The moon is moving AWAY from the Earth at a rate of 4 cm (1.6 inches) each year - If left unabated the Moon would continue in its retreat until it would take about 47 days to orbit the Earth. Both Earth and Moon would then keep the same faces permanently turned toward one another as Earth's spin would also have slowed to one rotation every 47 days

The average temperature of the sun is a blazing 27 million degrees Fahrenheit while the surface is a cool 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Given that light travels at almost 300,000 km/second (the fastest thing known to mankind), it still takes the light from the sun 8.4 minutes to reach the Earth. If a cheetah were to attempt to cross the distance between the sun and Earth at top speed, it would take him over 150 years to make it to Earth.

So far, Mariner 10 has been the only spacecraft to visit Mercury. The Messenger spacecraft will be the second... it was launched in 2004 and will orbit Mercury starting in 2009.

Stormy Venus, the second planet in our solar system, rotates clockwise, which is opposite to all other planets. A person on Venus would see the sun rise in the west and set in the east!

On Earth we live at the bottom of an ocean of air. Seventy-eight percent of it is nitrogen.

Mars has a reddish color because its soil has so much iron oxide, or rust.

More than 1,000 rings circle Saturn. They look like CDs twirling in space.

Because Uranus is tipped way over on its axis, its north pole is in darkness for 42 Earth years.

In 2010, Neptune will complete its first full trip around the Sun since its discovery in 1846.

An Astronaut can be up to 2 inches taller returning from space. The cartilage disks in the spine expand in the absence of gravity.

The Hubble Space Telescope weighs 12 tons (10,896 kilograms), is 43 feet (13.1 meters) long, and cost $2.1 billion to build.

If you weigh 100lbs on Earth, you would weigh:
Mercury - 38lbs
Venus - 91lbs
Mars - 38lbs
Jupiter - 214lbs
Saturn - 74lbs
Uranus - 86lbs
Neptune - 110lbs

Our sun has an expected lifetime of about 11 billion years.

Our sun and the surrounding planets orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy once every 250 million years.

On its trip around the sun, the earth travels over a million and a half miles per day.

Every eleven years the magnetic poles of the sun switch. This cycle is called "Solarmax".

All the coal, oil, gas, and wood on Earth would only keep the Sun burning for a few days.

An area of the Sun's surface the size of a postage stamp shines with the power of 1,500,000 candles.

Jupiter has the shortest day of all the planets. Although it has a circumference of 280,000 miles compared with Earth's 25,000 Jupiter manages to make one turn in 9 hours and 55 minutes.

There are more stars than all of the grains of sand on earth. Makes you wonder if there are little green men out there...

A Comet's tail always points away from the sun.

The lunula is the half-moon shaped pale area at the bottom of finger nails.

The saying 'once in a blue moon' refers to the occurrence of two full moons during one calendar month. Next "blue" moon will occur in May 2007 for those West of Greenwich (North America) and in June/July for those at Greenwich (England) or East of Greenwich (Europe, Asia, Australia).
The next blue moon will be in December 2009

It takes about 1.25 seconds for moonlight to reach the Earth.

All the moons of the Solar System are named after Greek and Roman mythology, except the moons of Uranus, which are named after Shakespearean characters.

Venus rotates so slowly that in a typical day lasts approximately 244 Earth days (5,856 hours).

The universe is so vast in relation to the matter it contains that it can be compared in the following way: A building 20 miles long, 20 miles wide and 20 miles high that contains 1 grain of sand.

Almost two-thirds of the earth’s surface is covered by water. If the earth were flat, water would cover everything in a layer two miles deep!

Stars viewed through even the largest telescopes look like tiny points of light. But astronomers, using the Hubble Space Telescope to photograph a star called Betelgeuse (pronounced "beetle jooze"), have now been able to see the surface of another star. Betelgeuse is a red, giant star located at the left shoulder of the constellation Orion and is the largest known star in our galaxy.

