Astronomy News
Dr. Neal Sumerlin keeps us abreast of happenings in the night sky and the progress of the new Belk Astronomical Observatory.
Blogs we recommend
Other Posts:
Describing the Indescribable (07/22/2009)
Total Solar Eclipse in July (06/07/2009)
Other Earths (05/20/2009)
Save Those Old Computers! (04/13/2009)
Play With Pictures from Mars! (04/13/2009)
Saturn in 2009 (04/13/2009)
The New Worlds (02/04/2009)
Christmas at the Moon (12/10/2008)
Potpourri of Space News (12/10/2008)
Night Sky Happenings (11/17/2008)
Power Sources for Space Probes (11/17/2008)
R.I.P., Mars Phoenix Lander (11/17/2008)
Pictures of Planets (11/17/2008)
Ice Geysers of Enceladus (09/22/2008)
Constellations (09/22/2008)
Happy Equinox Day! (09/22/2008)
More News from Mars (06/04/2008)
Search (but no rescue) on Mars (05/20/2008)
We lose a friend (05/03/2008)
Quiz winner! (04/29/2008)
Seeing and Patience (04/22/2008)
The World at Night (03/31/2008)
New Stars that are Really Old (03/14/2008)
Lunar Eclipse Update (02/18/2008)
Aiming a Telescope (02/18/2008)
Observatory Update (02/04/2008)
Venus and Jupiter in the Morning (02/04/2008)
Total Lunar Eclipse (02/04/2008)
Messenger Mission to Mercury (02/04/2008)
Latest From Planetary Spacecraft
Posted on 03/14/2008Just a quick roundup of current interplanetary missions, with links where you can find more information:
Mercury Messenger executed the first flyby of Mercury in more than 30 years in January, on its way to an eventual orbit around the planet in March, 2011. http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/index.php
Venus Express continues in orbit around the planet; its objective is to study the Venusian atmosphere in great detail. http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=64
There are so many current missions to Mars that it is hard to keep up with all of them! I will mention only two. The Mars Phoenix Lander is headed for a touchdown in far north of Mars in May. http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/ And the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recently captured an image of an avalanche in action-on Mars! The home site for the mission is here: http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/; the best picture of the avalanche is here: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080311.html
The Cassini orbiter around Saturn is being programmed to fly by various of the many moons of Saturn, and every time it does so, we get new surprises. On Wednesday, Cassini flew to within 30 miles of the surface of the icy moon Enceladus! The Cassini site is here: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm
And finally, the New Horizons spacecraft is in its long cruise phase, on its way to an encounter with Pluto in July of 2015. http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/