A pair of neat developments hit the wires today — one expanding on the previous discovery of new rings around the planet Uranus (originally published back in December via Hubble Telescope observations), both involving Saturn’s rings.
First up: Blue ring discovered around Uranus

Image Credit: Imke de Pater, Heidi Hammel, Seran Gibbard, Mark Showalter, Science
The outermost ring […]

An intriguing possibility addressing planetary formation has been released today thanks to observations of a distant pulsar performed by the Spitzer Telescope:

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC)
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has uncovered new evidence that planets might rise up out of a dead star’s ashes.
The infrared telescope surveyed the scene around a pulsar, the remnant of […]

Side view of the 70m antenna at Goldstone, California. Image credit: NASA/JPL
Part of NASA’s Deep Space Network, the Goldstone antenna celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. These facilities have been instrumental in relaying communications and data back to Earth from a host of missions, manned and robotic, spanning the last four decades.
This week’s JPL podcast […]

Destination: ISS. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
After Wednesday’s successful launch from Kazakhstan, the Soyuz spacecraft carrying the Expedition 13 crew is scheduled to dock with the station tonight at 11:19 p.m. EST. Live coverage of the docking begins at 10 p.m. Eastern on NASA TV.
What a fantastic photo!
If you’ve never witnessed spacecraft docking with the International […]

Image Credit: William K. Hartmann; Courtesy of UCLA
Whew!
It appeared the DAWN mission had been officially cancelled back on March 3rd. Several days later, NASA agreed to review that decision, a move apparently made possible via new management procedures implemented by the agency’s Administrator, Michael Griffin. NASA announced today that the mission has been reinstated.
The full […]

After successfully entering orbit back on March 10th, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter returned its first images of the red planet today! The spacecraft won’t achieve its optimum science orbit until this November, so these first views will have to last us a while. And, rest assured it will be well worth the wait. The images below […]

The Pegasus rocket carrying ST5 drops away from the L-1011 carrier aircraft known as “Stargazer.” Image credit: NASA
ST5 Launch Status Update
Pegasus is away! At 9:03 a.m. EST, the Pegasus rocket carrying three ST5 micro-satellites dropped from its carrier jet.
All three of the ST5 satellites have deployed from the Pegasus rocket and are orbiting Earth. Next, […]