On Dec. 3, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully launched its Hayabusa2 mission to rendezvous with an asteroid, land a small probe plus three mini rovers on its surface, and then return samples to Earth. NASA and JAXA are cooperating on the science of the mission and NASA will receive a portion of the Hayabusa2 sample in exchange for … Read the rest of this article
European experts have spotted one of the faintest asteroids ever found – a chunk of space rock thought to be about 100 m in diameter beyond the orbit of Mars.
Astronomers at the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona, USA, spotted 2014 KC46 on the nights of 28 and 30 October. The difficult observations, close to the limits of the telescope, … Read the rest of this article
I’m offering a 25% on my LunarPhasePro astronomy #software on Cyber Monday (starting now). Payment options include PayPal, #Bitcoin and Clickbank. I don’t do these sales very often, so grab it while the discount is still available!… Read the rest of this article
Thanks to a break in the dusty ‘weather’ over the giant Hellas Basin at the beginning of this year, ESA’s Mars Express was able to look down into the seven kilometre-deep basin and onto the frosty surface of Hellas Chaos.
Hellas Basin sits in the southern highlands of Mars and is one of the Solar System’s largest impact basins, with … Read the rest of this article
After achieving touchdown on a comet for the first time in history, scientists and engineers are busy analysing this new world and the nature of the landing.
Touchdown was confirmed at ESA’s Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany at 16:03 GMT/17:03 CET on 12 November.
Since then, scientists, flight dynamics specialists and engineers from ESA, the Lander Control Centre in … Read the rest of this article
There’s an #ESAHangout on results from the comet landing with the Rosetta and Philae teams, today at 13:00 GMT / 14:00 CET.… Read the rest of this article
Researchers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory have uncovered young, massive, compact galaxies whose raucous star-making parties are ending early. The firestorm of star birth has blasted out most of the remaining gaseous fuel needed to make future generations of stars. Now the party’s over for these gas-starved galaxies, and they are on track to possibly becoming … Read the rest of this article
The Rosetta spacecraft’s Philae lander is safely on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, as these first two CIVA images confirm. One of the lander’s three feet can be seen in the foreground. The image is a two-image mosaic. The full panoramic from CIVA will be delivered in this afternoon’s press briefing at 13:00 GMT/14:00 CET.
The first panoramic ‘postcard’ from … Read the rest of this article
After a ten-year journey, Rosetta and Philae had finally reached their destination, Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Rosetta spent many weeks studying the comet, sending lots of information back to Earth. But where was Philae going to land? Eventually the scientists on Earth found the best place on the comet for Philae to land. Soon it was time to make the final preparations … 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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