A week after Israel played host to the amazing burning ‘meteorite’, another report is coming in about a ‘meteorite’ strike in East Jakarta, Indonesia. (Note the use of the famous ‘skeptical quotes’.) On Thursday, a falling object crashed through the roof of a house...

That's no space rock: The Israeli 'meteorite' that never was (Ilan Lilush, Tel Aviv Police). UPDATE (April 25): The unidentified combustible object has been identified as being “man made” rather than anything cosmic in origin. “It is definitely not a meteor and not a different natural...

Where is this mystical land? (NASA/ESA/HST). Sometimes, words are not enough to describe views of the universe when captured through the lens of the Hubble Space Telescope. This is one of those moments. Kicking off its 20th anniversary (yes, that super-sized telescope has been in space that long —...

Things have been moving fast for NASA in recent weeks, culminating in President Obama’s inspiring speech at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday. I haven’t commented on the new direction for the US space agency’s direction thus far as I’ve needed some time to digest the ramifications...

The comet death dive (NASA/ESA/SOHO). What happens when you put a snowball in front of an open fireplace? It melts. What happens when you throw a comet at the Sun? Erm… it doesn’t end well. In fact, as this daredevil comet proves, comets get vapourized very quickly. And the Solar and Heliospheric...

The Habitation Extension Module (HEM) proposed by UK engineers (University of Bristol) The UK has started its own space agency (at long last) and the agency has a logo. The latter is the big news here. At a time when motivation for manned spaceflight by NASA is dwindling and yet private industry is forcing...

Sure, NASA is a government agency, but can you think of any other agency with the power to inspire a nation? That’s the gist of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s presentation at the University of New York at Buffalo on March 31st, certainly worth watching.

The Orion Nebula's star-forming region (NASA). Firstly, apologies that it’s been over a month since last posting to Astroengine.com. Call it slacking off, call it a sabbatical, either way, it’s not good. I’ve actually prepared several half-finished articles, but I just never got around...