Ever notice on a map how the South American and African coasts, along the Atlantic, fit together like two pieces of a giant puzzle? That is because at one time, millions of years ago, they were one continent. Magma from deep in the Earth broke through thin places between these continents and pushed them apart. They are still slowly moving apart and the Atlantic ocean is growing wider.

On a clear night, the human eye can see between 2,000 and 3,000 stars in the sky.

Water is the only substance on earth that is lighter as a solid than a liquid.

When you think you're standing still remember this fact. Even though you don't feel it, our entire local group of galaxies is moving at about one million miles per hour toward another galaxy group called the Virgo Cluster.

The farthest you can see with the naked eye is 2.4 million light years away! (140,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles.) That's the distance to the giant Andromeda Galaxy. You can see it easily as a dim, large gray "cloud" almost directly overhead in a clear night sky.

A "light year" is a measure of distance, not time. It is the distance that light travels in a year and is equal to about 9.5 trillion kilometres, or about 6 trillion miles.

Mars is unlikely to sport beachfront property anytime soon, but the planet has enough water ice at its south pole to blanket the entire planet in more than 30 feet of water if everything thawed out.

The layer of volcanic dust, pollution and other aerosol particles that blocks sunlight and helps counter global warming has thinned since the early 1990s, according to a new NASA study.

Titus says, "BWEEP!"... First registered person who sees this and emails me, Chris, will receive a $10 gift certificate (details after you email me) - you must include "Titus says BWEEP" in your email before it will be considered the winner!

A group of microscopic aquatic animals have managed to evolve into many separate species over the past 40 million years without sexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction was long thought to be necessary for species to split into divergent species because interbreeding introduced genetic variety to the offspring, the authors said. But they argue the case of bdelloid rotifers disproves this theory. The conclusion, however, still leaves the scientists with another question: how do these other species diverge without new genetic material added to the mix? It's a question they are still puzzling over.

NASA is set to begin five years of testing on the crew vehicle for its next generation of spacecraft. The Orion is part of NASA's Constellation program, whose aim is to develop spacecraft capable of taking people to the moon, Mars and elsewhere in the solar system. The existing space shuttle fleet is scheduled to be retired in 2010.

The theory that vast seas of liquid methane or ethane exist on Saturn's moon Titan has been bolstered by evidence recently gathered by a passing space probe, researchers say. Although the researchers admit that there is no conclusive evidence that the features are liquid seas, their smooth appearance and shape are among the characteristics that suggest they are composed of a fluid.

Rapid radioactive decay billions of years ago may be responsible for the active geysers on the otherwise icy surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus.

The common view that nerves transmit impulses through electricity is wrong and they really transmit sound, according to a team of Danish scientists.

The German government is considering a plan to launch its own unmanned mission to the moon, according to European media reports.

NASA has delayed an ambitious plan to send humans back to the moon in a newly designed spacecraft because of budget constraints. The space agency had planned on launching the new craft, called the Orion, in 2014 as part of a long-term goal to establish a permanent moon base by 2020 - it will have to be put off until 2015.

Robot subs typically use a tether or cable to connect to a surface station to draw power, receive commands and send back data. But at the extreme depths being explored, the risk that a cord could become snarled or get caught on a geological protrusion led to a decision to design DEPTHX (Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer) to be self-contained and operate on its own. NASA hopes this will lead to technologies that it could potentially use to explore the oceans under the icy surface of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons.

A European Space Agency probe bound for a distant comet successfully passed within 250 kilometres of Mars on March 24, 2007. The ultimate goal of the probe is to land on Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014 to analyze its surface. To correctly navigate a path to the comet, Rosetta will have passed Earth three times and Mars once. It first passed by Earth in 2005 and will pass the planet again later this year and in 2009.

The James Webb Space Telescope will collect light approximately 9 times faster than the Hubble Space Telescope. The increased sensitivity will allow scientists to see back to when the first galaxies formed just after the Big Bang. Each of the hexagonal-shaped mirror segments is 1.3 meters (4.26 feet) in diameter, and weighs approximately 20 kilograms or 46 pounds. The completed primary mirror will be over 2.5 times larger than the diameter of the Hubble Space Telescope's primary mirror, which is 2.4 meters in diameter, but will weigh roughly half as much. It will be launched in 2013.

