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Old News

August 11	Mars is big and bright these days - we hope you've already noticed. On Aug 26-27 it will be at its closest approach to Earth for 60,000 years. Type Ia supernovae do not explode in a perfectly spherical manner. The asteroid Juno has a massive, fresh impact crater on it. For every gamma ray burst we see, there may be as many as 450 GRBs that go undetected… In astronomy, bigger is often better. The world's largest astronomical CCD camera - the QUEST camera, with 112 CCDs - has been installed at Palomar Observatory, and the world's largest fully robotic telescope is now open for business in the Canary Islands. The last crew of Space Shuttle Columbia have been memorialized in the heavens. Seven asteroids have been named in their honor.
August 4	We have selected Phoenix, an innovative and relatively low cost mission to study the red planet, as the first Mars Scout mission. The Phoenix lander mission is scheduled for launch in 2007.
August 3	An ion engine has run for a record 30,352 hours, providing information vital to future missions that will use ion propulsion, as well as to current research efforts to develop improved ion thrusters. Our Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) has beamed back revealing images of hundreds of galaxies to expectant astronomers, providing the first batch of data on star formation that they had hoped for. new maps of Mars water - Mars Odyssey results X-Ray Binaries In Globular Clusters: Close Encounters Of The Stellar Kind
July 22	Our Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite was given a new lease on life following the successful implementation of new software in three computers that work together to control the precision pointing of the telescope. Our Hubble Space Telescope has precisely measured the mass of the oldest known planet in our Milky Way galaxy. At an estimated age of 13 billion years, the planet is more than twice as old as Earth's 4.5 billion years. It's about as old as a planet can be. Icebound Antarctic telescope delivers first neutrino sky map NGC 1068: Wind and Reflections from a Black Hole Scientists got their best-ever ultraviolet look at the Sun from space, thanks to a telescope and camera launched aboard a suborbital rocket.
July 9	The second Mars Rover (Opportunity) launched late Monday night. All is well so far. After a number of tests and new insights, SOHO engineers now say there will be no 'blackout' periods for SOHO science data. Gravitational radiation, ripples in the fabric of space predicted by Albert Einstein, may serve as a cosmic traffic enforcer, protecting reckless pulsars from spinning too fast and blowing apart. Astronomers have observed a young star ringed by a swirling disc that may spin off planets, marking the first published science observation using the two linked 10-meter (33-foot) Keck telescopes in Hawaii. An X-ray movie of the Vela pulsar, made from a series of observations by our Chandra X-ray Observatory, reveals a spectacularly erratic jet that varies in a way never seen before.
June 26	Our Mars Odyssey spacecraft is revealing new details about the frozen layers now known to dominate the high northern latitudes of Mars. In some places, the water-ice content of the surface is more than 90 percent by volume. 12 new teams will join the NASA Astrobiology Institute, a national and international research consortium that studies the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life on Earth and in the universe. ANTENNA ANOMALY MAY AFFECT SOHO SCIENTIFIC DATA TRANSMISSION
June 22	The launch of Opportunity, the 2nd Mars rover we're launching this month, will occur no earlier than June 28. April 21 observations by our sun-watching RHESSI, TRACE and SOHO spacecraft have confirmed the predominant scenario for how Coronal Mass Ejections are blasted from the Sun. Unfortunately, SOHO recently developed a problem pointing its main antenna; hopefully that will be fixed soon.... Scientists have pieced together the key elements of a gamma-ray burst, from star death to dramatic black hole birth, thanks to a "Rosetta stone" found on March 29, 2003. Powerful 'conveyor belts' drive Sun's 11-year cycle The Secret Lives of Galaxies Unveiled in Deep Survey - Hubble and Chandra collaborate Using images from the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have concluded that two of the most common types of galaxies in the universe (giant and dwarf ellipticals) are in reality different versions of the same thing. Beginning June 23, we're planning to launch several rocket experiments that will form nighttime clouds in a project intended to shed light on space weather.
June 13	All systems on the Spirit spacecraft are in good health, as it continues on its way to Mars. A team of astronomers has made the first direct measurement of a neutron star's magnetic field. It is 30 times less powerful than predicted. A study of the galaxy cluster Abell 2029 using our Chandra X-ray Observatory agrees with the predictions of cold dark matter models, and is contrary to other dark matter models. The SOHO spacecraft has seen the tails from a pair of comets survive a close encounter with the Sun.
June 10	The first Mars Environmental Rover, recently named Spirit, was launched successfully today. The second rover, named Opportunity, is scheduled for launch June 25. For details, check the MER website.
