THEMIS Mars camera celebrates a decade's discoveries

Ten years ago, on Feb. 19, 2002, the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), a multi-band camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, began scientific operations at the Red Planet. Since then the camera has circled Mars nearly ...

O, Pioneers! (Part 1): The motes in God's eye

March 2012 marks the fortieth anniversary of the launch of one of the most extraordinary spacecraft ever constructed - Pioneer 10 - the first true deep space probe. The story of the Voyager spacecraft is well known but that ...

Laser radar illuminates the way to deep space

This car was not snapped with a camera but scanned by a 3D imaging lidar, the laser equivalent of radar. ESA is developing the sensor as a navigation aid for exploring deep space.

Do black holes help stars form?

(PhysOrg.com) -- The center of just about every galaxy is thought to host a black hole, some with masses of thousands of millions of Suns and consequently strong gravitational pulls that disrupt material around them. They ...

UA makes mirrors for world's largest telescope

(PhysOrg.com) -- The second of seven 27-foot diameter mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope was cast on Jan. 14 inside a rotating furnace at the UA's Steward Observatory Mirror Lab.

Eagle Nebula: A new view of an icon

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Eagle Nebula as never seen before. In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope's 'Pillars of Creation' image of the Eagle Nebula became one of the most iconic images of the 20th century. Now, two of ESA's orbiting ...

Cryogenic testing completed for James Webb telescope mirrors

Cryogenic testing is complete for the final six primary mirror segments and a secondary mirror that will fly on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. The milestone represents the successful culmination of a process that took ...

Mysterious red galaxies

(PhysOrg.com) -- Perhaps the most astonishing and revolutionary discovery in cosmology was Edwin Hubble's observation that galaxies are moving away from us with velocities that are proportional to their distances.

NASA's TRMM satellite sees the power in Tropical Storm Alenga

The first tropical storm of the Southern Indian Ocean season has been renamed from Tropical Storm 01S to Tropical Storm Alenga as it continues to strengthen. NASA's TRMM satellite was able to capture a look at the rainfall ...

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