On July 14 NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at Pluto after a nine and a half year journey. It was launched on January 19, 2006 and will be the first spacecraft to visit Pluto. New Horizons will give us our first close-up views of the dwarf planet and its moons. Continue reading
Active Region 1515 has now spit out 12 M-class flares since July 3. Early in the morning of July 5, 2012 there was an M6.1 flare. It peaked at 7:44 AM EDT. This caused a moderate — classified as R2 on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s space weather scale — radio blackout that has since subsided. Continue reading
With President Barack Obama proposing a relatively flat budget for NASA in 2013, a group professional astronomers is urging the White House and Congress to find a better balance between the space agency’s planetary science and exploration needs. Continue reading
Astronomers on Tuesday (Dec. 20) announced the discovery of the first two Earth-size alien planets – a historic find for sure, but the newfound worlds didn’t exactly receive historic names. The two alien planets are officially known as Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, a nod to the instrument that detected them, NASA’s prolific Kepler space telescope. Continue reading
The youngest planet yet discovered has been found orbiting within the disk of dust and gas surrounding the star Lk Ca 15. The planet is more than just young: it may still be in the process of formation. Continue reading
Move over Commander Data, there’s a real robot in space, now. The International Space Station got a new crewmember today, one made not of flesh and blood, but of gears and clockwork instead. Called Robonaut 2, the automaton astronaut was activated by human spaceflyers today. Continue reading
New observations from the Herschel Space Observatory show a bizarre, twisted ring of dense gas at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Only a few portions of the ring, which stretches across more than 600 light-years, were known before. Continue reading
The following is a huge infographic showing the true scale of the solar system with all its planets, minor bodies and the most famous probes we have sent out into deep space. Scientists measure distances in our solar system in astronomical units (AU). Continue reading
The next few weeks will be rather uneventful until March 20 when the equinox will occur. The Sun will shine directly on the equator and there will be nearly equal amounts of day and night throughout the world. Until then … Continue reading
Like the previous ones, this week will be rather uneventful, when it comes to major astronomical events, but the planets are always fun to watch. So here are their positions for this week: Mercury: The closest planet to the Sun … Continue reading