Nathan Bergey and I sat down at a busy restaurant in downtown Portland, Oregon to meet, eat and discuss his unique invention - the International Space Station lamp, that notifies you when the ISS is passing overhead in the sky.

On Saturday, December 18, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory sank the last of 86 strings of sensitive photodetectors to a depth of almost two and a half kilometers in the ice at the South Pole. Then on December 20th the final Digital Optical Module was deployed (see video below, with Star Wars and Star Trek cliches included), marking completion of the huge neutrino telescope IceCube project.

A team of planet hunters led by astronomers at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz), and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA, has announced the discovery of an Earth-sized planet (three times the mass of Earth) orbiting a nearby star at a distance that places it squarely in the middle of the star's "habitable zone," where liquid water could exist on the planet's surface. If confirmed, this would be the most Earth-like exoplanet yet discovered and the first strong case for a potentially habitable one.

Using the ESO's (European Southern Observatory) HARPS instrument, a team of astronomers have discovered a group of at least five planets orbiting a "Sun-like" star known as HD 10180. With strong evidence that two other planets may be present (one of which would have the lowest mass ever found) - this becomes the largest planetary system, outside of our own, ever discovered.

Keith Cowing - Keith Cowling is editor of NASA Watch, an online publication devoted to the free and uncensored exchange of information on space policy and NASA operations. His May 2010 presentation talks about some of the impromptu hacks needed to get things accomplished during NASA missions.

As the Sun begins to emerge from a dip in activity, newly launched NASA tools are helping scientists capture the event in unprecedented ways. Cycles in solar activity - such as sunspots, flares, and solar storms - have long been recognized and charted. Generally following a 10-12 year pattern, these cycles are linked to amounts of total solar irradiance, cosmic rays, and even terrestrial radio interference. However, never before have scientists had such powerful tools with which to observe and study these cycles, and never before has the infrastructure of technology and communication been more vulnerable to the rise in solar activity.

The European Space Agency and NASA have been diligently monitoring the gulf oil spill via satellite since it began. Today the ESA released new images with the statement that it has extended into current flow and will be carried towards Florida over the coming week.

From the European Space Agency Release on May 19th

The images below come from the European Space Agency, and the NASA Earth Observatory. In order to observe the clean-up efforts, the US Geological Survey, on behalf of the US Coast Guard, requested satellite maps of the area from the International Charter Space and Major Disasters.

From NPR's Krulwich On Science, Science Correspondent Robert Krulwich sits down with reporter, filmmaker, and author, Michael Benson. From the article "Benson and the others download the raw digital data, render them into black and white, then edit, colorize, and sometimes animate them.

This latest video documentary from the USGS discusses the rapid decline in the health of Coral reefs and reports on the latest findings.