Astronomy is the scientific study of heavenly bodies. It is a study of planets, stars, sun and other objects in the space.

Astronomy comes from a Greek word meaning arrangement of stars.

The ancient astronomer predicted many facts about the space. They predicted about eclipse and the constellation of stars. They used complicated devices named ASTROLABE to follow the motion of the stars, planets and moon.

Telescope opened the space for the astronomers. In the early 1600, Dutch optician Hans Lippershey invented lenses that formed a magnified image of a distant object. Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo set those lenses in the telescope. He first looked at the night sky through a telescope in 1609. He described the craters on the moon, the moons of the Jupiter and the Milky Way.

Telescope can make things look closer than they are. Telescope contains lenses and mirror that allow astronomers to see objects in space much larger and brighter and clearer. Light from the distant objects passes through a lens. It reflects off a mirror and is focused by a lens that forms the image of the object in the eye. The larger the lens of the telescope, the more the light it collects and the image looks brighter. Telescope, which uses one lens, is called REFRACTING TELESCOPE. Telescope, which uses mirror is called REFLECTING TELESCOPE.

Today there are wide variety of powerful telescope. Not all telescope use light to form images. A radio telescope produces pictures of distant stars and galaxies from radio waves. Telescope is used to detect radio waves, lights and rays coming from outer space. They can study planets and stars by using remote controlled telescope in space. There are telescopes that can form images by detecting infrared rays, ultraviolet rays and X-rays.

In 1989, the Space Shuttle launched HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE. As the telescope is above the earth, it gives a better view of the stars and other objects in the universe than the telescope on the surface of the earth.

Today, the astronomers are building OBSERVATORIES. The observatory is dome shaped which slide open, and the telescope can be directed to any point in the sky.

January 29, 2010

Astronomers discover cool stars in nearby space The object, known as SDSS 1416+13B, is a brown dwarf with peculiar colors
An international team, led by astronomers at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom, has discovered what may be the coolest sub-stellar body ever found outside our own solar system. Using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii, a discovery has been made of an object that is known as a brown dwarf.

Long-anticipated eruption of U Scorpii has begun

Observers around the planet will be observing this remarkable system intensely for the next few months. Provided by Universe Today Published: January 28, 2010

Artists rendition of the recurrent nova RS Oph. Photo by David Hardy/PPARC Today, two amateur astronomers from Florida detected a rare outburst of the recurrent nova U Scorpii, which set in motion satellite observations by the Hubble Space Telescope, Swift, and Spitzer. The last outburst of U Scorpii occurred February 1999. Observers around the planet will be observing this remarkable system intensely for the next few months trying to unlock the mysteries of white dwarfs, interacting binaries, accretion, and the progenitors of type Ia supernovae.

Spot the year's biggest Full Moon

Watch the brilliant Moon and Mars arc across the sky. By Michael E. Bakich Published: January 28, 2010

Friday night, January 29/30, marks the nearest Full Moon of 2010. Photo by Adam Stuart On Friday night, January 29/30, if you think the Moon is shining down on you with a special brilliance, you're right. That's because it's the nearest Full Moon of 2010. At closest, our natural satellite will lie roughly 221,600 miles (356,630 kilometers) from Earth. Compare that to the Moon's average distance of 238,855 miles (384,800 km) from Earth. This distance difference translates into a late-January Full Moon whose area is nearly 12 percent larger than average. "Astronomically, there's nothing special about Friday night's Moon," said Astronomy Contributing Editor Raymond Shubinski. "But it does help teach that the Moon's orbit is elliptical, not circular. Sometimes it's closer to Earth, and at other times it's farther away."

Newborn black holes may add power to many exploding stars

Supernovae were found to emit jets of particles traveling at more than half the speed of light. Provided by NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Published: January 28, 2010

In March 2009, NASA's Swift observed the supernova SN 2009bb in the spiral galaxy NGC 3278. The explosion is apparent in visible light, but not at ultraviolet and X-ray energies, and satellites recorded no gamma-ray burst. Nevertheless, particle jets reaching 85 percent of the speed of light accompanied the explosion.

