Two months after sky-darkening dust from severe storms nearly killed NASA’s Mars exploration rovers, the solar-powered robots are awake and ready to continue their mission. Opportunity’s planned descent into the giant Victoria Crater was delayed, but now the rover is preparing to drive into the half-mile diameter crater as early as Sept. 11.
Spirit, Opportunity’s rover twin, also survived the … Read the rest of this article
A new NASA contest encourages university art and design students to partner with science and engineering departments to create art representative of living and working on the moon. The goal is for students in the arts, science and engineering to collaboratively engage in NASA’s mission to return humans to the moon by 2020, and eventually journey on to Mars and … Read the rest of this article
By the time you finish reading this sentence, you’ll be 25 miles closer to the planet Mars.
Earth and Mars are converging, and right now the distance between the two planets is shrinking at a rate of 22,000 mph–or about 25 miles per sentence. Ultimately, this will lead to a close approach in late December 2007 when Mars will outshine … Read the rest of this article
Close your eyes, breath deeply, let your mind wander to a distant seashore: It’s late in the day, and the western sun is sinking into the glittering waves. At your feet, damp sand reflects the twilight, while overhead, the deep blue sky fades into a cloudy mélange of sunset copper and gold, so vivid it almost takes your breath away.… Read the rest of this article
Deep in the heart of the Milky Way galaxy lurks an extraordinary black hole. Astronomers call it “supermassive.” It has been feeding on the core of our galaxy so long, the hole has accumulated more than a million Suns of mass inside its pinprick belly.
How do we know it’s there? You can’t see a black hole. It reveals itself … Read the rest of this article
Having explored Mars for three-and-a-half years in what were missions originally designed for three months, NASA’s Mars rovers are facing perhaps their biggest challenge.
For nearly a month, a series of severe Martian summer dust storms has affected the rover Opportunity and, to a lesser extent, its companion, Spirit. The dust in the Martian atmosphere over Opportunity has blocked 99 … Read the rest of this article
NASA’s Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft, known as Messenger, and the European Space Agency’s Venus Express recently provided the most detailed multi-point images of the Venusian atmosphere ever seen.
The images result from a June 5 flyby of Venus by Messenger during its long journey to Mercury. Venus Express already was in orbit at the planet. The … Read the rest of this article
Two NASA spacecraft now have new assignments after successfully completing their missions. The duo will make new observations of comets and characterize extrasolar planets. Stardust and Deep Impact will use their flight-proven hardware to perform new, previously unplanned, investigations.
“These mission extensions are as exciting as it gets. They will allow us to revisit a comet for the first time, … Read the rest of this article
The Sun Now (Visible light)
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The Sun Now (H-Alpha light)
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Aurora Oval
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Aurora Oval
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