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NASA News Index

Date	Title	Summary
March 1, 2003	Musical Satellites	If light were sound, then chemicals would play chords. Water: C major. Cyanide: A minor. Chlorophyll: G diminished 7th. (Please note that the choice of chords here is only for the sake of illustration, and not meant to reflect the actual spectra of these chemicals.)
April 1, 2003	Eggs in the Air	The sky will be filled with flying eggs on May 10, 2003, when a thousand students converge on The Plains, Virginia, for the first-ever national high school rocketry competition.
June 1, 2003	Monster Trucks on Mars	We all know what Mars rovers look like now: Robotic platforms, bristling with scientific instruments, trundling along on small metallic wheels. Planetary rovers of the future, however, might look a little different-like miniature monster trucks!
July 1, 2003	From the Belly of an Airplane: Galaxies	On April 28th a NASA spacecraft named GALEX left Earth. Its mission: to learn how galaxies are born, how they grow, and how they die.
Aug. 1, 2003	In Search of Alien Oceans	A robotic submarine plunges into the dark ocean of a distant world, beaming back humanity's first views from an alien ocean. The craft's floodlights pierce the silty water, searching for the first, historic sign of extraterrestrial life.
Sept. 1, 2003	Careful Planning and Quick Improvisation Succeed in Space Biz	On December 18, 2001, ground controllers at JPL commanded NASA's Deep Space 1 (DS1) spacecraft to go to sleep. "It was a bittersweet moment," recalls Marc Rayman, the DS1 project manager. Everyone was exhausted, including Deep Space 1, which for three years had taken Rayman and his team on the ride of their lives.
Oct. 1, 2003	Frisbees in Space	When Pete Rossoni was a kid he loved to throw Frisbees. Most kids do - it's pure fun. But in Pete's case it was serious business. He didn't know it, but he was practicing for his future career in space exploration.
Nov. 1, 2003	Where No Spacecraft Has Gone Before	In 1977, Voyager 1 left our planet. Its mission: to visit Jupiter and Saturn and to study their moons. The flybys were an enormous success.
Oct. 1, 2005	A Wrinkle in Space-Time	When a star goes supernova it sheds 90 percent of its mass. It also sheds 90 percent of its gravitational field. Can scientists detect that too?
Nov. 1, 2005	Voices from the Cacophony	The LISA mission's three spacecraft, planned for launch in 2015, will detect gravitational waves coming from many directions and from thousands of sources simultaneously. How will astronomers sort them out and use them to learn about black holes, colliding galaxies, and the Big Bang?
Dec. 1, 2005	A New View of the Andromeda Galaxy	Think Andromeda is a beautiful spiral galaxy? Think again! The GALEX view of Andromeda (M31) shows something quite different. What does this UV telescope see in Andromeda that ordinary visible light telescopes do not?
Jan. 1, 2006	Whirlwind Disaster	Where do these monster storms we call hurricanes come from? Why do they always form near the equator and only during certain times of the year? How do they come to be so organized and so destructive? You can find answers to these questions and play an exciting hurricane word game called "Whirlwind Disaster" at the SciJinks Weather Laboratory Web site.
Feb. 1, 2006	Snowstorm on Pluto	Chicken Little would be telling the truth on Pluto. When it snows, the entire sky, or at least the atmosphere, does fall down! Will NASA's New Horizon spacecraft get to Pluto before the snowstorm?
March 1, 2006	Planets in Strange Places	The Spitzer Space Telescope has found planetary disks around stars that run the gamut from brown dwarfs that are barely stars at all to hypergiant stars whose solar winds by all rights should blow any planet-making materials far into interstellar space. The Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered a hypergiant star 70 times the mass of the Sun.
May 1, 2006	Not a Moment Wasted	Putting XMM-Newton's slew tracks together, astronomers will be able to construct an x-ray map of 80% of the entire sky.
Oct. 1, 2006	Halloween is a big night for astronomers	What do May Day, Groundhog Day, Lammas Day, and Halloween all have in common? They are special holidays discovered by ancient astronmers thousands of years ago.
May 1, 2007	The Ions of Dawn	This summer, NASA will launch a probe bound for two unexplored worlds in our solar system's asteroid belt-giant asteroids Ceres and Vesta. The probe, called Dawn, will orbit first one body and then the other in a never-before-attempted maneuver.
