US agencies say 2015 hottest year on record globally

Last year's global average temperature was the hottest ever by the widest margin on record, two US government agencies said.

Astronauts to stay in Russian segment of ISS overnight (NASA official)

Astronauts working aboard the International Space Station will stay overnight in the Russian segment of the station and will be able to return to the US segment only by noon on Thursday, the director of NASA’s manned space flights programs in Russia, Sean Fuller told TASS on Wednesday.
Earlier reports indicated a possibility of foreign astronauts’ return to the US segment of the station as early as Wednesday night.

Scientists Warn NASA on Ethics of Space Travel

The US space agency NASA plans to send humans to an asteroid and Mars, eventually. But a group of prominent U.S. scientists says right now, any deep space mission will be too dangerous, based on NASA's minimum safety requirements. And engineering capabilities and understanding of the effects of long-term cosmic radiation exposure will not advance sufficiently within the next five years to change that assessment.

After a study of long-duration space travel, sponsored by NASA, the panel of scientists from the National Academy of Sciences says the space agency should consider ethics while designing standards for future long missions.

La NASA descarta que el meteorito y el asteroide estén relacionados....

Según los científicos de la NASA, “la trayectoria del meteorito que ha caído en Rusia es significativamente diferente de la trayectoria del asteroide 2012 DA14, lo que supone que se trata de objetos que no tienen ninguna relación”. Todavía se está recopilando información del primero y los análisis son aún preliminares, añade la agencia espacial estadounidense. “En los vídeos se ve cómo el meteorito pasa de izquierda a derecha frente al Sol elevándose, lo que significa que estaba viajando de Norte a Sur, mientras que la trayectoria del asteroide 2012 DA14 va en la dirección opuesta, de Sur a Norte”.

Los datos que van obteniendo los científicos se inclinan claramente hacia descartar que se trate de objetos relacionados y se han hecho estimaciones de la masa y tamaño del meteorito de Siberia.

NASA tests laser communications by sending Mona Lisa to space

A new experiment by NASA proving the effectiveness of laser communications has raised the prospect that beam technology could one day replace radio. That’s after NASA scientists successfully beamed an image of the Mona Lisa to the moon.
­NASA scientists usually use lasers to track the position of its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) – the robotic spacecraft that creates gravitational maps of the moon. It collects the information then transmits it back to earth at a rate of 50 Mbs.
Then NASA scientists had the bright idea of reversing the flow by beaming an image of the Mona Lisa to the LRO using lasers.