European Association for Astronomy Education

Source: NASA

The new images of comet Temple 1.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

NASA's Stardust spacecraft returned new images of a comet showing a scar resulting from the 2005 Deep Impact mission. The images also showed the comet has a fragile and weak nucleus.

The spacecraft made its closest approach to comet Tempel 1 on Monday, Feb. 14, at 8:40 p.m. PST at a distance of approximately 111 miles. Stardust took 72 high-resolution images of the comet. It also accumulated 468 kilobytes of data about the dust in its coma, the cloud that is a comet's atmosphere. The craft is on its second mission of exploration called Stardust-NExT, having completed its prime mission collecting cometary particles and returning them to Earth in 2006.(read more)

Source: ESA

Crew training for 'Marswalk' at the simulated martian terrain of the Mars500 experiment.
Credits: ESA / IPMB

Three crewmembers of the virtual flight to Mars have 'landed' on their destination planet and two of them today took their first steps on the simulated martian terrain. The highlight of the Mars500 mission lasted for one hour and 12 minutes, starting at 11:00 (UTC).(read more)

Source: NASA

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

Nebulae are enormous clouds of dust and gas occupying the space between the stars. Some have pretty names to match their good looks, for example the Rose nebula, while others have much more utilitarian names. Such is the case with LBN 114.55+00.22, an emission nebula. Unlike a reflection nebula, which reflects light from nearby stars, an emission nebula that emits light,  seen here in an image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. Emission nebulae are usually found in the disks of spiral galaxies, and are places where new stars are forming.

Named after the astronomer who published a catalogue of nebulae in 1965, LBN stands for "Lynds Bright nebula." The numbers 114.55+00.22 refer to nebula's coordinates in our Milky Way galaxy, serving as a sort of galactic home address. (see image source)

Source: NASA Science News

One year ago, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory amazed observers when it destroyed a sundog en route to orbit. A new analysis of the event is shedding light on the surprising way rocket shock-waves interact with clouds.(read more)

EAAE has launched a new edition of the astronomical contest “Catch a star!” .

“Catch a Star!” is a contest that has been held as a result of the collaboration between the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE) and European Southern Observatory (ESO). This project

“Catch a Star!” includes more than one competition, so there is something for everyone. The idea of the program is to encourage students to work together, to learn about astronomy and discover things for themselves by researching information. The goal of the European Astronomy Contest "Catch a Star" is to stimulate the creativity and independent work of students, to strengthen and expand their astronomical knowledge and skills, and to help spread the use of information technologies in the educational process. We invite for participation in the contest all students who have studied in European countries during the current year and have a strong interest in astronomy and information technology. The contest includes developing and presenting astronomy projects online. The students will write a report about an astronomical object, phenomenon, observation, scientific problem, or theory, etc. The students may also wish to include practical activities such as their own observations. They will create the project's report as PDF document and upload it online on the website's application form. The student teams who prepare the best projects will receive exciting prizes. For the first time we can provide to student teams the opportunity to work as real astronomers.

The special grand prize is one observational session on the 2-meter Faulkes telescopes. The Director of the Team of the 2-meter Faulkes telescopes project will provide one observational session on the Faulkes telescopes in Hawaii and Australia. We are very grateful to Sarah Roberts, the astronomer from the team of the 2-meter Faulkes telescope project for her help and collaboration. The Director of the National Astronomical Observatory “Rozhen” in Bulgaria will provide three prizes, which are free remote 3x60 minutes observational sessions with the 2-meter RCC telescope; the 50/70 cm Schmidt telescope and the Cassegrain telescope “Zeiss-600”. The Director of the Educational office of ESO will provide three very interesting astronomical books and 10 astronomical DVDs. We are very grateful to these astronomical organizations for their exclusive prizes and we are convinced that the students will work hard to win. The deadline for participants to fill the form with their work is Monday, 1st July 2011, at 17:00 Central European Time. We wish students success in their work and an enjoyable experience! Project's webpage: http://www.eaae-astronomy.org/cas/

Source: ESA

Image credits: JAXA, ESA

As we approach Valentine's Day, Space Agencies do their best to gives images that are related to the occasion. After NASA's announcement of the close encounter between  the close encounter between the Stardust spacecraft and comet Tempel 1, ESA has today released a beautiful image of a romantically shaped  island.

