space exploration

• Opinion

The Sun missed an important space story

The Sun missed an important story about plans by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab to explore Titan, Saturn's largest moon, using a drone.

• Maryland

Star Points: Dress rehearsal for moon landing took place 50 years ago this month

On its surface, the mission seemed like a marriage of Apollo 8 and 9. It was a return to the moon as in Apollo 8, but this time with a LM. And while Apollo 9 tested the lunar module in Earth orbit, Apollo 10 would haul it off to the moon.

• Space

Emanuel 'Emil' Skrabek, spacecraft engineer, inventor of thermoelectric power source for Mars Curiosity Rover, dies

Emanuel A. “Emil” Skrabek, a Baltimore-born spacecraft engineer who co-invented a thermoelectric material that powered the Mars Curiosity Rover and other space probes, died of progressive supranuclear palsy and Parkinson’s disease at his home in Lutherville on March 14, his family said. He was 85.

By Colin Campbell

Mar 24, 2019

• Maryland

Editorial: Thumbs up to a well-trained student, physics aficionados and Carroll One Book

Who received thumbs up from the Carroll County Times this week?

• Maryland

Star Points: Foreign landers heading to moon a half-century later

50 years later, other nations are still trying to catch up to where America was back then. Some of them have gotten off the ground.

• Maryland

Eggs, vectors and duct tape at Liberty High School, the 2019 Physics Olympics

Two eggs, one meter of duct tape, six McDonald’s straws, 50 grams of paper and some aluminum foil were all Francis Scott Key High School Senior Maddie Rohde and her fellow students had to protect two eggs from breaking during a four-meter drop from the Liberty High School cafeteria mezzanine.

• Opinion

Alternative Fact of the Week: We feel your pain, Opportunity rover

The alleged Mars rover's final gasp, 'My battery is low and it's getting dark,' may be mostly fiction but wouldn't it be great if some alternative facts could get a pass?

• Science

An asteroid could destroy humanity like it did dinosaurs. A Hopkins team has a plan to save the world.

DART is NASA’s first mission not to explore space, but to defend against it. Researchers at Johns Hopkins plan to launch a spacecraft and smash it into an asteroid. BOOM! The impact, they hope, will bump the big space rock off course.

By Tim Prudente

Feb 4, 2019

• Science

Lights, camera, action! Tumbling space snowman in film debut

Scientists from NASA 's New Horizons mission on Tuesday released the first stitched together animation of Ultima Thule, the most distant object ever explored by humans.

• Maryland

Star Points: Only total lunar eclipse for 2019 visible from here this month

The only total lunar eclipse for 2019 will be visible from the continental United States, including Maryland, on the night of Sunday-Monday, Jan. 20-21.

• Environment

Snowman-shaped object on edge of solar system may explain how planets formed, finds Hopkins' New Horizons mission

Ultima Thule, the distant object NASA's New Horizons spacecraft explored on New Year's Day, is actually a pair of spheres that have been fused together by gravity, scientists revealed Wednesday. The Johns Hopkins-led mission could already be helping to confirm theories about how the planets formed.

By Scott Dance

Jan 2, 2019

• Science

Johns Hopkins-led New Horizons mission successfully captures data from distant Ultima Thule; first images coming Wednesday

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft successfully captured images and data as it flew past an object nicknamed Ultima Thule early Tuesday morning, scientists confirmed. But they won't get their first close-up glimpse of the edge of the solar system until Wednesday afternoon.

By Scott Dance

Jan 1, 2019

• Science

After Pluto, Hopkins-led New Horizons mission nears an object 'beyond the known world,' Ultima Thule

Three and a half years after exploring Pluto, the New Horizons mission will reach another new frontier in the first hours of 2019. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory-led mission will fly past a Kuiper Belt object known as Ultima Thule, a pristine remnant of the early universe.

By Scott Dance

Dec 24, 2018

• Maryland

Nobel laureate John Mather gives Carroll residents a tour of the universe

In a far-ranging talk Wednesday on space, physics and the origin of all that is, Nobel Prize-winning scientist John Mather went from the very old and incredible small, to the infinite, and nearly back again.

• Maryland

NASA sun expert talks solar probes, possible partnership with Carroll library

In addition to educating the group about the sun, Young — associate director for science in NASA’s Heliophysics Science Division — said NASA is also going to work on a future partnership with CCPL in efforts to get involved with Maryland libraries.