Photo by NASA/Swift/Stefan Immier January 28, 2010 Astronomers studying two exploding stars, or supernovae, have found evidence that the blasts received an extra boost from newborn black holes. The supernovae were found to emit jets of particles traveling at more than half the speed of light. Previously, the only catastrophic events known to produce such high-speed jets were gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the universe's most luminous explosions. Supernovae and the most common type of GRBs occur when massive stars run out of nuclear fuel and collapse. A neutron star or black hole forms at the star's core, triggering a massive explosion that destroys the rest of the star. "The explosion dynamics in typical supernovae limit the speed of the expanding matter to about 3 percent the speed of light," said Chryssa Kouveliotou, an astrophysicst at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "Yet, in these new objects, we're tracking gas moving some 20 times faster than this."

First light for Virus-W spectrograph

The Virus-W spectrograph will help astronomers understand how stars and gas move, which in turn will help them better understand how stars form. By McDonald Observatory at University of Texas, Austin, Max Planck Institute, Garching, Germany Published: January 28, 2011

"First light" for VIRUS-W. This image (from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey) shows the galaxy NGC2903 and the field of view of the spectrograph. SDSS The new observing instrument VIRUS-W, built by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and the University Observatory Munich, Germany, saw "first light" November 10, 2010, on McDonald Observatory's 2.7-meter Harlan J. Smith Telescope in West Texas. Its first images of a spiral galaxy about 30 million light-years away were an impressive confirmation of the capabilities of the instrument, which can determine the motion of stars in nearby galaxies to a precision of a few miles per second.

"As the first galaxy to observe, we had selected the strongly barred galaxy NGC 2903 at a distance of about 30 million light-years right in front of our doorstep. The data we collected reveal a centrally increasing velocity dispersion from about 50 miles per second (80 km/s) to 75 mps (120 km/s) within the field of view of the instrument. This was a very exciting moment and only possible because of the remarkable teamwork during the commissioning with a lot of support by the observatory staff."

SwRI signs contracts to fly eight pioneering missions aboard reusable suborbital launchers
Payload specialists will perform research using existing biomedical, microgravity, and astronomical imaging experiments conceived and prepared for flight at the research institute. By Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas Published: February 28, 2011

SwRI has concluded agreements with Virgin Galactic for a research seat on each of two suborbital flights; discussions are also under way for an additional charter mission involving up to six seats. Virgin Galactic will use its SpaceShip 2 to carry the researchers to altitudes as high as 350,000 feet. Photo courtesy Virgin Galactic Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) announced pioneering agreements today to send three scientists as payload specialists aboard eight suborbital flights some to altitudes greater than 350,000 feet, above the internationally recognized boundary of space.

White dwarfs could be fertile ground for other earths

Potentially habitable planets orbiting white dwarfs could be much easier to find, if they exist, than other exoplanets located so far away. By University of Washington, Seattle Published: March 31, 2011

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the "last hurrah" of a star like our Sun, the outer layers of gas being cast off and leaving behind the burned out white dwarf, the white dot in the center. NASA/European Space Agency Planet hunters have found hundreds of planets outside the solar system in the past decade, though it is unclear whether even one might be habitable. But it could be that the best place to look for planets that can support life is around dim, dying stars called white dwarfs. Eric Agol from the University of Washington suggests that potentially habitable planets orbiting white dwarfs could be much easier to find, if they exist, than other exoplanets located so far. White dwarfs, cooling stars believed to be in the final stage of life, typically have about 60 percent of the mass of the Sun, but by volume they are only about the size of Earth. Though born hot, they eventually become cooler than the Sun and emit just a fraction of its energy, so the habitable zones for their planets are significantly closer than Earth is to the Sun. "If a planet is close enough to the star, it could have a stable temperature long enough to have liquid water at the surface if it has water at all and that's a big factor for habitability," Agol said.

NASA's Swift and Hubble probe asteroid collision debris

This is the first time scientists have been able to catch an asteroid fragment just weeks after the smash-up, long before the evidence fades away. By NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Published: April 28, 2011

Faint dust plumes bookend asteroid (596) Scheila, which is overexposed in this composite.

