Astronomy Portal: Featured News

PTTU Featured News

• Outer space close enough to touch – DLR telepresence research
  German Aerospace Center (DLR): Telerobots (remotely controlled robots) can be used not only in outer space but also in terrestrial environments that are hazardous for human beings, such as minefields or areas affected by nuclear radiation. Innovations derived from virtual reality telepresence and teleaction are also being employed in technology for medicine and production environments. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) leads the world with its research into the field known as 'multimodal telepresence'.
  
  
• Can We Spot Volcanoes on Alien Worlds? Astronomers Say Yes.
  Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics: September 07, 2010: Volcanoes display the awesome power of Nature like few other events. Earlier this year, ash from an Icelandic volcano disrupted air travel throughout much of northern Europe. Yet this recent eruption pales next to the fury of Jupiter?s moon Io, the most volcanic body in our solar system.
  
  
• GOCE gravity mission back in action
  ESA Top News: ESA’s GOCE gravity mission has recovered from a glitch that prevented the satellite from sending its flow of scientific data to the ground. News of the recovery comes earlier than expected, thanks to the fervent efforts of a team of experts.
  
  
• Cosmic Diary Anthology Released as a Free Book: Postcards from the Edge of the Universe
  International Year of Astronomy Press Releases: The book, Postcards from the Edge of the Universe, was launched today at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science in Lisbon, Portugal. A legacy of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 Cornerstone project Cosmic Diary, the book features articles from astronomers around the world about the hottest astronomical topics of the moment.
  
  
• International Year of Astronomy 2009 Reached Hundreds of Millions of People: Final Report Released
  International Year of Astronomy Press Releases: A 1300-page final report for the International Year of Astronomy 2009 was released today at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science in Lisbon, Portugal. The report shows that at least 815 million people in 148 countries participated in the world’s largest science event in decades.
  
  
• Globalstar's six satellites are prepared for launch
  Arianespace Press Releases: The launch campaign for Arianespace's upcoming Soyuz mission for Globalstar has entered a new phase as all six spacecraft are now at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Scheduled for a liftoff on October 19, this milestone flight will use a Soyuz 2 version of Russia's workhorse launcher.
  
  
• Mars500 video diary 6 - How supplies are rationed?
  ESA Human Spaceflight and Exploration: A vital aspect for ensuring the survival of an astronaut crew during their mission to Mars, is the extent to which their supplies such as food and other expendable are rationed. Romain is demonstrating in this video how the Mars500 crew ration their supplies.
  
  
• Next Mars Rover Stretches Robotic Arm
  NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory News and Features: Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover that will be on Mars two years from now, has been flexing the robotic arm that spacecraft workers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory attached to the rover body in August 2010.
  
  
• ATHLETE Rover Steps Up to Long Desert Trek
  NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory News and Features: The ATHLETE rover is poised to go 40 kilometers in the Arizona desert as part of the 2010 Desert RATS test.
  
  
• Missing Piece Inspires New Look at Mars Puzzle
  NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory News and Features: Experiments prompted by a 2008 surprise from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suggest that soil examined by NASA's Viking Mars landers in 1976 may have contained carbon-based chemical building blocks of life.
  
  
• Target NEO: APL team shapes robotic 'precursor' mission for human exploration of an asteroid
  Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory: Ten years ago, NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission (NEAR) made history as the first spacecraft to orbit and land on an asteroid. Now the team behind that successful mission proposes a sequel that could pave the way for astronauts to explore an asteroid for the first time.
  
  
• NASA's Magnetospheric Mission Passes Major Milestone
  NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center: NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale mission passed its critical design review, which clears the way for spacecraft fabrication.
  
  
• Spitzer Finds a Flavorful Mix of Asteroids
  NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory News and Features: New research from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveals that asteroids somewhat near Earth, termed near-Earth objects, are a mixed bunch, with a surprisingly wide array of compositions.
  
  
• NASA Selects Investigations for First Sun Encounter Mission
  NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory News and Features: NASA has begun development of a mission to visit and study the sun closer than ever before.
  
  
• New Hubble Observations of Supernova 1987A Trace Shock Wave
  HubbleSite NewsCenter -- Latest News Releases: Get larger image formats An international team of astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope reports a significant brightening of the emissions from Supernova 1987A. The results, which appear in this week's Science magazine, are consistent with theoretical predictions about how supernovae interact with their immediate galactic environment.
  
  
• Jupiter rules the night sky in September
  Indiana University Astronomy and Astrophysics: Jupiter, the solar system's largest planet, will dominate the sky nearly all night during September, presenting its best appearance in almost 50 years. Glowing low in the east as evening twilight fades, Jupiter will climb high in the south before midnight and set in the west around the time morning twilight begins.
  
  
• Spitzer Finds a Flavorful Mix of Asteroids
  NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope: New research from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveals that asteroids somewhat near Earth, termed near-Earth objects, are a mixed bunch, with a surprisingly wide array of compositions.
  
  
• Recipe for water: just add starlight
  Herschel News: Herschel has discovered that ultraviolet starlight is a key ingredient for making water in the atmosphere of some stars. It is the only explanation for why a dying star is surrounded by a gigantic cloud of hot water vapour.
  
  
• The Superwind Galaxy NGC 4666
  ESO Top News: The galaxy NGC 4666 takes pride of place at the centre of this new image, made in visible light with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. NGC 4666 is a remarkable galaxy with very vigorous star formation and an unusual “superwind” of out-flowing gas. It had previously been observed in X-rays by the ESA XMM-Newton space telescope, and the image presented here was taken to allow further study of other objects detected in the earlier X-ray observations.
  
  
• Cluster turns the invisible into the visible
  ESA Space Science: Cluster has spent a decade revealing previously hidden interactions between the Sun and Earth. Its studies have uncovered secrets of aurora, solar storms, and given us insight into fundamental processes that occur across the Universe. And there is more work to do.