Improved telescopes and detectors have led to the detection of dozens of new planetary systems within the past decade, including several systems containing multiple planets.

In a European Space Agency experiment conducted in 2005, two species of lichen were carried aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket and exposed to the space environment for nearly 15 days. They were then resealed in a capsule and returned to Earth, where they were found in exactly the same shape as before the flight. The lichen survived exposure to the vacuum of space as well as the glaring ultraviolet radiation of the Sun.

More than 50 heat-loving microorganisms, or hyperthermophiles, have been found thriving at very high temperatures in such locations as hot springs in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park and on the walls of deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Some of these species multiply best at 221 degrees F, and can reproduce at up to 235 degrees F.

As early as the late 1990s, scientists proved they could teleport data using photons, but the photons were absorbed by whatever surface they struck. More recently, physicists at the University of Innsbruck in Austria and at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, for the first time teleported individual atoms using the principle of quantum entanglement. Experts say this technology eventually could enable the invention of superfast "quantum computers." But the bad news, at least for sci-fi fans, is that experts don't foresee being able to teleport people in this manner.

On March 16, 1926, Dr. Robert H. Goddard successfully launched the first liquid fueled rocket. The launch took place at Auburn, Massachusetts, and is regarded by flight historians to be as significant as the Wright Brothers flight at Kitty Hawk.

Less than three percent of all water on Earth is freshwater (usable for drinking) and of that amount, more than two-thirds is locked up in ice caps and glaciers.

On October 14, 1947, in the rocket powered Bell X-1, Capt. Charles E. Yeager flew faster than sound for the first time.

There are more than 326 million trillion gallons of water on Earth. (That has 18 zeroes following the 326!)

At any given moment, there are 1,800 thunderstorms happening somewhere on Earth. This amounts to 16 million storms each year! We know the cloud conditions that produce lightning, but we cannot forecast the location or time of a lightning strike.

Phytoplankton (pronounced Fie-toe-plank-ton) are tiny little plants that drift with the currents throughout the ocean. Did you know that a teaspoon of sea water can contain as many as a million one-celled phytoplankton?

Around the world, the ozone layer averages about 3 millimeters (1/8 inch) thick, approximately the same as two pennies stacked one on top of the other. Now you can understand why we have to protect it...

Saturn's beautiful rings are not solid. They are made up of particles of ice, dust and rock -- some as tiny as grains of sand, some much larger than skyscrapers.

It's pretty windy on Saturn. Winds around the planet's equator can reach 1,800 kilometers (1,118 miles) per hour. In comparison, the fastest winds on Earth reach only about 400 kilometers (about 250 miles) per hour.

Four days after it was launched, the Deep Space 1 spacecraft was about 1,000,000 kilometers (about 600,000 miles) from Earth. To fly that far in a jet, you would have to fly for 6 weeks without stopping!

To communicate with distant spacecraft, NASA's Deep Space Network uses antenna with a diameter of up to 70 meters (230 feet). That is almost as big as a football field.

It's a small world. More than 1,000 Earths would fit into Jupiter's vast sphere.

Saturn's moon Iapetus (eye-AP-eh-tuss) is a very curious moon -- it seems to have a split personality! One hemisphere is covered with material darker than black velvet, while the other side is covered with material brighter than snow.

Ganymede, one of the moons of Jupiter, is the largest moon in our Solar System.

Saturn is the only planet in our Solar System that is less dense than water. If you could build a ridiculously large bathtub, Saturn would actually float in it.

Unlike Earth, Saturn is made mostly of hydrogen and helium. While it has heavier materials in the core, Saturn has no surface on which you could stand.

Saturn is so far away it will take almost an hour and a half for radio signals from Earth to reach the Cassini spacecraft -- between 68 and 84 minutes, depending on the position of Earth and Saturn. That's a long time, especially if you consider that radio signals travel at the speed of light!

If we could shrink our solar system into the size of a quarter, the Milky Way galaxy would be the size of North America.