June 3	The European Space Agency's Mar Express mission, with some US hardware on it, was launched successfully yesterday. Five spacecraft join to solve auroral puzzle - IMAGE and Cluster results GALEX Mission Honors Columbia Crew with First Light
May 28	RHESSI's Lucky Break May Lead To Secret Of Ultimate Explosions Chandra Adds to Story of the Way We Were Chandra Finds Rich Oxygen Supply Inside Glowing Ring First-Ever Snapshot Released of Mother Earth from Mars NASA-funded research at Harvard University has literally stopped light in its tracks.
May 21	Images from our Chandra X-ray Observatory have revealed two distant cosmic construction sites buzzing with activity, showing how super massive black holes control the growth of massive galaxies in the distant universe. Newly-Discovered Star may be Third Closest
May 19	We have selected 15 industry, government and academic organizations to pursue 22 innovative propulsion technology research proposals that could revolutionize exploration and scientific study of the solar system. No Spring Picnic on Neptune - Hubble sees seasons, but pack your warm clothes
May 9	Your Name Could Make a 'Deep Impact' on a Comet - put it on our Deep Impact spacecraft Stephan's Quintet Intruder Galaxy Shocks Tightly-Knit Group
May 8	Deepest View of Space Yields Young Stars in Andromeda Halo - surprises in M31, and galaxies to mag 31! The telescope cover on our newly launched GALEX spacecraft has been removed. First images are expected on about May 19.
May 2	The planet Mercury will pass in front of the sun on Wednesday, May 7 in an unusual event called a transit. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft offers excellent, safe views of the rare occurrence to anyone with an Internet connection.
April 28	GALEX was launched this morning. Everything looks good so far. A pre-launch press release gives a good overview of the mission. Titan Reveals a Surface Dominated by Icy Bedrock - findings are potentially relevant to the NASA/ESA Cassini mission/Huygens probe A new composite image of Chandra X-ray and Very Large Array radio observations show the inner 4,000 light years of a magnetized jet in Centaurus A.
April 18	Launch of SIRTF has been delayed until August, due to concerns about its rocket boosters. Using our Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists have detected X-rays from a low mass brown dwarf in a multiple star system, which is as young as 12 million years old. This discovery is an important piece in an increasingly complex picture of how brown dwarfs - and perhaps the very massive planets around other stars - evolve.
April 14	The launch of SIRTF has been delayed until no earlier than April 26. We have chosen two scientifically compelling landing sites for twin robotic rovers to explore on the surface of Mars early next year. Dark features resembling Earth-sized tadpoles were seen swimming in the atmosphere of the Sun after it was heated to millions of degrees following an enormous explosion. Scientists have discovered that the gamma ray burst detected on March 29 by HETE is also a supernova. This is the first direct evidence linking these two types of explosions. New Hubble Space Telescope observations of a pair of very distant exploding stars, called Type Ia supernovae, provide new clues about the accelerating universe and its mysterious "dark energy."
April 7	Prolific NASA Orbiter Adds Thousands of Photos to Mars Album NASA Researchers Put New Spin on Einstein's Relativity Theory - quantum weirdness
April 4	Hubble's rainbow image of a dusty star Giant Cosmic Lens Reveals Secrets of Distant Galaxy - early starburst, and a black hole forming
April 1	The Universe clearly works weekends, delivering one of the brightest and closest gamma ray bursts detected yet on March 29.
March 27	Hubble Watches Light From Erupting Star - see a light echo SIRTF, set to launch on April 18, will unveil new information about galaxies, stars, and dusty discs around nearby stars. NASA scientists have found two smoking-gun features of an intermediate-mass black hole that suggest these newly identified objects are fundamentally different from other types of black holes, running hotter than expected.
March 24	NASA Study Finds Increasing Solar Trend That Can Change Climate A swarm of five spacecraft, designed to fly through the space storms that cause aurora, has been chosen as the next mission in our Medium-class Explorer (MIDEX) program. The mission, to be launched in 2007, is the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS). We also selected, as a mission-of-opportunity, an instrument for the Extreme Universe Space Observatory (EUSO) mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). And we decided to continue studying the Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), a four-channel, super-cooled infrared telescope designed to survey the entire sky with 1,000 times more sensitivity than previous infrared missions.
March 19	Scientists arriving on the scene of a gamma ray burst, just moments after the explosion was detected by our HETE spacecraft, have witnessed the death of a gigantic star and the birth of something monstrous in its place, quite possibly a brand-new, spinning black hole. NASA's Mars Odyssey Changes Views About Red Planet - summary of first year's science results Supernova Origin Revealed - Chandra observations show that the central ten-million-degree Celsius cloud is the remains of a white dwarf star.
March 13	Too Close for Comfort: Hubble Discovers an Evaporating Planet A team of astronomers has discovered that powerful radio bursts in pulsars are generated by structures as small as a beach ball.
