Happy Birthday, Hubble: 20 Years of Great Astronomy
In a few days, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope will be 20 years old. Birthdays are a good time for looking back, and this is no exception. The Hubble telescope has…
The Planck Space Observatory Is Watching the Universe Being Born
In most of our articles, we have looked at the worlds in our own solar system, or orbiting relatively nearby stars. There’s so much going on in our neighborhood, it’s…
ESA Launches Cryosat-2 on a Mission to Study Earth’s Ice
The European Space Agency launched its CryoSat-2 satellite today (April 8, 2010), thus completing the third phase of its Earth Explorer Series. The satellite will give us our best picture…
ESA’s Cassini-Huygens Mission Probes the Saturn System
The Cassini-Huygens Saturn mission, a joint effort by NASA, the European Space Agency and Italy’s Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, is one of the most successful and long-lasting space projects ever launched.…
Japan’s Venus Climate Orbiter Will Probe the Secrets of the Planet’s Atmosphere
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has recently announced what is hopefully the final launch date for its Venus Climate Orbiter. After several delays and changes of schedule, the date…
France’s COROT Satellite Is a New Kind of Space Telescope
This is the second article in our examination of the newly-emerging science of exoplanet detection and study. Last week, we took a look at NASA’s Kepler telescope, which recently completed…
The Caverns of Phobos Exploring the Hollow Moon of Mars
The European Space Agency’s Mars Express satellite, which is in orbit around the red planet, is presently conducting a series of flybys of Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two moons. …
A Tale of Two Missions: Phoenix Lander
This is part two in our feature, A Tale of Two Missions, looking at the 2001 Mars Odyssey satellite and the Phoenix lander. As we saw in part one, these…
A Tale of Two Missions: Mars Odyssey satellite
The exploration of Mars by unmanned satellites and landers is proceeding at a brisk pace. Over the last few years, several impressive pieces of hardware have been sent to Mars,…
NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope Has Found Five Exoplanets in the First Year of Its Mission
NASA’s Kepler space telescope just had its first birthday. Launched on March 6, 2009, this satellite is the first telescope capable of detecting planets as small as Earth orbiting other…
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