In late December, just before Christmas, a volcano in the Red Sea began shooting plumes of lava 60 feet into the air. The plumes of smoke and ash could be seen for miles in every direction; it was the birth of land. New imagery from NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite shows that the cooling lava has formed a new island is about 1,700 by 2,300 feet across and is expected to become a permanent resident. Welcome to the map, little island.

As is the case with most projects coming out of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, this starts simple and quickly becomes complicated. Here’s the simple part: Currently, military planners rely on drones to get real-time information about battlefields or areas of interest. Now things get complicated, as there aren’t enough drones and they don’t fly high enough to enter what DARPA calls “denied territories.” In order to bridge that gap, DARPA makes it really complicated by researching the possibility of capturing video from space using spy satellites fitted with enormous flexible lenses some 60 feet across.

In their ongoing effort to keep the public informed about the 6.5 ton spacecraft falling to Earth today, NASA announced via their Twitter stream that the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) probably won’t be touching down in North America. Earlier today it was reported that the spacecraft would miss North America entirely, though NASA is now saying that a change in orientation and unexpected deceleration means that it’s still a possibility, albeit a slim one.

Where the spacecraft will touch down is still an open question, though NASA is tracking the vehicle and providing frequent updates. In a series of recent tweets, the space agency dispelled some of the concerns about the falling satellite. First off, they reiterated that the odds of being struck by a piece of debris are one in several trillion. Second, NASA stated that any debris that lands is unlikely to be on fire, as objects entering the atmosphere generally stop heating 20 miles up and cool for the rest of their fall. In fact, by the time debris reaches the ground, they could be moving as slow as 30 mph. NASA also asks that if you do find a chunk of space debris that you leave it be, and contact local authorities.

With those reassurances and useful science factoids now in place, we can all sit back and wait for the UARS to make its spectacular return to Earth — expected late tonight or early tomorrow.

Updated with new information from NASA at 11:00AM.

(via @NASA, UARS tracking)

Chris Abbas professes to being a bit of a space nut, and his appreciation for extraterrestrial exploration is evident in this video about NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn. Comprised of images and video from the orbiter, Abbas created this hauntingly beautiful short film which certainly instills a sense of wonder. Watch, gentle reader, and be amazed.

(via Universe Today)

NASA’s MESSENGER (believe it or not, it stands for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) probe entered orbit around Mercury last night, making it the first manmade object to ever do so. Now in orbit, MESSENGER will be observed for several days to see how the craft performs in the harsh environment so close to the sun. Onboard scientific instruments will be activated on March 23, with the scientific mission beginning on April 4.

The journey has not been an easy one. Mercury travels at about 106,000 mph, which is much faster than Earth. Just to catch up with the planet, the probe had to gain 65,000 mph. In order to achieve such a feat, NASA mission planners plotted a roundabout course around Venus and Mercury, using the planets’ gravity to speed up the craft. The final flight plan covered 5 billion miles, and 15 loops around the sun.

Not much is known about the innermost planet of our solar system, which has been visited only once in 1974 by Mariner 10. Scientists are hoping MESSENGER will give them a greater understanding of Mercury’s composition, and its curiously strong magnetic field. Though it has just entered orbit, MESSENGER made some surprising discoveries during a 2008 encounter with the planet: Large amounts of water in the planet’s exosphere.

Now that the craft is in place, the real work can begin. Given what MESSENGER has discovered already, it’s shaping up to be an exciting mission. And, of course, you can follow mission updates through the MESSENGER Twitter.

(via NASA, NASA Science, image via NASA)

NASA is reporting that its orbital climate change observatory Glory has failed to achieve orbit after launching early this morning atop a Taurus-XL rocket. A statement from NASA indicates that the fairing, the casing around the satellite atop the rocket, failed to open and release Glory into orbit. As such, the craft was too heavy, and subsequently crashed.

Glory is the second climate change satellite to crash, and its crash is the second fairing-related incident on a Taurus rocket. Were it to have survived launch, Glory would have studied the effects of tiny particles called aerosols in the atmosphere, and how they affect the climate on Earth. It also carried the Total Irradiance Monitor, which would have provided a greater understanding of how much radiation the Earth receives from the sun.

The failure of the mission means a $420 million loss for cash-strapped NASA, but a far greater loss of knowledge that the craft would have provided. The solar radiation information, for instance, would have added to a 32-year long dataset.

Glory’s loss is a reminder that when it comes to space exploration, nothing is ever routine. Liftoff video below:

University of Colorado at Boulder undergraduates piloted a multi-million dollar NASA satellite to its fiery oceanic death. NASA’s response: Thanks guys.

Apologies if you thought the title was an elaborate pornographic allusion, but I’m being completely literal: After the jump, you will see Google‘s recently shuttered Nexus One film itself BEING SHOT 28,000 FEET INTO THE AIR, or about 5.3 miles vertically.

The event was part of the PhoneSat initiative; with the support of the Mavericks Civilian Space Foundation, they strapped the smart phone with a parachute to a rocket with 1,000 lbs of thrust, to test whether the phones could be sent high enough to enter orbit. This captured video, by the way, is from the second phone launched into the sky. We won’t tell you what happened to the first one (it shattered into a million pieces).