Millimeter-Sized 'Bohr Atom' Is a First
	In 1913, Danish physicist Niels Bohr proposed for the first time a model describing the atom as a system inside which the electrons revolve around a central bundle of matter called nucleus, similarly to the way planets in the solar system move around the Sun. Nearly a decade later, Bohr would receive the Nobel Prize for physics for his contribution in the study of the atom, although quantum mechanics later proved that electrons don't ... [read more >>]
	01 July 2008, 04:43GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Strange Objects Pop up While Probing for Dark Energy
	While searching for supernova explosions that occurred in the early universe, in hope to probe dark energy, astronomers discovered two new objects in the solar system, one orbiting somewhere between Uranus and Neptune while the other lurking in the outer regions of the system. The search for supernova explosions mostly involves finding faint light sources, albeit sometimes objects in the solar system get in the way and are accidentally dis ... [read more >>]
	04 June 2008, 04:08GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Solar System Stable for the Next 40 Million Years
	According to astrophysicists, the Sun is about 5 billion years old and will continue to shine for at least as much time before exploding into a supernova to destroy the whole solar system. Latest calculations reveal that the inner rocky planets, including Earth, will be destroyed long before the Sun even swells into a red giant star. To be more precise, uncertainties in the orbits of the planets ensure that the solar system will ... [read more >>]
	23 April 2008, 05:48GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Space Elevators, Too Shaky for Use
	Today, anybody or anything which must be transported into Earth's orbit is carried with the help of space rockets. Nonetheless, alternative space transportation devices such as space elevators, for example, could one day make space travel a whole lot faster, safer and cheaper than the conventional methods currently available. Albeit, space elevators have two fundamental flaws related to their building and operation. First of all, ... [read more >>]
	29 March 2008, 06:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Spread Your Ashes on The Moon for $10,000
	The Moon has became over the years the final resting place for a series of man-made objects such as robotic landers, disabled satellites and many other spacecrafts and debris. Albeit it can also became your final resting place for the price of only 10,000 US dollars. The provider of the unique services is a company pioneering the sending of cremated remains of human into suborbital space with its own rockets. Celestis Inc. is now ... [read more >>]
	28 March 2008, 05:56GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How to Clean Up Space
	There is an enormous number of objects remnant from previous missions currently orbiting Earth, most of which have the potential of seriously damaging spacecrafts intersecting their trajectories. Only last year, the destruction of China's Fengyun-1C satellite left behind about 150,000 individual objects less than a half of an inch in size, and the accumulation of debris will not stop very soon, says NASA's Orbital Debris Program. ... [read more >>]
	19 March 2008, 11:05GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Oldest Satellite in Orbit Turns Fifty
	Fifty years ago, on this very day, the Unites States Navy launched the fourth artificial satellite into space, Vanguard 1, the first satellite into Earth's orbit to be powered by sunlight. Its mission was to test the capabilities of a three-staged vehicle and the effects of the space environment on artificial satellites and the systems they were using at that time. As of 2007, Vanguard 1 became the oldest satellite, and spac ... [read more >>]
	17 March 2008, 03:41GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Jules Verne Suffers Minor Glitch
	After being lifted up into space with the help of the Ariane 5 space rocket, the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle detached itself from the launch vehicle and started its race towards the International Space Station. However, what was called by the European Space Agency a flawless launch proved to be anything but that, as during maneuvers in space the ATV seems to have suffered a small glitch in the navigation systems. As soon as ... [read more >>]
	12 March 2008, 11:13GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Tag an Asteroid and Win 50,000 Bucks!
	A pretty small prize, one would say, especially considering the implications of a large asteroid hitting the Earth in the near future. We may at least stay calm until the day of 13. April 2036, that is. This is the date when the largest asteroid orbiting through the close vicinity of the Earth may execute a fly-by around the planet and fade harmlessly in the distance, or it might decide to hurdle towards the surface of the Earth. ... [read more >>]
	27 February 2008, 07:01GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Objects may Orbit Black Holes in Intricate Patterns!
	So, is it possible to orbit around black holes without falling towards the singularity? Well, against general belief such maneuvers are actually possible. Objects coming in the vicinity of a black hole may enter elliptical orbits, resembling those of the planets in the solar system orbiting the Sun. However, the extreme gravitational fields produced by black holes also generate severe warps of the fabric of space-time meaning tha ... [read more >>]
	14 February 2008, 04:53GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

