Asteroid 1998 QE2 turns while its moon zips upward. Credit: Ellen Howell / NASA / Arecibo

The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has captured the most detailed radar images yet of asteroid 1998 QE2 and its newly discovered moon.

A sequence of pictures released on Friday shows the 1.9-mile-wide (3-kilometer-wide) asteroid rotating in outer space while its 2,500-foot-long (750-meter-long companion zips around it. The asteroid and its moon sped past Earth harmlessly at a minimum distance of 3.6 million miles (5.8 million kilometers) on May 31.

"Asteroid QE2 has no chance of hitting Earth," Michael Nolan, head of the 1,000-foot-wide (300-meter-wide) telescope's asteroid radar group, said in a statement from the Universities Space Research Association, or USRA.

The Arecibo Observatory, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, is the world's largest and most sensitive single-dish radio telescope. Astronomers have been using Arecibo and NASA's Goldstone radar installation in California to track the movements of 1998 QE2 and its moon after its close encounter. Radar readings have revealed craters on the surface of the large rock.

Scientists estimate that one-sixth of all near-Earth asteroids have moons. "QE2's moon is roughly one-quarter the size of the main asteroid," said Patrick Taylor a USRA research astronomer at Arecibo. "Similarly, our moon is also approximately one-fourth the size of our planet."

Analyzing the motion of QE2's moon will help scientists determine the mass of the main asteroid.

"Being able to determine its mass from the moon helps us understand better the asteroid's material," said Ellen Howell, a USRA research astronomer who captured radar images of the asteroid at Arecibo and optical and infrared images using the Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii. The optical images can provide spectral data, revealing what the asteroid is made of.

"What makes this asteroid so interesting, aside from being an excellent target for radar imaging, is the color and small moon," Howell said in the USRA statement. "Asteroid QE2 is dark, red, and primitive — that is, it hasn't been heated or melted as much as other asteroids. QE2 is nothing like any asteroid we've visited with a spacecraft, or plan to, or that we have meteorites from. It's an entirely new beast in the menagerie of asteroids near Earth."

1998 QE2 gets its name from the timing of its discovery. The "QE2" refers to the order in which the asteroid was found during the latter half of August 1998. For what it's worth, 1998 QE2's diameter is nine times the length of the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2.

More about asteroids:

• Huge asteroid's flyby captured in new video
• 1998 QE2 sails past earth, leaving lessons behind
• Cosmic Log archive on asteroids

USRA's Michael Nolan led the radar observations of QE2, along with Ellen Howell, Patrick Taylor, Alessondra Springmann, Sean Marshall of Cornell University, and Mariah Law of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, in collaboration with the Near-Earth Object radar team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Goldstone Observatory in California. Observations continued through Thursday morning.

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

No one expects the Superman saga to serve as a scientific treatise — but the back story for "Man of Steel," the latest reboot of the 75-year-old tale, does play off some of the latest discoveries on the final frontier. And the saga could provide a leaping-off point for future technological advances as well.

Just ask James Kakalios, who literally wrote the book on pulp-comic science, titled "The Physics of Superheroes." Superman's dazzling array of superpowers — ranging from super-strength to X-ray vision and freeze-breath — may be beyond the edge of plausibility, but Kakalios argues that merely musing over how they might work fires the imagination for more down-to-Earth inquiries.

"It's a parlor game reflecting what we do in research anyway — 'what if,' and 'what do I need to have happen for this to exist.' If you do it with superheroes, or if you do it in the real world, it's the same mental muscles that are being exercised," he told NBC News.

Kakalios noted that the first incarnation of Superman, in 1938's Action Comics No. 1, was inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs' stories of "John Carter on Mars," in which an earthly adventurer took advantage of Mars' lower gravity to leap around and perform feats of seeming super strength. Comic-book writer Jerry Siegel turned that around by imagining that Superman came from a supermassive alien planet called Krypton. "We're the planet that has the weak power," Kakalios said.

So far, so good — but that's not the whole explanation for Superman's powers. The official story is that Superman's body was originally acclimated to Krypton's red sun, and is now able to soak up lots more power from our yellow sun. That gets into shakier ground. "Once you make that argument — that if the dominant wavelength shifts by 80 nanometers, that's enough to enable someone to bend steel in their bare hands and have super-breath — then you've entered the realm of fantasy," Kakalios said.

