Wonderful

Nearly a millennium ago sky-watchers recorded a new star so bright it was visible in daylight for weeks, and Hubble has now traced how far its remnant, the Crab Nebula, has expanded since — a thousand-year-old explosion still visibly unfolding

In July 1054, court astronomers in China recorded a new "guest star" near Tianguan, the star we now call Zeta Tauri.

Hubble Space Telescope mosaic image of the Crab Nebula. Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University).

 

No one knows how they taste yet

Baking Cookies in Space Takes Surprisingly Long Time: First space food baked from raw ingredients took 2 hours

Interesting

Life in Space Affects Men's And Women's Health Very Differently

Back in 2011, NASA and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) — on the recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences — assembled six workgroups to investigate and summarize the current body of knowledge about human and animal spaceflight. The groups focused on cardiovascular, immunological, sensorimotor, musculoskeletal, reproductive and behavioral implications on spaceflight adaptation for men and women. The results have now been published in the latest edition of the Journal of Women's Health.

The study — done in anticipation of longer-duration spaceflights — will inform the health and safety considerations required for astronauts, particularly as they pertain to sex and gender differences.

Thanks to Alexandra Bond for the link!

:( But at least no one was hurt

Orbital Sciences' unmanned rocket explodes on liftoff in Virginia

Quite a loss,  but at least no one died.

One thing the folks in Starfleet never had to worry about when exploring the final frontier: budget cuts

[Although they did have their share of bureaucrats.]

Obama's NASA budget: Mars takes a hit, but space science isn't dead

Two major Mars missions lost out to the James Web Space Telescope in Obama's proposed NASA budget, but there's still money for other ambitious space-science missions.

Reports of the demise of ambitious space-science missions at NASA may be somewhat exaggerated.

To be sure, in President Obama's fiscal 2013 budget proposal, two major Mars missions for 2016 and 2018 lost a budgetary wrestling match with the replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Web Space Telescope.

But Mr. Obama's plan also includes money to begin preliminary studies on a mission to Saturn's moon Enceladus, as well as an orbiter-probe mission to Uranus.

Some of the news I'm reading

Chimps kill chimps ... for their land: Rival gangs murder each other in turf wars, scientists say

Chimp-on-chimp attacks in the wild are very common, especially among small packs of males on patrol. Now research suggests the motive for these crimes is to gain territory.

Ancient Egyptian city located in Nile Delta by radar

An ancient Egyptian city believed to be Avaris, the capital of the Hyksos people who ruled 3,500 years ago, has been located by radar, Egypt's culture ministry says.

Lucy's 'great-grandfather' found

Anthropologists say they have discovered the 3.6 million-year-old partial skeleton of a creature that came from the same species as Lucy, but was 400,000 years older and at least as good at walking upright.

Cassini Skims Through Titan’s Upper Atmosphere

The flyby took Cassini within 547 miles of Titan’s surface, about two and a half times the altitude of the International Space Station. Although this distance shaved only 43 miles off the next nearest approach, the flyby was the first to take the spacecraft below Titan’s ionosphere, a layer of charged particles in the upper atmosphere. The ionosphere shielded the spacecraft from Saturn’s much larger magnetic field, allowing scientists the first hints of whether Titan has a magnetic field of its own.

Archaeologists find remains of Nevern Castle in Wales

Archaeological excavations on the site of Nevern Castle in Wales has revealed a large group of buildings thought to date from the 12th century. It is hoped that the discovery will provide new details on the history of the Norman fortress that was built in 1108.

7th-graders discover mysterious cave on Mars

The 16 students from teacher Dennis Mitchell's 7th-grade science class at Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, Calif., found what looks to be a Martian skylight — a hole in the roof of a cave on Mars.

The intrepid students were participating in the Mars Student Imaging Program at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University. The program allows students to frame a research question and then commission a Mars-orbiting camera to take an image to answer their question.

E-Reader Prices Are Slashed

Barnes and Noble started a price war by slashing its 3G Nook to $199 and its Wi-Fi-only Nook to $149. Amazon has responded by reducing the Kindle from $259 to $189. I so want a Kindle, and this only increases the temptation. But for now, I'm concentrating on bills....

Some space stories for your perusal

Russians Still Skeptical about U.S. Moon Landing

New Images Show Moon Landing Site

Something May Have Just Hit Jupiter

Apollo Astronauts Look Ahead...to Mars?

Main Toilet on ISS Craps Out

That's One Small Misstep for Most Moon Tales

What We Didn't Know About Moonwalk

NASA Suits Get Makeover for Moon Missions

A mystery in the heavens

Hubble Finds Unidentified Object in Space

From Sky & Telescope via Gizmodo by way of Slashdot, with the following blurb submitted by ScuttleMonkey:

Gizmodo is reporting that the Hubble space telescope has found a new unidentified object in the middle of nowhere. Some are even suggesting that this could be a new class of object. Of course, without actually understanding more about it, the speculation seems a bit wild.

The object also appeared out of nowhere. It just wasn't there before. In fact, they don't even know where it is exactly located because it didn't behave like anything they know. Apparently, it can't be closer than 130 light-years but it can be as far as 11 billion light-years away. It's not in any known galaxy either. And they have ruled out a supernova too. It's something that they have never encountered before. In other words: they don't have a single clue about where or what the heck this thing is.

Also from the Gizmodo story:

Apparently, a scientist at the LHC declared that the object is similar to the flash that an Imperial Star Destroyer does when reaching Warp 10, confusing Star Wars and Star Trek.

:)

The object brightened over a 100-day period, then faded over the same period of time. Strange, no?

Good news from the heavens

Smaller Version of the Solar System Is Discovered

Okay, so it's 5,000 light years away. But it has two gaseous planets with room for warm rocky planets in the intervening gap between the gas giants and their sun.