27 May 2008
On 25 May 2008, NASA's Phoenix spacecraft touched down safely in the northern polar region of Mars, beginning a 3-months mission of exploring a site targeted for its likelihood of having frozen water within reach of the spacecraft's robotic arm.
22 May 2008
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has detected a new storm on Jupiter (approximately 142,000 km across), the largest planet. The storm appears as a red spot near the planet’s larger famous red storms, the Great Red Spot (GRS) and Red Spot Jr., which are also giant storms.
07 May 2008
Globular clusters are spectacular spherical agglomerations of stars. A large globular cluster is over 100 light years across, and contains hundreds of thousands of stars. The globular clusters are believed to be among the oldest known objects in the Universe. However, new data from the NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) show that the globular clusters are probably less evolved than previously thought.
06 May 2008
By meticulously studying the 'ringing' of a nearby planet-harboring star, a team of astronomers using the 3.6-m telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have demonstrated that the star must have drifted away from the Hyades star cluster. This discovery has implications for the studies of star and planet formation, and for stellar dynamics.
06 May 2008
Cyclone Nargis, also known as Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Nargis, made landfall on Myanmar (Burma) on 3 May 2008, causing severe casualties, flooding and over 10,000 deaths. This is the first tropical cyclone to strike the country since Cyclone Mala in 2006.
04 May 2008
A NASA and French Space Agency (CNES) spacecraft designed to pursue a prolonged survey of Earth's oceans has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, for final launch preparations. The new satellite will observe ocean circulation and the influence of oceans on weather, climate and how Earth is responding to global climate change.
03 May 2008
On 28 April 2008, Egypt celebrated its ancient spring festival, Sham en Nisim. The weather was fine, and the western horizon was mostly clear in Alexandria. It was an opportunity for BA Senior Astronomy Specialist Aymen Ibrahem to picture a fascinating sunset.
29 April 2008
Celebrating the 18th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), NASA has published a new collection of HST’s incredible images, showing stunning collisions between galaxies.
27 April 2008
NASA’s sophisticated infrared space observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST), recently imaged a giant star cluster, known as Omega Centauri. The spectacular stellar swarm shines like a glistening cosmic opal, consisting of millions of gravitationally bound stars. Such a brilliant spherical agglomeration of stars is termed a globular cluster.
24 April 2008
Flying at an altitude of about 340 km, aboard the International Space Station (ISS), astronauts enjoy most of their free time beholding home, our planet Earth. NASA has declared that everyday onboard the orbiting outpost is Earth Day!