When it comes to planetology, however, Siegel and "Superman" artist Joe Shuster were ahead of their time: It's only recently that astronomers have come to the conclusion that lots of red dwarf stars may have planets, and that those planets may be as close as 13 light-years. What's more, planet hunters have proposed that super-Earths — that is, terrestrial planets more massive than our own — may well be superior when it comes to fostering life.

At the behest of DC Comics, astronomer Neil DeGrasse Tyson even pinpointed a red dwarf that could serve as a real-life stand-in for Krypton's red sun: LHS 2520, 27 light-years away in the southern constellation Corvus. It's not known whether LHS 2520 has any planets at all, let alone a Krypton-like super-Earth. But at least DC recognizes that exoplanets are no longer the stuff of pulp fiction.

Slideshow: Men of Steel

Getty Images

From comics to movies, the many incarnations of Superman.

Launch slideshow

Here are a few more examples showing how superpower musings spark real-life science:

Super-suits: The Man of Steel supposedly has a body that's impervious to almost everything except Kryptonite, which led researchers at the University of Leicester to calculate what kind of muscles or skin Superman would need to stop a bullet. Surprise, surprise: The physics don't work out. Even if you could leap tall buildings, your muscles still wouldn't be dense enough to be bulletproof. And in order for skin to stop a bullet, the required density would be "unreasonably high, even by assumed extraterrestrial standards," the researchers reported. Kakalios said it'd be more plausible for Superman to rely on a super-suit woven from graphene, a real-life super-strong substance. "You wouldn't need to be bulletproof if you had something like that," he said.

Fortress of Solitude: In previous movies, Superman's Fortress of Solitude was grown from a crystal — but based on the trailers, the filmmakers behind "Man of Steel" are going for a more organic look this time around, which Kakalios likes. "It almost looks like something from the 'Prometheus' or 'Alien' films," he said. It's more plausible to imagine an organic, nanoscale, self-assembling process that could produce large carbon-based structures — or that graphene super-suit.

Manipulating mass: In a paper titled "A Unified Theory of Superman's Powers," theoretical physicist Ben Tippett proposed that all of Superman's abilities could be explained if you just supposed he had the ability to manipulate inertial mass on scales ranging up from atoms to speeding locomotives and tall buildings. Inertial manipulation is often cited in science fiction as a way to get from place to place at faster-than-light speeds — so that would explain Superman's trip from Krypton to Earth as well. Researchers have been thinking about ways to do this in real life for more than a decade. So far, they're nowhere close to a breakthrough, but who knows? If the Large Hadron Collider's studies of the Higgs boson lead to a deeper understanding of the nature of particle mass, inertial manipulation could become a reality. Or at least become more plausible.

Do you have any musings on the real-life science inspired by the Superman saga? Feel free to weigh in with your comments below.

More about the Man of Steel:

• Super Square must adjust to an 'Iron Man' world
• Rating Hollywood's hunky heroes
• The science of Superman, circa 2006

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

A Chinese spaceship made a successful automated docking with an orbiting module on Thursday, marking one more small step toward full-fledged space station operations.

The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft completed the procedure for docking with the Tiangong 1 module at 1:18 p.m. Beijing time (1:18 a.m. ET),  delivering China's three latest spacefliers to their temporary home, the Xinhua news agency reported.

This was the first docking maneuver of the Shenzhou 10 mission — which was launched Tuesday, representing China's fifth crewed spaceflight since 2003. Tiangong (which means "Heavenly Palace" in Chinese) has been circling the planet for almost two years as a test platform for docking and orbital operations. In 2011, two unmanned, automated dockings were conducted, and the crew of Shenzhou 9 made two test dockings last year.

Three hours after docking, Shenzhou 10's three crew members — including Nie Haisheng, Zhang Xiaoguang and China's second woman astronaut, Wang Yaping — opened the hatch and floated inside the module.

During the current 15-day mission, Shenzhou 10's crew is due to conduct scientific and technical experiments aboard Tiangong 1 and deliver a lecture to students back on Earth. The spacefliers are also scheduled to unhook from the module and come in again for a manual docking.