Visible and ultraviolet images from Swift's UVOT (circled) are merged with a Digital Sky Survey image of the same region. The UVOT images were acquired December 15, 2010, when the asteroid was about 232 million miles (373 million kilometers) from Earth. NASA/Swift/DSS/D. Bodewits (UMD) Late last year, astronomers noticed an asteroid named Scheila had unexpectedly brightened, and it was sporting short-lived plumes. Data from NASAs Swift satellite and Hubble Space Telescope showed these changes likely occurred after a smaller asteroid struck Scheila. Collisions between asteroids create rock fragments, from fine dust to huge boulders, that impact planets and their moons, said Dennis Bodewits from the University of Maryland in College Park. Yet this is the first time weve been able to catch one just weeks after the smash-up, long before the evidence fades away.

Forensic sleuthing ties ring ripples to impacts

Space missions have traced telltale ripples in the rings of Saturn and Jupiter back to collisions with cometary fragments. By Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California Published: April 1, 2011

This artist's concept shows comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 heading into Jupiter in July 1994, while its dust cloud creates a rippling wake in Jupiter's ring. The comet, as imaged by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, appears as a string of reddish fragments falling into Jupiter from the south. A later Hubble image shows the dark blotches where pieces of the comet had already collided with the planet. The faint ring, based on images obtained by NASA's Galileo mission, is normally very faint, but has been enhanced for this illustration. The streaks show the tracks of the comet's dust cloud. Impacts from these dust particles tilted the ring off its axis. copyright M. Showalter Like forensic scientists examining fingerprints at a cosmic crime scene, scientists working with data from NASA's Cassini, Galileo, and New Horizons missions have traced telltale ripples in the rings of Saturn and Jupiter back to collisions with cometary fragments dating back more than 10 years. The ripple-producing culprit, in the case of Jupiter, was comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, whose debris cloud hurtled through the thin Jupiter ring system into the planet in July 1994. Scientists attribute Saturn's ripples to a similar object, likely another cloud of comet debris plunging through the inner rings in the second half of 1983. "What's cool is we're finding evidence that a planet's rings can be affected by specific, traceable

events that happened in the last 30 years, rather than a hundred million years ago," said Matthew Hedman from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. "The solar system is a much more dynamic place than we gave it credit for."

NASA's WISE mission offers a taste of galaxies to come

Because the orbiting satellite could study so many types of nearby galaxies, its observations will provide a better understanding of how these complex objects form and evolve. By Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California Published: May 31, 2011

The Galaxy Menagerie from WISE A new, colorful collection of galaxy specimens has been released by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, mission. It showcases galaxies of several types, from elegant grand design spirals to more patchy flocculent spirals. Some of the galaxies have roundish centers, while others have elongated central bars. The orientation of the galaxies varies as well, with some seeming to peer straight back at us in the face-on configuration while others point to the side, appearing edge-on. Infrared light has been translated into colors we see with our eyes, such that the shortest wavelengths are blue and the longest are red. The oldest stars appear blue, while pockets of newly formed stars have yellow or reddish hues. Read more about the various galaxies at http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/gallery_menagerie.html Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech An assorted mix of colorful galaxies released by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer mission, or WISE, are a taste of what's to come. The mission plans to release similar images for the 1,000 largest galaxies that appear in our sky, and possibly more. "Galaxies come in all sorts of delicious flavors," said Tom Jarrett, a WISE team member at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, who studies our Milky Way's neighboring galaxies. "Our first sample shows what WISE is capable of. We can produce spectacular high-resolution images of the largest galaxies."

