China Analyst: U.S. Can't Win in Space, So Why Bother Racing?
With access to more than 400 satellites plus at least two tiny, maneuverable robotic shuttles, the U.S. military is the clear leader in military spacecraft. But with 70 orbiters of its own, China is catching up fast. Last year, Beijing matched Washington in space launches for the first time, boosting no fewer than 15 satellites into orbit. It was the first time any nation kept a celestial pace with the U.S. since the height of the Cold War.
The new space race is on. But in the view of one influential analyst, the race isn’t worth the prize. Space “is expensive to enter, hard to sustain assets i...
Hands-On With Sony's New Wedge-Shaped Tablet S
Still got tablet fever? Somebody must, because they just keep coming.
Sony unveiled the final versions of its two new Android tablets Wednesday. These are the same two devices we saw last month — the curvy, wedge-shaped full-sized tablet is now called the Sony Tablet S, and the dual-screen tablet that folds up into a pocket-sized burrito is now called the Sony T...
Video: Hubble Captures Stars Unleashing Supersonic Jets
Using 14 years’ worth of Hubble Space Telescope images, astronomers have animated the chaos inside supersonic jets of newborn stars.
Hubble took still photographs of the jets from 1994 through 2008, and animators used image-morphing models to create seamless videos that put the jets into motion.
“We’re trying to study how stars form. Just by looking at any one process, you don’t get the full picture,” said astronomer Patrick Hartigan of Rice University, who led a study using the new imagery published July 20 in Astrophysical Journal. “It’s very important to understand [the jets] because t...