Tiangong 1 will remain in service for only another three months, Xinhua said. China plans to deorbit the module later this year, and then send up more advanced labs for further testing. Beijing's space strategy calls for the creation of a full-fledged space station by 2020. China is not a participant in the 15-nation International Space Station project, in part because of U.S. opposition.

CCTV / AFP - Getty Images

This still photo taken from China Central Television shows Chinese astronaut Nie Haisheng entering the Tiangong 1 space module on Thursday.

More about China in space:

• Chinese space program continues to improve
• Chinese trio launched for orbital tests

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Brittney Venetucci

A gust-front shelf cloud (or "arcus") looms on the leading edge of a derecho-producing convective system, as seen in Hampshire, Ill., on the evening of July 10, 2008.

They're definitely not tornadoes, but the straight-line windstorms known as derechos can be just as damaging, due to gusts that can reach hurricane force. And they could make their appearance during the bout of severe weather sweeping over the Midwest on Wednesday.

It's been almost a year since a derecho (pronounced "deh-RAY-cho") was last in the headlines: That's when a powerful storm system blasted from Indiana to Maryland — killing more than a dozen people, leaving millions in the dark and shutting down Netflix as well as other online services that relied on Amazon's Cloud servers.

Last June's "Historic Derecho" sparked an assessment by the National Weather Service, focusing on whether more could have been done to anticipate the damage. This time around, forecasters are spreading the word well in advance — although they're using such terms as "localized downdraft/damaging wind threats" instead of the D-word.

Here's what you should know about derechos:

How do derechos differ from tornadoes?

"Derecho" is a Spanish word, meaning "right" or "straight." That's not the kind of word you'd use to describe a tornado, which whirls into action from a spinning storm system. Derechos arise when huge downbursts of cold air hit the ground, spawning winds that spread out in straight lines from the point of impact.

"Imagine taking a water balloon and dropping it, where you see the balloon break and splatter on the ground. That's basically how a downburst works. And you can think of a derecho as a large cluster of those downbursts all happening simultaneously," said Ken Pryor, a research meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service.

The term "derecho" was coined in 1888 to describe a severe straight-wind storm, in contrast to a tornado (which plays off the Spanish word for a "turning" storm). To be classified as a derecho, the swath of wind damage should extend more than 240 miles (400 kilometers), and the winds should meet the National Weather Service's criterion for severe wind gusts (greater than 57 mph, or 92 kilometers per hour). Derecho winds can range well beyond 100 mph.

What causes a derecho?

Derechos are associated with bands of showers or thunderstorms that assume a curved or bowed shape. The classic atmospheric conditions call for very warm temperatures and a lot of moisture near the ground, contrasted with much colder and drier air higher up. "It's the interaction of the heavy precipitation within a thunderstorm complex with that very dry air aloft that causes very large downdraft energy," Pryor said. "With a large thunderstorm system, the interaction of that dry air with that precipitation will result in numerous downdrafts."

Those pockets of the colder, denser air sink rapidly and hit the ground like a bomb, sparking outward bursts of wind. Within the individual downbursts, there may be intense microbursts that can pose extreme hazards for airplanes. 

NOAA

This map shows the number of derechos recorded from May through August over the 1980-2001 time period.

How often do derechos happen, and where?

The prime season for derechos runs from May to August. "They're typically favored over the Southern Plains and the Lower Mississippi Valley early in the season, and the activity moves north later in the summer," Pryor said. Early-season hot spots are in the Tornado Alley states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas. Later in the season, the action shifts to southern Minnesota, the Great Lakes and the Ohio Valley region. The states in the "bull's-eye" regions might get more than one significant derecho in the course of a year, Pryor said.

Roughly every four years, a derecho breaks out of the Midwest, crosses the Appalachian Mountains and heads for the Atlantic without dissipating, Pryor said. That's what happened last year.

How much warning time can we get?

The National Weather Service issued Wednesday's alerts several hours before the expected onset of strong windstorms. That compares with an average lead time of 13 minutes for tornado warnings. "The lead time with a derecho should be much longer ... because these storms are so much larger and have a much longer lifetime," Pryor said. "There's no reason why you couldn't warn a particular area two to several hours in advance, unless it's the area where the storm is developing." Then the lead time might be an hour or less, he said.

The alerts are generally issued in the form of severe weather watches or warnings. One of the things to watch for is the possibility of "widespread damaging winds."

