Herschel to Complete Its Mission Soon

This artist’s impression of Herschel is set against an image captured by the observatory, showing baby stars forming in the Rosette nebula. Image credit: ESA - C. Carreau  The Herschel space observatory is expected to exhaust its supply of liquid helium coolant in the coming weeks, after spending more than three years studying the cool universe and surpassing the expectations of the international team of scientists involved. Herschel...

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NASA's Hubble Reveals Rogue Planetary Orbit For Fomalhaut B

This false-color composite image, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, reveals the orbital motion of the planet Fomalhaut b. Based on these observations, astronomers calculated that the planet is in a 2,000-year-long, highly elliptical orbit. The planet will appear to cross a vast belt of debris around the star roughly 20 years from now. If the planet's orbit lies in the same plane with the belt, icy and rocky debris in the belt could crash...

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NASA's Next Mars Rover on a Test Drive

Rover In some sense, the Mars Science Laboratory rover's parts will be similar to what any living creature would need to keep it "alive" and able to explore. The rover will have a: body: a structure that protects the rovers´ "vital organs" brains: computers to process information temperature controls: internal heaters, a layer of insulation, and more "neck and head": a ...

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Cassini Suggests Icing on a Lake

This artist's concept envisions what hydrocarbon ice forming on a liquid hydrocarbon sea of Saturn's moon Titan might look like. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS   It's not exactly icing on a cake, but it could be icing on a lake. A new paper by scientists on NASA's Cassini mission finds that blocks of hydrocarbon ice might decorate the surface of existing lakes and seas of liquid hydrocarbon on Saturn's moon Titan. The presence...

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At Least One in Six Stars Has an Earth-sized Planet

The results of a new analysis of Kepler data show that one in six stars has an Earth-sized planet in a tight orbit. About a fourth of all stars in the Milky Way have a super-Earth, and the same fraction have a mini-Neptune. Only about 3 percent of stars have a large Neptune, and only 5 percent a gas giant at the orbital distances studied. Credit: F. Fressin (CfA) This artist's illustration represents the variety of planets being detected...

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NASA's GALEX Reveals the Largest-Known Spiral Galaxy

This composite of the giant barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872 combines visible light images from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope with far-ultraviolet (1,528 angstroms) data from NASA's GALEX and 3.6-micron infrared data acquired by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. A previously unsuspected tidal dwarf galaxy candidate (circled) appears only in the ultraviolet, indicating the presence of many hot young stars. IC 4970, the small...

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NASA's Big Mars Rover Makes First Use of its Brush

This image from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity shows the patch of rock cleaned by the first use of the rover's Dust Removal Tool (DRT). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS  NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has completed first-time use of a brush it carries to sweep dust off rocks. Nearing the end of a series of first-time uses of the rover's tools, the mission has cleared dust away from a targeted patch...

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NASA's NuSTAR Catches Black Holes in Galaxy Web

This new view of spiral galaxy IC 342, also known as Caldwell 5, includes data from NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DSS   This new view of the historical supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, located 11,000 light-years away, was taken by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DSS  NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array,...

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Curiosity Rover Explores 'Yellowknife Bay'

The NASA Mars rover Curiosity used its left Navigation Camera to record this view of the step down into a shallow depression called "Yellowknife Bay." Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech  This map traces where NASA's Mars rover Curiosity drove between landing at a site subsequently named "Bradbury Landing," and the position reached during the mission's 130th Martian day, or sol, (Dec. 17, 2012). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of...

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