Celebrating Hubble’s silver anniversary EU–(ENEWSPF)–23 April 2015.  This glittering tapestry of young stars exploding into life in a dramatic fireworks display has been released today to celebrate 25 incredible years of the Hubble Space Telescope. The NASA/ESA Hubble was launched into orbit by the Space Shuttle on 24 April 1990.[Read More…]

NASA is exploring our solar system and beyond to understand the workings of the universe, searching for water and life among the stars.  Image Credit: NASA Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–April 7, 2015.  As NASA missions explore our solar system and search for new worlds, they are finding water in surprising places. Water[Read More…]

The artistic concept shows NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft operating in a new mission profile called K2. Using publicly available data, astronomers have confirmed K2’s first exoplanet discovery proving Kepler can still find planets.  Image Credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T Pyle Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–December 18, 2014.  NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft makes a comeback with[Read More…]

Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–June 16, 2014.  After careful consideration and analysis, the Hubble Space Telescope Time Allocation Committee has recommended using Hubble to search for an object the Pluto-bound NASA New Horizons mission could visit after its flyby of Pluto in July 2015. This is an artist’s rendering of the New Horizons[Read More…]

Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–May 2, 2014.  Distant exploding stars observed by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope are providing astronomers with a powerful tool to determine the strength of naturally-occurring “cosmic lenses” that are used to magnify objects in the remote universe. Two teams of astronomers, working independently, observed three such exploding stars, called[Read More…]

The two images at top reveal debris disks around young stars uncovered in archival images taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The illustration beneath each image depicts the orientation of the debris disks. Image Credit: NASA/ESA, R. Soummer, Ann Feild (STScI) Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–April 25, 2014.  Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space[Read More…]

An artist’s rendition shows NASA’s Kepler space telescope. Washington, DC—(ENEWSPF)—February 26, 2014. NASA’s Kepler mission announced Wednesday the discovery of 715 new planets. These newly-verified worlds orbit 305 stars, revealing multiple-planet systems much like our own solar system. Nearly 95 percent of these planets are smaller than Neptune, which is[Read More…]

Formula One race EU–(ENEWSPF)–6 August 2013.  Thanks to advanced electrical wiring developed for space, some racing drivers are now steering sleeker and potentially faster cars in competitions here on Earth.   Sophisticated wiring techniques developed for ESA satellites are now used in Formula One cars, improving their performance and weight.[Read More…]

Herschel and Vela C EU–(ENEWSPF)–29 April 2013.  ESA’s Herschel space observatory has exhausted its supply of liquid helium coolant, ending more than three years of pioneering observations of the cool Universe. The event was not unexpected: the mission began with over 2300 litres of liquid helium, which has been slowly[Read More…]

Washington, D.C.-(ENEWSPF)- 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.[Read More…]