First Picture from Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter
Having entered Martian orbit, NASA's latest explorer has tried out its record-breaking camera.
A Grand Pleiades Occultation on April 1, 2006
Watch the dark edge of the crescent Moon blot out one star after another on the evening of April 1, 2006.
Cosmic Explosion Mystery Deepens
Artist Dana Berry depicts the short gamma-ray burst (GRB) that occurs when a neutron star falls into a black hole. Astronomers are beginning to realize that other violent events can also cause short GRBs.Courtesy NASA / GSFC / Dana Berry. Just when astronomers thought they had solved one of astronomy's…
Celestial Sleuths Solve Another Munch Mystery
For a century art historians have wondered why Edvard Munch chose not to depict a celestial reflection in his famous painting Girls on the Pier. Now the mystery is solved.
Cosmic Collisions Is a Smash Hit
From the opening words to the closing credits, the new show Cosmic Collisions premiering this week at New York City's Hayden Planetarium is truly a blockbuster.
WMAP Bolsters Case for Cosmic Inflation
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is leftover radiation from the Big Bang redshifted (stretched), by the universe's expansion, into the microwave region of the spectrum. In this image NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) records minuscule temperature differences in the CMB as different colors. The hotter and cooler spots evolved…
Martian Ice: Wide and Deep
Mars Express's onboard radar sounder has spotted vast "glaciers" of ice under the Red Planet's surface.
Stardust's Tiny Treasures
Scientists studying the comet fragments brought home by the Stardust sample-return mission are already scratching their heads trying to understand the things they see.
NASA Eludes Martian Ghoul, Again
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter began aerobreaking in the Martian atmosphere on March 10th.NASA / JPL Score one more round for humanity against the dreaded Martian Ghoul ... at least for now. At 5:16 p.m. EST (22:16 UT) today, NASA received a signal from its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) confirming that…
Astronomy & Observing News
Astro Image in the News:
Enceladus's Leaky Seas?"}'>
Astro Image in the News:
Enceladus's Leaky Seas?
In this week's Science scientists working with the Cassini orbiter published a suite of papers detailing the story behind the active volcanism on Saturn's moon Enceladus.
Jupiter's New Red Spot
Both the Great Red Spot and the new 'Red Spot Junior' (the formerly white oval known as BA) are recorded in this exquisite webcam image taken by Christopher Go on February 27, 2006, at 19:37 UT. North is up. Click on the image to view a larger version.Photo by Christopher…
Solar Cycle Solved?
Researchers tracking material deep inside the Sun think that they have solved the mystery of the 11-year sunspot cycle — and they they can predict the next cycles' strength.
NASA Science in Free Fall
NASA's astronomy program is in a state of crisis as a growing number of space missions are falling to the budgetary ax.
A Surprise Comet in the Dawn
Comet Pojmanski has brightened more than expected as it enters the dawn sky for Northern Hemisphere observers. Can you spot it with binoculars?
Near-Earth Asteroid Flyby, March 610
Catch the 12th- to 13th-magnitude asteroid 2000 PN9 (23187) crossing the northern sky.
Astro Image in the News:
M101: A Hubble Mosaic
A 192-megapixel Hubble view shows the spiral galaxy M101 in more detail than astronomers once thought possible.
Astronomers Agog Over Stellar Explosion
This artist's conception depicts the violent pair of jets emitted by a typical gamma-ray burst (GRB). Astronomers now think that some supernovae channel some of their energy into jets of material traveling at near light speed. The GRB arises from shock waves within the jets. Click on the image for…
London Planetarium to Close
Built in the 1950s, the 330-seat London Planetarium will go dark for good this July.
Galactic Glow Gleaned
The perfect match between an X-ray image obtained by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite (contours) and a near-infrared image of the galaxy taken by the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite (color coded) indicates that X-ray emission traces the distribution of stars. This result, in turn, suggests that the galactic X-ray…
Moon Occults Spica February 17th
The waning gibbous Moon will cover 1st-magnitude Spica for parts of eastern North America on Friday night, February 17, 2006.