14,000 quasars shine a light on the distant universe

Scientists ultimate goal is to study how the expansion of the universe has changed during its history. By Sloan Digital Sky Survey Press Office in Baltimore, Maryland Published: May 2, 2011

A slice through the three-dimensional map of the universe. We are looking out from the Milky Way, at the bottom tip of the wedge. Distances are labeled on the right in billions of light-years, and each section of the map is labeled on the left. The black dots going out to about 7 billion light-years are nearby galaxies. The red cross-hatched region could not be observed with the SDSS telescope, but the future BigBOSS survey could observe it. The colored region shows the map of intergalactic hydrogen gas in the distant universe. Red areas have more gas; blue areas have less gas. This figure is a slice through the full three-dimensional map. A. Slosar and the SDSS-III collaboration Scientists from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) have created the largest ever threedimensional map of the distant universe by using the light of the brightest objects in the cosmos to illuminate ghostly clouds of intergalactic hydrogen. The map provides an unprecedented view of what the universe looked like 11 billion years ago. The new technique used by Anze Slosar from the U.S. Department of Energys Brookhaven National Laboratory and his colleagues turns the standard approach of astronomy on its head. Usually we make our maps of the universe by looking at galaxies, which emit light, Slosar said. But here, we are looking at intergalactic hydrogen gas, which blocks light. Its like looking at the Moon through clouds you can see the shapes of the clouds by the moonlight that they block.

Clocking Neptune's spin

A scientist makes the first accurate measurement of planet's rotational period. By University of Arizona-Tucson Published: June 30, 2011

Neptune as seen by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989. NASA By tracking atmospheric features on Neptune, a University of Arizona scientist has accurately determined the planets rotation, a feat that had not been previously achieved for any of the gas planets in our solar system except Jupiter. A day on Neptune lasts precisely 15 hours, 57 minutes, and 59 seconds, according to the first accurate measurement of its rotational period made by Erich Karkoschka from University of Arizona, Tucson.

NGC 6744: A galaxy that resembles the Milky Way

This impressive spiral gives us a sense of how a distant observer might see our galactic home. By ESO, Garching, Germany Published: June 1, 2011

This picture of the nearby galaxy NGC 6744 was taken with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at La Silla in Chile. The large spiral galaxy is similar to the Milky Way, making this image look like a picture postcard of our own galaxy sent from extragalactic space. The picture was created from exposures taken through four different filters that passed blue, yellow-green, red light, and the glow coming from hydrogen gas. These are shown in this picture as blue, green, orange and red, respectively. Photo by ESO European Southern Observatory (ESO) astronomers have used the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope to capture an image of NGC 6744. This impressive spiral galaxy

lies about 30 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Pavo the Peacoc). But this view could almost be a picture postcard of our own Milky Way, taken and sent by an extragalactic friend, as this galaxy closely resembles our own. We see NGC 6744 almost face-on, meaning we get a dramatic birds eye view of the galaxys structure. If we had the technology to escape the Milky Way and could look down on it from intergalactic space, this view is close to the one we would see striking spiral arms wrapping around a dense, elongated nucleus and a dusty disk. There is even a distorted companion galaxy NGC 6744A, seen here as a smudge to the lower right of NGC 6744, which is reminiscent of one of the Milky Ways neighboring Magellanic Clouds.

Trail of crumbs discovered from potentially hazardous comet

The February Eta Draconids appear to originate from a long-period comet that passes close to Earths orbit. By SETI Institute, Mountain View, California Published: July 29, 2011

This +2 magnitude February Eta Draconid was filmed by Peter Jenniskens with one of the lowlight-level video cameras of the Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance (CAMS) station in Mountain View, California, February 4, 2011. NASA-Ames The Central Bureau issued a telegram July 10 for Astronomical Telegrams of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) announcing that a stream of dust from a potentially dangerous comet impacted Earth for a few hours last February 4. This particular shower happens only once or twice every 60 years, said Peter Jenniskens from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, Mountain View, California. The stream of dust is always there, but quite invisible just outside of Earths orbit. Only when the planets steer the dust in Earths path do we get to know it is there.

Integral challenges physics beyond Einstein

The gamma-ray observatory has placed stringent new limits on the size of quantum grains in space, ruling out some quantum loop gravity theories. By ESA, Noordwijk, Netherlands Published: July 1, 2011

Gamma-ray burst. ESA/SPI Team/ECF The European Space Agencys (ESA) Integral gamma-ray observatory has provided results that will dramatically affect the search for physics beyond Einstein. It has shown that any underlying quantum graininess of space must be at much smaller scales than previously predicted. Einsteins general theory of relativity describes the properties of gravity and assumes that space is a smooth, continuous fabric. Yet quantum theory suggests that space should be grainy at the smallest scales, like sand on a beach. One of the great concerns of modern physics is to marry these two concepts into a single theory of quantum gravity. Now, Integral has placed stringent new limits on the size of these quantum grains in space, showing them to be smaller than some quantum gravity ideas would suggest.

