Telescopes focus on target of ESA’s asteroid mission
Telescopes around the globe recently homed in on one point in the sky, observing the paired Didymos asteroids – the target for ESA’s proposed Asteroid Impact Mission. The 800 m-diameter main body is orbited by a 170 m moon, informally dubbed Didymoon. The duo were more favourably placed from March until early June for studies. To […]
Week In Images
Our week through the lens: 22-26 June 2015 To source
How Black Holes Could Reveal Dark Matter | Video
As matter is pulled toward a rotating black hole, it reaches an area where all must spin in roughly the same direction. NASA astrophysicist Jeremy Schnittman has discovered certain orbits where a form of dark matter called Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPS) is mostly likely to collide, creating a burst of gamma rays, and thus […]
Full launch coverage
Watch the replay of the full Sentinel-2A launch coverage from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 23 June To source
Construction of Giant Telescope Pushes on Despite Protests
Artist’s concept of the Thirty Meter Telescope atop the volcanic peak of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The construction phase of the TMT project officially kicked off in October 2014; the telescope should achieve “first light” in 2022, if all goes according to plan.Credit: Courtesy TMT International Observatory The group building a huge telescope on Hawaii’s […]
Want to Go Stargazing? Know the Stars of Early Summer
Early summer is an “in-between” time in the skies. The realm of the galaxies has moved off to the west, but the summer Milky Way has not yet arrived. This is the best time of year to observe globular clusters and double stars. The centerpiece of the early summer constellations is Boötes, the herdsman, with […]
Happy New Year, Mars! NASA Toasts Martian Calendar Milestone
NASA is celebrating the New Year on Mars on June 19, 2015. One Mars year is 687 days long, nearly twice the time of an Earth year, due to Mars’ longer orbit around the sun.Credit: NASA It’s New Year’s Day on the Red Planet today and NASA is celebrating in style with an epic three-day […]
Astronaut Spies Menacing Tropical Storm Bill from Space
This photo, taken by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly from the International Space Station, shows Tropical Storm Bill in the Gulf of Mexico on June 15, 2015.Credit: Scott Kelly/NASA Tropical Storm Bill lurks menacingly near the coast of Texas in a photo taken from space yesterday (June 15). The image was captured from the International Space […]
Methane in Mars Meteorites Suggests Possibility of Life
Meteorites from Mars found on Earth have traces of methane, adding weight to the idea that life could live off methane on the Red Planet, scientists say. But the methane detection alone is not proof that life exists on Mars now or in the past, they add.Credit: Image by Michael Helfenbein Methane, a potential sign […]
In NASA First, Cubesats Headed to Mars with InSight Lander
JPL engineers Joel Steinkraus and Farah Alibay display a full-scale mechanical mock-up of a MarCO 6U cubesat.Credit: JPL WASHINGTON — Two tiny cubesats, the first NASA plans to send to another planet, will keep watch on the agency’s InSight mission as it descends to the Martian surface in September 2016, an agency official said June 9. […]
One Month from Pluto, NASA Probe Sees Dwarf Planet's Many Faces
The many “faces” of Pluto are visible in new images by NASA’s New Horizon’s probe, which is only one month away from the first-ever close encounter with the dwarf planet. This week, NASA released what it called “the best views ever obtained of the Pluto system” taken by New Horizons, which will make its closest […]
Astronauts Invade Seattle: Spacesuited Statues 'On the Town' for Museum
“Happy Constellations” by artist Fin’es Scott, one of The Museum of Flight’s 25 “Astronauts on the Town” art statues, is on display at Theo Chocolate in Seattle, Washington.Credit: The Museum of Flight Some two dozen astronauts are landing under Seattle’s Space Needle and if you can snap a selfie with one or more of them, […]
Sampit, Indonesia
Earth observation image of the week: a Sentinel-1A image of the Indonesian island of Borneo, also featured on the Earth from Space video programme To source