Astronomy

March 7, 2009 -- CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's Kepler mission successfully launched into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II at 10:49 p.m. EST, Friday. Kepler is designed to find the first Earth-size planets orbiting stars at distances where water could pool on the planet's surface. Liquid water is believed to be essential for the formation of life.

"It was a stunning launch," said Kepler Project Manager James Fanson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Our team is thrilled to be a part of something so meaningful to the human race -- Kepler will help us understand if our Earth is unique or if others like it are out there."    » read more »

Feb. 26, 2009 -- CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Launch of NASA's Kepler telescope is targeted for no earlier than Friday, March 6, from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. There are two launch windows, from 10:49 - 10:52 p.m. and 11:13 - 11:16 p.m. EST.

Kepler is a spaceborne telescope designed to search the nearby region of our galaxy for Earth-size planets orbiting in the habitable zone of stars like our sun. The habitable zone is the region around a star where temperatures permit water to be liquid on a planet's surface.    » read more »

Feb. 19, 2009 -- WASHINGTON -- The first gamma-ray burst to be seen in high-resolution from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is one for the record books. The blast had the greatest total energy, the fastest motions and the highest-energy initial emissions ever seen.

"We were waiting for this one," said Peter Michelson, the principal investigator on Fermi's Large Area Telescope at Stanford University. "Burst emissions at these energies are still poorly understood, and Fermi is giving us the tools to understand them."    » read more »

Feb. 11, 2009 -- GREENBELT, Md. -- NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, spacecraft was loaded on a truck Wednesday to begin its two-day journey to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Launch is targeted for April 24.

The spacecraft was built by engineers at Goddard, where it recently completed two months of tests in a thermal vacuum chamber. During its time in the chamber, the spacecraft was subjected to hot and cold temperatures it will experience as it orbits the moon.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter: Artist's concept. Graphic: NASA    » read more »

Feb. 02, 2009 -- MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- NASA and Google announced Monday the release of a new Mars mode in Google Earth that brings to everyone's desktop a high-resolution, three-dimensional view of the Red Planet.

Besides providing a rich, immersive 3D view of Mars that will aid public understanding of Mars science, the new mode, Google Mars 3D, also gives researchers a platform for sharing data similar to what Google Earth provides for Earth scientists.

The mode enables users to fly virtually through enormous canyons and scale huge mountains on Mars that are much larger than any found on Earth. Users also can explore the Red Planet through the eyes of the Mars rovers and other Mars missions, providing a unique perspective of the entire planet.    » read more »

Planetary Nebula NGC 2818

NGC 2818 is a beautiful planetary nebula, the gaseous shroud of a dying sun-like star. It could well offer a glimpse of the future that awaits our own Sun after spending another 5 billion years or so steadily using up hydrogen at its core, and then finally helium, as fuel for nuclear fusion.

Curiously, NGC 2818 seems to lie within a sparse open star cluster, NGC 2818A, that is some 10,000 light-years distant toward the southern constellation Pyxis (Compass).

Planetary Nebula NGC 2818: Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA)    » read more »

How did the star Eta Carinae create this unusual nebula? No one knows for sure. About 165 years ago, the southern star Eta Carinae mysteriously became the second brightest star in the night sky. In 20 years, after ejecting more mass than our Sun, Eta Car unexpected faded.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day - Eta Carinae and the Homunculus Nebula: Photo by N. Smith, J. A. Morse (U. Colorado) et al., NASA    » read more »

June 16, 2008 -- Almost every object in the photograph below is a galaxy. The Coma Cluster of Galaxies pictured above is one of the densest clusters known - it contains thousands of galaxies. Each of these galaxies houses billions of stars - just as our own Milky Way Galaxy does.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: Inside the Coma Cluster of Galaxies: NASA photo.

Although nearby when compared to most other clusters, light from the Coma Cluster still takes hundreds of millions of years to reach us. In fact, the Coma Cluster is so big it takes light millions of years just to go from one side to the other!    » read more »

2008 March 20 -- Today, the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading north at 0548 UT.

Known as the equinox, the geocentric astronomical event marks the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere and autumn in the south.

Equinox means equal night and with the Sun on the celestial equator, Earth dwellers will experience nearly 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. Of course, for those in the north, the days will grow longer with the Sun marching higher in the sky as summer approaches.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: Sunset - Planet Earth

To celebrate the equinox, consider this colorful view of the setting Sun.    » read more »

6-Sep-2007, WASHINGTON -- NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy should pursue the Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) as the first mission in the "Beyond Einstein" program, according to a new report from the National Research Council. Beyond Einstein is NASA's research roadmap for five proposed mission areas to study the most compelling questions at the intersection of physics and astronomy.    » read more »

New feature in Google Earth enables users to explore space from their computer

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (August 22, 2007) - Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced the launch of Sky, a new feature that enables users of Google Earth to view the sky as seen from planet Earth.

With Sky, users can now float through the skies via Google Earth. This easy-to-use tool enables all Earth users to view and navigate through 100 million individual stars and 200 million galaxies. High resolution imagery and informative overlays create a unique playground for visualizing and learning about space.    » read more »

July 16, 2007 -- WASHINGTON -- At a ceremony held Monday at NASA Headquarters in Washington, NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) President and Chief Executive Officer Laurier J. Boisvert signed the official agreement that defines the terms of the agencies' cooperation on the James Webb Space Telescope.

According to the agreement, NASA will be responsible for the overall management and operations of the mission and will build the spacecraft, the telescope, and the platform that will host the instruments.    » read more »