MSL/Curiosity looks like comet while traveling toward Mars

MSL/Curiosity looks like comet while traveling toward Mars

Astronomers at the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium in Australia took incredible time-lapse video . The sequence shows a plume drifting against the background stars, probably caused by venting from the Centaur rocket stage that sent the Mars Science

Subsiding radiation storm as new pair of CMEs taking place

Subsiding radiation storm as new pair of CMEs taking place

A radiation storm that began on Nov. 26th when a magnetic filament erupted on the sun is subsiding. Nevertheless, the Earth-effects are just beginning. The same explosion that caused the radiation storm also hurled a CME into space at about 930 km/s (2 million mph).

Solar radiation storm in progress

Solar radiation storm in progress

A solar radiation storm is in progress around Earth. At the moment, the storm is classified as minor, which means it has little effect on Earth other than to disturb HF radio transmissions at high latitudes. Energetic protons, which make up the bulk of the storm,

Curiosity Rover launches to Mars

Curiosity Rover launches to Mars

NASA has launched its next Mars rover, kicking off a long-awaited mission to investigate whether the Red Planet could ever have hosted microbial life.The Curiosity rover blasted off atop its Atlas 5 rocket today (Nov. 26) at 10:02 a.m. EST (1502 GMT), streaking

Black Friday solar eclipse

Black Friday solar eclipse

Earlier today, Nov. 25th, the new Moon passed in front of the sun, slightly off-center, producing a partial solar eclipse visible from Antarctica, Tasmania, and parts of South Africa and New Zealand. Maximum coverage occurred about 100 miles off the coast of

Thanksgiving message from the International Space Station

Thanksgiving message from the International Space Station

NASA astronaut Dan Burbank delivers a special Thanksgiving message from the International Space Station. Burbank is making his third visit to the station. His previous two visits were both aboard space shuttle Atlantis. During the STS-106 mission in September 2000, he

Beautifull auroras and the interplanetary magnetic field

Beautifull auroras and the interplanetary magnetic field

Officially, the odds of a geomagnetic storm on Nov. 24th were small but dedicated aurora watchers still had some opportunity to take some nice images of beautifull sky game. Auroras have been flickering around the Arctic Circle for several days. These displays are not

Contact established with Phobos-Grunt spacecraft!

Contact established with Phobos-Grunt spacecraft!

A tracking station at Perth, Australia established contact with the Russian “lost” spacecraft Phobos-Grunt on November 22 at 20:25 UT. This was the first signal received on Earth since the mission to Mars’ Phobos moon was launched on November 8, 2011. Roscosmos