Last June's derecho was a special case, in that it didn't follow the predicted path. Most forecasters expected the derecho to break up when it hit the Appalachians. They were caught off guard when it didn't, but nevertheless, they "generally did an excellent job issuing warnings," according to the weather service's post-storm assessment. Overall lead times were greater than 30 minutes.

What should be done if there's a derecho threat?

The response should be pretty much what you'd do about approaching tornadoes or other types of severe storms. If there's enough time, "secure loose items outside, bring in furniture and other equipment that could become a missile hazard," Pryor said. Seek shelter in a sturdy structure, and stay away from windows.

"With tornadoes, what you see more in terms of structural damage are homes and other types of structures that are twisted and blown off their foundations. [With derechos] there can be roof damage, window damage, but for the most part the home remains on its foundation," Pryor said. "Straight-line winds have more of an impact on vegetation. They've been known to take down large areas of deciduous trees — that's known as a blowdown."

Keep an eye on the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center website as well as The Weather Channel and NBC News' weather coverage for updates as the Midwest storms progress. 

Slideshow: Weird weather

Desmond Boylan / Reuters

Get a look at a sun dog, a haboob, mammatus clouds, dust devils, a derecho and other weird atmospheric phenomena.

Launch slideshow

More about the science of weather:

• From NOAA.gov: All about derechos
• Questions and answers about tornadoes
• Updates from U.S. News on NBCNews.com

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

"How We Do It" may sound like a sex manual, but it isn't: In fact, that's about the only topic you won't find addressed in anthropologist Robert Martin's book-length survey of human reproduction and what we can learn from the animal world.

There's still news you can use, however. For example, how long should mothers breastfeed their babies? The standard advice from the World Health Organization is six months to two years. But Martin, who is the curator of biological anthropology at Chicago's Field Museum, cites evidence suggesting that three years is a more natural length of time.

"Exclusive breastfeeding is probably six months to a year, then for the last two years or so, breast milk is combined with supplementary food," Martin told NBC News.

That estimate is based on comparative studies of other primates, adjusted for the human body size. It so happens that anthropological studies of tooth enamel, going back to 5,000-year-old remains, arrive at a similar estimate. "The earlier you go back, the closer you come to something like three years," Martin said.

Studies suggest that brain development is better in babies who are breast-fed, probably because of nutritional factors contained in human milk. Martin's point isn't so much that you're a bad mother if you can't breastfeed for three years. "My point is that we should find out what's in human milk that is essential," he said. "If we're going to use artificial milk, we've got to get the formula right."

Basic Books

Robert Martin's book, "How We Do It: The Evolution and Future of Human Reproduction," looks at the myths and realities surrounding reproductive research.

Other chapters delve into the facts and fictions surrounding sex. True or false?

Humans do it faster: True, to an extent. A large-scale study found that human copulation lasts five minutes on average, although it may rarely last as long as 45 minutes. That's much shorter than the 12-hour mating roundsseen in marsupial mice, or the 15-minute couplings for orangutans, but longer than the chimpanzees' eight-second trysts. The males of some species have a bone in their penis, presumably to aid with prolonged mating. (Martin advises doing a Web search for "mountain man toothpick" to find examples.)

Humans are naturally promiscuous:False, at least in comparison with chimps and bonobos, our closest modern-day evolutionary relatives. The evidence for that is in our reproductive system: Chimps' sperm is much stickier than humans', so much so that it forms a "plug" inside the female tract. Scientists believe the plug is part of a strategy known as sperm competition, aimed at preventing other males' sperm from wriggling their way to fertilization. Another tip-off is the relative size of a male chimp's testes: They're bigger than humans, and that's linked to sperm competition. Humans (as well as gorillas, which also lean toward monogamy) lack the genetic machinery for sperm competition. And as for the bonobos ... we all know they sleep around, right?

The rhythm method works: False ... or at least not as true as some people might think. When it comes to contraception, you can't always trust the "egg timer." Researchers found that sperm cells can be stored for days in the womb, probably hidden in crypts in the womb's neck. This means that intercourse leading to conception can occur 10 days or more before ovulation occurs.