July 1, 2007	Ultraviolet Surprise	Imagine having so much money flowing into your bank account that you don't have time to count it, much less spend it. Well, astronomers-including you-have something even better: A huge archive of new images of the universe in ultraviolet light from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer. Maybe you will be next to discover something as surprising as a 13-light-year-long ultraviolet-emitting tail following a star that astronomers only thought they knew.
Aug. 1, 2007	Cosmic Cockroaches	No one knows exactly how life got started on Earth. But we do know that certain kinds of carbon-based molecules had to have been here first. Where did they come from? Could it be that we owe our lives to organic molecules hearty enough to survive a supernova? Read about these tough little atomic constructions that are seen in space in surprising abundance.
Sept. 1, 2007	A Missile in Your Eye	An imaging spectrometer developed to analyze missile exhaust is also useful for analyzing blood oxygenation in the human eye.
Oct. 1, 2007	The Red (Hot?) Planet	Dozens of high, volcanic mountains stand in testimony to a much more violent, and certainly warmer, past on Mars. But that was hundreds of millions of years ago. Or was it? Could lava still be flowing somewhere on Mars? Read how the Mars Odyssey spacecraft now in orbit has been equipped to find out.
Nov. 1, 2007	Going My Way?	You might think choosing a rocket to boost a spacecraft on its way would be the last piece of a mission's design. On the contrary, it's one of the first. The laws of physics and economics being what they are, the spacecraft itself may well have to be designed around the kind of ride to space that can be procured for it. Procured by whom? In this case, the program architect. Find out a bit about this complicated task at the very beginning of a new mission.
Dec. 1, 2007	Challenge Yourself with Weather Slyders	The Dust Bowl. Hot, loopy solar gases. Killer Katrina. Combining dramatic images of Earth and space weather with the challenge of an old-fashioned slider puzzle, the new "Slyder" game on the SciJinks Weather Laboratory website will capture the attention of any middle-schooler--and maybe even their parents and teachers.
Feb. 1, 2008	Invisible Spiral Arms	As if spiral galaxies aren't splendid and mysterious enough in visible light, astronomers have recently discovered that many of them are really up to three times larger than they appear. New ultraviolet images from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer spacecraft are revealing new star formation going on far, far from what was thought to be the edge of many galaxies. Read about this exciting and mysterious discovery.
March 1, 2008	Tracking Wildlife from Space	If you are a gym person, walker, or runner and use an MP3 player to keep up your pace, you know how miniscule these electronic wonders have become. They weight hardly anything. Well, the same is true of today's simple radio transmitters. They are now so tiny they can be safely and comfortably fitted onto birds to help track their migration patterns from space. Endangered species of birds and other animals are benefiting from technology too, as scientists use these new ways to study them and figure out ways to protect them. Read the article about the cooperative space mission to help endangered species.
April 1, 2008	Stellar Compass for Space Explorers	In most businesses, time equals money. In the space business, weight (or mass) equals money. So spacecraft designers are always trying to come up with ways to make the spacecraft's vital systems smaller, lighter, and less power-hungry. One of those vital instruments is the stellar compass. Read the article and find out how a radically new technology can replace those traditional three spinning wheels.
Aug. 1, 2008	A Google for Satellites: Sensor Web 2.0	Perhaps you have played around with Google Earth, zooming in on your own neighborhood, finding your own house, checking up on your neighbor's alginous swimming pool. But the images you see may be old. Some places may not have clear images at all. Now, imagine if you could Google the exact real-time data you wanted, have an Earth observing satellite capture the image (perhaps using the very latest high-tech imagers), and prepare you a customized map in a matter of hours. Read about how NASA is working on just such a Google-like portal, and its vast potential for environmental and humanitarian benefits.
Nov. 1, 2008	Exploding Comet	What would cause a comet to explode? That's what astronomers had been trying to figure out since Comet 17P/Holmes was seen doing just that in October 2007. Now they believe they have an answer: A sudden change of phase of the ice in a cavern deep inside the comet. Read the article and find out what evidence has led astronomers to this theory.
Jan. 1, 2009	Severe Space Weather	When your neighborhood has a power outage, you can usually be thankful that at least your toilet works. However, if the power outage is widespread enough and of long enough duration, that may not be the case. Find out what could happen to our high-tech civilization in the case of a “hundred-year” super solar storm.
