NASA

Q&A: The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne On Stephen Colbert, Ke$ha, And An Inadvertent Game Of Telephone With Lightning Bolt

Flaming Lips leader Wayne Coyne dreams weird and hard and big. What often starts of as a whimsical vision might just end up as a new world record (for the most live concerts in 24 hours) or a limited-edition vinyl release infused with the blood of other artists (as was the case for 2011's The Flamin ... More >>

Want Times Square to Be More Crowded? Air the Mars Rover Landing There Tonight

A few weeks ago, my roommate and I decided to take a late-night bike ride up the West Side Highway. It was around midnight when we hit 59th Street and headed east towards Central Park. Dangerous, yes, but the air was calm until we decided to advance on the brilliant idea of biking through Times Squa ... More >>

Google and James Cameron: Asteroid Miners?

Looks like Bruce Willis's mining team from Armageddon could be employed again. In a relatively strange press release, according to the Wall Street Journal, a new, fittingly named company called Planetary Resources, Inc. has teamed up with none other than the high officials at Goo ... More >>

NASA's Kepler Mission Finds 26 New Planets in 11 Different Solar Systems

NASA announced on Thursday that it has discovered 26 new planets in 11 different solar systems. This brings the total number of confirmed planets to 729, with about 2,300 additional possibilities. These particular planets were discovered as part of the Kepler mission, a $600 million program which ... More >>

Watch a Meteor Shower Wednesday Morning, You've Got Nothing Better to Do

For a couple of hours after 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, the Quadrantids meteor shower will be putting on a show for anyone willing to get up (or stay up) for it. According to NASA, "the Quadrantids have a maximum rate of about 100 per hour," which, weather permitting, should make for a pretty cool sig ... More >>

Russian Mars Probe Will Probably be the Latest Thing to Crash into Earth

via Wikipedia​In September, NASA's UARS satellite plummeted back to Earth, scattering debris over the Pacific Ocean. In October, Germany's ROSAT orbiting telescope reentered our atmosphere and crashed somewhere in Southeast Asia. Following this pattern of space crap falling back to Earth comes ... More >>

Satellite Has Fallen, Location Unknown; 43% Think Obama Is Better Than Bush; Putin To Run For Prez Of Russia Again

​UARS -- the 6-ton satellite that just maybe was going to hit you -- fell back to earth sometime between 11:23 p.m. Friday and 1:09 a.m. Saturday EDT, NASA has said. But even though it "penetrated the atmosphere" over the Pacific Ocean, when and where it exactly fell is still unknown, so let t ... More >>

Falling Satellite Probably Won't Hit You Today

​Although we weren't sure about this earlier this week, NASA has said that UARS, a 6-ton bus-sized satellite expected to break into more than a hundred pieces, issuing forth a 500-mile debris footprint as it falls (which it is expected to do sometime Friday afternoon), will NOT be passing over ... More >>

Collision of Galaxies Imminent

via NASA's Image of the Day Gallery​The galaxies you see in the image to the right, VV 340 North (top) and VV 340 South (bottom), are careening towards each other and on a cosmic collision course. The Hubble Telescope took the photo and it shows the two galaxies "in the early stages of their i ... More >>

Was the Space Shuttle Program a Success?

​Each week, Death by Science sends out an all-points bulletin for the latest science and technology news, tracks it down and beats a confession out of it. This week, we wake up, rub the sleep out of our eyes, roll over in bed and ask the Space Shuttle, "So, now what?" (We had sex with the Sp ... More >>

Government Shutdown Totally Messin' With Space Shuttle Launch

​The government will possibly shutdown tonight at midnight, and you've surely read about how this will affect your life. Tax refunds may be delayed, which is annoying, but the IRS is good for it, right? National parks will close, but everyone knows Yosemite doesn't get poppin' till late May. M ... More >>

Damn Space Garbage Forcing Astronauts to Take Cover This Afternoon

​Last month we reported on the growing danger of space garbage. Today at about 4:21 p.m. EST, three members of the International Space Station will have a close call with said garbage, Space.com reports. American and Italian astronauts, as well as a Russian cosmonaut, will have to take shelter ... More >>

'Those Ain't Moon Rocks': Cocaine Found at NASA Space Center

via​Since the advent of space travel, kids have wanted nothing more than to be astronauts. Now kids may really want to be astronauts, without knowing exactly why. The AP (via Huffington Post) reports that 4.2 grams of cocaine were discovered at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This would expla ... More >>

Space Shuttle Needs a New Home: May We Suggest Us?

​As we reported a couple of weeks ago, the space shuttle Discovery is making its final mission. Where it goes after space, however, is still the subject of a fervent debate. The New York Times reports that as many as 21 museums and institutions have submitted proposals to house the shuttle as ... More >>

Discovery's Last Mission, a Eulogy for the Shuttle Program

photo via NASA​It's the beginning of the end for NASA's shuttle fleet. Tonight at 4:50pm EST, Space Shuttle Discovery will slip the surly bonds of Earth for the 39th and final time. The oldest of the space agency's three operational orbiters will be making its last trip; a delivery run for the ... More >>

Milky Way Has 500 Million Theoretically Habitable Planets

​Scientists have figured out that our galaxy, the lovely Milky Way, has over 50 billion planets. Also mind-blowing: 500 million of those planets are in the zone where life could theoretically exist.

