ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Once in a lifetime, a physicist may get a chance to test his theories and simulations in a real-life event that changes the course of his scientific life. But rarely does that opportunity literally fall from the sky. That’s the impact of the Feb. 15 asteroid that burst over the Russian city […]
Category Archives: Space / Astronomy
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Physicist’s journey reveals smaller asteroids could cause bigger problems
November 20, 2013 – 10:45 am
Study rebuts hypothesis that comet attacks ended 13,000-year-old Clovis culture
January 30, 2013 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Rebutting a speculative hypothesis that comet explosions changed Earth’s climate sufficiently to end the Clovis culture in North America about 13,000 years ago, Sandia lead author Mark Boslough and researchers from 14 academic institutions assert that other explanations must be found for the apparent disappearance. “There’s no plausible mechanism to get airbursts […]
Alaskan North Slope climate: hard data from a hard place
August 13, 2012 – 5:00 am
Researchers examine clouds (from both sides now) and the structure of the atmosphere BARROW, Alaska — Sandia National Laboratories’ researcher Mark Ivey and I (science writer Neal Singer) are standing on the tundra at an outpost of science at the northernmost point of the North American continent. We are five miles northeast of Barrow, an Alaskan village […]
Sandia experiments may force revision of astrophysical models of the universe
March 15, 2012 – 9:10 am
Ice giant planets have more water volume than believed ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The idea of compressing water is foreign to our daily experience. Nevertheless, an accurate estimate of water’s shrinking volume under the huge gravitational pressures of large planets is essential to astrophysicists trying to model the evolution of the universe. They need to assume […]
Sandia National Labs completes final scan of space shuttle program
July 25, 2011 – 2:27 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Nine engineers from Sandia National Laboratories helped ensure Atlantis’ safety from Mission Control at Johnson Space Center as the shuttle made its final flight, marking the end of NASA’s 30-year space shuttle program. For the past 22 missions — every one since NASA’s 2005 return to space — Sandia Labs’ engineers have […]
Amateur astronomers open potential lab in outer space for planetary scientists, Sandia researcher says
September 9, 2010 – 2:50 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, NM — Two amateur astronomers who independently observed and videotaped an asteroid striking the giant planet Jupiter on June 3 have opened the possibility, in effect, of a giant research lab in space for planetary scientists. According to a paper by professional astronomers, expected to be published today online by Astrophysical Journal Letters, the […]
MTI satellite continues to serve after 10 years in orbit
April 19, 2010 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – For engineers and scientists at Sandia, the evening of Friday, March 12, marked a proud moment in exceptional service to the nation. Hundreds of miles above the Earth, the Multispectral Thermal Imager satellite reached its 10th anniversary of service as it completed its 55,000th orbit — far exceeding both its intended maximum […]