One More Orbit Around the Sun. But Is That All It Is?
	We have taught ourselves to believe that all the planets have roughly circular orbits around stars and have changed much over the years, but the truth is far from this presumption. Planets, like all bodies in the universe have highly elliptical orbits, where the 'central' orbited body is situated in one of the focal points of the ellipse. Not only that, but these elliptical orbits tend to oscillate in shape more and mor ... [read more >>]
	11 February 2008, 06:35GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Bigelow Wants Private Space Station
	What stops them you say? Well, it may be the fact that the Bigelow Aerospace agency currently has no vehicle to launch the Bigelow Sundancer module into space. Thus, they started studying the possibility of using Atlas 5 rockets for the initial launch of cargo and and even humans in the close future. If negotiations with the United Launch Alliance will end successfully, then Bigelow Aerospace may proceed launching their private s ... [read more >>]
	05 February 2008, 05:32GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

US Spy Satellite Most Likely to Fall in North America
	On Tuesday, the U.S. military warned that a large spy satellite owned by the U.S. has lost power, is decaying its orbit and will most likely hit the Earth in the next two months or so. USA 193's size suggests that, as it will re-enter the atmosphere, it will not burn completely and some parts may end up of the surface almost intact. The situation is a double edged sword if I may, as it is not clear yet where the satellite wi ... [read more >>]
	30 January 2008, 02:57GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Large U.S. Satellite Loses Power and Threatens Earth with Collision
	The U.S. officials were very evasive in their press statement released on Saturday, which could be related to the fact that the giant orbiter is a spy satellite. It is unclear when the satellite lost power or when and where it will hit the Earth. What is known is that it cannot be controlled anymore, is quickly decaying orbit and may spread a series of hazardous materials in the atmosphere during the re-entry. The U.S. government ... [read more >>]
	28 January 2008, 02:47GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

1st February: See Venus and Jupiter Together!
	For those of you who are looking for unique images on the night sky, since tonight you can see how the closest planet to Earth, Venus, and the largest planet in the solar system, the gas giant Jupiter, slowly draw together to create some of the brightest systems visible this year. Don't worry though, the two are in no immediate danger to collide with each other since they are separated by about four astronomical units of spa ... [read more >>]
	25 January 2008, 05:33GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

How Do Satellites 'Fly'?
	The word satellite originally meant 'co-traveler' or 'traveling companion', and was first attributed to natural bodies orbiting planets such as the Moon, for example, which is Earth's satellite. Currently, the word satellite is mostly used to describe man-made instruments orbiting the Earth, while moons circling planets are called natural satellites. The vast majority of the satellites are put into the orbit with t ... [read more >>]
	03 January 2008, 11:04GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Next Meteor Shower: Ursids
	The Ursids meteors shower usually begins on the 17th of December every year, and lasts for more than a week, until 25th or 26th of December. Its name comes from the point where it seems to radiate, which is somewhere near the star Beta Ursae Minor, in the constellation of Ursa Minor, also known as the Little Dipper. It is provoked by the passing of the periodical comet 8P/Tuttle, and though in other years the meteor shower had a relatively ... [read more >>]
	13 December 2007, 07:45GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Look Towards the Sky this Weekend: Leonid Meteor Shower is Back
	Leonid Meteor Shower is associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle. The event gets its name from the region of the sky, from which the meteors seem to radiate, since they stream down to Earth from a single point. The meteor shower takes place every year around the date of 17th of November, plus or minus a week, when the Earth's orbit intersects the stream of meteoroid particles, left behind by the passages of the comet. The ... [read more >>]
	16 November 2007, 09:17GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Astronomers Discovered Saturn's 60th Moon
	Saturn is a curious planet, not because it's a gas giant, the second largest planet in the solar system, or because of the fact that its equatorial and polar diameters differ by almost 10%. The most interesting aspect of this giant is the number of satellites. People often enjoy gazing at the Moon, our only natural satellite that inspired so many poems, love stories and movies. But what would it be like to look at sixty moons? Ast ... [read more >>]
	20 July 2007, 04:20GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

