For space explorers
For space explorers
Less than 36 months from its launch, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) collaboration touted as “Hubble’s successor,” continues to take shape right on schedule. Yesterday, NASA announced that the telescope’s Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM), described as the “scientific heart” of JWST, has […] More
Exoplanets are now being discovered by the thousands, but most are so far away that determining anything specific about their composition or atmosphere is currently very difficult. But technology keeps advancing, and scientists are now starting to be able to learn more about them, at least ones which are a bit closer to our own […] More
It would have been a heroic coda to an already ambitious, historic mission, but alas, it was not meant to be. For the past few months, controllers at Germany’s DLR (the German Aerospace Center) have been sending commands to Philae, Rosetta’s lander, which touched down not once, but three times upon the surface of Comet […] More
Construction of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) collaborative project, continues to shape up in early 2016. NASA announced today that all of the observatory’s primary mirror segments are now installed. At Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the 18th and last segment […] More
On January 17, an Earth science spacecraft designed to measure the surface topography of our planet’s ocean is scheduled to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Space Complex 4 East. Aboard the craft, a highly accurate radar altimeter capable of measuring the ocean’s surface elevation in any given spot to within 3 centimeters will monitor […] More
Less than three years from its launch, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), continues to take shape. As 2015 rolled into 2016, engineers working on the JWST have been busy testing one of its essential science components. On Wednesday, […] More
To say that 2015 has been a great year for planetary exploration would be an understatement, with fantastic new discoveries from around the Solar System. From our first ever close-up look at Pluto and its moons, to more evidence for ancient lakes and rivers on Mars (and current briny streams) to weird bright spots and […] More
While 2015 saw the space community celebrate the 25th anniversary of the world’s premier space telescope (the Hubble Space Telescope, or HST), another space telescope hit major development milestones on terra firma – the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a NASA, Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and European Space Agency (ESA) collaboration. On Thursday, Dec. 17, […] More
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) just took a big step toward reality with the successful installation of the first of its many flight mirrors. This is the critical beginning of the final phase of construction of the telescope, which will be the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. More
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta mission continues to capture the world’s imagination one year following the historic touchdown(s) of its Philae lander. On Nov. 12, Philae surpassed its one-year anniversary at its final landing site, Abydos, where it came to rest after bouncing twice on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. ESA recently released an animation depicting Philae’s […] More
This coming Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2015, the Cassini spacecraft will make a historic close flyby (dubbed “E21”) of Saturn’s tiny icy moon Enceladus, not only passing very close to the surface, but also making the deepest dive yet through the water vapor geysers which erupt from the south pole. These plumes are connected to a global […] More
Peering ever further back in space and time, the Hubble Space Telescope has glimpsed the largest known group of the faintest and youngest primordial galaxies ever—over 250—some of which are estimated to have formed only 600 million years after the Big Bang. These smaller dwarf galaxies are considered to have played a vital role in […] More
