26 July 2011
NASA recently published two images, showing the discovery of a new moon of Pluto, Pluto’s fourth moon. These two images, taken six days apart, by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST), show four moons orbiting the distant, icy dwarf planet Pluto. The newly discovered moon (circled), changes position, in the images, due to its orbital motion. It is temporarily designated P4, and was found in June, by HST, which explores the cosmos from Earth orbit.
22 July 2011
Dawn has sent its first close-up image of Vesta, located approximately 190 million km away. The image, reveals the rugged surface of Vesta. This is the first good view of this small world, since its discovery, in 1807. Previous images, taken while Dawn was approaching Vesta, were of much less detail.
18 July 2011
Neptune, the outermost planet, was discovered on 23 September 1846. Along its vast orbit, Neptune slowly orbits the Sun every 60,190 Earth days, nearly 165 Earth years. This means that on 11 July 2011 Neptune completed its first full orbit, since its discovery. Celebrating this rare anniversary, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST), exploring the universe from Earth orbit, acquired interesting images of Neptune, in June 2011.
14 July 2011
NASA recently published a breathtaking image of Saturn (fig (1)), acquired by the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft. The image shows a gigantic storm, churning through Saturn's northern hemisphere. The storm is visible as a curious, plume-like yellowish feature, extending horizontally, above image’s center. The shadows cast by Saturn's rings appear as dark stripes, stretching on the planet’s orb.
10 July 2011
NASA recently published a beautiful image of Saturn, the ringed wonderful planet. The image was acquired by the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft. It shows a trio of Saturn’s moons, shining against the dark night side of the planet. Saturn’s magnificent rings are visible nearly edge-on.
06 July 2011
Nearly 11 months after breaking off of the northwestern coast of Greenland, a massive ice island is now caught up in ocean currents off the coast of Labrador, Canada. The ice island was formed when a large mass of ice broke away of the Petermann Glacier, on 5 August 2010. The Canadian Ice Service has since been monitoring the ice island, known as PII-A, via satellite and radio beacon.
02 July 2011
NASA recently published satellite images of Eritrea’s Nabro Volcano eruption, which began on 12 June 2011, after a series of earthquakes in the eruption area. Emissions from Nabro Volcano have spread over much of East Africa and the Middle East, since the start of the eruption. This is the first recorded eruption of Nabro.
28 June 2011
NASA's Dawn spacecraft is heading to an encounter with a big asteroid, known as Vesta. Dawn will enter orbit around Vesta (about 530 km across), on 16 July 2011, to make a detailed year-long study of this amazing small world. The mission is expected to start obtaining science data in early August. It is the first orbiting probe to an asteroid.
20 June 2011
NASA recently published a photo gallery, showing exquisite images of the International Space Station (ISS), Earth’s largest artificial satellite, with Space Shuttle Endeavour docked to it. The picutres were obtained aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft, which was flying close to the ISS, orbiting at an altitude of about 350 km.
16 June 2011
NASA recently published a beautiful image of Saturn, the wonderful giant planet, acquired by the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft. The image shows Saturn, nearly half-lit, and two of its icy moons. The two moons, which are smaller than our Moon (3,476 km across), are dwarfed by their parent planet. They are, in order of size, Rhea (1,528 km across) and Dione (1,123 km across). Their names come from Greek mythology.