NASA’s Great Observatories are teaming up to look deeper into the universe than ever before. With a boost from natural “zoom lenses” found in space, they should be able to uncover galaxies that are as much as 100 times fainter than what the Hubble, Spitzer, and Chandra space telescopes can typically see.
This ambitious collaborative program is called The Frontier … Read the rest of this article
On Oct. 22, 1968, Apollo 7 splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean after 11 days in space. Though often overlooked, Apollo 7 was a significant mission. This first manned mission after the Apollo 1 fire not only got got NASA back on track to the moon, it proved the Apollo Block II spacecraft was fit to fly and become the … Read the rest of this article
With the sun now shining down over the north pole of Saturn’s moon Titan, a little luck with the weather, and trajectories that put the spacecraft into optimal viewing positions, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has obtained new pictures of the liquid methane and ethane seas and lakes that reside near Titan’s north pole. The images reveal new clues about how the … Read the rest of this article
ESA’s Planck space telescope has been turned off after nearly 4.5 years soaking up the relic radiation from the Big Bang and studying the evolution of stars and galaxies throughout the Universe’s history.
Project scientist Jan Tauber sent the final command to the Planck satellite at 12:10:27 UT on October 23, 2013, marking the end of operations for ESA’s ‘time … Read the rest of this article
For NASA and its dozens of missions, data pour in every day like rushing rivers. Spacecraft monitor everything from our home planet to faraway galaxies, beaming back images and information to Earth. All those digital records need to be stored, indexed and processed so that spacecraft engineers, scientists and people across the globe can use the data to understand Earth … Read the rest of this article
Observations indicate that the sudden exposure to strong sunlight when the currently dark side of the comet gets closer to the Sun could trigger huge outbursts.
Scientists are unraveling more information on Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) as it continues on its journey toward the Sun. ISON will skim 730,000 miles (1.3 million kilometers) above the Sun’s surface November 28 and … Read the rest of this article
From the tiniest fraction of a second after the Big Bang to the evolution of stars and galaxies over 13.8 billion years, ESA’s Planck space telescope has provided new insight into the history of our Universe. Although science observations are now complete, the legacy of the Planck mission lives on.
Planck was launched in 2009 and spent 4.5 years scanning … Read the rest of this article
If you’re just starting out on your journey across the celestial sphere, the Levenhuk Strike 90 PLUS telescope will be the perfect instrument for you. It is extremely easy to set up and use, and very simple to calibrate. It’s an ideal guide for touring the mysteries of the universe for children and adults alike, showing you breathtaking views of … Read the rest of this article
An international team of astronomers has found the most distant gravitational lens yet – a galaxy that, as predicted by Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, deflects and intensifies the light of an even more distant object.
The discovery provides a rare opportunity to directly measure the mass of a distant galaxy. The observation also poses a mystery: lenses of … Read the rest of this article
We now have the technology to go snooping for extraterrestrials in our own backyard. No, not as close as little green men cutting up crop circles; instead, we should be able to detect an alien device positioned somewhere between the sun to 30 times farther out than Pluto.
What would aliens place 100 billion miles from the sun? Michael Gillon … 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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