Driving at 120 km/h (75 miles per hour), it would take 258 days to drive around one of Saturn's rings.

The space between Mars and Jupiter is filled with a population of irregularly shaped chunks of rock and metal called asteroids. Scientists believe the asteroids are pieces of a planet that never formed.

Most of the elements found in the human body originated in stars; we are literally made of stardust.

Using observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers report an unprecedented elongated double helix nebula near the center of our Milky Way galaxy.
"We see two intertwining strands wrapped around each other as in a DNA molecule," said Mark Morris, UCLA professor of physics and astronomy, and lead author. "Nobody has ever seen anything like that before in the cosmic realm."

Using a relatively new planet-hunting technique that can spot worlds one-tenth the mass of our own, researchers have discovered a potentially rocky, icy body that may be the smallest planet yet found orbiting a star outside our solar system.

NASA is preparing to launch the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) spacecraft, the first mission dedicated to exploration of mysterious ice clouds that dot the edge of space in Earth's polar regions. These clouds have grown brighter and more prevalent in recent years and some scientists suggest that changes in these clouds may be the result of climate change.

Cassini successfully completed a flyby of Titan on April 10, 2007. The spacecraft flew over new parts of familiar terrain on the Saturnian moon -- its north polar region. In images from this radar pass, more lakes or seas are expected to be visible.

Astronomers in Europe have discovered the most Earth-like planet to date outside our solar system, one they say could potentially hold liquid water, a necessary ingredient to support life.

The Canadian Space Agency has unveiled a new dual-armed robotic module to be used in construction and maintenance of the International Space Station.

"This was a truly monstrous explosion, a hundred times more energetic than a typical supernova," said Nathan Smith of the University of California at Berkeley, who led a team of astronomers from California and the University of Texas in Austin. "That means the star that exploded might have been as massive as a star can get, about 150 times that of our sun. We've never seen that before!" - NASA, May 7, 2007

Researchers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have learned what the weather is like on two distant, exotic worlds called exoplanets. - NASA, May 2007

A patch of Martian soil analyzed by NASA's rover Spirit is so rich in silica that it may provide some of the strongest evidence yet that ancient Mars was much wetter than it is now. The processes that could have produced such a concentrated deposit of silica require the presence of water. - NASA, May 2007

A new study by NASA scientists suggests that greenhouse-gas warming may raise average summer temperatures in the eastern United States nearly 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the 2080s.

Research indicates that as the dark areas on Mars expand and darken over time, its albedo decreases, and its surface air temperature rise. “Albedo” is the technical term for a planet’s ability to reflect sunlight. According to scientists, variations in the planet’s albedo are generally attributed to changes in distribution of dust on the surface.

During Cassini's most recent flyby of Titan (one of Saturn's moons) on May 12, 2007, the radar instrument imaged a large sea and its coastline, with numerous island groups and mountains.

We can now use Spitzer, the only telescope that orbits the sun behind Earth. It is the farthest telescope from us with the ability to study distant stars in the same way that a human brain uses two eyes to tell how far away objects are - a principle called parallax.
With two eyes, we have two perspectives, which our brains combine to give us depth perception. In space, Spitzer acts as one eye, while a ground-based telescope acts as the other. With two very wide cosmic eyes, astronomers can determine the location of bodies within and just outside our galaxy.

Astronomers have discovered 28 new planets outside our solar system in the past year and say the results are just the tip of the iceberg as planet-hunting technology becomes more advanced. The new discoveries bring the total number of known exoplanets to 236! - May 2007

Sedna, officially known as 2003 VB12, is the most distant body known that orbits our Sun. It is at present over 90 AUs away, 3 times as far as Pluto.

In 2008, NASA's Phoenix spacecraft is scheduled to land in the northern plains of Mars to determine if that environment could support life in the past or in geologically recent times.