The small heart-shaped island of Galešnjak is featured in this image acquired by ALOS – Japan's four-tonne Earth observation satellite. The 500 m-wide island is situated off the Croatian coast in the Adriatic Sea.

Since its recent rise in popularity due to satellite images, the privately owned island has become a big hit in the media and with romantic tourists. Local media report the owner has received numerous requests from couples wanting to celebrate St Valentine’s Day there. (read more)

Source: NASA/Chandra

Arp 147 contains a spiral galaxy (right) that collided with an elliptical galaxy (left), triggering a wave of star formation.
Image credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/S.Rappaport et al, Optical: NASA/STScI

Just in time for Valentine's Day comes a new image of a ring -- not of jewels -- but of black holes. This composite image of Arp 147, a pair of interacting galaxies located about 430 million light years from Earth, shows X-rays from the NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (pink) and optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, blue) produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). (read more)

Source: NASA

The first image of comet Tempel 1 taken by NASA's Stardust spacecraft
made from observations on Jan. 18 and 19, 2011. The panel on the right
highlights the location of comet Tempel 1 in the frame.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Stardust probe will flyby Tempel 1 and give scientists an opportunity to look for changes on the comet's surface since it was visited by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft in July 2005. Since then, Tempel 1 has completed one orbit of the sun, and scientists are looking forward to monitoring any differences in the comet.

On January 18 and 19 Stardust captured its first images of Comet Temple 1 from a distance of 26.3 million kilometers (16.3 million miles), and 25.4 million kilometers (15.8 million miles) respectively. On February 14, Stardust will fly within about 200 kilometers of the comet's nucleus.

During its 12 years in space, Stardust became the first spacecraft to collect samples of a comet (Wild 2) in 2004, which were sent in 2006 to Earth for study. (read more)

Source: UAU 1101-News Release

The European Union (EU) has granted 1.9 million euros to support the 6-country educational programme EUNAWE, based on Universe Awareness (UNAWE). UNAWE is, an IAU-endorsed programme that uses the beauty and grandeur of the Universe to encourage young children, particularly those from an underprivileged background, to have an interest in science and technology and foster their sense of global citizenship from the earliest age. Although UNAWE was only founded five years ago, it is already active in 40 countries and comprises a global network of almost 500 astronomers, teachers and other educators. (read more)

Source: NASA

On Super Sun-day, NASA's STEREO spacecraft moved into position to photograph the entire sun--front and back. Researchers say this is a transforming moment in solar physics that could lead to big advances in space weather forecasting.(read more)

Source: NASA/JPL

NASA and ESA are preparing a new joint venture too study Jupiter and its moons. The baseline EJSM consists of two primary flight elements operating in the Jovian system: the NASA-led Jupiter Europa Orbiter (JEO), and the ESA-led Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter (JGO). JEO and JGO will execute a choreographed exploration of the Jupiter System before settling into orbit around Europa and Ganymede, respectively. JEO and JGO carry 11 and 10 complementary instruments, respectively, to monitor dynamic phenomena (such as Io’s volcanoes and Jupiter’s atmosphere), map the Jovian magnetosphere and its interactions with the Galilean satellites, and characterize water oceans beneath the ice shells of Europa and Ganymede.(read more)

Credit: ESA

Arabia Terra on Mars. Image credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum).

ESA’s Mars Express has returned new views of pedestal craters in the Red Planet’s eastern Arabia Terra.

Craters are perhaps the quintessential planetary geological feature. So much so that early planetary geologists expended a lot of effort to understand them. You could say they put craters on a pedestal. This latest image of Mars shows how the Red Planet does it in reality.

Craters are the result of impacts by asteroids, comets and meteorites. In a pedestal crater, the surrounding terrain is covered by pulverised rock thrown out of the crater. This material creates a platform or pedestal around the crater often with steep cliffs, and is usually rich in volatile materials such as water and ice.

Arabia Terra is part of the highlands of Mars, stretching east to west across 4500 km in the northern hemisphere, and named for a feature drawn on Giovanni Schiaparelli’s 19th-century map of Mars.