NASA Asked to Fix New York's 911 System

​New York is asking NASA to fix their beleaguered 911 system, the Daily News reports. The space agency is better known for doing things like going into space, but city officials hope they can help troubleshoot the out-of-synch and over-budget Emergency Communications Transformation Program as ... More >>

NASA Is Breaking The Law By Not Building a Rocket

cosmobc​NASA has been allocated $8 billion to revamp its obsolete shuttle program's rocket, and it has till 2016 to do so. CNN reports (with the hilarious headline, "NASA says its pockets not deep enough for new rocket." Pocket rocket? That's a boner!) that NASA officials think the budget isn' ... More >>

Asteroid Heading for Earth Will Kill Us All!!!!...Or Not

​The internet is buzzing over the recent Russian report that an asteroid is going to hit Earth in 2036 and kill you and your children. If you don't have kids, this menacing rock from space will kill any children you are planning on having. The asteroid -- named 99942 Apophis -- is larger than ... More >>

NASA Takes Images of Sun's Backside

New imaging technology has allowed us to see the sun's "angry face."​For the first time, NASA has been able to image the entire sun from top to bottom, front to back. This is so that we can keep track of "coronal mass ejections" (eruptions of hot deadly sun-stuff) that could be aimed right at Eart ... More >>

Mark Kelly to Pilot Endeavour Mission

Mark Kelly, the husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in Arizona on January 8, will lead the space shuttle Endeavor on its final mission scheduled for launch on April 19. "She would be very comfortable with the decision I made," Kelly said in a press conference this afternoon. ... More >>

Tomorrow, the Moon and Sun and Earth Will Behave Unusually!

via NASA/Mr. Eclipse/Fred Espenak​Science nerds, astronomy fans, and people who like to look up at the sky and see things: There will be a total lunar eclipse Tuesday morning -- meaning that the sun, the Earth, and the moon will all align, with the moon entirely in the Earth's shadow. This is ... More >>

'The Bunker Presents Function+Silent Servant+Grave Lady'

Arsenic and Old Space: NASA to Announce New Form of Life on Earth?

via L.A. TimesMono Lake​Gizmodo is reporting that NASA's big announcement later today will be that a new form of life has been found in the harsh environment of California's Mono Lake: a bacteria that is based not on the familiar six chemicals of all other life on earth, but one based on arsen ... More >>

NASA Bores Us to Tears: Bacteria Eats Arsenic, Probably Shits It, Too

​Well, this is turning into a letdown of the microbe-on-Mars kind. Just hours ago, we were on the edge of our seats waiting for a big announcement that NASA had found some new form of life on Earth, one that didn't share the six elements that the rest of us find necessary to live and breathe. ... More >>

Paparazzo Boy Meets Idealistic Girl in Alien Love Story, Monsters

NASA Introduces Unfortunately Named "Face in Space" Program

​NASA has kind of a weird promo going on called "Face in Space," not to be confused with the Nicolas Cage/John Travolta thriller Face/Off. Basically, you can submit a photo of your face (or, if you somehow don't own a photo of yourself, just your name) via the website and have your visage (or ... More >>

Senator Thomas Duane Wants a Spaceship, Bad

​New York Senator Thomas Duane really wants a space shuttle in New York. And so do the Boy Scouts. Who are we to say no? Yesterday the Senate unanimously approved a resolution Duane spearheaded that endorses the Intrepid Museum's application to permanently display one of NASA's three retiring ... More >>

Things That Could Ruin Your Day, But Won't: Death by Asteroid

Potential Proctologists Association campaign ad waiting to happen.​You know what asteroids and hemorrhoids have in common? Four letters at the end and the ability to severely fuck up one's day. You should enjoy today knowing that you missed at least one of them.

Gossip Folks: The Oprah-Rielle-Blowjobs-DMB Connection

​Consider this column still "in beta" or whatever, but we're gonna start rounding up some of our local gossip for you. We don't have a better title for it right now, and if you have one, we'd love to hear your ideas. In the meantime, we've got Oprah's big "get," Cindy Adams and Her War at Home ... More >>

Obama to Start Privatizing Space, Which Should Please Conservatives, But Probably Won't

Right-wingers were angry that the Obama Administration was declining to finance new trips to the moon. But since they're true believers in the free market, maybe they'll be happy to hear that the President's new budget includes a scheme to privatize space travel. The Washington Post learns from th ... More >>

'The Bunker'

A thing to do on Monday and Tuesday for (completely) free

​If you're out Monday or Tuesday night, look up in the sky and watch the shooting stars. The Leonid Meteor Shower is going to be on view Nov. 16 and 17, and NASA says it's going to be quite a show this year.

NASA finds water on the moon

​NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Mission (LCROSS) probe discovered organic materials and "significant" amounts of water at the bottom of the Cabeus crater near the South Pole of the moon.

CALLING PLANET EARTH

N.A.S.A. touch down at Bowery Ballroom

Is the Universe Shaped Like a Pringle? Or Is It More of a Bugle?

NASA/JPL-Caltech/vages/flickr​ New Scientist appears to have snacks on the brain as it ponders the shape of the universe. While scientists have long assumed the cosmos in shaped like a sphere (a bacon gumball, perhaps?), alternative theories suggest the universe may be shaped like a doughnut, ... More >>

Blast! Too Flat For Its Own Good

How Do You Spell Progress? P-E-E

Astronauts aboard the space station toasted themselves and their colleagues after the successful completion of a recycling system that transforms urine and sweat into potable water. Foregoing champagne, the spacemen drank to the event by sipping some of the very water that had been recycled from t ... More >>

Annals of Hilarious Press Releases: "3 Doors Down Go Galactic!"

You wouldn't know it, but the intrepid cosmonauts above--those valiant heroes drinking coffee, and seeing how far back the 'ol office chair goes--are part of something greater than themselves. See: 3 Doors Down Go Galactic! Early this morning, NASA woke the Atlantis crew with the 3 Doors Down hi ... More >>

Rocket Men

Reliving the glory of America's giant leap for mankind

One of These Days, Bush, Right to the Moon!

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