ESA’s Billion-Star Surveyor Mission Has Successful Liftoff
ESA’s Gaia mission blasted off this morning on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on its exciting mission to study a billion…
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JUNO Shoots Movie of Its Earth and Moon Flyby
When NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew past Earth on Oct. 9, 2013, it received a boost in speed of more than 8,800 mph (about 7.3 kilometer per…
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Curiosity Rover Aids Plans for Future Robotic and Human Mars Missions
NASA’s Curiosity rover is providing vital insight about Mars’ past and current environments that will aid plans for future robotic and human missions. In a little…
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Best Views Yet of Saturn’s Hexagon Captures by Cassini
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has obtained the highest-resolution movie yet of a unique six-sided jet stream, known as the hexagon, around Saturn’s north pole. This is the…
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Did Comet ISON Disintegrate or Not?
I’ve held off posting about Comet ISON’s fate following its close encounter with the Sun as conflicting reports about whether it survived the encounter or not…
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3200 Phaethon Sprouts a Dusty Tail
Every year in mid-December the sky fills with flashes of light shooting out of the constellation Gemini. The Geminids are fast, bright, and reliable. They never…
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SOHO to Observe Comet ISON as It Passes the Sun
Comet C/2012 S1 was discovered in September 2012 by Russian astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok using data from the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON). For…
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Herschel’s 37,000 Science Observations in Less Than a Minute
This animation shows the timeline of over 37,000 scientific observations made by ESA’s Herschel space observatory throughout its entire mission, condensed into less than a minute.…
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Could Comet ISON Be Hit by a CME?
In 2007, astronomers were amazed when a solar storm hit Comet Encke. NASA STEREO spacecraft watched as a CME (coronal mass ejection) struck the comet head…
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Hopes are high for Comet ISON, which has the potential to become the most spectacular comet seen in years. ISON is speeding through the inner solar…
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