A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H. I. J. K. L. M. N. O. P. Q. R. S. Solar System. Sol / The Sun. Mercury. Venus. Earth. The Moon. Mars. The Moons of Mars. Phobos. Deimos. Jupiter. Saturn. Saturns Moons / General Information. Aegaeon. Enceladus. Epimetheus. Janus. Uranus. Neptune. Pluto. VISTA gigapixel mosaic of the central parts of the Milky Way. Eyes on the Solar System. Nasa's Dawn moves on from Vesta to study Ceres. The voyage will take nearly three years Firing its ion propulsion thrusters, Dawn had been slowly spiraling away from Vesta for more than a month until it was to pop free from its gravitational grip. Since its antenna was pointed away from Earth during this last maneuver, engineers would not know until Wednesday how it went. The departure was considered ho-hum compared with other recent missions - think Curiosity's white-knuckle "seven minutes of terror" dive into Mars' atmosphere. "It's not a sudden event.
There's no whiplash-inducing maneuver. Launched in 2007, Dawn is on track to become the first spacecraft to rendezvous with two celestial bodies in a bid to learn about the solar system's evolution. Dawn slipped into orbit last year around Vesta - about the size of the U.S. state of Arizona - and beamed back stunning close-ups of the lumpy surface. Dawn uncovered a few surprises. The collisions spewed chunks of debris into space; some fell to Earth as meteorites.
New comet might blaze brighter than the full Moon. New comet might blaze brighter than the full Moon BY PETER GREGOASTRONOMY NOWPosted: 25 September 2012 File photo of Comet Hale-Bopp which wowed observers in 1997. Image: Kazuhiro Seto. A new comet has been discovered that is predicted to blaze incredibly brilliantly in the skies during late 2013.
With a perihelion passage of less than two million kilometres from the Sun on 28 November 2013, current predictions are of an object that will dazzle the eye at up to magnitude —16. That's far brighter than the full Moon. The new comet, named C/2012 S1 (ISON) was found by the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) in Russia on 21 September when astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok captured it on CCD images taken through a 0.4-metre reflector. C/2012 S1 currently resides in the northwestern corner of Cancer. Comet brightness predictions sometimes exceed their performance. Hubble Reborn The Planets 3D Universe. Hubble's Hidden Treasures 2012. Since 1990, Hubble has made more than a million observations. We feature many of these on spacetelescope.org, and the most stunning are in our Top 100 gallery and iPad app.
But there are thousands of pictures in Hubble’s science archive that have only been seen by a few scientists. We call these images Hubble’s hidden treasures — stunning images of astronomical phenomena that have never been seen and enjoyed by the public. Every week, we search the archive for hidden treasures, process the scientific data into attractive images and publish them as the Hubble Picture of the Week. But the archive is so vast that nobody really knows the full extent of what Hubble has observed.
This is where you come in. Searching Hubble’s archive for hidden treasures is a lot of fun, and it’s pretty straightforward, even if you don’t have advanced knowledge. Hubble’s Hidden Treasures 2012: Find and tweak Hubble observations using a set of simple online tools. Read more: Voyager 1 Detects Weirdness at Solar System Edge. Voyager 1 is the most distant man-made object and is thought to have recently escaped the sun’s sphere of influence. The probe, launched 35 years ago, is therefore mankind’s first interstellar vehicle careening into the vast expanse of space between the stars. Needless to say, as one of two deep space probes launched in 1977, Voyager 1 has explored previously unknown regions of the solar system, making groundbreaking discoveries as it went.
Now, in a new paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, scientists analyzing data streaming from the spacecraft have uncovered a small mystery right at the solar system’s magnetic boundary with the interstellar medium. She may be old, but you can’t keep a good probe down. ANALYSIS: Voyager 1 About to Become Interstellar Emissary? As the sun travels through the galaxy, it carries its magnetic field with it, creating a magnetic “bubble” — the heliosphere — that all planets, spacecraft and people live inside.
Image credit: NASA. 1241 - Planet Found in Nearest Star System to Earth. Eso1241 — Science Release ESO’s HARPS instrument finds Earth-mass exoplanet orbiting Alpha Centauri B 16 October 2012 European astronomers have discovered a planet with about the mass of the Earth orbiting a star in the Alpha Centauri system — the nearest to Earth. It is also the lightest exoplanet ever discovered around a star like the Sun. The planet was detected using the HARPS instrument on the 3.6-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. The results will appear online in the journal Nature on 17 October 2012. Alpha Centauri is one of the brightest stars in the southern skies and is the nearest stellar system to our Solar System — only 4.3 light-years away. The European team detected the planet by picking up the tiny wobbles in the motion of the star Alpha Centauri B created by the gravitational pull of the orbiting planet [2].