Some call it the eighth wonder of world. Others say it's the next Great Wall of China. Upon completion in 2009, the Three Gorges Dam along China’s Yangtze River will be the world's largest hydroelectric power generator and one of the few man-made structures so enormous that it's actually visible to the naked eye from space. - NASA, June 2007

NASA recently tested the first nanotechnology-based electronic device to fly in space. The test showed that the "nanosensor" could monitor trace gases inside a spaceship. This technology could lead to smaller, more capable environmental monitors and smoke detectors in future crew habitats.

NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is scheduled to begin a descent down a rock-paved slope into the Red Planet's massive Victoria Crater. This latest trek carries real risk for the long-lived robotic explorer, but NASA and the Mars Rover science team expect it to provide valuable science. The rover has operated more than 12 times longer than its originally intended 90 days.

An international team of space scientists, including several Canadian astronomers, has discovered molecular oxygen in interstellar space. Oxygen is one of the main constituents of the Earth's atmosphere and was expected to be common in space too, but surprisingly this molecule appears to be quite rare in most of the universe.

Astronomic observations with the latest and greatest telescopes are leading astronomers to embrace the idea that stars usually form in clusters, even if they end up, like our Sun, isolated from other stars. Cosmochemists using optical microscopes, electron microscopes, and mass spectrometers are finding evidence supporting the idea, along with important details about the star-forming regions and about the earliest history of the Solar System.

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, due to launch August 2007 will claw down into the icy soil of the Red Planet's northern plains. The robot will investigate whether frozen water near the Martian surface might periodically melt enough to sustain a livable environment for microbes. To accomplish that and other key goals, Phoenix will carry a set of advanced research tools never before used on Mars

Saturn's moon Titan is thought to have methane lakes, methane rain, and a mostly nitrogen atmosphere. So if there is life on the moon, it will be what scientists call "weird," with a very different biochemistry from Earth life.

Cassini's next Titan encounter on July 19 will include bistatic scattering observations just to the west of the Huygens probe landing site. Bistatic scattering is a type of radio science observation used to determine the nature and composition of Titan's surface. - NASA, July 2007

Scientists have recently discovered that the planet Saturn is turning 60 - not in years, but in moons. NASA, July 2007

NASA engineer works to develop new airplane to seek water on Mars. Larry Lemke, an engineer at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., plans for the airplane to have ground-penetrating radar to search for water near a gully on Mars after the plane lands.

NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft launched in August and September 1977. Aboard each spacecraft is a golden record, a collection of sites, sounds and greetings from Earth
117 pictures explaining Earth
Greetings in 54 different human languages and greetings from humpback whales
A selection of sounds from Earth

NASA's two venerable Voyager spacecraft are celebrating three decades of flight as they head toward interstellar space. Their ongoing odysseys mark an unprecedented and historic accomplishment. Voyager 2 launched on Aug. 20, 1977, and Voyager 1 launched on Sept. 5, 1977. They continue to return information from distances more than three times farther away than Pluto. NASA - August 2007

Neutron stars are among the strangest objects in our Universe. Imagine taking all the gas in our sun (a sphere that could fit a million Earths) and cramming it into a ball about the size of New York City (20 miles across). That’s a neutron star. Matter in neutron stars is crammed so tightly that an ice-cream cone filled with neutron-star material would outweigh Mount Everest!

A micrometeorite is generally defined as a tiny meteorite larger than 50 micrometers but smaller than a millimeter. Micrometeorites that have melted, either partially or completely when plunging through Earth's atmosphere, are called cosmic spherules.

You may have heard of Google Earth, but now with the updated high resolution photos from NASA, they have a Google moon (http://moon.google.com)

NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has discovered entrances to seven possible caves on the slopes of a Martian volcano. The find is fueling interest in potential underground habitats and sparking searches for caverns elsewhere on the Red Planet. - NASA, September 2007

On Saturn's moon Titan, bring an umbrella - The daily weather forecast on Saturn's largest moon Titan appears to be a steady drizzle of liquid methane, at least around the bright, exotically named region known as Xanadu, U.S. researchers said.

NASA research indicates oxygen existed on Earth 2.5 billion years ago.

