Rosetta is set to complete its historic mission in a controlled descent to the surface of its comet on 30 September, with the end of mission confirmation predicted to be within 20 minutes of 11:20 GMT (13:20 CEST).
Details of how, when and where to follow the key moments online, starting with a review of the mission’s impressive haul of … Read the rest of this article
ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft is set to complete its incredible mission in a controlled descent to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 30 September.
Mission experts joined an ESA Hangout on 19 September to discuss Rosetta’s final days and hours of operation, including expectations for the images and other scientific data that will be collected as the spacecraft gets closer and … Read the rest of this article
Clockwise from top: ESA’s Matthias Maurer, Lina Tomelleri, Giorgio Tomelleri, Anna Maria Fioretti from the Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources (IGG), an institute of National Research Council of Italy, and ESA astronauts Pedro Duque and Luca Parmitano.
The group are posing with meteorites during the Pangaea course that is teaching astronauts how to identify interesting rock samples, as well … Read the rest of this article
Launched in December 2013, Gaia is destined to create the most accurate map yet of the Milky Way. By making accurate measurements of the positions and motions of stars in the Milky Way, it will answer questions about the origin and evolution of our home galaxy.
The first intermediate data release, detailed in the video above, containing among other things … Read the rest of this article
Just in time for the 50th anniversary of the TV series “Star Trek,” which first aired September 8th,1966, a new infrared image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope may remind fans of the historic show.
Since ancient times, people have imagined familiar objects when gazing at the heavens. There are many examples of this phenomenon, known as pareidolia, including the constellations … Read the rest of this article
New scenes from a frigid alien landscape are coming to light in recent radar images of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.
Cassini obtained the views during a close flyby of Titan on July 25, when the spacecraft came as close as 607 miles (976 kilometers) from the giant moon. The spacecraft’s radar instrument is able to penetrate … Read the rest of this article
Less than a month before the end of the mission, Rosetta’s high-resolution camera has revealed the Philae lander wedged into a dark crack on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
The images were taken on 2 September by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera as the orbiter came within 2.7 km of the surface and clearly show the main body of the lander, along with two … Read the rest of this article
NASA is moving forward with a spring 2018 launch of its InSight mission to study the deep interior of Mars, following final approval this week by the agency’s Science Mission Directorate.
The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission was originally scheduled to launch in March of this year, but NASA suspended launch preparations in December… Read the rest of this article
At the centre of this image, captured by ESA’s Herschel space observatory, is a truly peculiar cosmic object: a star named IRAS 19312+1950.
Located over 12,000 light-years from us, this star has puzzled astronomers for many years because it shows conflicting signs of being both extremely old and extremely young.
Astronomers have spotted signs of emission usually associated with … Read the rest of this article
Proposals Include Wind-Powered Automatons and Icy Volcano Divers
Each year, NASA funds a handful of futuristic concepts to push forward the boundaries of space exploration. These early-stage proposals are selected with the hope of developing new ideas into realistic proofs-of-concept. From Aug. 23 to 25, the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) symposium will host presentations on 28 proposals, including five … 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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