Space Exploration and Astronomy News

Welcome to the Night Sky Observer (NSO) space and astronomy news website. Most pages (especially news, podcasts and vodcasts) are updated several times a day.

There are many resources, news sources, articles, astro-photos and links on this site and the navigation bar (at right) will let you navigate around the site.

You'll also find software products I've created (such as LunarPhase Pro and Jupsat Pro) and links to some of the best suppliers of astronomical gear and space-related memorabilia dotted throughout the site.

If you would like to submit an article, please use the Contact page. Articles can contain up to 3 links.

Gary Nugent

On July 19, 2013, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will photograph Saturn and its entire ring system during a total eclipse of the sun. Cassini has done this twice before during its previous 9 years in orbit, but this time will be different.

“This time, the images to be collected will capture, …

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The most detailed record of cloud motion in the atmosphere of Venus chronicled by ESA’s Venus Express has revealed that the planet’s winds have steadily been getting faster over the last six years.

Examples of cloud features identified in Venus Express images and used to monitor wind speeds. Long-term studies …

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With the exhaustion of its helium coolant, Herschel’s science mission ended on 29 April. But the stalwart satellite continued providing value to the end, serving as an orbiting testbed for control techniques that can’t normally be tested in flight.

Martin Kessler, Head of ESA’s Science Operations Department, sends the final …

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The ESA’s mission to Mars in 2016 has entered the final stage of construction with the signature of a contract today with Thales Alenia Space at the Paris Air & Space Show.

ExoMars will fly two missions, in 2016 and 2018, in a partnership between ESA and the Russian space …

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Valentina Tereshkova was born in Maslennikovo, near Yaroslavl, in Russia on 6 March 1937. Her father was a tractor driver and her mother worked in a textile factory. Interested in parachuting from a young age, Tereshkova began skydiving at a local flying club, making her first jump at the age …

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Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have discovered an unprecedented bonanza of black holes in the Andromeda Galaxy, one of the nearest galaxies to the Milky Way.

Using more than 150 Chandra observations, spread over 13 years, researchers identified 26 black hole candidates, the largest number …

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Alien planets are out there and Planetary Resources needs your help to find them! That’s right, the same high-powered telescope technology being used by Planetary Resources to identify near-Earth asteroids can also be used to hunt for what scientists call extrasolar planets or “exoplanets” – which are very …

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Researchers using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have found that temperatures in the Martian atmosphere regularly rise and fall not just once each day, but twice.

“We see a temperature maximum in the middle of the day, but we also see a temperature maximum a little after midnight,” said Armin Kleinboehl …

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Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found compelling evidence of a planet forming 7.5 billion miles away from its star, a finding that may challenge current theories about planet formation.

This graphic shows a gap in a protoplanetary disk of dust and gas whirling around the nearby red dwarf …

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NASA research indicates hunks of frozen carbon dioxide – dry ice – may glide down some Martian sand dunes on cushions of gas similar to miniature hovercraft, plowing furrows as they go.

“I have always dreamed of going to Mars,” said Serina Diniega, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion …

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