Hubble movies provide unprecedented view of supersonic jets from young stars
Features in the jets structure provide clues about the final stages of a stars birth, offering a peek at how the Sun behaved 4.5 billion years ago. By Hubble ESA, Garching, Germany Published: August 31, 2011

The glowing, clumpy streams of material shown in these images are the signposts of star birth. Credit: NASA/ESA/P. Hartigan (Rice University) Astronomers have combined two decades of Hubble observations to make unprecedented movies revealing never-before-seen details of the birth pangs of new stars. This sheds new light on how stars like the Sun form.

Stars arent shy about sending out birth announcements. They fire off energetic jets of glowing gas traveling at supersonic speeds in opposite directions through space. Although astronomers have looked at still pictures of stellar jets for decades, now they can watch movies, thanks to the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. An international team of scientists led by Patrick Hartigan from Rice University in Houston, Texas, has collected enough high-resolution Hubble images over a 14-year period to stitch together time-lapse movies of young jets ejected from three stars.

Found: Heart of darkness

Astronomers have confirmed that about 1,000 small, dim stars just outside the Milky Way constitute the darkest known galaxy, as well as a treasure-trove of ancient stars. By W. M. Keck Observatory, Kamuela, Hawaii Published: August 1, 2011

This is the portion of sky in which astronomers found the Segue 1 dwarf galaxy. Can you see it? Marla Geha Astronomers using the Keck II telescope have confirmed that Segue 1 is the most dark-matterrich galaxy ever found. Segue 1 is now being watched for glimmers of gamma rays the sort that would indicate dark matter particles colliding. Keck data also shows that Segue 1 stars are unusually low in heavy elements a sign they are old, primitive stars. Astronomers using the 10-meter Keck II telescope in Hawaii have confirmed that a troupe of about 1,000 small, dim stars just outside the Milky Way constitute the darkest known galaxy, as well as something else a treasure-trove of ancient stars. By "dark," astronomers are not referring to how much light the galaxy, called Segue 1, puts out, but the fact that the dwarf galaxy appears to have 3,400 times more mass than can be accounted for by its visible stars. In other words, Segue 1 is mostly an enormous cloud of dark matter decorated with a sprinkling of stars.

Space station provides insight into flame behavior

In space, warm gases do not rise, and molecular diffusion drives flame behavior. By NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Published: November 30, 2011

Color image of a burning droplet. NASA/GRC Whether free-burning or smoldering, uncontrolled fire can threaten life and destroy property. On Earth, a little water, maybe some chemicals, and the fire is smothered. In space, where there is no up or down, flames behave in unconventional ways. And when your entire world is the size of a five-bedroom home like the International Space Station, putting out even a small fire quickly is a life-and-death matter.

Subaru's 3-D view of Stephan's Quintet

To learn about the star-forming regions in the galaxy group and their structure, observers used an extremely narrow band filter. By Subaru Telescope Facility, Hilo, Hawaii Published: November 1, 2011

Figure 1: Composite tricolor images of Stephan's Quintet using H filters with a recession velocity of 0 (left image) and a recession velocity of 4,200 miles (6,700 km) per second (right image). Credit: Subaru Telescope The Subaru Telescope has added another dimension of information about one of the moststudied of all compact galaxy groups Stephans Quintet. Located within the borders of the constellation Pegasus, Stephans Quintet consists of a visual grouping of five galaxies, four of which form a compact galaxy group; one additional galaxy appears in images of the group but is much closer than the others. Refinements in observations of the quintet are revealing more about its members. A comparison of images (the left and right images in Figure 1) compiled using a suite of specialized filters with Subarus Prime Focus Camera (Suprime-Cam) has shown different types of star-formation activity between the closer galaxy NGC 7320 and the more distant galaxies in Stephans Quintet. They show the quintet in 3-D.

