Here’s a nice shot of the Star Dust capsule taken during its recent re-entry. If you’ve got a moment, click here to view a nice video that was taken by NASA scientists aboard a DC-8 airborne laboratory. Scientists hope to learn about the formative years of our solar system as they study the cometary [...]

Astronomers recently announced the discovery of the smallest extra-solar planet yet. With a mass just 5 times that of Earth, the discovery is miles away from the Jupiter sized planets that have been the mainstay of extra-solar discoveries. Don’t make any vacation plans yet though…. The new planet has a huge orbit around a faint [...]

The ringed planet Saturn reaches opposition tomorrow night. Opposition simply means that Saturn is opposite the Sun in the sky. So… as the Sun is setting in the west, the planet Saturn is rising in the east. Saturn and its beautiful rings are an easy target for even the most modest of telescopes. Best view [...]

(NASA) The following is a statement by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin on NASA’s Day of Remembrance. The Day or Remembrance honors those who gave their lives for the cause of exploration and discovery. This includes NASA employees, the astronauts who died in Apollo 1 and on the Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia. "Today we pause [...]

(NASA) NASA’s Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have been working overtime to help scientists better understand ancient environmental conditions on the red planet. The rovers are also generating excitement about the exploration of Mars outlined in NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration. The rovers continue to find new variations of bedrock in areas they are exploring [...]

A smallish 19% illuminated crescent Moon was found among the stars of the constellation Scorpius this morning. A bit of Earthshine was clearly evident. Earthshine is sunlight reflecting off of the Earth onto the non sun lit portion of the moon. Look for the Moon to pose alongside the planet Venus tomorrow morning when it [...]

Saturn’s icy moon Epimetheus sits just below the rings in this sweet shot taken by the
orbiting Cassini Spacecraft. The planet Saturn is currently rising
around 5:30pm and can be found high in the eastern sky shortly after dark among the stars of the constellation Cancer. Even the most modest of telescopes will
reveal its [...]

The Moon spent the night crossing the sky with the giant planet Jupiter. Events like this are known as conjunctions… and occur to varying degrees every month. No special equipment is required to view these events… though a telescope will allow you to take a closer look at the participants separately.

Under the direction of NASA and MIT, NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing
Explorer gathered
a decade’s worth of data on x-ray emissions from the Milky Way. In a
fascinating
time
lapse movie,
we are able to see the brightest x-ray sources in our galaxy! The
blinking lights indicate
changing x-ray emission intensities, thought to be caused by
variations in the amount of matter being crushed [...]

Park City based non-profit Swaner Nature Preserve and Utah Skies will co-present an evening of snowshoeing and star gazing this Friday, January 20th. “Last year’s trips were a lot of fun for everyone that participated, and extremely well received,” said Utah Skies co-founder Don Brown. Friday night’s event will include a nice mix of snowshoeing [...]