Looking Up by Bob Eklund

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is scheduled to launch the asteroid explorer “Hayabusa2” on the H-IIA Launch Vehicle in 2014. The spacecraft will arrive at an asteroid in 2018 to investigate it for one …[READ MORE]

Rising above the present location of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity, higher than any mountain in the 48 contiguous states of the United States, Mount Sharp is featured in new imagery from the rover. A pair …[READ MORE]

A team of international scientists using the  W. M. Keck Observatory has made the most detailed examination yet of the atmosphere of a Jupiter-size planet beyond our solar system. According to lead author Quinn Konopacky, …[READ MORE]

A pair of newly discovered stars is the third-closest star system to the Sun, according to a paper that will be published in Astrophysical Journal Letters. The duo is the closest star system discovered since …[READ MORE]

Astronomers Open a Window into Europa’s Ocean –Caltech astronomer Mike Brown and Kevin Hand from JPL have found the strongest evidence yet that salty water from the vast liquid ocean beneath Europa’s frozen exterior actually …[READ MORE]

The smallest astronomical satellite ever built was launched from India Feb. 25 as part of a mission to prove that even a very small telescope can push the boundaries of astronomy. The satellite was designed …[READ MORE]

On February 15, asteroid 2012 DA14 passed extraordinarily close to the Earth—at about 17,500 miles, well within the orbits of our stationary satellites. Unlike the unexpected asteroid collision over Russia that same day, this encounter …[READ MORE]

NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft has acquired its first images of comet C/2012 S1 (ISON). The images were taken by the spacecraft’s Medium-Resolution Imager over a 36-hour period on Jan. 17 and 18, 2013, from a …[READ MORE]

 Networks of narrow ridges found in impact craters on Mars appear to be the fossilized remnants of underground cracks through which water once flowed, according to a new analysis by researchers from Brown University. The …[READ MORE]

An international team led by Dutch astronomers has made a tantalizing discovery about the way pulsars emit radiation. The emission of X-rays and radio waves by these pulsating neutron stars is able to change dramatically …[READ MORE]