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Mars Rover

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Perseid Meteor Shower 2012 to Light Up the Sky

This weekend's biggest show is in the sky.

Earlier this week, the big news was on Mars as the world watched the Curiosity Mars rover speed through that planet’s thin atmosphere at 13,000 mph, before being lowered down to Red Planet's surface. This weekend, the show is in our very own sky. The Perseid Meteor Shower 2012 hits its stride this weekend, late Saturday night and early Sunday morning. And what stride it will be: according to NASA, expect up to 100 meteors per hour. As an extra bonus, a waning crescent moon means that moonlight won’t completely overwhelm the meteors as they shoot across the sky. Where do you plan to go to watch the Perseids? Let us know in the comments. Like all meteor showers, the Perseid shower is named after the constellation that the meteors appear to …

Saturday, August 4, 2012

WATCH: Mars Rover Landing

NASA is hosting several public viewings of Curiosity as it touches down on the Red Planet.

Want to touch down on Mars? Well, you can't. Not yet.  But early Monday morning you can get a feel for what it might look like to land on the Red Planet when NASA broadcasts the landing of the Curiosity Mars Rover across the country.  A lot of people are holding their breath. Curiosity has been on its way to Mars since Nov. 26, 2011 when it launched from Cape Canaveral. It will begin to descend into the thin Martian atmosphere Saturday, Aug. 6. About 1:30 a.m. Curiosity will use a new landing method consisting rocket guided entry, parachute descent, more rockets and a “sky crane,” which is as fantastic as it sounds. The shell of the rover will use its rockets to hover above the surface as the science lab is lowered down the surface by an “…

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