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Look! Look at all the birds!

I honestly can’t find where this image came from originally, but it pops up just about everywhere researchers partner with NASA to do atmospheric research.

Washington Post is ready. We’re all ready. NASA is ready. They’ve figured out a way (maybe!) to explore distant stars with warp drive:

NASA engineer and physicist Harold White announced a few years ago that he was working on a potentially groundbreaking idea that could allow space travel faster than the speed of light. Yes, [...]

Who could resist that headline? But no, AP has it right – we’re the ones with the eerie, disc-shaped craft, and we’re trying to send it to Mars:

The space agency postponed a launch Wednesday and later scrubbed a scheduled Saturday attempt. It was to test a disc-shaped vehicle and giant parachute off the Hawaiian [...]

And now, Nature says, we know the names of the interplanetary stowaways:

Swabs of Curiosity’s surfaces before it was launched, including its heat shield and flight system, revealed 65 species of bacteria. Most were related to the genus Bacillus. In the lab, scientists exposed the microbes to desiccation, UV exposure, cold and pH extremes. [...]

In the 1970s, NASA hired some artists to visualize life in three kinds of space colonies. Here, we’ve got a Bernal Sphere, a “point design with a sphere living area,” or, more simply, a hollow sphere with air on the inside.

In this image, we’ve got a human-powered airplane (really, a hang glider) [...]

The Verge explains how a Danger Mouse and The Shins’ James Mercer have joined forces to make some pretty good music… and to save us all from an epic, planet-destroying cataclysm:

…Broken Bells will donate $1 from every ticket sold for their upcoming tour to help protect its fans from asteroids. The band is [...]

Laboratory Equipment (and a bunch of other folks online) is following the story of NASA severing ties with Russia… except for the Space Station:

NASA employees can’t travel to Russia or host visitors until further notice. They’re also barred from emailing or holding teleconferences with their Russian counterparts because of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, [...]

National Geographic is hosting a live chat tomorrow with some of the folks on the forefront of space exploration:

On March 20 at 2:30 p.m. ET, join us for a live video conversation with space architect Constance Adams, astronaut Piers Sellers, and planetary geologist Bethany Ehlmann. We’ll discuss our passion for space and [...]

The Independent covers the poignant final hours of China’s Jade Rabbit lunar rover as the rolling robot bids a sad farewell to the folks back home:

…Jade Rabbit – named after a mythological rabbit that lives on the Moon – has managed to write its own, sentimental farewell through China’s state-run news agency Xinhua:

“Although [...]