30 August 2008
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) recently published a stunning image showing a small Saturnian moon, known as Prometheus, perturbing one of Saturn’s major rings, the dynamic F ring. The image was acquired by the Saturn-orbiter Cassini spacecraft.
21 August 2008
NASA recently published a composite image of the giant elliptical galaxy M87, combining X-ray, optical, and radio images. The X-ray image was acquired by NASA’s space-based Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO).
19 August 2008
The European Space Agency (ESA) announced that on 14 August, the Rosetta spacecraft performed a successful trajectory correction maneuver using data obtained from ESA's first-ever optical tracking of minor planet (asteroid) Steins. Images from the spacecraft's cameras were used to calculate the asteroid's location and optimize its trajectory for fly-by next month.
17 August 2008
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) recently published an awesome image of Janus, a small, irregularly-shaped Saturnian moon. The image was acquired from an orbit around the ringed planet, by the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft.
12 August 2008
Celebrating the 100,000th orbit of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST), scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), have slewed Hubble to picture a distant, dazzling star birth region.
01 August 2008
Laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, currently on a mission in the northern polar region of the Red Planet, have identified water in a Martian soil sample. The lander's robotic arm delivered the sample on 30 July to an onboard instrument that identifies vapors produced by the heating of samples.
29 July 2008
Astronomers have discovered a hefty star near the Galaxy’s center. The star shines with an incredible wattage of over 3 million times the luminosity of the Sun, making this star the second brightest star in our Galaxy. The brightest known star in our Galaxy is Eta Carinae, with a luminosity of approximately 5 million times the solar luminosity.
25 July 2008
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) recently published an intriguing image of Saturn’s icy moon Tethys, acquired by the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft. Tethys (1,062 km across) sports an enormous impact basin, known as Odysseus. The impact basin is 450 km wide, and contains a central complex of mountains.
21 July 2008
NASA scientists have concluded that at least one of the large lake-like features observed on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is filled with liquid hydrocarbons. They have also positively identified the presence of ethane. Therefore, Titan and Earth are the only members of the Solar System known to have liquids on their surfaces.
14 July 2008
Astronomers have spotted an energetic stellar machine, a galaxy in the distant Universe forming stars at a surprising rate of up to 4,000 per year. For comparison, only 10 stars are born in our Milky Way Galaxy every year.