Astronomy

< p align=”center”> Ulysses, the mission to study the Sun’s poles and the influence of our star on surrounding space is coming to an end. After more than 17 years in space – almost four times its expected lifetime – the mission is finally succumbing to its harsh environment and is likely to finish sometime in the [...]

This picture taken by MESSENGER spacecraft shortly after its closest approach to Mercury on January 14, 2008. The spacecraft’s Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) on the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) instrument acquired this image as part of a mosaic that covers much of the sunlit portion of the hemisphere not viewed by Mariner 10. Images [...]

Since last discovery on this month’s Mars asteroid impact, numerous tracking measurements from four different observatories has been received. Unfortunately (or fortunately to Mars), new data have led to a significant reduction in the position uncertainties during the asteroid’s close approach to Mars on Jan. 30, 2008. As a result, the impact probability has dropped [...]

How do planetary systems form? How common are they? What is their architecture? How many habitable earth-like planets exist in the Milky Way? In the past decade, astronomers have clearly come closer to finding answers to these exciting questions. With the discovery of the first planet orbiting another Sun-like star in 1995, the field of [...]

An asteroid estimated to be 164-feet wide is expected to cross Mars’ orbital path early next year. Observations provided by the astronomers and analyzed by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., indicate the object may pass within 30,000 miles of Mars at about 6 a.m. EST on Jan. 30, [...]

This composite image shows the jet from a black hole at the center of a galaxy striking the edge of another galaxy, the first time such an interaction has been found. X-rays from Chandra (colored purple), optical and ultraviolet (UV) data from Hubble (red and orange), and radio emission from the Very Large Array (VLA) [...]

Though didn’t seem very sharp, this picture has amazing stories to reveal. The picture shows a baby star, 1,149 light-years away from our Earth, blowing two massive “bubbles”. But instead of bubble gum, this youngster, called HH 46/47, is using powerful jets of gas to make bubbles in outer space. The infant star can be seen [...]

This picture shows an object known as I Zwicky 18, a dwarf irregular galaxy that first identified by Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky in a 1930s photographic survey of galaxies. Observations of this object at the Palomar Observatory around 40 years ago seemed to show that it was one of the youngest galaxies in the nearby [...]

For a fifth time, again NASA extending the activities of its two Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. According to NASA’s press release dated October 15, 2007, the decision keeps the trailblazing mobile robotic pioneers active on opposite sides of Mars, possibly through 2009. This extended mission and the associated science are dependent upon the [...]

The above picture is a new radar image from Cassini spacecraft, comprised from seven fly-bys on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, over the last year and a half. This picture shows a north pole pitted with giant lakes and seas, at least one of them larger than Lake Superior in the USA, the largest freshwater lake [...]