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Exploration & Science Missions

Opportunity Knocks — Backs Out Of Martian Crater

August 27, 2008 / Exploration & Science Missions

NASA's Mars Exploration rover Opportunity is heading back out to the Red Planet's surrounding plains nearly one year after descending into a large Martian crater to examine exposed ancient rock layers. Having completed its job in the crater, Opportunity is now preparing to inspect loose cobbles on the plains. Some of these rocks, approximately fist-size and larger, were thrown long distances when objects hitting Mars blasted craters deeper than Victoria into the Red Planet.

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Cassini Scopes Janus

August 27, 2008 / Exploration & Science Missions

On a high-inclination orbit of Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft gazes down at the north polar region of Janus. This view looks toward Janus (179 kilometers, or 111 miles across) from a perspective 72? N of the moon's equator. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 14, 2008 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of infrared light centered at 752 nanometers.

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ESA’s XMM-Newton Locates A Monster

August 26, 2008 / Exploration & Science Missions

ESA’s orbiting X-ray observatory XMM-Newton has discovered the most massive cluster of galaxies seen in the distant Universe until now. The galaxy cluster is so enormous there can only be a handful of them at that distance, making this a rare catch indeed. The discovery confirms the existence of dark energy. The newly-discovered monster, known only by the catalog number 2XMM J083026 524133, is estimated to contain as much mass as a thousand large galaxies.

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NASA/ESA’s Hubble’s Filament Find

August 25, 2008 / Exploration & Science Missions

The Hubble Space Telescope has seemingly uncovered a mystery in space. The telescope has found the answer to a long-standing puzzle by observing the details of giant, but delicate, filaments shaped by a strong magnetic field around the active galaxy NGC 1275. These filaments are the only visible-light manifestation of the intricate relationship between the black hole hosted at the center of the galaxy and the surrounding cluster gas.

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ESA’s Getting Set To Launch Core Work

August 25, 2008 / Exploration & Science Missions

The European Space Agency (ESA) is about to launch the most sophisticated mission ever to investigate the Earth’s gravitational field and to map the reference shape of our planet, known as the geoid, with unprecedented resolution and accuracy. The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) will be placed into a low altitude near sun-synchronous orbit by a Russian Rockot vehicle launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Northern Russia, some 800 km north of Moscow.

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Stein Well In Hand By ESA’s Rosetta

August 20, 2008 / Exploration & Science Missions

On August 14th, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta conducted a successful trajectory correction maneuver using data obtained from the Agency's first-ever optical tracking of an asteroid target, (2867) Steins. Images from the spacecraft's cameras were used to calculate the asteroid's location and optimize its trajectory for fly-by next month.

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NASA’s GLAST At Last, and It’s Music to Their Ears

August 20, 2008 / Exploration & Science Missions

Exciting happenings will be revealed when NASA conducts a media teleconference on Tuesday, August 26, at 2 p.m. EDT, to announce the first results from NASA's Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, and the observatory's new name. The telecon also will include the Large Area Telescope's first light results, and a presentation of gamma-ray bursts that the GLAST Burst Monitor has seen since it went into operation.

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Hubble Has A Happy Birthday And Sends Us A Pictorial Gift

August 12, 2008 / Exploration & Science Missions

In commemoration of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope completing its 100,000th orbit during its 18th year of exploration and discovery, scientists aimed Hubble to take a snapshot of a dazzling region of celestial birth and renewal. Hubble peered into a small portion of the Tarantula nebula near the star cluster NGC 2074. The region is a firestorm of raw stellar creation, perhaps triggered by a nearby supernova explosion.

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NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope Reveals Peony Nebula Star

August 11, 2008 / Exploration & Science Missions

The brightest known star is a massive star called Eta Carina. However, a new runner-up, now the second-brightest star in our galaxy, has been discovered in the galaxy's dusty and frenzied interior. This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the star in the central region of our Milky Way. Dubbed the Peony nebula star, this blazing ball of gas shines with the equivalent light of 3.2 million suns. The reigning champ, Eta Carina, produces the equivalent of 4.7 million suns worth of light. However, astronomers say these estimates are uncertain, and it's possible that the Peony nebula star could be even brighter than Eta Carina. If the Peony star is so bright, why doesn't it stand out more in this view? The answer is dust. This star is located in a very dusty region jam packed with stars. In fact, there could be other super bright stars still hidden deep in the stellar crowd. Spitzer's infrared eyes allowed it to pierce the dust and assess the Peony nebula star's true brightness. Likewise, infrared data from the European Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope in Chile were integral in calculating the Peony nebula star's luminosity. The image below is courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Potsdam Univ.

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