• Maryland

Star Points: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe to get up close and personal with the sun

Last month NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe, its second deep space mission in 2018. (The other was Insight, destined for a November landing on Mars.)  Parker is different from other solar missions of the past that observed the sun from far off. Parker will get up close and personal.

• News

What we know about David Katz, the alleged Jacksonville shooting gunman from Maryland

What we know about David Katz, the Baltimore man behind a mass shooting at a Florida game video tournament Sunday.

By Christina Tkacik

Aug 27, 2018

• News

In Howard County, parents of Jacksonville shooting suspect had been desperate to find psychiatric care for son

David Katz, who police said fatally shot two others before killing himself at a Madden tournament in Jacksonville, Fla., had been hospitalized for psychiatric treatment and struggled at the University of Maryland.

• Science

NASA probe operated from Johns Hopkins lab in Laurel rockets toward sun for closest look yet

Scores of Johns Hopkins University scientists watched as a NASA spacecraft zoomed toward the sun Sunday on an unprecedented quest to get closer to our star than anything ever sent before.

• Sports

Sports Digest (Aug. 3): With Aces no-shows, Mystics game canceled

Friday night's game between the Las Vegas Aces and the Washington Mystics at Capital One Arena was canceled, the WNBA announced.

• Opinion

The future is brighter than you think

Do you remember the future when you were a kid? The one that couldn’t come soon enough? We looked forward to the next space flight, the next scientific discovery. We heard about meals instantly cooked by sound waves, TV wrist watches, robots that vacuumed the floor, cars that steered themselves.

• Features

This Day in History: July 8

In 1958, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. Orioles pitcher Billy O'Dell (above center) secured the American

• Obituaries

Charles A. Harper, a chemical engineer who worked on NASA programs, dies

Charles A. Harper, a chemical engineer who worked on projects for NASA, died from complications of pneumonia Feb. 26 at Brightview Mays Chapel Ridge retirement community.

By Andrea K. McDaniels

Mar 4, 2018

• Obituaries

Kim Strohbehn, senior professional engineer at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab

Kim Strohbehn, whose boyhood embrace of outer space resulted in a lengthy career as a senior professional engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, died Sunday from bone cancer at Sinai Hospital. The Ellicott City resident was 64.

By Frederick N. Rasmussen

Jan 18, 2018

• Maryland

Central Carroll: Bear Branch celebrates winter with 'Snow Much Fun!'

Bear Branch Nature Center will hold a fun family program called “Snow Much Fun!” on Sunday, Jan. 14, from 1 to 2 p.m. at the center, located at 310 John Owings Road, just north of the airport on Md. 97.  

• Maryland

NASA chooses Hopkins mission to Titan, Goddard-led comet probe as finalists for mid-2020s launch

NASA said Wednesday it has chosen two finalists for solar system exploration: A Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory plan to visit Saturn's moon Titan, and a proposal for a comet probe that would be managed by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

By Scott Dance

Dec 20, 2017

• Commentary

Zirpoli: Back to the future

While world leaders met in Paris last week to discuss future global challenges, President Donald Trump held a White House ceremony to announce that the United States will return to the moon, again.

• Maryland

Johns Hopkins astrophysicist and his team win Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

Johns Hopkins University astrophysicist Charles L. Bennett has been awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for his research on the universe’s origin and expansion.

By Sarah Gantz

Dec 3, 2017

• Space Exploration

NASA asks for help to name New Horizons' next target for exploration

Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69 is a mouthful. So NASA is asking for help to name the icy body that Pluto explorer New Horizons is set to visit in just over a year.

By Scott Dance

Nov 7, 2017

• Maryland

Vigliotti: Bring the hyperloop to Carroll County

Vigliotti: Bring the hyperloop to Carroll County

• Astronomy and Astrophysics

University of Maryland astronomers strike gold — and platinum — as they watch neutron stars collide

Scientists said they’ve detected the collision of two neutron stars and confirmed that these cataclysmic events are indeed a source of gold, platinum and other heavy e

• Howard County

Astronaut Terry Virts talks space photography, science fiction and growing up in Columbia

Terry Virts may be retired from NASA, but the son of Columbia hasn’t stopped sharing his passion for space travel.

• Opinion

How about saving the Earth rather than moving to Mars?

All the talk of interplanetary colonization shouldn't take away from our need to protect the Earth, David Horsey writes.