Sperm counts are declining: Signs point to "true" ... and that's a worrisome development. Studies from Israel and France, published last year, suggest that average sperm counts have dropped 30 to 40 percent over the past couple of decades. "It's quite obvious that this is going to lead to more cases of infertility," Martin said. The prime suspects include BPA, a chemical found in food packaging and other plastics. Studies have also implicated dairy products, soy products, sauna visits, TV viewing and even trends in male underwear (or the lack thereof).

There's nothing unique about the way we 'do it': Mostly but not completely true. Martin says one of the goals of his book is to "demolish myths of human uniqueness that don't stand up to observation." But when it comes to childbirth and child development, our big brains require special handling. A baby's head has to go through a complex rotation just to fit through the mother's pelvis — and at birth, a human baby's brain is only a quarter of its adult size. In comparison, a newborn chimp's brain is half the adult size. "Our extended period of childhood is really unique," Martin said. "The primary reason for this is that our brains are so poorly developed at birth."

More about the science of sex:

• 10 surprising sex statistics
• Real-life love potion identified
• Love and lust: Lessons from the animal kingdom

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log pageto your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

A little more than a month after this spring's great cicada outbreak began, the stink of dead insects is wafting through the air in North Carolina — even as the bugs' 17-year life cycle is reaching its prime farther up the East Coast.

"It's pretty much over, I'm afraid," said Tommy Joseph, a technology manager at the Greensboro Public Library who was among the first to report cicada sightings in North Carolina in early May.

Billions of periodical cicadas have been rising up from the ground over the past few weeks, after spending the past 17 years underground as immature nymphs. The insects emerge from burrows, shed the shells of their childhood, crawl up trees and buildings (and even legs), take wing and look for mates.

Scientists suspect that so many cicadas emerge at once as part of an evolutionary strategy to overwhelm their predators with sheer numbers. This year's breed is known as Brood II. Other broods of 17-year and 13-year cicadas take their turns in different years, and still other types of cicadas emerge every year.

Buzzing in the North
Brood II has a patchy geographical distribution, extending along the East Coast from North Carolina (and a bit of Georgia) to New York (and a bit of Connecticut). The buzz of the brood's mating call can create a 90-decibel hum — which is about as loud as power tools and lawnmowers. (And in fact, those mechanical sounds have been said to attract the bugs.) In the space of just a few weeks, the cicadas couple up, lay their eggs and die.

Slideshow: Return of the cicada

Take a closer look at the curious 17-year life of the flying bug as the East Coast weathers an invasion.

Launch slideshow

In temporal terms, the cicada outbreak is like a wave, moving northward in May and June as the spring weather warms. John Cooley, an entomologist at the University of Connecticut, said Monday that the outbreak has reached its peak in the north. "They're pretty much out in all the places they're going to be out," he told NBC News.

The current hot spots include northern New Jersey as well as Staten Island and the Hudson Valley in New York. For a nice cicada drive, Cooley recommended Routes 9G and 9H, heading up the Hudson Valley. Throngs of cicadas have been sighted on Bard College's campus, he said.

Somber in the South
The story is more somber down south: On the Entomology-Cicadidae discussion forum, Joseph reported that "the stench of death is in the air" in Greensboro. The smell has been "pretty bad over the past week or so," he told NBC News.

"I haven't actually seen a live one in probably two and a half days," Joseph said Monday. "The remains are not quite as prominent as you would have thought. We find wings here and pieces of 'em there, but it's not like giant piles of dead ones."

One potential reason for the dearth of dead cicadas is the fact that they're considered tasty by dogs, squirrels and other species looking for a snack. Even humans are giving the bugs a try. The taste of cooked cicadas has been compared to shrimp, or asparagus, or nuts, or popcorn.

Fabienne Faur / AFP - Getty Images

Biologist Jenna Jadin prepares "Caramelized Brood II cicadas" at her Washington home on May 28, 2013. Jadin specializes in cooking the insect and wrote "Cicada-Licious" when she was a university student. Some of her recipes include: Maryland cicadas with onions, potatoes and corn; Shanghai cicadas with soy sauce, garlic and turnips; or pizza a la cicada, with basil, olives and onions.

In her "Cicada-Licious" cookbook, entomologist Jenna Jadin says it's best to scoop up the bugs by the bagful when they're newly hatched. She has come up with recipes for cupcakes, casseroles, cocktails and candies that incorporate cicadas.

