Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Crashes During Test Flight by KENNETH CHANG

By KENNETH CHANG

There was one death and one major injury, a police spokesman said, in the crash of the rocket plane in the Mojave Desert on Friday.

Published: October 31, 2014 at 08:00PM

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Specular Spectacular

This near-infrared, color mosaic from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows the sun glinting off of Titan’s north polar seas. While Cassini has captured, separately, views of the polar seas (see PIA17470) and the sun glinting off of them (see PIA12481 and PIA18433) in the past, this is the first time both have been seen together in the same view.

The sunglint, also called a specular reflection, is the bright area near the 11 o’clock position at upper left. This mirror-like reflection, known as the specular point, is in the south of Titan’s largest sea, Kraken Mare, just north of an island archipelago separating two separate parts of the sea.

This particular sunglint was so bright as to saturate the detector of Cassini’s Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) instrument, which captures the view. It is also the sunglint seen with the highest observation elevation so far — the sun was a full 40 degrees above the horizon as seen from Kraken Mare at this time — much higher than the 22 degrees seen in PIA18433. Because it was so bright, this glint was visible through the haze at much lower wavelengths than before, down to 1.3 microns.

The southern portion of Kraken Mare (the area surrounding the specular feature toward upper left) displays a “bathtub ring” — a bright margin of evaporate deposits — which indicates that the sea was larger at some point in the past and has become smaller due to evaporation. The deposits are material left behind after the methane & ethane liquid evaporates, somewhat akin to the saline crust on a salt flat.

The highest resolution data from this flyby — the area seen immediately to the right of the sunglint — cover the labyrinth of channels that connect Kraken Mare to another large sea, Ligeia Mare. Ligeia Mare itself is partially covered in its northern reaches by a bright, arrow-shaped complex of clouds. The clouds are made of liquid methane droplets, and could be actively refilling the lakes with rainfall.

The view was acquired during Cassini’s August 21, 2014, flyby of Titan, also referred to as “T104″ by the Cassini team.

The view contains real color information, although it is not the natural color the human eye would see. Here, red in the image corresponds to 5.0 microns, green to 2.0 microns, and blue to 1.3 microns. These wavelengths correspond to atmospheric windows through which Titan’s surface is visible. The unaided human eye would see nothing but haze, as in PIA12528.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The VIMS team is based at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

More information about Cassini is available at http://ift.tt/ZjpQgB and http://ift.tt/Jcddhk.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/University of Idaho via NASA http://ift.tt/1s0kCnh

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Infection That Devastates Amphibians, Already in Europe, Could Spread to U.S. by JAMES GORMAN

By JAMES GORMAN

Fire-bellied newts imported from Asia through the pet trade may be spreading a fungal disease that is killing off fire salamanders in Europe, according to researchers.

Published: October 30, 2014 at 08:00PM

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From Ancient DNA, a Clearer Picture of Europeans Today by CARL ZIMMER

By CARL ZIMMER

New studies of genomes thousands of years old have allowed scientists to see bits of history playing out over time, revealing that Europeans today have genes from three very different populations.

Published: October 29, 2014 at 08:00PM

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Fifteen Years of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory

This Chandra X-ray Observatory image of the Hydra A galaxy cluster was taken on Oct. 30, 1999, with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) in an observation that lasted about six hours. Hydra A is a galaxy cluster that is 840 million light years from Earth. The cluster gets its name from the strong radio source, Hydra A, that originates in a galaxy near the center of the cluster. Optical observations show a few hundred galaxies in the cluster. Chandra X-ray observations reveal a large cloud of hot gas that extends throughout the cluster. The gas cloud is several million light years across and has a temperature of about 40 million degrees in the outer parts decreasing to about 35 million degrees in the inner region.

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched into space fifteen years ago aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. Since its deployment on July 23, 1999, Chandra has helped revolutionize our understanding of the universe through its unrivaled X-ray vision. Chandra, one of NASA’s current “Great Observatories,” along with the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope, is specially designed to detect X-ray emission from hot and energetic regions of the universe.

Image Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO via NASA http://ift.tt/1DCG9ru

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Antares Rocket Explosion Leaves Questions and Dead Mosquito Eggs by KENNETH CHANG

By KENNETH CHANG

Investigators are trying to determine why a rocket taking supplies to the International Space Station exploded just after launching in Virginia.

Published: October 29, 2014 at 08:00PM

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Three Divergent Visions of Our Future Under Climate Change by NATHANIEL RICH

By NATHANIEL RICH

Three books — one optimistic, one cataclysmic and one polemic — discuss what climate change might bring.

Published: September 22, 2014 at 08:00PM

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Sunrise From the International Space Station

NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman posted this image of a sunrise, captured from the International Space Station, to social media on Oct. 29, 2014. Wiseman wrote, “Not every day is easy. Today was a tough one.”

Wiseman was referring to the loss on Oct. 28 of the Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft, moments after launch at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Cygnus spacecraft was filled with about 5,000 pounds of supplies slated for the International Space Station, including science experiments, experiment hardware, spare parts, and crew provisions.

The station crew is in no danger of running out of food or other critical supplies.

Image Credit: NASA/Reid Wiseman via NASA http://ift.tt/1rAyUKd

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The Warm Glow of Mach 3

The Flight Loads Laboratory at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center is celebrating 50 years. It sprang into existence during the era of the X-15 rocket plane and the

YF-12 and SR-71 Blackbirds, and was dedicated to testing the latest in high-speed flight.

