Now here’s a feat. The Hubble Space Telescope was able to analyze the atmosphere of a gas giant planet orbiting another star.
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Looking at Jupiter, From Mars
Guess who took this picture of Jupiter? Hubble? Keck? A well equipped amateur here on Earth? Nope, it was taken by the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The picture was taken from orbit around Mars.
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Rocket Detonates on the Sea Launch Platform
A Zenit-3SL rocket carrying a Dutch communications satellite detonated on the Sea Launch platform on Tuesday, completely destroying the rocket, its satellite payload, and causing damage to the launch platform.
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Hubble’s Main Camera is Offline, Maybe Permanently
One of the Hubble Space Telescope’s main science instruments, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) has gone offline, and the chances of getting back online don’t look so good.
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Podcast: Black Hole Questions Answered
Our episode on black holes generated many many questions from listeners. We dip into this bottomless pool of questions and start dealing with them. Are really big black holes like the Big Bang? How can black holes evaporate? What would it look like to stand on a black hole? And just how large would a rock have to be before its gravity is so strong that a human can’t escape?
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Tiny Shutters in the James Webb Telescope Improve its Vision
NASA has a new article on their site describing one of the technologies going into the mighty James Webb Space Telescope; the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. They’ve created an array of microshutters which will allow the telescope to dynamically block the light from nearby objects to make distant objects easier to see.
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New Views of LCROSS the Moon Smasher
NASA artists have released new images of the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission. This is a secondary payload that will travel to the Moon with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Remember the Deep Impact mission, which smashed a probe into an asteroid? Same thing, except this time the target is the Moon.
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First Images of the Sun from STEREO
Remember the recent launch of the STEREO spacecraft? These are two identical solar observing spacecraft which will give astronomers a thrilling 3-D view of the Sun. Officially, they’re the Solar TerrEstrial RElations Observatories (STEREO… get it?), and they were lofted into orbit on October 25.
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Podcast: What We Learned from the American Astronomical Society
It’s astronomical society get together time, and we send Pamela to investigate and record. Hear the latest news that will make your text books out of date. Find out where all the dark matter is collecting, the identity of Kepler’s supernova, and new insights into the closest, brightest supernova in recent memory.
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All Was Quiet in the Galactic Centre
For a brief time in April 2006, the active region surrounding the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way settled down. Ten different sources of high energy rays all faded away temporarily, and ESA’s Integral probe was able to capture images of less bright regions, which weren’t completely obscured by the bright objects in their vicinity.
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