Is it safe? "I don't think the average person who wants to go out and enjoy the cicada emergency by having a meal of cicadas or two [has] anything to worry about," Jadin told National Geographic. But you'd better hurry: The fresh-cicada season is clearly nearing its end.

To keep tabs on the progress of "Swarmageddon," check out Cooley's Magicicada.org website, Dan Mozgai's Cicada Mania blog and Radiolab's Cicada Tracker, as well as the Twitter hashtags #BroodII and #cicadas. If you see something, say something ... in a comment below.

Previous chapters in the cicada saga:

• June 1: Cicadas survive Sandy, but not sprawl
• May 23: Bugfest closes in on East Coast cities
• May 17: Cicada hordes sighted in Virginia
• May 10: 'Swarmageddon' in North Carolina
• May 5: Bug-watchers see cicadas on the rise
• April 9: Cicada invasion generates early buzz

To sample the lighter side of Swarmageddon, check out this New Yorker essay on missed cicada conections.

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

NASA via NBC News

A meteor crackles in the night sky. Will the Gamma Delphinids produce sights like this?

The Gamma Delphinid meteor shower hasn't made a splash since 1930 — but astronomers say this just might be another big year for the outburst, due to Earth's changing orbital path.

If the outburst comes, it's expected to last for about a half-hour starting at 4:28 a.m. ET Tuesday, according to Peter Jenniskens and Esko Lyytinen, who specialize in comets and meteor tracking. That would be prime viewing time for observers in the Americas and points as far west as Hawaii. But don't get your hopes up too high.

"No one knows the strength of this display, or whether it will occur at all," Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society says in his preview.

On the evening of June 11, 1930, observers reported seeing a flurry of meteor activity even amid the glare of the full moon — but there's not been a repeat of the display since. That led some experts to question whether the original reports were authentic. Jenniskens and Lyytinen think that they were, and they have determined that our planet should be going through the same region of its orbit on Tuesday. If a long-period comet left behind the type of cosmic grit that sparks shooting stars in the upper atmosphere, we should be seeing a similar display this June 11.

The meteors would appear to radiate from the double-star gamma Delphini, which will be high in the southern sky for East Coast observers around 4:30 a.m. Lunsford advises beginning your night's watch a couple of hours before that, just in case the outburst comes early.

"This is not something one can stand outside and try to witness," he says. "Serious observers should be comfortable in a lounge chair and watch for at least an hour. I would not expect strong rates such as that occurred with the Leonid outburst near 2000. Rather, these meteors are more likely to appear a minute or two apart."

NASA

This chart indicates the area of visibility for Gamma Delphini, the double star that is considered the radiant for a meteor shower that may or may not occur on June 11. The green and yellow colors indicate how high the radiant will be in the sky at the expected time of maximum meteors, around 4:30 a.m. ET (08:30 GMT).

While you're waiting, you can click into an online chat with Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at Marshall Space Flight Center from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. ET. The chat page will also feature streaming video from a telescope monitoring the skies over Huntsville, Ala., in Marshall's neck of the woods.

If you snap a picture of the Gamma Delphinids, please share it with us via NBC News' FirstPerson photo upload page — and be sure to tell the American Meteor Society, too. You can use the AMS online report form or send a note to lunro.imo.usa@cox.net. "Even reports with no activity will help," Lunsford says.

More about meteors:

• Springtime Lyrid shower blooms in the sky
• Flash interactive: The science of meteors 
• Cosmic Log archive on meteors

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Golf might not look like a sport for science geeks, but there's actually a lot of physics and engineering that goes into playing the game right — and making sure it doesn't get played wrong.

"Anything that could be detrimental to the game of golf is important for us to rule on," Steve Quintavalla, senior research engineer at the U.S. Golf Association, told NBC News.

The USGA Research and Test Center, where Quintavalla works, focuses on "finding the best technology and tools for measuring the performance of golf equipment, and doing the best research in the interest of the game of golf," he said. That task involves promoting innovations that improve the game — but it also involves cracking down on some technological twists.

Science of Golf: Evolution of the golf ball

For example, when it comes to golf clubs, if your driver has a head that's too springy, it could be on the "non-conforming list" and thus disallowed for USGA-sanctioned games. The same goes for golf balls: The USGA tests 20,000 balls a year to make sure they conform to the standards for bounciness.