In this image from 1971, the YF-12 forebody’s radiant heating system is being tested at the Flight Loads Laboratory under conditions experienced at Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound, over 2,000 miles an hour. Eventually the entire airframe was tested in the lab, always with the goal to collect data, validate parts and reduce risk to the aircraft and the pilots who flew them.

Image credit: NASA

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A Black Hole Mystery Wrapped in a Firewall Paradox by DENNIS OVERBYE

By DENNIS OVERBYE

A paradox around matter leaking from black holes puts into question various scientific axioms: Either information can be lost; Einstein’s principle of equivalence is wrong; or quantum field theory needs fixing.

Published: August 12, 2013 at 08:00PM

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Rocket Bound for Space Station Explodes by KENNETH CHANG

By KENNETH CHANG

The unmanned cargo rocket exploded seconds after liftoff from a NASA site in eastern Virginia.

Published: October 28, 2014 at 08:00PM

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Here’s Looking at You: Spooky Shadow Gives Jupiter a Giant Eye

This trick that the planet is looking back at you is actually a Hubble treat: An eerie, close-up view of Jupiter, the biggest planet in our solar system. Hubble was monitoring changes in Jupiter’s immense Great Red Spot (GRS) storm on April 21, 2014, when the shadow of the Jovian moon, Ganymede, swept across the center of the storm. This gave the giant planet the uncanny appearance of having a pupil in the center of a 10,000 mile-diameter “eye.” For a moment, Jupiter “stared” back at Hubble like a one-eyed giant Cyclops. Click on the image to view Jupiter from a distance.

Image Credit: NASA/ESA/A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center)

Caption: Ray Villard, Space Science Telescope Institute

Acknowledgment: C. Go and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) via NASA http://ift.tt/1323kAq

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A Mathematical Thriller and an Exhibition of What Could Go Wrong by JASCHA HOFFMAN

By JASCHA HOFFMAN

Upcoming events include a thriller about a British mathematician, an exhibition on the science of natural disasters and a musical about the many worlds of the physicist Hugh Everett III.

Published: October 27, 2014 at 08:00PM

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Vitiligo and Vision by C. CLAIBORNE RAY

By C. CLAIBORNE RAY

Vitiligo is mainly a skin disorder, but can it also harm my eyesight?

Published: October 27, 2014 at 08:00PM

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Teenagers on Little Sleep, Preemies and Steroids, Autism and the Dentist by Unknown Author

By Unknown Author

Letters to the editor and online comments.

Published: October 27, 2014 at 08:00PM

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15 Minutes of Free Fall Required Years of Taming Scientific Challenges by JOHN MARKOFF

By JOHN MARKOFF

To reach the edge of space and return safely — without power — Alan Eustace used a methodical engineering strategy that has served him well at Google.

Published: October 26, 2014 at 08:00PM

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A Chronicler of Warnings Denied by CLAUDIA DREIFUS

By CLAUDIA DREIFUS

A historian of science imagines what future generations will make of our current handling of climate change.

Published: October 27, 2014 at 08:00PM

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The Leaky Science of Hollywood by DENNIS OVERBYE

By DENNIS OVERBYE

A new movie about Stephen Hawking’s life brings the man to life, but leaves viewers in the dark about what his science means.

Published: October 27, 2014 at 08:00PM

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Reversing Course on Beavers by JIM ROBBINS

By JIM ROBBINS

Their dams were once obliterated by dynamite and bulldozers, but beavers are getting new respect these days as a defense against the withering impacts of a warmer and drier climate.

Published: October 27, 2014 at 08:00PM

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Tracking Sea Turtles as They Swim for Their Lives by JAMES GORMAN

By JAMES GORMAN

With the help of devices that weigh less than two-hundredths of an ounce, scientists got the first detailed records of the movements of newly hatched loggerhead turtles.

Published: October 27, 2014 at 08:00PM

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Magic May Lurk Inside Us All by C. NATHAN DeWALL

By C. NATHAN DeWALL

Several streams of research in psychology, neuroscience and philosophy are converging on an uncomfortable truth: We’re more susceptible to magical thinking than we’d like to admit.

Published: October 27, 2014 at 08:00PM

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A Chronicler of Warnings Denied by CLAUDIA DREIFUS

By CLAUDIA DREIFUS

A historian of science imagines what future generations will make of our current handling of climate change.

Published: October 27, 2014 at 08:00PM

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Ebola and the Vast Viral Universe by NATALIE ANGIER

By NATALIE ANGIER

By all evidence, researchers say, viruses like Ebola have been parasitizing living cells since the first cells arose on earth nearly four billion years ago. Some say that viruses actually invented cells.

Published: October 27, 2014 at 08:00PM

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Orbital Antares Rocket at the Launch Pad

The Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, is seen on launch Pad-0A, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Antares will launch with the Cygnus spacecraft filled with over 5,000 pounds of supplies for the International Space Station, including science experiments, experiment hardware, spare parts, and crew provisions. The Orbital-3 mission is Orbital Sciences’ third contracted cargo delivery flight to the space station for NASA. Launch is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 27 at 6:45 p.m. EDT.

> Latest: Orbital Launch Blog

Image Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky via NASA http://ift.tt/1zzRTyz

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When Racism Was a Science by JOSHUA A. KRISCH

By JOSHUA A. KRISCH

A new exhibit recreates the Eugenics Record Office, where scientists once applied rudimentary genetics to singling out supposedly superior races and degrading minorities.

Published: October 13, 2014 at 08:00PM

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