A narrow belt harboring moonlets discovered in Saturn's outmost ring is likely the result of a larger moon shattered by a wayward asteroid or comet eons ago, according to a new study led by Cassini scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder. October, 2007

Astronomers have announced the discovery of a fifth planet circling 55 Cancri, a star beyond our solar system. The star now holds the record for number of confirmed extrasolar planets orbiting around it in a planetary system. 55 Cancri is located 41 light-years away in the constellation Cancer and has nearly the same mass and age as our sun. NASA November 2007

NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer has spotted an amazingly long comet-like tail behind a star (Mira) streaking through space at supersonic speeds. Astronomers say Mira's tail offers a unique opportunity to study how stars like our sun die and ultimately seed new solar systems.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity finished the last step of a test in-and-out maneuver checking wheel slippage at the rim of Victoria Crater. The mission's first destination inside the crater is a light-toned layer of exposed rock that may preserve evidence of interaction between the Martian atmosphere and surface from millions of years ago. - November 2007

A neutron star generates a gravitational pull so powerful that a marshmallow impacting the star's surface would hit with the force of a thousand hydrogen bombs!

Some pulsars spin over a thousand times a second.

Magnetars, the most magnetic stars known, aren't powered by a conventional mechanism such as nuclear fusion or rotation. Although not totally understood yet, magnetars have magnetic fields a thousand times stronger than ordinary neutron stars that measure a million billion Gauss, or about a hundred-trillion refrigerator magnets. For comparison, the Sun's magnetic field is only about 5 Gauss.

Heavy negative ions found in the upper regions of Titan's atmosphere may act as organic building blocks for even more complicated molecules. Providing possibly more proof of life outside of Earth's confines!

The comet Encke, the ONLY other repeating, or periodic, comet ever identified next to Halley's comet, was traveling within the orbit of Mercury in April 2007 when a coronal mass ejection ("solar hurricane") first crunched the tail then ripped it completely away!

Venus is a hellish place of high temperatures, crushing air pressure and lightning generated by clouds of sulphuric acid!

Like Superman's alter-ego, Bizzaro, the particles making up normal matter also have opposite versions of themselves. An electron has a negative charge, for example, but its anti-matter equivalent, the positron, is positive. Matter and anti-matter annihilate each other when they collide and their mass is converted into pure energy by Einstein's equation E=mc2.

Some scientists think dark matter makes up the bulk of matter in the universe, but it can neither be seen nor detected directly using current technologies. Candidates range from light-weight neutrinos to invisible black holes. Some scientists question whether dark matter is even real, and suggest that the mysteries it was conjured to solve could be explained by a better understanding of gravity.

Neutrinos are electrically neutral, virtually mass-less elementary particles that can pass through miles of lead unhindered. Some are passing through your body as you read this. These "phantom" particles are produced in the inner fires of burning, healthy stars as well as in the supernova explosions of dying stars.

Newly assembled radar images from the Cassini spacecraft provide the best view of the hydrocarbon lakes and seas on the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan, while a new radar image reveals that Titan's south polar region also has lakes. October 2007 - NASA

New observations by NASA's Cassini spacecraft indicate the rings of Saturn, once thought to have formed during the age of the dinosaurs, instead may have been created roughly 4.5 billion years ago, when the solar system was still under construction.

Despite more than a decade of winter darkness, Saturn's north pole is home to an unexpected hot spot remarkably similar to one at the planet's sunny south pole. The source of its heat is a mystery. NASA, January 2008

For the first time ever, NASA will beam the song "Across the Universe" by The Beatles, directly into deep space at 7 p.m. EST on Feb. 4. The transmission over NASA's Deep Space Network will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the day The Beatles recorded the song, as well as the 50th anniversary of NASA's founding and the group's beginnings.

Despite possible political differences, India's space agency and NASA have created a framework to cooperate in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes. According to the agreement, the two agencies will identify areas of mutual interest and seek to develop cooperative programs or projects in Earth and space science, exploration, human space flight and other activities. NASA - February 2008

Order can be found in the most unexpected places, as demonstrated by our neighbor three planets down. Two of Saturn's rings have been found by NASA's Cassini spacecraft to contain orderly lines of densely grouped, boulder-size icy particles that extend outward across the rings like ripples from a rock dropped in a calm pond. NASA - January 2008

A striking feature in the compositions of the Earth and Moon is their identical abundances of oxygen isotopes. Most planetary scientists agree that the Moon formed as the result of a giant impact with the proto-Earth.