The balance between what's innovative and what's cheating comes through loud and clear in "Science of Golf," a 10-part video series presented by NBC Learn, the USGA and Chevron. It's the latest in a string of science-themed educational packages that also provide lesson plans for science teachers. In each video, a USGA scientist delves into principles such as displacement, buoyancy, kinematics, acceleration and velocity. Golfers explain how they put those principles into practice. And slow-motion video shows you how it all works on the links.

NBC Learn

USGA senior research engineer Steve Quintavalla lets a golf ball roll at the association's Research and Test Center in Far Hills, N.J. Quintavalla is one of the experts appearing in the "Science of Golf" video series.

The USGA's standards extend to how the game is played as well as what the game is played with. For example, back in the '60s, a between-the-legs style of putting started coming into vogue. The USGA put the kibosh on that kind of golf-course croquet. "We realized that that would make the putting stroke significantly easier, so we said, 'Hey, that's not golf,'" Quintavalla recalled.

More recently, the USGA stirred up a fuss with a ruling that will ban a practice called anchored putting in 2016. This involves the use of a super-long putter that a golfer can anchor against his or her body and swing like a pendulum. The USGA determined that the practice made it too easy for the golfer to control the club's trajectory.

Science of Golf: Evolution of the golf club

USGA rules apply to tournaments such as the U.S. Open, which begins next week — but it's not yet clear how this latest ruling will apply to the PGA Tour. The PGA of America already has voiced its displeasure with the anchored-putting ban and will consider the matter further at a board meeting this month. Can this be settled scientifically? In sports, as in politics, the answer doesn't always come down to the scientific data. (For more on the debate, check out this analysis of science vs. tradition in golf from the American Science blog.)

Looking beyond the rules of the game, Quintavalla said one of the sport's most promising scientific frontiers has to do with how golfers optimize their performance.

"One advantage has been the use of launch monitors," he said. These are high-tech devices that measure the way the ball comes off the face of the club, using high-speed video cameras or radar. "It's a training aid for coaches to allow them to better instruct players on how to approach the ball differently," Quintavalla explained.

Golf is probably one of the least violent sports out there, and that also extends to the way the USGA enforces its will.

"Players generally police each other," Quintavalla said. "What the USGA does not have is a SWAT team and black helicopters. We don't come to your house in the middle of the night and take your clubs away. The marketplace is governed voluntarily, and that's a good thing. ... What we find is, by and large, golfers don't want to be seen as cheaters."

More 'Science of ...' from NBC Learn

Past "Science of..." packages have touched on chemistry, innovation and our changing planet as well as hockey, football and the Olympic Games.

The science of golf rates a double-birdie, because Chevron is also featuring the subject on its STEM Zone website — where STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. Both the videos and the STEM Zone's interactive presentations help you figure out how an intuitive understanding of F=ma helps golfers maximize their performance.

"The new video series showcases the STEM principles that play a key role in a variety of USGA functions, including equipment testing, environmental research and scoring," Sarah Hirshland, the USGA's senior managing director of business affairs, said in a news release.

More about the science of golf:

• How to sink more putts
• Is there a perfect golf swing?
• Golf balls made from lobster shells

The U.S. Open will be broadcast on television from June 13 to 16 on NBC and ESPN, and live-streamed via the U.S. Open website. Check in with the Golf Channel for daily coverage.

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / ASU

This panorama from NASA's Opportunity rover, made on June 1, shows Solander Point rising up on the Martian horizon. Mission managers plan to get the solar-powered rover to a north-facing slope on Solander Point by August, so that it can shelter there during the Martian winter.

Nearly 10 years after its launch, NASA's Opportunity rover has found its first evidence that Mars once had non-acidic water — the kind of water that could easily sustain the life we typically see on Earth.

"This is water that you can drink," Cornell astronomer Steve Squyres, principal investigator for Opportunity's long-lived Mars mission, told reporters Friday.

The water isn't there anymore, but the minerals left behind bear an aluminum-rich chemical signature that suggests they were formed through interaction with neutral-pH water. That's different from the previous evidence that Opportunity found, pointing to more acidic water. Some extreme forms of life on Earth could tolerate that environment, but it wouldn't have been as friendly an environment for prebiotic chemistry — the chemistry that's thought to have given rise to life on Earth.