Feb. 1, 2009	The Future Has Arrived!	Many of the advanced technologies making today's space missions possible were first flown on the amazing Deep Space 1 mission. Although primarily a testbed for validating technologies in space, Deep Space 1 went far beyond its original mission and actually became a science mission as well. Read about the first of a kind Dawn mission that uses one of Deep Space 1's primary technologies.
March 1, 2009	Apollo Upgrade	We got to the Moon several times back in the 70s. So why can't we just return using the same technologies that got us there in the first place? Well, now it's just not considered adequate to go to the Moon with a 4-Mb RAM computer! Those 70s technologies just won't cut it anymore. Find out about some of the new technologies NASA is designing to fit their upgraded ambitions for a lunar outpost.
April 1, 2009	Swiss Army Knife of Weather Satellites	NASA and NOAA's latest polar-orbiting weather satellite does a lot more than just monitor the weather. Volcanoes, crops, icebergs, solar flares, and people in need of rescue are just some of the additional situations the new NOAA-19 sees and reports. Find out how it is filling the gap until the first of a new, even more capable line of satellites is ready.
Aug. 1, 2009	A Planet Named Easterbunny?	Is there really a "gentle Bunny Planet," as told in the children's story by Rosemary Wells? Actually, there is! Or was, for a while. How do planets, dwarf planets, and other celestial objects get their names, anyway? Are there rules? Or can the discoverers just name them for their favorite fairy tale character or pet? Find out in this article.
Sept. 1, 2009	Just Warming Up	Most of us would not consider that raising the temperature of something from -271°C to -243°C to be exactly warming things up. However, all things being relative, for the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope, that much of a temperature difference changes the whole picture. But there are still plenty of awesome objects and mysteries to explore in the infrared wavelength ranges that Spitzer's still-functional instrument can well handle.
Oct. 1, 2009	Mapping Lightning from Space	Yet another potential line of evidence about climate change is lightning: how it varies from place to place, year to year, even decade to decade. But how can scientists map lightning over, say, a whole hemisphere simultaneously in real time? And even during day-light? Read this article about the instrument on the next generation of GOES satellites and find out.
Nov. 1, 2009	A Cosmic Crash	It's believed that Earth's Moon was formed when a large body collided with Earth early in its history. This event would prove to be pretty significant for what would become Earth's living inhabitants. Well, it turns out such cosmic collisions are more common than once thought. Read about how the Spitzer telescope caught one in the act.
Dec. 1, 2009	Sunglasses for a Solar Observatory	Even Solar Observatories Need Sunglasses at Times. The Solar X-ray Imager on the GOES-13 spacecraft was made to look at the Sun during it's wildest temper tantrums. However, sometimes it gets so wild even this imager can be blinded by the light. Lesson learned, the designers of the next GOES are taking no chances with the x-ray imager.
Jan. 1, 2010	Building a Case Against Ozone	Unlike greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which persists in the atmosphere and spreads itself around the globe, ozone is short-lived and doesn't stray far from its source. Find out about the NASA mission that has caught ozone red-handed and how the evidence can be used to prosecute the case.
Feb. 1, 2010	What is hiding in the cold, cosmic darkness?	Peering through an ordinary telescope, you see only that which is hot enough to glow in visible light. But what about all the cold stuff lurking out there? A new infrared space observatory is revealing objects at longer infrared wavelengths than ever before, and at far greater resolution. Find out what this new instrument promises to reveal.
March 1, 2010	Deadly Planets-"Terra" firma, but don't go there!	Massive stars end their lives in supernovas and become neutron stars or pulsars. After such a spectacular blow-up, could any material be left close enough to the leftover dense star to start a new solar system? Among the many surprises uncovered during the primary mission of the Spitzer Space Telescope, the discovery of a dusty planetary disk around a pulsar has been among the strangest and perhaps most beautiful. Enjoy this Space Place classic column, first published in 2006.
April 1, 2010	A Rock Hound is Born	How to make a rover into a rock hound - Robots can do a lot to investigate another solar system body and let us know what it finds. But it would be a lot more efficient if we didn't have to tell it every little thing to do. Now Mars rover Opportunity is starting to "think" and decide for itself what deserves further investigation. But how?
