Recently in Space/Science/Astronomy Category

In this image released by NASA, a dust ring, seen in red, surround the star Fomalhaut, that resides at the center of the image, and not visible to the human eye in this image. The Hubble Telescope discovered the fuzzy image of the planet, known as Fomalhaut b, which is no more that a white speck in the lower right portion of the dust ring that surrounds the star. (AP Photo/NASA)

An image of the planet Mercury, made during the January 2008 flyby of the planet by the Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft is seen in this image released by NASA July 3, 2008. The image shows that volcanoes were involved in plains formation and suggest that its magnetic field is actively produced in the planet's core.
(NASA/JHUAP/Arizona State University/Handout/Reuters)

LOS ANGELES - An Internet entrepreneur's latest effort to make space launch more affordable paid off Sunday when his commercial rocket, carrying a dummy payload, was lofted into orbit from the South Pacific.

It was the fourth attempt by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, to launch its two-stage Falcon 1 rocket into orbit.

"Fourth time's a charm," said Elon Musk, the multimillionaire who started up SpaceX after making his fortune as the co-founder of PayPal Inc., the electronic payment system.

The rocket carried a 364-pound dummy payload designed and built by SpaceX for the launch.

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Two shuttles on the launch pad at the same time. Because Atlantis (near) cannot reach the safety of the space station if something goes wrong on its upcoming servicing mission to the Hubble telescope, Endeavour (far) must be on standby for a rescue mission.

See the LHC in action!

*Video Added*

A hand holding a biological brain and a robot. The brain consists of a collection of neurons cultured on a Multi Electrode Array (MEA) which communicates and controls the robot via a Bluetooth connnection. Scientists in Britain announced that they had stitched together thousands of rat neurons into primitive brains capable of controlling the movement of robots.
(AFP/DIEM Photo/Reading Univ.)

Read more: A 'Frankenrobot' with a biological brain

The annual Perseid meteor shower is set to peak on Tuesday, Aug. 12, after the moon sets in the wee hours of the morning. The best time to view the meteor shower will be between 4 and 5 a.m., according the American Meteor Society. At left, a Perseid shower over Rhyolite, Nev., on Aug. 13, 2007.
(Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson, left, and Scaled Composites LLC founder Burt Rutan wave from the mothership aircraft White Knight Two 'Eve' during an unveiling ceremony at Scaled Composites hangar in Mojave, Calif. Monday, July 28, 2008. More than 250 customers have paid $200,000 or put down a deposit for the chance to be one of Virgin Galactic's first space tourists. A date for the first launch has yet to be announced.
(AP Photo/Stefano Paltera)

This NASA picture shows a polygonal pattern in the ground near NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, similar in appearance to icy ground in the arctic regions of Earth. A NASA probe has sent back never-seen pictures of Mars' north pole after a near perfect landing in the most ambitious mission to date to find life-sustaining minerals on the Red Planet.
(AFP/NASA)

In this image provided by NASA, seemingly out of nowhere, Supernova 2008D burst onto the scene on Jan. 9, 2008, as seen in ultraviolet images and X-ray images taken by NASA's Swift Satellite. Astronomers for the first time witnessed the start of one of the universe's most fiery events: the end of a star's life as it exploded into a supernova.
(AP Photo/NASA)

SERIOUSLY...Click here to see HOW the MOON was MADE.

In this false color image released by NASA showing an active avalanche on Mars taken by the Reconnaissance Orbiter on Feb. 19, 2008 is the first ever image of active avalanches near the Red Planet's north pole. The image shows tan clouds billowing away from the foot of a towering slope, where ice and dust have just cascaded down.
(AP Photo/NASA, University of Arizona)

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Pentagon officials said they think a Navy missile scored a direct hit on the fuel tank of an errant satellite late Wednesday, eliminating a toxic threat to people on Earth.
art.missile.launch.usnavy.jpg

"We have a high degree of confidence we got the tank," Marine Gen. James Cartwright said at a Pentagon briefing Thursday morning.

A fireball and a vapor cloud seen after the strike appeared to indicate the toxic hydrazine fuel had been destroyed, he said. The missile that struck the satellite did not carry an explosive warhead.

Cartwright also said the satellite seemed to be reduced to small pieces.

"Thus far, we see nothing larger than a football," he said.

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LOS ANGELES - The last total lunar eclipse until 2010 occurs Wednesday night, with cameo appearances by Saturn and the bright star Regulus on either side of the veiled full moon.

Skywatchers viewing through a telescope will have the added treat of seeing Saturn's handsome rings.

Weather permitting, the total eclipse can be seen from North and South America. People in Europe and Africa will be able to see it high in the sky before dawn on Thursday.

As the moonlight dims — it won't go totally dark — Saturn and Regulus will pop out and sandwich the moon. Regulus is the brightest star in the constellation Leo.

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This image provided by NASA shows: The Spider Radial Troughs within Caloris. The Narrow Angle Camera of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) on the MESSENGER spacecraft obtained high-resolution images of the floor of the Caloris basin on January 14, 2008. Near the center of the basin, an area unseen by Mariner 10, this remarkable feature nicknamed the spider by the science team was revealed. A set of troughs radiates outward in a geometry unlike anything seen by Mariner 10. The radial troughs are interpreted to be the result of extension (breaking apart) of the floor materials that filled the Caloris basin after its formation. Other troughs near the center form a polygonal pattern. This type of polygonal pattern of troughs is also seen along the interior margin of the Caloris basin. An impact crater appears to be centered on the spider. The straight-line segments of the crater walls may have been influenced by preexisting extensional troughs, but some of the troughs may have formed at the time that the crater was excavated. (AP Photo/NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington)

Too bad they're 2.5 inches tall and made of rock... Damn...

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Entrepreneur Richard Branson and aircraft designer Burt Rutan (not pictured) display a model of SpaceShipTwo spaceship after it was unveiled in New York January 23, 2008. Branson on Wednesday unveiled a model of Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites' new WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo aircrafts, which he hopes will be the first to take paying passengers into space on a regular basis next year.
REUTERS/Chip East (UNITED STATES)

This handout photo released in Seoul by the Ministry of Science and Technology shows a combo of cloned cats that have a fluorescence protein gene and glowing under ultraviolet beams. The technology could help develop treatments for human genetic diseases, the developers said.
(AFP/MST-HO)

The face of the linen-wrapped mummy of King Tut is seen in his new glass case in his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007. The mummy of the 19-year-old pharaoh, whose life and death has captivated people for nearly a century, was placed in a climate-controlled glass box in the tomb, with only the face and feet showing under the linen covering. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Read more: Face of King Tut unshrouded to public - Yahoo! News

Incredible Pictures - Funny home videos are a click away

Third-World Wind Power: First Look

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TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese researchers have succeeded in producing see-through frogs, letting them observe organs, blood vessels and eggs under the skin without performing dissections.

"You can see through the skin how organs grow, how cancer starts and develops," said the lead researcher Masayuki Sumida, professor at the Institute for Amphibian Biology of state-run Hiroshima University.

"You can watch organs of the same frog over its entire life as you don't have to dissect it. The researcher can also observe how toxins affect bones, livers and other organs at lower costs," he told AFP.

Dissections have become increasingly controversial in much of the world, particularly in schools where animal rights activists have pressed for humane alternatives such as using computer simulations.

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