Tagged: NASA

What looks like a “deep red rose of giant proportions” is actually a huge hurricane on Saturn’s north pole, says NASA.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which has been orbiting Saturn for nine years, captured this image of the storm at the center of the planet’s north pole. The red tint indicates low clouds while the green hue indicates high clouds, thanks to a special filter.

A  University of Washington astronomer has discovered an alien planet where life might flourish.

Eric Agol, associate professor of astronomy at the University of Washington, found Kepler-62f, one of three so-called “Goldilocks” planets as a part of NASA’s Kepler space telescope mission. He co-authored the paper on the discoveries published in the journal Science Thursday.

NASA is planning for a robotic spaceship to lasso a small asteroid and park it near the moon for astronauts to explore, a top senator revealed Friday.

The robotic ship would capture the 500-ton 25-foot asteroid in 2019. Then using an Orion space capsule, now being developed, a crew of about four astronauts would nuzzle up next to the rock in 2021 for spacewalking exploration, according to a government document obtained by The Associated Press.

Two mammoth rocket engines that helped boost Apollo astronauts to the moon have been fished out of the Atlantic.

An expedition led by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos pulled up the engines and is headed back to Cape Canaveral, Fla., after three weeks at sea.

Washington companies could have a major role in future trips to the moon, an asteroid or Mars. NASA engineers are in Seattle this week meeting with contractors working on the Orion program, designed to launch astronauts far into space, well beyond where the space shuttle traveled.