In a car commercial, it would sound odd: active suspension, six-wheel drive with independent steering for each wheel, no doors, no windows, no seats and the only color available is gold. But NASA's latest concept vehicle is meant to go way off-road, as in 240,000 miles from the nearest pavement, and drive on the moon. NASA - Feb. 2008

Explosive events on the sun can blast particles to high speeds, causing intense radiation storms that can disable spacecraft and cause radiation sickness or cancer in unprotected astronauts. Advance warning of radiation storms could give astronauts time to take cover and allow satellite operators to take protective measures.
Scientists are now testing a new method that could do just that. The method uses data from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) to predict, in real-time, the approach and intensity of hazardous solar particles that would threaten astronauts and technology in space.

Newly found whistlers (a special type of radio-frequency wave that is generated by lightning) pick up electrons and transfer energy to them. Electrons that absorb enough energy from whistlers can hurtle along at up to 99 percent the speed of light, which translates to 184,000 miles per second. These "killer electrons" can knock out computers, pierce spacesuits, and damage the tissues of astronauts.

A NASA spacecraft in orbit around Mars has taken the first ever image of active avalanches near the Red Planet’s north pole. The image shows tan clouds billowing away from the foot of a towering slope, where ice and dust have just cascaded down. NASA - March 2008

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found evidence of material orbiting Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon. This is the first time rings may have been found around a moon. A broad debris disk and at least one ring appear to have been detected by a suite of six instruments on Cassini specifically designed to study the atmospheres and particles around Saturn and its moons. NASA, March 2008

A block of lead the size of our entire solar system wouldn't even come close to stopping a cosmic neutrino. The universe is awash in a sea of cosmic neutrinos. These almost weightless sub-atomic particles zip around at nearly the speed of light. Millions of cosmic neutrinos pass through you every second.

The universe is a mere 13.7 billion years old (that would be 13,700,000,000 years old)!

NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter has found evidence of salt deposits. These deposits point to places where water once was abundant and where evidence might exist of possible Martian life from the Red Planet's past. NASA - March 2008

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has discovered evidence that points to the existence of an underground ocean of water and ammonia on Saturn's moon Titan. The study of Titan is a major goal of the Cassini-Huygens mission because it may preserve, in deep-freeze, many of the chemical compounds that preceded life on Earth. NASA - March 2008

A powerful stellar explosion detected March 19 by NASA's Swift satellite has shattered the record for the most distant object that could be seen with the naked eye. The explosion took place 7.5 billion years ago, a time when the universe was less than half its current age and Earth had yet to form. NASA - March 2008

In working with NASA, many 3rd party manufacturers have improved our every day life including: improved radial tires, cleaner burning cars, advanced lubricants, land mine removal, improved artificial limbs and enriched baby food.

NASA is extending the international Cassini-Huygens mission by two years. The historic spacecraft's stunning discoveries and images have revolutionized our knowledge of Saturn and its moons. NASA, April 2008

The parachute for the scheduled to launch 2009 car-sized Mars Science Laboratory is designed to slow it as it rockets through the Martian atmosphere at more than twice the speed of sound. Onced landed, the spacecraft's rover will use an advanced suite of instruments to assess whether the environment has ever been favorable for microbial life.

Could microbial life exist inside Enceladus (one of Saturn's moons), where no sunlight reaches, photosynthesis is impossible and no oxygen is available? In looking at our own planet where types of exotic ecosystems exist the answer appears to be, yes, it could be possible! NASA, April 2008

The 2007 NASA Government Invention of the Year is a heat shield material slightly more dense than balsa wood that is designed to protect spacecraft during their fiery re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. The Lightweight Ceramic Ablator material (LCA) is a low-density material that weighs one-fifth as much as conventional heat shields, but can withstand temperatures up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit!

