Physics and Astronomy

Climate scientists are about to lose a satellite that helped show how global warming affects the Earth's polar ice caps. A replacement won't be in orbit until at least 2015, so NASA will use a DC-8 aircraft instead to track whether the process of melting and subsequent sea-level rise is accelerating.

Light from a star that died when the universe was about 600 million years old is only now reaching Earth. The gamma ray burst is 13.1 billion light-years away, and astronomers say it's the most distant object ever seen from Earth.

The unmanned Ares I-X made a spectacular debut as it soared into the sky Wednesday. This next generation manned space vehicle is set to be ready in 2015, but some question the future of the program.

After a one-day weather delay, the Ares I-X rocket rumbled away from a former shuttle launchpad Wednesday morning at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. It's the first step in NASA's effort to return astronauts to the moon.

The prototype of a new manned spacecraft was scheduled to launch Tuesday morning from the Kennedy Space Center, but weather delayed the unmanned test flight. The rocket is intended to carry astronauts into orbit after the aging space shuttles are retired.

Mr. Qian was a rocket scientist who led China?s space and military rocketry efforts after he was drummed out of the U.S. during the redbaiting of the McCarthy era.

Astronomers said the particles around the core of the Milky Way might be the decayed remains of the long-sought dark matter that constituted a quarter of the universe.

Astronomers said a contest between gamma rays of differing energies and wavelengths tested a proclamation by Einstein on the speed of light.

After weather delays, the Ares I-X, a prototype of NASA?s next-generation rocket, zipped off the launch pad.

The launching of the Ares I-X is scheduled for Tuesday, less than a week after a report on NASA?s human spaceflight program brought the entire program into question.