Mars rover Curiosity has completed the first-ever detailed X-ray analysis of Martian sand showing the mineralogy of Martian soil is similar to weathered basaltic soils of volcanic origin in Hawaii.Curiosity used its Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin) to
ESA’s new deep-space mission tracking station is nearing inauguration in Malargüe, Argentina, 1000 km west of Buenos Aires. Deep Space Antenna 3 (DSA 3) will ensure reliable communications with missions voyaging hundreds of millions of kilometres into our Solar
While most are focused on Sandy and its epic impact on US East Coast those of you focused on space weather events have probably noticed that there is blackout of solar observing data providers. The SDO, SOHO, STEREO and Helioviewer sites are all offline. Websites are
The heat-seeking capabilities of the international Cassini spacecraft and two ground-based telescopes have provided the first look at the aftermath of Saturn’s ‘Great Springtime Storm’. Concealed from the naked eye, a giant oval vortex is persisting long after
Since Sentinels of the Heliosphere in 2008, there have been a few new missions, and a few missions have been shut down. As of Fall of 2012, here’s a tour of the NASA Near-Earth Heliophysics fleet, covering the space from near-Earth orbit out to the orbit of the
Most researchers agree that the Moon formed five billion years ago from debris blasted off Earth in a giant impact. Scientists presented some new evidence supporting the theory that Moon was, indeed, born of a cataclysmic collision between worlds 4.5 billions of years
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s visualization studio made an amazing video of Sun using a gradient filter which highlighted the details of the sun’s complex magnetic fields. Gradient filter helps researchers in better understanding how solar activity affects
A chunk of meteor that exploded over Bay Area, California, was found in the backyard of Lisa Webber home on Sunday, October 21, 2012. Peter Jenniskens, a leading meteor hunter at the Seti Institute in Mountain View, confirmed that the space rock was indeed debris from
Police departments of Devon and Cornwall, UK, received hundreds of calls from people saying they had experienced an earth tremor and heard loud bangs around 16:15 BST on Thursday, October 18, 2012. Police staff in Devon’s Newton Abbot station also said floors
A new exoplanet, closest and lightest known yet, is discovered in Alpha Centauri system by a team using ESO’s (European Southern Observatory) HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher) instrument. It is notable that same team had discovered the first