The most recent supernova in our galaxy has been discovered by tracking the rapid expansion of its remains. The supernova explosion occurred about 140 years ago, making it the most recent in the Milky Way. Previously, the last known supernova in our galaxy occurred around 1680, an estimate based on the expansion of its remnant, Cassiopeia A. - NASA, May 2008

Coronal jets are small-scale transient ejections of hot gases, or plasma, occurring in the solar atmosphere. During a typical event, about a million tons of matter are ejected at speeds reaching a million miles per hour over a few minutes' time.

There were 4,324 minerals identified by the International Mineralogical Association, or IMA. That is until recently when NASA researchers and scientists from the United States, Germany and Japan found a NEW mineral in material that came from a comet! The mineral, a manganese silicide named Brownleeite, was discovered within an interplanetary dust particle, or IDP, that appears to have originated from comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup.
NASA, June 2008

Scientists have argued about the origins of Mercury's smooth plains and the source of its magnetic field for more than 30 years. Now, analyses of data from the January 2008 flyby of the planet by the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft have shown that volcanoes were involved in plains formation and suggest that its magnetic field is actively produced in the planet's core. NASA, July 2008

Two studies based on data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed that the Red Planet once hosted vast lakes, flowing rivers and a variety of other wet environments that had the potential to support life. NASA, July 2008

Laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. This is the first piece to the puzzle of finding out if there is life outside of Earth.

NASA scientists have concluded that at least one of the large lakes observed on Saturn's moon Titan contains liquid hydrocarbons, and have positively identified the presence of ethane. This makes Titan the only body in our solar system beyond Earth known to have liquid on its surface. NASA, July 2008

Cosmochemists have written in stone that the Moon is almost totally devoid of water, but new analyses of volcanic glasses suggest that they need to do some editing. Recent analyses of lunar volcanic glasses suggest that a smidgeon, maybe even a mega-smidgeon, of water is present!

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds. A laser instrument designed to gather knowledge of how the atmosphere and surface interact on Mars, detected snow from clouds about 2.5 miles above the spacecraft's landing site. Data show the snow vaporizing before reaching the ground. NASA, September 2008

About three times a second, a 10,000-year-old stellar corpse sweeps a beam of gamma-rays toward Earth. Discovered by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the object, called a pulsar, is the first one known that only "blinks" in gamma rays. NASA - October 2008

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has observed a new category of minerals spread across large regions of Mars. This discovery suggests that liquid water remained on the planet's surface a billion years later than scientists believed, and it played an important role in shaping the planet's surface and possibly hosting life. NASA, October 2008

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible-light snapshot of a planet circling another star. Estimated to be no more than three times Jupiter's mass, the planet, called Fomalhaut b, orbits the bright southern star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Australis, or the "Southern Fish." - NASA, November 2008

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed vast Martian glaciers of water ice under protective blankets of rocky debris at much lower latitudes than any ice previously identified on the Red Planet. In addition to their scientific value, they could be a source of water to support future exploration of Mars. NASA - November 2008

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star. This breakthrough is an important step toward finding chemical biotracers of extraterrestrial life. NASA, December 2008

Solar flares are the most powerful explosions in the solar system. Packing a punch equal to a hundred million hydrogen bombs, they obliterate everything in their immediate vicinity.

A team of NASA and university scientists has achieved the first definitive detection of methane in the atmosphere of Mars. This discovery indicates the planet is either biologically or geologically active. NASA, January 2009

NASA astronauts are going back to the moon and when they get there they may need quake-proof housing. A few moon quakes have been registered up to 5.5 on the Richter scale! A magnitude 5 quake on Earth is energetic enough to move heavy furniture and crack plaster.

The amino acid glycine, a fundamental building block of proteins, has been found in a comet for the first time, bolstering the theory that raw ingredients of life arrived on Earth from outer space. This discovery supports the idea that the fundamental building blocks of life are prevalent in space, and strengthens the argument that life in the universe may be common rather than rare!