• Obituaries

John J. Royo Jr, retired spacecraft designer

John J. Royo Jr., a retired design engineer who worked on the LEM and Hubble Telescope, died Monday from multiple myeloma at his Columbia home. He was 82.

By Frederick N. Rasmussen

Sep 12, 2017

• Maryland

Star Points: Bumps, dents and charts of Earth's wobbling moon

Despite its distance, Earth’s tidal forces dominate its moon.

• Howard County

Week-long camp sent teen to space [Glenelg/Glenwood/Dayton]

Jack Willets from Clarksville recently attended Space Camp at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

• Maryland

Excited Harford County residents gather to view Monday's solar eclipse

Harford County residents found many ways to view Monday's solar eclipse, as about 1,000 gathered on the grounds of Harford Community College in anticipation of a once in a generation astronomical event.

By David Anderson

Aug 22, 2017

• Weather

In Maryland, an 80 percent eclipse is in the forecast

Eclipse watching tips for Marylanders

By Dan Rodricks

Aug 21, 2017

• Opinion

Why is NASA testing bomb-grade materials for its Mars mission?

Absent funding for a manned mission to Mars, why is NASA rushing toward a September test of a bomb-grade uranium reactor that could undermine global efforts to minimize use of such dangerous fuel?

• Baltimore County

Catonsville, Arbutus prepare for Monday's solar eclipse

Maryland isn't in the path of next Monday's total solar eclipse, but that's not stopping area celebrations to mark the first

By Jon Bleiweis

Aug 18, 2017

• Maryland

What to know before next week's solar eclipse

Marylanders won't get to view the full effect of the phenomenon- the state will only reach about 85 percent totality and the skies won't completely darken, but NASA research scientist Michael Kirk said it's still worth stepping outside for a few minutes in the afternoon to view the moon partially eclipse the sun.

By Kate Magill

Aug 16, 2017

• Baltimore County

Towson library to host eclipse viewing party

The Baltimore County Public Library branch in Towson will host a special viewing party ahead of a total solar eclipse that is expected to occur Aug. 21 —

By Margarita Cambest

Aug 15, 2017

• Entertainment

Artscape 2017: 10 things not to miss

10 things you absolutely need to check out at Baltimore's Artscape 2017

By Chris Kaltenbach

Jul 21, 2017

• News

Scientists say it could take years to find any link between massive iceberg and climate change

Scientists aren't sure if climate change caused an iceberg the size of Delaware to break off of an Antarctic ice shelf and hope further study reveals more about ice melt.

By Scott Dance

Jul 12, 2017

• Business

Little known Cockeysville plant produces powerful batteries for satellites, military and race cars

While many Americans may not be concerned with how their DirecTV or XM satellite radio makes it to their home or car, this is the daily burden of engineers and technicians at Saft, a company in Cockeysville that develops some of the nation's most high-tech batteries for use in communications satellites, weather balloons, rocket ships, military Humvees and tanks and even Formula One race cars

By Meredith Cohn

Jun 15, 2017

• Health

Hopkins scientists readying mission to touch the sun

Scientists have been trying to figure out how to explore the sun since the 1950s — such a daring mission was on a short list that helped spur the inception of

By Scott Dance

Jun 9, 2017

• Space Exploration

Naval Academy grad, aide one of 12 new astronaut candidates

Lt. Kayla Barron, who graduated fifth in her class at the Naval Academy and became an aide to its superintendent, was selected as one of 12 new astronaut candidates from the largest applicant pool ever, more than 18,300 aspirants. She was leave her Annapolis home in August to begin two years of training, and then await a flight assignment.

By Jean Marbella

Jun 9, 2017

• Maryland

Scientists readying 'nerve center' for James Webb Space Telescope's operations at Baltimore institute

When the James Webb Space Telescope looks toward the farthest reaches of the universe, its directions will come from a glass-encased room of computer monitors that looks out on leafy Wyman Park.

By Scott Dance

May 12, 2017

• Health

James Webb Space Telescope will soon leave NASA Goddard for next phase of testing

The James Webb Telescope is ready to leave the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where the core of the observatory was constructed, and move on to the next phase in its journey to space.

By Scott Dance

May 1, 2017

• Space

Hopkins Physics Fair entertains, encourages future scientists

A scale model of a satellite that will soon rocket into space. Colored glasses that enable you to see things otherwise invisible. Vegetables soaked in liquid

By Chris Kaltenbach

Apr 29, 2017