NASA's twin spacecraft on final approach for Moon orbit

An instrument aboard each spacecraft will measure the changes in their relative velocity precisely, and scientists will translate this information into a high-resolution map of the Moons gravitational field. By Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Published: December 29, 2011

GRAIL's trajectory to moon Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASAs twin spacecraft to study the Moon from crust to core are nearing their New Years Eve and New Years Day main-engine burns to place the duo in lunar orbit. Named Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL), the spacecraft are scheduled to be placed in orbit beginning at 4:21 p.m. EST for GRAIL-A on December 31 and 5:05 p.m. EST for GRAIL-B the next day. Our team may not get to partake in a traditional New Years celebration, but I expect seeing our two spacecraft safely in lunar orbit should give us all the excitement and feeling of euphoria anyone in this line of work would ever need, said David Lehman from NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

In a star's final days, astronomers hunt "signal of impending doom"

Researchers have been scanning 25 nearby galaxies for stars that brighten and dim in unusual ways in order to catch a few that are about to meet their end. By Ohio State University, Columbus Published: December 1, 2011

This Large Binocular Telescope image below the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) is part of a new galaxy survey by Ohio State University, where astronomers are searching for signs that stars are about to go supernova. The insets show one particular binary star system before (left) and after (right) one of its stars went supernova. Dorota Szczygiel, courtesy of Ohio State University An otherwise nondescript binary star system in the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) has brought astronomers tantalizingly close to their goal of observing a star just before it goes supernova. The latest study provides results from an Ohio State University galaxy survey underway with the Large Binocular Telescope, located in Arizona. In the first survey of its kind, the researchers have been scanning 25 nearby galaxies for stars that brighten and dim in unusual ways in order to catch a few that are about to meet their end. In the three years since the study began, this particular unnamed binary system in the Whirlpool Galaxy was the first among the stars theyve cataloged to produce a supernova.

"Cool" gas may form and strengthen sunspots

Scientists think that molecular hydrogen plays an important role in the formation and evolution of sunspots. By National Solar Observatory, Sunspot, New Mexico Published: January 31, 2012

During the initial stage of sunspot emergence and cooling, the formation of H2 may trigger a temporary "runaway" magnetic field intensification. The magnetic field prevents the flow of energy from inside the Sun to the outside, and the sunspot cools as the energy shines into space. They form hydrogen molecules that take half the volume of the atoms, thus dropping pressure and concentrating the magnetic field. Credit: F. Woeger et al Hydrogen molecules may act as a kind of energy sink that strengthens the magnetic grip that causes sunspots, according to scientists from Hawaii and New Mexico using a new infrared instrument on an old telescope. We think that molecular hydrogen plays an important role in the formation and evolution of sunspots, said Sarah Jaeggli from Montana State University. She conducted the research with Haosheng Lin from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Han Uitenbroek of the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico.

NASA's twin GRAIL spacecraft reunite in lunar orbit

The pair will vastly expand our knowledge of the Moon when science operations begin in March.

By Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Published: January 3, 2012

Artist concept of GRAIL-B performing its lunar orbit insertion burn. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech The second of NASAs two Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft has successfully completed its planned main engine burn and is now in lunar orbit. Working together, GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B will study the Moon as never before. NASA greets the new year with a new mission of exploration, said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. The twin GRAIL spacecraft will vastly expand our knowledge of our Moon and the evolution of our own planet. We begin this year reminding people around the world that

NASA does big, bold things in order to reach for new heights and reveal the unknown.

A star explodes and turns inside out

A team of scientists has mapped the distribution of elements in the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A in unprecedented detail. By Chandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts Published: March 30, 2012

A new study suggests the massive star that became the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant may have turned inside out as it exploded. Comparing a "before" artist's illustration with an "after" image from Chandra shows key elements are in different areas following the explosion. These results are based on a million seconds of Chandra observing time. Credit: Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss; X-ray: NASA/CXC/GSFC/U.Hwang & J.Laming A new X-ray study of the remains of an exploded star indicates that the supernova that disrupted the massive star may have turned it inside out in the process. Using long observations of Cassiopeia A (Cas A), a team of scientists has mapped the distribution elements in the supernova remnant in unprecedented detail. This information shows where the different layers of the presupernova star are located 300 years after the explosion, and provides insight into the nature of the supernova.