May 1, 2010	Ancient Supernova Riddle, Solved	Only a few times in recorded history have humans seen a supernova. These violent cosmic events do tend to make quite an impression. But do we realize how lucky we've been that one of them hasn't blasted our atmosphere away and fried us? Here's one possible reason.
June 1, 2010	Black Holes No Joke	How do you find out about something that refuses to give you any information? That's the dilemma of astronomers who study black holes. They have to infer what black holes are like based on what's happening with the more forthcoming matter near them. But if anything defines a black hole it is mass--a lot of it--therefore a lot of spacetime warpage. When black holes move, spacetime notices--and passes along the message. So how can astronomers tune in? LIGO promises to find a way.
July 1, 2010	The Sun is Still Boss	Our cellphones and other high-tech devices that depend on satellite and other RF communications may lead us to feel as if we have at least some aspects of nature pretty well under control. But all it takes is one big burp from the Sun to remind us that we are still vulnerable to nature's whims. Is there anything we can do about it?
Aug. 1, 2010	The Turbulent Tale of a Tiny Galaxy	There's more than one way to make a star. In a new ultraviolet image from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, a galaxy is seen to be leaving a trail of turbulent gas in its wake. It is really stirring things up in the interstellar medium, initiating quite a few stellar beginnings.
Sept. 1, 2010	The Hunt is On!	The Astro2010 Decadal Survey, published by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences, recommends that the search for Earth-like planets around other stars be among astronomy's top priorities in the coming decade. Nearly 500 exoplanets have been discovered so far, although none of them Earth-like. But with the new technologies now bent to the task, can the discovery of a sister Earth be far off?
Oct. 1, 2010	Close Encounters with Jupiter	As large and beautiful as it is, Jupiter is still a great mystery. Its interior must be composed of some very strange stuff due to the gravitational pressure of Jupiter's mass. It has an impressive and huge magnetosphere, indicating some serious dynamic processes going on inside. Like the ancient goddess Juno, her namesake spacecraft will peer through the clouds and shed new light on Jupiter's true nature.
Nov. 1, 2010	Blue Rings around Red Galaxies	Galaxies are either "red and dead" or "blue and new." Or so it was thought when visible light was the only wavelength range detectable. However, ultraviolet detectors have revealed that elliptical galaxies thought to contain only old stars emit in the ultraviolet as well, hinting at the presence young, hot stars. Long-exposure UV images by the Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered several big surprises about these galaxies.
Dec. 1, 2010	Astronomers Stumble onto Huge Space Molecules	Although not quite as big as soccer balls, they do resemble them with their spherical shape structured of hexagons and pentagons. They are the largest molecules ever found in space. They are "Buckyballs," found in the infrared spectral signature detected by the Spitzer Space Telescope in a neighboring galaxy.
Dec. 1, 2010	Dark Clues to the Universe	With 200 billion stars in our own galaxy, you might expect the night sky to be lit up like daylight. If you live in a big city, it just might be—but not because of starlight. But just why is it so dark at night? It took astronomers a very long time to figure it out.
Jan. 1, 2011	Planets in Strange Places	Red star, blue star, big star, small star—planets may form around virtually any type or size of star throughout the universe, not just around mid-sized middle-aged yellow stars like the Sun. That’s the surprising implication of two discoveries in 2006 from the 0.85- meter-diameter Spitzer Space Telescope, which is exploring the universe from orbit at infrared (heat) wavelengths blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere.
Feb. 1, 2011	Thank Goodness the Sun is Single	Astronomy and science fiction buffs may enjoy imagining what it would be like to live on a planet in a binary star system. But infrared images are showing that the price of seeing two romantic sunsets each day may be a bit too high.
March 1, 2011	GOES-R, Zombie Fighter	Like people, communications satellites function very oddly when they are brainless zombies. Such was the case with one communications satellite that threatened its neighbors with gobble-de-gook interference after suffering the brain-zapping after-effects of an unforeseen solar flare. What can be done to prevent this type of expensive failure in the future?
April 1, 2011	Cosmic Recount	It's hard to count stars in a galaxy when you can see only the biggest and brightest. You know there are lots of others you can't see. But how many? Can you count on a fairly constant ratio of little stars to big stars? And even if so, what would that ratio be? UV data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer suggest that astronomers' previous assumption were off—way off!
