SciByte

just about three months ago that the astronomy world watched in awe as the recently-discovered comet Lovejoy plummeted toward the Sun on what was expected to be its final voyage, only to reappear on the other side seemingly unscathed

headed back out into the solar system, displaying a brand-new tail for skywatchers in southern parts of the world

How did a loosely-packed ball of ice and rock manage to withstand such a close pass through the Sun’s blazing corona

Transits of Venus across the disk of the Sun are among the rarest of planetary alignments

only six such events have occurred since the invention of the telescope (1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874 and 1882

event begins with contact I which is the instant when the planet's disk is externally tangent with the Sun. The entire disk of the Venus is first seen at contact II when the planet is internally tangent with the Sun. During the next several hours, Venus gradually traverses the solar disk at a relative angular rate of approximately 4 arc-min/hr. At contact III, the planet reaches the opposite limb and is once again internally tangent with the Sun. The transit ends at contact IV when the planet's limb is externally tangent to the Sun

combined 17 exposures taken at 20-minute intervals to create this sequence from the transit of Venus in June 2004.

transit of Venus, happens only four times every 243 years

spacing between each occurrence is very uneven: it's 121½ years, then 8 years, then 105½ years, then 8 years again

three more "very special" LEGO figurines are set to fly to the planet Jupiter with NASA's Juno spacecraft

specially-constructed LEGO Minifigures are of the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno, and "father of science" Galileo Galilei.

part of the Bricks in Space project

took more than 200 astronauts from 12 countries more than a dozen years to build the International Space Station (ISS).

, an astronaut from Japan, matched that feat in just about two hours

his space station was made out of LEGO.

A radio system glitch on one of five small rockets aimed at the edge of space has forced NASA to cancel a barrage of overnight launches tonight that promised to dazzle East Coast skywatchers with glowing midnight clouds

e late-night launch rocket launches, which were scheduled to blast off within about five minutes of one anothe

scrubbed for tonight and our next attempt will be no earlier than Friday night, March 16

sun unleashed a new solar flare Tuesday (March 13) from the same region that has been actively brewing for the past week.

M7.9-class eruption

hurled a wave of plasma and energetic particles, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), into space

NASA and General Motors have come up with a robotic glove capable of giving today's astronauts and factory workers an extra-strong cyborg grip

Robo-Glove" technology emerged when NASA and General Motors (GM) built "Robonaut 2" as a robot assistant for astronauts living aboard the space station

glove's mechanical strength allows human wearers to grip tools longer and more comfortably

European Space Agency (ESA

agreed to continue funding a Mars telecommunications orbiter and atmospheric gas analyzer mission for launch in 2016

Russian Proton rocket donated by the Russian space agency

highest leap in human spaceflight in nearly 4 decades when an unmanned Orion crew capsule blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a high stakes, high altitude test flight in early 2014.

narrated animation (see below) released by NASA depicts the planned 2014 launch of the Orion spacecraft on the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission to the highest altitude orbit reached by a spaceship intended for humans since the Apollo Moon landing Era.

launch atop a Delta 4 Heavy booster rocket

sky is falling on Titan

shroud has plunged more than 100 kilometers since the Cassini spacecraft whizzed by in 2004

suggesting that shifting seasons can do more than dump rain

interior unlike that of any other rocky planet in our solar system and a surprisingly dynamic history,

remained geologically active for a surprisingly large chunk of its evolutionary history, researchers said

planet's huge iron core is even larger than they had thought

first time, scientists have created a global geologic map of Jupiter's moon Io, the most volcanically active object in the solar system.

published this week by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS),

new map of Io's geology provides for the first time a detailed record of the different types of landforms and deposits that form the surface

amazing new photos

reveal strange features never-before-seen on an asteroid

Dawn spacecraft highlight odd, shiny spots that are nearly twice as bright as other parts of the asteroid

floating robot made to land on a lake, propel itself around and gather data about the water and atmosphere as it goes

built it for future lake-landing missions to one of Saturn's moons, Titan.

could also be used for science and military missions on Earth,

One of the reasons for making this map was to create a tool for continuing scientific studies of Io

target planning of Io observations on future missions to the Jupiter system

19 different surface material types

American researchers have created a robotic jellyfish, named Robojelly, which not only exhibits characteristics ideal to use in underwater search and rescue operations, but could, theoretically at least, never run out of energy thanks to it being fuelled by hydrogen.

Constructed from a set of smart materials

ability to change shape or size as a result of a stimulus, and carbon nanotubes, Robojelly is able to mimic the natural movements of a jellyfish when placed in a water tank and is powered by chemical reactions taking place on its surface.

Solar Storms & Higgs Boson | SciByte 37

March 13, 2012

More Dinosaur feathers get color

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured the sharpest images ever taken from space of the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites

interactive shows two LRO images of the Apollo 17 landing site. Click and drag on the white slider bar to wipe from one to the other

This interactive shows two LRO images of the Apollo 12 landing site. Click and drag on the white slider bar to wipe from one to the other