Hubble images searchlight beams from a preplanetary nebula

The preplanetary nebula phase is a short period in the cycle of stellar evolution, so there are relatively few of them in existence at any one time. By NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland Published: April 30, 2012

The Egg Nebula. Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been at the cutting edge of research into what happens to stars like our Sun at the ends of their lives. One stage that stars pass through as they

run out of nuclear fuel is called the preplanetary or protoplanetary nebula stage. This Hubble image of the Egg Nebula shows one of the best views to date of this brief but dramatic phase in a stars life.

Stellar archaeology traces Milky Way's history

By studying white dwarfs in our galaxys halo, astronomers reinforced the view that this area of the Milky Way is composed of a layer-cake structure that formed in stages over billions of years. By STScl, Baltimore, Maryland Published: May 31, 2012

This illustration shows the Milky Way Galaxy's inner and outer halos. A halo is a spherical cloud of stars surrounding a galaxy. Astronomers have proposed that the Milky Way's halo is composed of two populations of stars. The age of the stars in the inner halo, according to measurements by the Paranal Observatory, is 11.5 billion years old. The measurements suggest the inner-halo stars are younger than the outer-halo population, some of which could be 13.5 billion years old. Credit: NASA/ESA/A. Feild (STScI) Unfortunately, stars don't have birth certificates. So, astronomers have a tough time figuring out their ages. Knowing a star's age is critical for understanding how our Milky Way Galaxy built itself up over billions of years from smaller galaxies. Jason Kalirai from the Space Telescope Science Institute and The Johns Hopkins University's Center for Astrophysical Sciences, both in Baltimore, Maryland, has found the next best thing to a star's birth certificate. Using a new technique, Kalirai probed the burned-out relics of Sun-like stars, called white dwarfs, in the inner region of our Milky Way Galaxy's halo. The halo is a spherical cloud of stars surrounding our galaxy's disk.

Hubble shows Milky Way is destined for head-on collision with Andromeda Galaxy

The Hubble Space Telescope team conducted extraordinarily precise observations of the sideways motion of M31 that remove any doubt that it is destined to collide and merge with our galaxy. By STScl, Baltimore, Maryland, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Published: June 1, 2012

This photo illustration depicts a view of the night sky just before the predicted merger between our Milky Way Galaxy and the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy. About 3.75 billion years from now, Andromeda's disk fills the field of view and its gravity begins to create tidal distortions in the Milky Way. The view is inspired by dynamical computer modeling of the future collision between the two galaxies. The two galaxies collide about 4 billion years from now and merge to form a single galaxy about 6 billion years from now. Credit: NASA/ESA/Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI)/A. Mellinger NASA astronomers announced Thursday, May 31, that they can now predict with certainty the next major cosmic event to affect our galaxy, the Sun, and the solar system: the titanic collision of our Milky Way Galaxy with the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy (M31). The Milky Way is destined to get a major makeover during the encounter, which is predicted to happen 4 billion years from now. It is likely that the Sun will be flung into a new region of our galaxy, but Earth and the solar system are in no danger of being destroyed.

X-rays discovered from young supernova remnant

The new data suggest a neutron star lurks within supernova remnant SN 1957D, located about 15 million light-years away in spiral galaxy M83. By Chandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama Published: July 30, 2012

Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/STScI/K.Long et al., Optical: NASA/STScI More than 50 years ago, a supernova was discovered in a spiral galaxy about 15 million lightyears from Earth named M83. Astronomers have now used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to detect for the first time X-rays emitted by the debris from this explosion. Named SN 1957D because it was the fourth supernova to be discovered in the year 1957, it is one of only a few such objects located outside of the Milky Way Galaxy that is detectable, in both radio and optical wavelengths, decades after its explosion was observed. In 1981, astronomers saw the remnant of the exploded star in radio waves, and then in 1987 they detected the remnant at optical wavelengths, years after the light from the explosion itself faded.