1 in 5 Americans Still Believes the Sun is Orbiting the Earth
	This is a not a pointless satire on the educational system in the US. These are the results of a survey that points out that only about a fifth of all Americans have a clue of what science really is, and thus believe that the Sun is actually revolving around the Earth and that the Tooth Fairy gives them money in exchange for the falling teeth. Dr. Jon D. Miller is a political scientist directing the Center for Biomedical Com ... [read more >>]
	06 July 2007, 04:16GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Woman Time-in-Space Endurance Record Broken by Sunita Williams
	Sunita Williams is now officially holding the record for the longest duration spaceflight for a woman. This morning, she broke the old record, held by Shannon Lucid and established 11 years ago, of 188 days and 4 hours. Sunita Lyn "Suni" Williams was assigned to the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 14 and then joined Expedition 15, and she launched with the crew of STS-116 in December 2006. She ... [read more >>]
	20 June 2007, 05:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Huge Planet with 31-Hour Year Discovered Around Distant Star
	The most recently discovered exoplanet is a true giant, being only six times smaller than the star it orbits. It's located in the constellation Hercules about 10 degrees west of Vega, the brightest star in the summer skies and was discovered by an international team of astronomers with the help of a network of small automated telescopes in Arizona, California and the Canary Islands. "TrES-3 is an unusual planet as it orbits i ... [read more >>]
	01 June 2007, 10:20GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

NASA Can Only Anticipate 5% of Potential Asteroid Impacts on Earth
	NASA's internal procedure for tracking potentially dangerous asteroids that could hit Earth and for countermeasures designed to deflect the space objects is deeply flawed and heavily criticized because it exaggerates the cost and difficulty of the program. The agency had one year to prepare plans for a survey that would catalog 90% of all potentially hazardous near-Earth objects at least 140 meters across (460 ft), but in March th ... [read more >>]
	22 May 2007, 12:06GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Earth's Oscillations
	Due to which process can we observe perfectly horizontal layers on the limestone cliffs (lines that repeat rhythmically at similar distances upside down)? The answer of the scientists: we should study the oscillations of the Earth’s rotation axis. A kind of "Egg of Columbus", this explanation is accepted today, at least in principle. The chalk of some rocky cliffs is 90 million years old, each layer representing between 20 an ... [read more >>]
	10 May 2007, 18:31GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Astronomers Discovered “Hell” in Space!
	A new astronomical find gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "it's a hell hole." The Spitzer Space Telescope has just sent in astonishing new data about the most bizarre extrasolar planet ever photographed. It literally fits the classical descriptions of Hell: the temperatures on the surface of this planet reach a scorching 2040 degrees Celsius (3700 Fahrenheit), almost as hot as some small stars. Anoth ... [read more >>]
	10 May 2007, 04:52GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Einstein's General Relativity Allows for Strange Figure-8 Orbit of 3 Planets
	It may sound strange, but Newton's theory of gravity predicts that it would be possible for three planets with equal masses to race around one another in a strange looking orbit the shape of figure 8. Einstein's more accurate theory of gravity, general relativity, was not sure to support such a weird orbit. If a sum of strange space coincidences were to bring two planets to cling to each other through gravity, one would orbit ... [read more >>]
	05 May 2007, 05:04GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Four Space Shuttle Flights in 2007
	NASA is happy with the fact that the repairs to the space shuttle Atlantis fuel tank are coming along well, apparently allowing for the next mission launch in June, after golf ball-sized hail fell leaving thousands of dents in the foam insulation of the fuel tank. Today, officials also announced dates for two of next year's flights, although more shuttle missions are expected in 2008, including one to repair the Hubble S ... [read more >>]
	17 April 2007, 05:22GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia