Cassini Closes in on Saturn . ... Credit Copyright: Cassini Imaging Team , SSI , JPL , ESA , NASA Explanation: Are they gone? ... The mystery revolves around strange shadow-like spokes that appeared on Saturn's large B-ring , the large middle ring in the complex system of particles that orbits Saturn . ... Cassini is expected to enter orbit around the ringed Jovian giant planet in July and drop a probe onto Titan , Saturn's largest moon. ... NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers . ...

... Each day we feature a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. August 2, 1995 . Jupiter's Rings . ... Unlike Saturn's bright rings which are composed of chunks of rock and ice, Jupiter's rings appear to consist of fine particles of dust. ... We keep a chronological archive and a subject sorted archive of Astronomy Pictures of the Day. ...

... Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, +44 (0)28 3752 2928 . ... Although the comet itself never comes dangerously close to the Earth, the particles of dust that it has shed during its many past passages through perihelion found their way into the Earth's atmosphere, appearing as meteors in the cold December sky. ... Animation 1 . ... An Ursid meteor captured by the Armagh Observatory's NE-facing meteor camera in the early morning of 23rd December. ... Meteor Showers Online . ...

Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Earth Satellites . ... Sadly C/ 2014 Q2 will probably not be as spectacular a sight as Comet C/ 2011 W3 (Lovejoy), visible near Earth?s horizon in this nighttime image from the International Space Station on 22 December 2011. ... The comet made its closest approach to Earth on 7€а January 2015, at a distance of 72 million km (45 million miles).€а In January the comet will race though the constellations Eridanus, Taurus, Aries and Triangulum. ...

... Bad Astronomy . ... Bitesize Astronomy . ... Last week's Snack talked about how black holes can affect the environment around them in such a way as to be very bright . ... It's a common misconception that black holes always have matter swirling into them. ... As this matter gets closer and closer to the black hole it piles up and a large, fairly flat disk forms. This is called the accretion disk , because matter from this disk accretes (that is, falls in) on the black hole. ... 2008 Phil Plait. ...

... Galileo Probe . The Galileo spacecraft was designed to study Jupiter's atmosphere, satellites, and surrounding magnetosphere for two years. ... From there, Galileo will spend more than five years traveling to Jupiter, where it will become the first spacecraft to make direct measurements from an instrumented probe within Jupiter's atmosphere. ... This image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the predicted site at which the Galileo Probe will enter Jupiter's atmosphere on December 7, 1995. ...

... Galileo Probe . The Galileo spacecraft was designed to study Jupiter's atmosphere, satellites, and surrounding magnetosphere for two years. ... From there, Galileo will spend more than five years traveling to Jupiter, where it will become the first spacecraft to make direct measurements from an instrumented probe within Jupiter's atmosphere. ... This image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the predicted site at which the Galileo Probe will enter Jupiter's atmosphere on December 7, 1995. ...

M1 image More About M1 Nice Color Picture . ... M16 image More About M16 HST image . ... M31 image More About M31 Nice Color Picture . ... M42 image ; M43 image More About M42/43 Nice Color CCD Picture . M51 image More About M51 Color Image of M51 M51 Supernova . M57 image More About M57 Nice Color CCD Picture Very Deep M57 Image . ... M81 image More About M81 M81 Supernova Ultraviolet Image of M81 More about Ultraviolet Imaging . M82 image More About M82 M82 False Color M82 True Color . ...

... R1715 Date Received: 2003-Jul-29 17:19:37 Technical Page Proposal Type: Urgent General Category: Planetary Radar Observation Category: Solar System Total Time Requested: 21 Hours Proposal Title: Radar observations of the recently discovered near earth asteroid 2002 NY40. ... We are also requesting Green Bank Telescope time under an existing proposal, for bistatic echo reception for the 4 observations between Aug 16 and 19 when the round-trip-times will be less than 15 sec. ...

... S.P. KOROLEV ROCKET AND SPACE CORPORATION ENERGIA . ... OAO RSC "Energia" . ... Company's History . ... Flights Chronology . ... ISS Russian Segment . ... News . ... Russian manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-07M has docked with the International Space Station (ISS) after two days of autonomous flight in low Earth orbit. ... Contribution of RSC Energia to the Russian Rocket-Space Technology . ... RSC Energia: Progress MS-02 docked with the ISS.' ... 2015 JSC "S.P. Korolev RSC "Energia" . ...

