NoCamels Team, NoCamels - Israel Innovation News A Tel Aviv University professor and his students have discovered a new planet outside the solar system. Tsevi Mazeh and his team were able to identify the planet using a light-measuring method, based on Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. The planet, later reaffirmed by a Harvard research team, will be called Kepler-76b, after a NASA spacecraft that supplied much of the data used for the discovery. Kepler is an observation craft, launched in 2009, with …More

Ninth grade physics students at Hebrew University Secondary School (Leyada) in Jerusalem spoke with Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield as he orbited the Earth aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, February 3. The Israeli high school students were the recent winners of the Ilan Ramon Space Olympics hosted each year by the Ilan Ramon Foundation, established in honor of Israel's first astronaut, Ilan Ramon. Ramon perished in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster with six other American crew members, …More

Ilan Ramon, known affectionately as “Israel’s first astronaut,” was killed ten years ago this week, when the Columbia space shuttle exploded upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere after more than two weeks in orbit. Ramon was born in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv, though he grew up in Beersheba. His father fled Nazi Germany in the 1930’s, and his mother and grandmother were both Polish Holocaust survivors. In 1974, Ramon graduated as a fighter pilot from the Israeli Air Force. He …More

Israel is currently hosting its first ever Space Week, held to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the tragic Space Shuttle Columbia disaster that killed the Jewish state’s first astronaut. The heads of 14 space agencies from around the world are visiting the Jewish state for a series of events meant to remember the life and death of Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut who died in 2003 when the Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry to Earth. To commemorate the anniversary, Israel has put together …More

A team of scientists from Tel Aviv University are using data retrieved from NASA satellites to understand the relationship between weather and air pollution. In a recently published article in the American Journal of Climate Change, the scientists suggested a revolutionary method to standardize how pollution is tested and tracked worldwide. “Using the same algorithm to calculate for the whole world, we can really get more objective methodology for monitoring pollution,” lead investigator Pinhas Alpert …More

Maxine Dovere, JNS.org Dan Cohen describes Ilan Ramon, the first and only Israeli astronaut, as “a man used to rising to the occasion.” On Jan. 31 at 9 p.m., "Space Shuttle Columbia: Mission of Hope"—a documentary directed by Cohen—will air on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Ramon’s death. Israel sent one of its best on NASA’s fatal Columbia mission: Israel Air Force (IAF) Colonel Ramon was 46, an engineer (electronics and …More

NoCamels Team, NoCamels - Israeli Innovation News Researchers at Tel Aviv University have managed to produce quality analysis of pollution in major cities around the world – using readings taken in outer space. Professor Pinhas Alpert of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences and head of the Porter School of Environmental Studies, is turning to three of NASA’s high-tech satellites for a comprehensive view of pollutants in the atmosphere. Using eight years’ …More

While the NASA Curiosity rover landed successfully on Mars on Sunday to conduct a two-year mission, Israel has announced that it will not be venturing to Mars just yet. Employees at the Israel Space Agency and the Science and Technology Ministry in Jerusalem were thrilled about the rover's landing, but the ministry has confirmed that Israel has no current plans of its own to invest financially in developing a Mars project. “There is no such plan for formal cooperation with NASA on this,” said …More

February 1 marked the ninth anniversary of the death of Col. Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first and only astronaut. He was killed in the crash of the Columbia space shuttle along with his six fellow crew members. The accident, which ultimately led to the end of the shuttle program, was commemorated in Israel this week with a series of events in Ramon’s memory. Retired NASA astronaut William McArthur Jr. met with teenagers from around Israel on Tuesday to discuss his experiences in space. Five hundred students …More

“Today was the first day that I felt that I am truly living in space. I have become a man who lives and works in space.” – Excerpt from Ramon’s on-board diary. Ilan Ramon aboard Space Shuttle Columbia (Credit: NASA) Col. Ilan Ramon was a decorated and highly honored Israel Air Force Colonel and fighter pilot boasting thousands of hours of flight experience. Graduating from Flight School in 1974, he continued to excel in numerous missions including the famous 1981 Operation Opera, …More

Google’s top three executives have made an offer to buy Hangar One, NASA’s iconic Moffett Field air base in Mountain View, California. Though their jointly owned company H211, which manages the trio’s fleet of jets, Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt agreed to pay the $33 million price tag in full if they could park their eight private jets in the hangar after the renovations are complete. H211 made the proposal back in September. As part of the proffered deal, NASA would retain ownership …More

A former government scientist who helped discover water on the moon, worked on the Reagan-era Star-Wars ballistic missile defense program and ran a variety of highly classified projects for NASA, the Defense Department and the Department of Energy pleaded guilty this morning to attempted espionage charges for his efforts to sell classified information to Israel. Stewart Nozette of Chevy Chase, Md., was arrested Oct. 19, 2009, at the Mayflower Hotel in downtown Washington by counterintelligence agents from the FBIs …More