10.06.10: Herschel Celebrates its 1st Year in Space.

 
    While everyone was celebrating Hubble’s 20th this past April, and equally amazing instrument past a quiet milestone: the European Space Agencies’ Herschel Space Observatory passed its first anniversary in space. On May 14, 2009, Herschel was launched as part of a dual payload along with the Planck spacecraft which is in the midst of mapping [...]

16.05.10- Gliese 710: A Future Stellar Threat?

Gliese 710 inbound…(Credit: The Sloan Digital Sky Survey).
   Our quiet corner of the local galaxy may be in for a future interloper. A possible solar system side-swipe comes in the form of Gliese 710, an unassuming +10 magnitude orange dwarf star currently 63 light years distant in the constellation Serpens. As we swirl around the [...]

11.04.10- Pale Blue Crescent.

 
 Earth as seen from Rosetta.
   It has been said innumerable times that in traveling into space, we’ve discovered the Earth. The Rosetta spacecraft reminded us what a unique place our home is on its trajectory altering flyby on November 13th of last year. Pictured above, you can easily tell that Earth is not a stagnant world, [...]

04.03.10: A Close Flyby of Phobos.

Phobos on a pass of Mars Express last July. (Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin/G. Neukum).

  
 The European Space Agencies’ (ESA) Mars Express orbiter completed the closest ever flyby of the misshapen Martian moon, Phobos, but don’t expect to see any mind blowing pictures…yet. Part of a series of 12 flybys, last nights’ pass skimmed to worldlet by 67 [...]

26.10.09:Seeing Starspots.

We know more about our Sun than any other star because it gives us the opportunity to study solar activity up close. But just how normal is it? Recently, astronomers have been able to spy activity on other suns, teasing the data out of exoplanet transits. These are planets that happen to cross the tiny [...]

23.9.9 CoRoT-7b: A Rare Earth.

The “Super-Earths” are getting smaller. Recently, the ESA announced that an exoplanet discovered on February 3rd of this year by the CoRoT (Convection Rotation and planetary Transit) satellite is one of the lightest yet… at about five Earth masses, this transiting exoplanet is about twice the diameter of the Earth. But don’t pack your bags [...]

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