... Comet Lovejoy over the Parkes Dish . ... This beautiful picture of Comet Lovejoy was taken by CSIRO's Parkes staff member John Sarkissian when it was visible above the illuminated 64-m Parkes Telescope on the 28th of December 2011. The comet, official known as C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) was discovered on the 27th of November 2011 by Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy . His new find, C/2014 Q2 , discovered on the 17th of August 2014, is currently visible in the sky . ... today * ATNF | ...

Supernova 2009js in NGC 918 . This page is devoted to information on Supernova 2009js in NGC 918 . Basic information on this SN, including the last reported brightness, on this Supernova can be found on the main page . Information on the original web pages for many of these images can be found on the updates and links web pages. Discovered independently by Lick Observatory Supernova Search (USA) and Koichi Itagaki (Japan). ... 2009/10/11.44 . 17.2 . ... Joseph Brimacombe . ...

SMOV still under way, but science observations being made. ... In addition, a subset of the cluster was targeted for deep HST observations with ACS and NICMOS in Cycle 13, while WFPC2 was used recently to search for evidence for disks and jets among the lower-mass memebrs. ... The present observations build on the Cycle 13 program by providing second-epoch data that will allow separation of cluster and field to apparent magnitudes that correspond to masses as low as 3 M Jupiter for cluster members. ...

This huge elliptical galaxy NGC 5128 (Centaurus A) is the closest such galaxy to Earth, at a distance of about 12 million light-years. Observations with ESO s Very Large Telescope in Chile have discovered a new class of dark globular star clusters around this galaxy. ... Normal globulars are marked in blue and globulars showing similar properties to dwarf galaxies are in green. The dark globulars appear very similar to other globulars around this galaxy but contain much more mass. ...

Check out the new images (Jan 18-25) and (Jan 26-Feb 05) of the comet by Rob McNaught. ... Every few years a comet becomes bright enough to be easily seen with the naked eye but only every decade or so are these comparable with comets like Halley. ... Before Jan 13, the comet is not visible in the Australian sky after sunset. ... SOHO images . ... On Jan 12 at approximately 09:00 UT (8pm NSW time), comet C/2006 P1 McNaught appears at the 11 o'clock position in the images. ... STEREO images . ...

... It was designed to observe the solar wind approaching Earth, from a position near the Lagrangian point L1, and it is part of the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics (ISTP) Initiative . ... The original plan called for "Wind" to approach its final station over two years, undergoing two close encounters with the Moon to boost its speed. ... If however the object is moving , the encounter is not symmetric, and in the end the spacecraft may have gained or lost speed, depending on its trajectory. ...

Browse the articles below for new ideas for your classroom. Mercury September/October 2005: Astronomy Education and Public Outreach: Steps and Missteps Toward an Emerging Profession (pdf) . Focus on Education articles as they appeared in Mercury: . ... March/April 2000: . ... Education Newswire articles as they appeared in Mercury, by issue. ... January/February 2000 . November/December 1999 . ... March/April 1999 . ... November/December 1998 . ... November/December 1997 . ...

... Circumstellar disc of beta Pictoris: constraints on grain properties from polarization. To appear in the Astronomy & Astrophysics . abs , src , ps ] . ... Dust influx to Titan from Hyperion . ... abs ] . ... Characteristics of bulges and disks in interacting galaxies . ... Dust grains around Herbig Ae/Be stars: porous, cometary-like grains? ... To appear in the Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement . ... Finally, Links may lead you to more options (e.g. via the LANL preprint system). ...

JOURNиES - 2014 The binary asteroid 22 Kalliope: Linus orbit determination on the basis of speckle interferometric observations Sokova I.(1), Sokov E.(1), Roschina E.(1), Rastegaev D.(2), Gorshanov D.(1), Balega Yu.( 2), Dyachenko V.(2) (1) Pulkovo Observatory; (2) Special Astrophisical Observatory Binary asteroid 22 Kalliope 22 Kalliope - M-type asteroid from the Main asteroid belt discovered by J. R. Hind on November 16, 1852 in the Bishop' Observatory (UK). ...

... Survey Telescopes . ... Astronomers using ESOтАЩs world-leading HARPS instrument have discovered a planetary system containing at least five planets, orbiting the Sun-like star HD 10180. ... The newly discovered system of planets around HD 10180 is unique in several respects. ... All very massive planetary systems are found around massive and metal-rich stars, while the four lowest-mass systems are found around lower-mass and metal-poor stars [5] . ... ESOcast 20: Richest planetary system discovered...