein tried in his experiment. he took an unstable atom. Then he gave wave light intensity. when he give it small intensity, it become more unstable. but when he increase the intensity, it (atom) becomed stable. So it mean that wave light can become a particel (material). all of us know that wave light is invisible. and from this text, we know that wave light is particel, and particel is wave light. so, all of thing (particel) is invisible. [more]

NASA’s THEMIS mission has overturned a longstanding belief about the interaction between solar particles and Earth’s protective magnetic field. This new discovery could help scientists predict when the solar storms that can disrupt power grids, satellites and even GPS signals, could be especially severe. [more]