Alpha Centauri B is very similar to the Sun but slightly smaller and less bright. Notes More information Links Contacts. Voyager 1 Spacecraft Detects Particles at Solar System's Edge. NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has discovered a new layer of the solar system that scientists hadn't known was there, researchers announced today (Dec. 3). Voyager 1 and its sister probe Voyager 2 have been traveling through space since 1977, and are close to becoming the first manmade objects to leave the solar system.
Scientists haven't been sure exactly when that exit would occur, and now say the spacecraft are likely in the outermost region of the solar system, which is defined by the extent of the heliosphere, the large bubble of charged particles the sun puffs out around itself. Voyager 1, in particular, has entered a new region of the heliosphere that scientists are calling a "magnetic highway," which allows charged particles from inside the heliosphere to flow outward, and particles from the galaxy outside to come in. This artist's concept shows how NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is bathed in solar wind from the southern hemisphere flowing northward.
"My God, it's full of planets! They should have sent a poet." NASA Kepler hints at over 250 new potentially habitable worlds NASA Kepler released last month 18,406 planet-like detection events from its last three year mission to search for exoplanets (Kepler Q1-Q12 TCE). Further analysis is required by the NASA Kepler Team and the scientific community to extract and identify true planets, including those potentially habitable.
The Planetary Habitability Laboratory @ UPR Arecibo (PHL) performed a preliminary analysis and identified 262 candidates for potentially habitable worlds in this dataset. These candidates become top priority for further analysis, additional observations, and confirmation. The Kepler Threshold Crossing Event (TCE) dataset consists of a list of stars with 18,406 transit-like features that resemble the signatures of transiting planets to a sufficient degree that they are passed on for further analysis. It is estimated that there are millions of Earth-like planets in our Galaxy. Further Information. In Space, Flames Behave in Ways Nobody Thought Possible. Wonderful colors and shapes from deep space. The complexity and beauty of the Universe amaze me everyday!
Like in our old mother Earth, there are so much various and wonderful things to contemplate up there that I can't believe that it could be different for the recent Earth-sized planets discovery..... Here's a selection I've made of various astronomical objects from the deep sky with surprising shapes and colors... Enjoy! M2-9 is a striking example of a 'butterfly' or a bipolar planetary nebula. Source: Spacetelescope 2- M104 (Sombrero Galaxy) This floating ring is the size of a galaxy. Source: APOD 3- SN1987A (Supernova 1987A) What's causing those odd rings in supernova 1987A?
Source: APOD 4- M16 close-up The European Space Agency’s Herschel space telescope has captured this gorgeous new view of the famed Eagle Nebula. Source: wired 5- Cygnus X How do stars form? Source: APOD 6- NGC 7293 (Helix Nebula) Source: Wikipedia 7- IPHASXJ194359.5+170901 (Necklace Nebula) Source: Docdb edit on 7-5-2012 by elevenaugust because: (no reason given) Astronomy. Kepler Mission To Find Earth-like Planets By Studying Planetary Transits. Earlier this week we spoke about finding Earth-like planets, and how hard it is to find them. We would like to see other planets similar to Earth, and we have a few absolutely necessary conditions: the planet must be rocky, solid, dense like Earth, a source of power like a Sun, chemicals resulted from volcanic activity, and liquid water.
The most important thing however, is that the planet must be located in the Goldilocks zone, the area where the planet is not too far and not too close from a star. In order to find such planets NASA has begun the Kepler Mission which will last four year. The Kepler Mission consists of observing 100,000 Sun-like stars, and to be more accurate: scientists will study the so-called planetary transits. If you are not familiar with it then here is what this is: when a planet passes in front of its parent Sun as soon from Earth’s point of view, the brightness of the specific parent Sun decreases. Via Physorg. Timeline-of-the-universe.gif (Image GIF, 590x330 pixels) Space. Space the final frontier (learn more about space and technology)
NASA. Space. Equinoxes, Solstices, Crossquarter Days. Current Position of the Sun. Moon - Sun Interaction. Sun Rise & Set Calculators. This Explanation of the Multiverse Is a Heavy But Delicious Sunday Brunch. Astronomy. UFOs? UAP? Who Goes There? Life in the Beyond... Cosmos Beginnings. Universe. Astronomy. Space. Space. On the Moon. In the Milky Way. And Beyond all this... Traveling throughout Space. The Earth. Space Science. PICTURES & ART. VIDEOS. GREAT ARTICLES. WEBSITES & RESOURCES. In our own Backyard. Space.
Space tech. Astronomie. Space. Sun. Astronomers Discover a Planet Almost Identical to Earth. NOAA Satellite Reveals New Views of Earth at Night.