May 1, 2011	Milky Way Safari	You can help astrophysicists to track down exotic creatures like mysterious gas bubbles, twisted green knots of dust and gas, and the notorious "red fuzzies." Infrared images of the Milky Way's inner regions reveal areas of active star formation—if only you know what to look for. turns out humans do and computers don't.
June 1, 2011	Finding Planets Among the Stars	Like the guy looking for his lost keys under a street lamp, even though he lost them in the bar, sometimes even astronomers seeking new planets just have to go where the light is better. It turns out there are plenty of possible places in the galaxy where the starlight is favorable for finding planets. So what kind of stars may not totally wash out their planets in brightness?
July 1, 2011	New GOES-R to give more Tornado Warning Time	Compared to hurricane warnings, tornado warnings are more likely to be ignored. After all, what are the odds one will pick off your house or street, rather than someone else's? Although satellites can already give days of warning that tornado-spawning storms are likely, just where a tornado will wreak its havoc is not well predicted until just a few minutes before it hits. By then, it may be too late for some people in its path. What will make these predictions more timely and accurate in the future?
Aug. 1, 2011	Solar System Size Surprise	Are we there yet? The two mature and patient Voyager spacecraft have been speeding out of the solar system since 1977-and it's looking more and more like they will soon pass into interstellar space. So what is the boundary of our solar system looking like to them?
Oct. 1, 2011	The Gray Cubicle You Want to Work In	If you assume that life in an office full of gray cubicles must be dull, pay a visit to NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. The cubicles of Science Mission Directorate employees are cells of excitement.
Nov. 1, 2011	Re-thinking an Alien World: The Strange Case of 55 Cancri e	Planet hunters are especially interested in finding nearly Earth-sized rocky planets. Although 55 Cancri e fits these criteria, it is stranger than any planet they could ever have imagined.
Nov. 1, 2011	Meteor Shower!	Have you ever wondered how astronomers can predict when there’s going to be an abundance of shooting stars in the night sky? Showers of meteors, the scientific name for “shooting stars,” occur predictably several times a year, usually peaking within the same two- or three-day period. So what causes them? Why do they seem to come from the same part of the sky? What’s the best way to see them?
Dec. 1, 2011	Dawn Takes a Closer Look	Protoplanet Vesta is testing the ability of the Dawn spacecraft's ion engines to finely control its orbit, even taking Vesta's odd gravity map into account.
Jan. 1, 2012	The Nerdiest Video Game Ever	A sea of critical real-time weather data floods into the satellite's memory grid! Tornadoes are brewing! So is a solar flare! To save lives and protect expensive instruments, the GOES-R weather satellite must not lose any of the data it is collecting. You can help! Bundle like data types together and store them safely before the data grid overflows. "Satellite Insight" is a free new iPhone game from NOAA and NASA. Educational as well as entertaining, the game challenges players to keep up with the stream of data from GOES-R's six main instruments.
Feb. 1, 2012	The Hidden Power of Sea Salt	Even if you were using your "in-situ" salinity sensor (otherwise known as your tongue), you probably would not be able to tell the whether a gallon of water contains one dash or two dashes of salt. But the Aquarius satellite can sense this small a difference in the ocean's salinity remotely from over 400 miles. How? Why? And who cares? Find out.
March 1, 2012	The Planet in the Machine	You've heard of the ghost in the machine, referring either to the human mind in the human body, or the seeming intelligence in a computer program. How about if we put the whole planet Earth at a particular moment in time into a computer, then press "go," and see what happens in the future? That's the essence of Earth system modeling. "At a particular moment" is the operating phrase, along with a complete understanding of the rules that predict the future. This Space Place "classic" article explains.
April 1, 2012	NASA Helps Europe Study a Comet–Up Close and Personal	How does a dark, carbon-coated chunk of rock and ice become a glowing ball of fuzz with two long tails? The Rosetta mission aims to find out in detail when it reaches comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. With an orbiter, a lander, and 21 instruments between them, it will be a cometary first in several ways.
May 1, 2012	Thank Goodness for Magnetism	If it weren't for Earth's magnetic field, we would be toast. We are reminded of our luck whenever we see that the Sun is having another one of its temper tantrums, like it did in March. But how would our invisible shield—and our modern technologies—hold up if Earth were again in the path of a solar storm like the one that struck Earth in 1859?
