An artist's concept of what planet TrES-2b might look like

Faraway Planet is Blackest Yet Found

The planet, TrES-2b, is a gas giant about the size of Jupiter. But that’s where the similarities end

Wernher von Braun would come to personify NASA's space exploration program.

Wernher von Braun’s V-2 Rocket

Although the Nazi “vengeance weapon” was a wartime failure, it ushered in the space age

Astronaut Alan Shepard in his pressure suit, for the Mercury-Redstone 3 (MR-3) flight, the first American manned space flight. On May 5, 1961, Shepard piloted the Freedom 7 mission and became the second person, and the first American, to travel into space.

On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard Went to Outer Space and Came Home

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first American in space

None

Hubble Takes New Pluto Pics

None

Picture of the Week—The Kappa Crucis Cluster, a.k.a. the “Jewel Box”

The Abbé Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille was the first to find this cluster of stars in 1751 while on an astronomical expedition to the Cape of Good Hope

The robotic Cassini spacecraft which is now orbiting Saturn looked back toward the eclipsed Sun and saw a view unlike any other.

Fantastic Photos of our Solar System

In the past decade, extraordinary space missions have found water on Mars, magnetic storms on Mercury and volcanoes on the moons of Saturn

None

Picture of the Week—Christmas Tree Cluster

If it is clear out tonight, grab your binoculars or a telescope and look up at the constellation of Monoceros, the Unicorn

None

Sixteen Years of Black Hole Watching Pays Off

How do you prove that a black hole exists? It is so dense, not even light can escape its grasp

None

From the Castle

Hello? Hello?

Since early 2004, the Mars rovers have gathered images of rocks and terrain where water, the presumed prerequisite of life, once flowed (an artist's rendition).

Life Beyond Earth

An ocean on Mars. An Earth-like planet light years away. The evidence is mounting, but are astronomers ready to say we’re not alone?

The surface of Wild 2 is pockmarked with craters.

Clues from a Comet

The first mission to collect space matter from beyond the moon offers insights into the solar system’s creation

This image of the Sun's outermost layer, or corona, was taken June 10, 1998, by TRACE (Transition Region and Coronal Explorer). The Earth-orbiting NASA spacecraft, launched two months earlier, has an unobstructed view of the Sun eight months of the year. It is helping to solve the mystery of why the Sun's corona is so much hotter (3.6 million degrees Farenheit) than its surface (11,000 degrees Farenheit). TRACE is also shedding light on solar storms, which damage satellites and disrupt power transmissions.

Celestial Sightseeing

From Triton’s active geysers to the Sun’s seething flares, newly enhanced images from U.S. and foreign space probes depict the solar system as never before

Page 78 of 79