The whole area is characterised by steep-sided hills, valleys and ancient impact craters that have been extensively resurfaced by old lava flows and modified by profound erosion over millions of years. The eastern areas rise up to 4 km above the low-lying north-western parts. To the north, Arabia Terra drops and blends into the northern lowlands.

Pedestal craters are visible in this new view of a 159 km by 87 km region of eastern Arabia Terra, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter.(read hole article at ESA)

Source: NASA News

NASA will score big on super SUN-day at 11 a.m. EST, Sunday, Feb. 6, with the release online of the first complete view of the sun's entire surface and atmosphere.

Seeing the whole sun front and back simultaneously will enable significant advances in space weather forecasting for Earth, and improve planning for future robotic or crewed spacecraft missions throughout the solar system.

These views are the result of observations by NASA's two Solar TErrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft. The duo are on diametrically opposite sides of the sun, 180 degrees apart. One is ahead of Earth in its orbit, the other trailing behind.(read more)

Source: NASA/Cassini

Titan, the orange moon peeks from behind two of Saturn's rings.
Small, battered Epimetheus appears just above the rings.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Every day is a bad-air day on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Blanketed by haze far worse than any smog belched out in Los Angeles, Beijing or even Sherlock Holmes's London, the moon looks like a dirty orange ball. Described once as crude oil without the sulfur, the haze is made of tiny droplets of hydrocarbons with other, more noxious chemicals mixed in. Gunk.

Icky as it may sound, Titan is really the rarest of gems: the only moon in our solar system with an atmosphere worthy of a planet. This atmosphere comes complete with lightning, drizzle and occasionally a big, summer-downpour style of cloud made of methane or ethane -- hydrocarbons that are best known for their role in natural gas.

Now, thin, wispy clouds of ice particles, similar to Earth's cirrus clouds, are being reported by Carrie Anderson and Robert Samuelson at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The findings, published February 1 in Icarus, were made using the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS) on NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Unlike Titan's brownish haze, the ice clouds have the pearly white appearance of freshly fallen snow. Their existence is the latest clue to the workings of Titan's intriguing atmosphere and its one-way "cycle" that delivers hydrocarbons and other organic compounds to the ground as precipitation. Those compounds don't evaporate to replenish the atmosphere, but somehow the supply has not run out (read more).

Source: ESA

An artist's impression of XMM-Newton.
Credits: ESA - C. Carreau

Astronomers gazing deep into the night sky to uncover the Universe's secrets will soon be able to discover even more star-births and planets thanks to new telescopes being built in Chile and Mexico drawing on space technology.(read more)

Source: ESA

Mars500 crewmembers testing the Russian Orlan suits
before their mission started in early June 2010.
Credits: IBMP/ Oleg Voloshin

The first full-duration simulation of a manned voyage to Mars has reached a major milestone: the 'spacecraft' yesterday 'arrived' at Mars after 244 days of virtual interplanetary flight. Three crewmembers will 'land' on Mars on 12 February and make three sorties onto simulated martian terrain. (read more)

Source: NASA Kepler

Kepler's planet candidates by size.
Image credit: NASA/Wendy Stenzel

NASA's Kepler mission has discovered its first Earth-size planet candidates and its first candidates in the habitable zone, a region where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface. Five of the potential planets are near Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of smaller, cooler stars than our sun.(read more)

Source: NASA/WISE

20 Comets discovered by the NEOWISE portion of the WISE mission.
Image Credit: Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

NASA's NEOWISE mission has completed its survey of small bodies, asteroids and comets, in our solar system. The mission's discoveries of previously unknown objects include 20 comets, more than 33,000 asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, and 134 near-Earth objects (NEOs). The NEOs are asteroids and comets with orbits that come within 28 million miles of Earth's path around the Sun.(read more)

Source: ESA

CryoSat is able to measure the freeboard (the height protruding
above the water) of floating sea ice with its sensitive altimeter.
From the freeboard, the ice thickness can be estimated.
Credits: ESA /AOES Medialab

Scientists can now tap into a flow of new data that will help to determine exactly how Earth's ice is changing. This information from ESA's CryoSat mission is set to make a step change in our understanding of the complex relationship between ice and climate. (read more)