Saturn and its largest moon reflect their true colors

Now that winter is encroaching on the planet's southern hemisphere and summer on the north, the color scheme is reversing blue is tinting the southern atmosphere and is fading from the north. By NASA/JPL Published: August 31, 2012

A giant of a moon appears before a giant of a planet undergoing seasonal changes in this natural color view of Titan and Saturn from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. // Credit: NASA/JPLCaltech/SSI

Saturn's rings obscure part of Titan's colorful visage in this image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

The recently formed south polar vortex stands out in the color-swaddled atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in this natural color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI Posing for portraits for NASA's Cassini spacecraft, Saturn and its largest moon, Titan, show spectacular colors in new images. One captures the changing hues of Saturn's northern and southern hemispheres as they pass from one season to the next. A wide-angle view captures Titan passing in front of Saturn, as well as the planet's changing colors. Upon Cassini's arrival at Saturn eight years ago, Saturn's northern winter hemisphere was an azure blue. Now that winter is encroaching on the planet's southern hemisphere and summer on the north, the color scheme is reversing blue is tinting the southern atmosphere and is fading from the north.

NASA's Dawn ready for trek toward dwarf planet

The spacecraft leaves Vesta for the dwarf planet Ceres after revealing unprecedented details about the giant asteroid. By NASA/JPL Published: September 4, 2012

This image of NASA's Dawn spacecraft and the giant asteroid Vesta is an artist's concept. Dawn arrived at Vesta on July 15, 2011 PDT (July 16, 2011 EDT), and is set to depart on September 4, 2012 PDT (September 5, 2012 EDT). Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA NASA's Dawn spacecraft is on track to become the first probe to orbit and study two distant solar system destinations, to help scientists answer questions about the formation of our solar system. The spacecraft is scheduled to leave the giant asteroid Vesta today PDT (Sept. 5 EDT) to start its 2.5-year journey to the dwarf planet Ceres. Dawn began its 3-billion-mile (5 billion kilometers) odyssey to explore the two most massive objects in the main asteroid belt in 2007. Dawn arrived at Vesta in July 2011 and will reach

Ceres in early 2015. Dawn's targets represent two icons of the asteroid belt that have been witness to much of our solar system's history.

NGC 6362: stars ancient and modern?

Astronomers are keen to understand the secret of the youthful appearance of certain stars in globular clusters. By ESO, Garching, Germany Published: October 31, 2012

This colorful view of globular cluster NGC 6362 was captured by the Wide Field Imager attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESOs La Silla Observatory in Chile. This brilliant ball of ancient stars lies in the southern constellation Ara the Altar. //Credit: ESO This colorful view of the globular star cluster NGC 6362 was captured by the Wide Field Imager attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the European Southern Observatorys (ESO) La Silla Observatory in Chile. This new picture, along with a new image of the central region from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, provides the best view of this little-known cluster ever obtained. Globular clusters are mainly composed of tens of thousands of ancient stars, but they also contain some stars that look suspiciously young. Globular star clusters are among the oldest objects in the universe, and NGC 6362 cannot hide its age in this picture. The many yellowish stars in the cluster have already run through much of their lives and became red giant stars. But globular clusters are not static relics from the past some curious stellar activities are still going on in these dense star cities.

Spacecraft finds new evidence for water ice on Mercury

The new data indicate that the water ice in Mercurys polar regions, if spread over an area the size of Washington, D.C., would be more than 2 miles thick. By NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Published: November 30, 2012

Image of Mercury's north polar region is shown superposed on a mosaic of MESSENGER images of the same area. All of the larger polar deposits are located on the floors or walls of impact craters. Deposits farther from the pole are seen to be concentrated on the north-facing sides of craters. // Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Arecibo Observatory A NASA spacecraft studying Mercury has provided compelling support for the long-held hypothesis that the planet harbors abundant water ice and other frozen volatile materials within its permanently shadowed polar craters. The new information comes from NASAs MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft. Its onboard instruments have been studying Mercury in unprecedented detail since its historic arrival there in March 2011. Scientists are seeing clearly for the first time a chapter in the story of how the inner planets, including Earth, acquired their water and some of the chemical building blocks for life.