The newly announced findings, based on X-ray analysis of a rock nicknamed Esperance, add to similar evidence of neutral water that was found on the other side of the Red Planet by NASA's bigger and more capable Curiosity rover. Taken together, they flesh out the story of a planet that was friendly to life's conditions early in its existence but became colder, drier and less hospitable as it lost its global magnetic field and much of its atmosphere.

How Mars lost its mojo
The mission's deputy principal investigator, Ray Arvidsen of Washington University at St. Louis, sketched out a scenario in which Mars had a more Earthlike climate in the planet's early years. But as the planet wound down, the rains stopped, the oceans dried up, and more of the water that was available on Mars percolated up from the subsurface. That water picked up iron, sulfur and other elements, resulting in a more acidic pH.

The differences in the mineral signatures seen by Opportunity in older and newer rocks probably reflect "the transition from the early wet Mars to the cold dry Mars," Arvidsen said.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / ASU

NASA's Opportunity rover analyzed the composition of a rock called Esperance, highlighted in this Feb. 23 image, and scientists determined that the minerals found there were probably formed through interaction with neutral-pH water. That's in contrast to previous evidence from Opportunity pointing to acidic water on ancient Mars.

Arvidsen and Squyres were reluctant to talk about time frames for that transition, but Squyres speculated that the minerals seen in the Esperance rock were formed during the first billion years of Mars' 4.6 billion-year existence. He said the rock appeared to be older than the 14-mile-wide (22-kilometer-wide) crater where it was found, known as Endeavour Crater. 

Opportunity, which was launched from Cape Canaveral in July 2003 and landed on Mars in January 2004, has been at Endeavour Crater for almost two years. Squyres marveled at the fact that the rover found the evidence for neutral water so soon after Curiosity found the same thing.

"It's really striking to me how similar are the stories that are being told by the rocks that were recently investigated by Opportunity at Endeavour Crater, and the rocks that were recently investigated by Curiosity at Gale Crater," Squyres said. He said that the decisions on site selection "paid off on both sides of the planet, almost simultaneously."

Squyres ranked the find at Esperance among the nearly 10-year-long mission's top four or five discoveries.

Opportunity's next stop
Now Opportunity is heading for a new destination on the crater's rim: a rise called Solander Point, where the rover is due to spend the Martian winter. The rover team wants to position Opportunity on a north-facing, 15-degree slope, which will make it easier for its solar arrays to soak up power. While it's at Solander Point, Opportunity will study a rich range of geological layers that could provide further insights into the Red Planet's history.

"We consider it Sol 1 all over again for Opportunity," said John Callas, the Opportunity mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Sols" are Martian days: Opportunity is currently on Sol 3331 of what was originally expected to be a 90-sol mission on Mars.

Callas said the rover is still working fine, except for some "arthritis" in its mechanical joints and a potentially worrisome computer issue he called "flash memory amnesia." The temporary memory loss was last experienced about two weeks ago.

"Right now it's only an occasional annoyance," Callas said.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / NMMNHS

This mosaic of images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter traces the route taken by the Opportunity rover since its landing in 2004. The rover is currently at Cape York and is due to head for a spot called Solander Point, at the northern tip of Cape Tribulation on the rim of Endeavour Crater. Solander Point is more than 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) away, but mission managers expect the rover to complete the trip by August, around the time of Mars' southern autumnal equinox.

The Mars rover mission, which launched Opportunity as well as a second rover named Spirit toward the Red Planet in 2003, was originally budgeted at $800 million. Spirit lost its mobility and fell silent in 2010, but NASA is still funding Opportunity on maintenance mode to the tune of $14 million a year, Callas said.

Callas said he never expected the rover to last this long.

"This is like your car not lasting 200,000 miles, or even a million miles. You're talking about a car that lasts 2 million miles without an oil change," he said. "At this point, how long Opportunity lasts is anyone's guess."

Correction for 11:44 p.m. ET: I originally wrote that the Mars rovers' primary mission was supposed to last 30 sols, but it was actually 90 sols. Thanks for setting me straight, ToSeek!

More about Mars:

• Curiosity sets sights on Martian mountain at last
• 10 years after launch, Mars Express keeps going
• Opportunity breaks NASA's record for off-world driving
• Cosmic Log archive on Mars

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the NBC News Science Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with NBCNews.com's stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.