March 10	Space Infrared Telescope Facility Arrives at KSC A just-released map from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, a project of our friends in Earth Science, has provided the most telling visible evidence to date of the impact that is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs. Pictures of Jupiter, taken by our Cassini spacecraft on its way to Saturn, are flipping at least one long-standing notion about Jupiter upside down. New information from our Mars Global surveyor spacecraft shows the Red Planet has a molten liquid-iron core, confirming the interior of the planet has some similarity to Earth and Venus. At an upcoming NASA-sponsored workshop, science teachers will learn to use real data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory to inspire students in their own classrooms. If you're a teacher and you wish to participate, it's not too late to apply. Our Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer (CHIPS) satellite is living up to the adage "good things come in small packages," as the suitcase-size spacecraft is entering its second month of providing data to scientists about the birthplace of solar systems. Using a sensitive new imaging instrument on our Cassini spacecraft, researchers have discovered a large and surprisingly dense gas cloud, sharing an orbit with Jupiter's icy moon Europa. A Chandra X-ray Observatory image of the mysterious "Black Widow" pulsar shows that this billion-year-old rejuvenated pulsar is an extremely efficient generator of a high-speed flow of matter and antimatter particles. NASA researchers believe they have found bits of ancient stars in small particles gathered in the Earth's upper atmosphere. The flight team for our Jupiter-orbiting Galileo spacecraft ceased operations on Friday, Feb. 28 after a final playback of scientific data from the robotic explorer's tape recorder. The venerable Pioneer 10 spacecraft has sent its last signal to Earth. Solar System Ambassadors Spread the Wow of Space Exploration
February 23	Our newly renamed Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) has captured the best "baby picture" of the Universe ever taken; the image contains such stunning detail that it may be one of the most important scientific results of recent years. The new portrait precisely pegs the age of the universe at 13.7 billion years old, with a remarkably small one percent margin of error. One of the biggest surprises revealed in the data is the first generation of stars to shine in the universe first ignited only 200 million years after the big bang, much earlier than many scientists had expected. NASA scientists have discovered how an intricate martian network of streams, rivers and lakes may have carried water across Mars. Images from the visible light camera on our Mars Odyssey spacecraft, combined with images from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), suggest melting snow is the likely cause of the numerous eroded gullies first documented on Mars by the Mars Orbiting Camera in 2000 by the MGS orbiter. NGC 3079: Superwind Sculpts Filamentary Features - Chandra data indicate that astronomers may be seriously underestimating the mass lost in superwinds from the cores of galaxies, and therefore their influence within and around the host galaxy. NASA Solves Half-Century Old Moon Mystery - fresh crater correlates well with flash observed in 1953
February 3	Everyone here in the Office of Space Science is enormously saddened by the loss of the space shuttle Columbia and its crew. For information about the tragedy and ongoing developments, please visit http://www.nasa.gov/columbia/ It's been 45 years since our country's first artificial satellite, Explorer 1, was launched. NASA has authorized the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to proceed with the implementation of two Geospace missions, the Ionosphere-Thermosphere Mapper Mission (ITM) and the Radiation Belt Mapper Mission (RBM).
January 13	Our CHIPS spacecraft was successfully launched yesterday. Biggest 'Zoom Lens' in Space Takes Hubble Deeper into the Universe While the cosmic debris from a nearby massive star explosion, called a supernova, could destroy the Earth's protective ozone layer and cause mass extinction, such an explosion would have to be much closer than previously thought, new calculations show. Researchers using our Hubble Space Telescope believe they are seeing the conclusion of the time when the earliest galaxies started to shine in significant numbers, as the so-called "Dark Ages" of the universe were completed, about 13 billion years ago. For the first time, astronomers have identified a planet around another star using the "transit method". Speed of gravity measured for first time Giant Radio Jet Coming from Wrong Kind of Galaxy Eta Carinae, an enigmatic star, is repeating a roughly five-year cycle of pumping out X rays. This finding supports the theory that Eta Carinae may in fact be two stars with clashing stellar winds. Hubble Probes the Heart of a Nearby Quasar New research suggests that the globular cluster M15 may not have a central black hole after all. The most detailed view yet of the fuel that feeds a monstrous black hole in the center of a remote quasar galaxy has recently been obtained.
January 7	Astronomers have taken the longest X-ray look yet at the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way's center. Over a two-week period, the black hole flared up weakly in X-ray intensity half a dozen or more times, suggesting that it is "lightly snacking". Our Hubble Space Telescope's new Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) has made the best image yet of the dust disk around a young, 5-million-year-old star. Such disks are expected to be the birthplace of planets. Astronomers Find a Hero (Hyper Extremely Red Object) The mystery of why large features called supergranules move across the Sun's surface faster than the Sun rotates has been solved. The first asteroid discovered to orbit the Sun in nearly the same path as Earth will make its closest approach to our planet this month before scurrying away for 95 years.