29 September 2010
The auroras are among the most spectacular natural phenomena. They occur usually in Earth’s polar regions, when energetic particles, streaming from the Sun, hit Earth’s upper atmosphere, exciting atoms of nitrogen and oxygen. These atoms are thus induced to emit fascinating lights, in various colors, including green and red. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft was able to observe auroras of Saturn, the ringed giant planet.
26 September 2010
On 25 September 2010, the crew of the International Space Station Expedition 24 landed in Kazakhstan, aboard a Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft, concluding a 6-month stay, onboard the International Space Station (ISS). The crew were Commander Alexander Skvortsov, Flight Engineers Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Mikhail Kornienko. The Soyuz TMA-18 undocked from the ISS on 24 September 2010.
20 September 2010
NASA recently published an amazing close-up image of Saturn. The image shows a beautiful swirling cloud pattern, in Saturn's turbulent wonderful atmosphere.
17 September 2010
NASA recently published a wonderful image of Janus, a small, irregularly-shaped moon of Saturn, the ringed giant planet. The image was acquired by the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft. It shows that Janus (179 km across) features light and dark impact craters.
14 September 2010
NASA recently published a wonderful image of Enceladus, Saturn’s icy, geologically-active moon. The image was acquired from orbit around Saturn, by the Cassini spacecraft. It shows spectacular water ice plumes, emanating from the south polar region of Enceladus (504 km across). These plumes are an amazing type of volcanic activity, termed cryovolcanism.
08 September 2010
NASA recently published a mesmerizing image of Saturn, the ringed wonderful planet. The image was acquired by the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft. Cassini was looking on Saturn, from about 30 degrees above the plane of its magnificent rings. Interestingly, the shadow of the rings, cast on Saturn’s colorful cloud tops, is very thin, as the Sun was nearly aligned with the plane of the rings.
05 September 2010
Planets orbiting other stars are termed exoplanets or extrasolar planets. The first exoplanet was discovered in 1992. There are now approximately 500 exoplanets known. NASA recently announced that its Kepler spacecraft has discovered two new exoplanets, passing in front of, or transiting, their parent star, termed Kepler-9.
02 September 2010
NASA recently published an image of Telesto, a tiny bizarre moon of Saturn. The image was acquired by the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft. Unlike the majority of the planetary moons, the surface of icy Telesto is smooth, with few impact craters. This astonishing lack of craters on Telesto is believed to be due to a fine dust-sized icy material, covering the moon’s surface.
30 August 2010
NASA recently published a breathtaking view of Saturn, the wonderful ringed planet, and its small geologically active moon Enceladus. The image was acquired by the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft. Cassini was looking on the night side of giant Saturn (approximately 120,000 km across). The planet was just illuminated by sunlight scattered in its upper atmosphere.
27 August 2010
On 20 August 2010, at 18:22 UT, Japanese amateur astronomer Masayuki Tachikawa of Kumamoto city, Japan, observed, through his telescope, a flash in the thick colorful cloud bands enveloping Jupiter (approximately 142,000 km across), the largest planet. The flash appears to be due to an explosion in Jupiter’s atmosphere, resulting from the collision of a small asteroid with the giant planet.