Latest Space telescopes Stories

GREENBELT, Md., April 17, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) satellite arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Tuesday, April 16, to begin its final preparations for launch currently scheduled no earlier than May 28. IRIS will improve our understanding of how heat and energy move through the deepest levels of the sun's atmosphere, thereby increasing our ability to forecast space weather. (Logo:...

WASHINGTON, April 16, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Researchers using the airborne Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) have captured the most detailed mid-infrared images yet of a massive star condensing within a dense cocoon of dust and gas. (Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The star is G35.20-0.74, commonly known as G35. It is one of the most massive known protostars and is located relatively close to Earth at a distance of...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A critical design test for an infrared sensor that could improve NASA's future ability to detect and track asteroids and comets has been passed. The Near Earth Object Camera's (NEOCam) performance in an environment that mimicked the temperatures and pressures of deep space were assessed by the test. NEOCam will be the key instrument for a proposed new asteroid-hunting space-based telescope for which design and capability details have...

PASADENA, Calif., April 15, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An infrared sensor that could improve NASA's future detecting and tracking of asteroids and comets has passed a critical design test. (Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The test assessed performance of the Near Earth Object Camera (NEOCam) in an environment that mimicked the temperatures and pressures of deep space. NEOCam is the cornerstone instrument for a proposed new space-based...

SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Between March 18 and April 8, Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] invited fans to participate in "Innovation Madness," a tournament-style competition to vote for the ultimate Lockheed Martin innovation on the company's Facebook page. Approximately 32 innovations from Lockheed Martin's storied 100-year history were featured in the tournament, which was part of the corporation's year-long centennial commemoration. The venerable Hubble Space...

[ Watch the Video: The Sounds of the Big Bang in High Fidelity ] April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online "If the Universe started with a bang, and no one was alive yet to observe it, would it still make a sound?" It sounds like the start of a really cliché joke, but the answer, surprisingly, is yes. Scientists believe the expanding early Universe produced waves of sound that echoed through the dense plasma and hydrogen that filled it at the time. Obviously, these...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The European Space Agency's (ESA) Herschel space observatory has snapped images of a dust belt orbiting a subgiant star that hosts a planetary system. The space observatory's sensitive far-infrared detection helped astronomers resolve bright emission around Kappa Coronae Borealis, indicating the presence of a dusty debris disc. The star is a little heavier than our own Sun at 1.5 solar masses, is around 2.5 billion years old, and sits...

NASA's Astrophysics Explorer Program has selected two missions for launch in 2017: a planet-hunting satellite and an International Space Station instrument to observe X-rays from stars. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) were among four concept studies submitted in September 2012. NASA determined these two offer the best scientific value and most feasible development plans. TESS will use an array of telescopes to...

WASHINGTON, April 5, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Astrophysics Explorer Program has selected two missions for launch in 2017: a planet-hunting satellite and an International Space Station instrument to observe X-rays from stars. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) were among four concept studies submitted in September 2012. NASA determined these two...

GREENBELT, Md., April 3, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The public is invited to experience "Stars and Planets Everywhere! Finding Other Worlds Beyond Our Solar System," a free event on April 10 at the Visitor Center at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The lecture will be presented by Jennifer Wiseman, senior astrophysicist at NASA Goddard. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) "It's amazing: The discovery of planets outside our solar...