Soyuz Spacecraft Returning to Earth with US-Russian Crew

A Soyuz spacecraft has undocked from the International Space Station and is preparing to descend into Earth's atmosphere to return an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts back home after nearly five months living in orbit. The undocking tonight (March 15) occurred smoothly, but one day later than planned, due to freezing rain and fog at the Soyuz's landing site on the steppes of Kazakhstan in Central Asia, which delayed the departure....

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New update on comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS)

Comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS), discovered by Pan-STARRS 1 telescope on Haleakala, Maui, on the night of 2011, June 5-6, will reach perihelion in March 2013 when it will be located only 0.30 AU from the Sun and might become a bright naked eye object ( with a peak magnitude of anywhere from +1 to -1). At its brightest C/2011 L4 will appear only 15° from the Sun. The comet is now at 3.2 AU from the Sun (m2 ~ 14.0). While visually C/2011 L4 is...

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Mars Science Laboratory

Different Tools for Different Purposes on Mars This set of images from Mars shows the handiwork of different tools on three missions to the surface of Mars. The action of each of the tools has sometimes been referred to as drilling, but the functions of the tools have been different for each mission. On the left is a rock on which NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used the rock abrasion tool on the rover's robotic arm. Opportunity...

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Most Earth-like planet

  Classed as a “super-Earth,” candidate planet KOI (Kepler Object of Interest) 172.02 orbits within the habitable zone of a sun-like star. This means the planet, which has yet to be confirmed by follow-up observations, could have liquid water on its surface, thought to be essential for life. KOI 172.02 is about 1.5 times the diameter of Earth. The planet orbits its star at a distance of 0.75 astronomical units, or about three-fourths...

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ImpaCt Risk

Recently Observed Objects(within past 60 days)   Object Designation YearRange PotentialImpacts ImpactProb.(cum.) Vinfinity(km/s) H(mag) Est.Diam.(km) PalermoScale(cum.) PalermoScale(max.) TorinoScale(max.) 2013 BP73 2078-2107 9 1.7e-05 20.69 20.2 0.310 -2.42 -2.70 0 2013 BL18 2070-2092 5 9.4e-06 14.19 26.0 0.022 -5.58 -5.80 0 2012 UE34 2095-2105 7 4.5e-07 5.50 23.1 0.081 ...

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SpaceGallary

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The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA)

Credit: SDO(NASA)/AIA consortium The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) on the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is designed to provide an unprecedented view of the solar corona, taking images that span at least 1.3 solar diameters in multiple wavelengths nearly simultaneously. he AIA 193 channel takes images of the Sun at 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) which highlights the outer atmosphere of the Sun – called the corona – as well...

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Earth Impact in 2036 for Asteroid Apophis

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA scientists at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., effectively have ruled out the possibility the asteroid Apophis will impact Earth during a close flyby in 2036. The scientists used updated information obtained by NASA-supported telescopes in 2011 and 2012, as well as new data from the time leading up to Apophis' distant Earth flyby yesterday (Jan. 9). Discovered in 2004, the asteroid, which...

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