June 1, 2012	How Many Discoveries Can You Make in a Month?	Are there other Earth-like planets in the Universe? If so, how common are they? What is dark energy? And dark matter? What's really going on in black holes? All these exotic mysteries are the purview of NASA's Astrophysics Division, which is making new discoveries every month. Keep an eye on their work to learn just how weird the Universe really is.
Aug. 1, 2012	A Brand New Age: Queue Observing at Mt. Paranal	Science is a universal language in every country on Earth. But the procedures for accomplishing research can vary widely. This astronomer discovered a new—and possibly better—way to study the skies while visiting a Southern Hemisphere observatory.
Sept. 1, 2012	Doing Science with a Spacecraft’s Signal	Robotic interplanetary spacecraft send back the images and other data they collect by modulating a carrier signal transmitted to Earth. But, space scientists and engineers also learned early in the space program that they could also use this carrier signal to perform occultation experiments as the spacecraft passed behind a planet. now, the motto of interplanetary mission planners seems to be "Let no signal be wasted!"
Oct. 1, 2012	A Cosmic Tease: Trials of the Herschel Space Telescope Science Teams	What happens to all the terabytes of data collected by advanced and pioneering instruments such as the Herschel (Infrared) Space Observatory? Well, it can keep a lot of scientists occupied for years sifting through it, analyzing it, forming theories, and supporting them with even more data . . . if those scientists can find funding, that is. This article gives a glimpse into the very human world of how science is done.
Nov. 1, 2012	It Takes More Than Warm Porridge to Make a Goldilocks Zone	Goldilocks found the just-right porridge, the just-right bed, and the just-right chair. But what if the bears' house had been in a bad neighborhood? While Earth's orbit lies in the just-right temperature zone of our solar system, there are other just-right things about our neighborhood for which we should be very grateful. For example, had Jupiter not had its cozy and stable relationship with the asteroid belt, our happy existence on this planet might have been otherwise.
Dec. 1, 2012	Partnering to Solve Saturn's Mysteries	Keeping an eye on unfolding events in the solar system is not always possible even for the best-equipped robotic planetary explorers. After all, they carry many instruments that must share spacecraft and ground resources. That is why amateur astronomers and their more modest equipment can be very helpful in monitoring and recording unfolding events such as the giant storm on Saturn that lasted more than six months.
Jan. 1, 2013	The Art of Space Imagery	When you see spectacular space images taken in infrared light by the Spitzer Space Telescope and other non-visible-light telescopes, you may wonder where those beautiful colors came from? After all, if the telescopes were recording infrared or ultraviolet light, we wouldn't see anything at all. So are the images "colorized" or "false colored"?
Feb. 1, 2013	Tackling the Really BIG Questions	What do scientists want? NASA's astrophysics research missions are all about providing the data scientists want and need in order to answer the most pressing questions of ours or any other time. How do stars, galaxies, and black holes form? Are there other inhabitable planets close enough for study? What is dark matter? and other profound questions of fundamental physics. This article is about fitting and prioritizing NASA missions to science's most profound questions.
March 1, 2013	Your Daily Dose of Astonishment	Ever wonder why the Astronomy Picture of the Day website has no fancy banner or other formatting? It's because it has been around forever and, for good reasons, has not changed . . . except, of course, for the fascinating images that you might never see anywhere else. This article gives the backstory to the site and the two dedicated men behind it.
April 1, 2013	Exploring the Water World	Ninety-nine percent of the space inhabited by living creatures on Earth is under water. In many ways, Earth is as alien to us as any other planet or moon in our solar system. At least we can now learn about it without having to rely on instruments set adrift on the waves.
May 1, 2013	Triple Treat	Don't miss the rare sight late this month of three bright planets in a tight triangle near the Sun. Not only will they be in conjunction, they will be on the far side of the Sun, thus very well lit from our perspective.
June 1, 2013	High-energy Spy	Without X-ray astronomy, we would know very little about many of the most exotic, high-energy objects in our universe. Read about the early days of X-ray astronomy and how they ultimately lead to the creation of the world's most advanced X-ray telescope?the Chandra X-Ray Observatory.
July 1, 2013	Inventing Astrophotography: Capturing Light Over Time	One of the images most synonymous with space is that of a spiral galaxy. As iconic as such images have become, the first known photograph of any galaxy other than our own was not taken until 1888. Read about the amateur astronomer who took this important photograph and how his advances in astrophotography transformed the field of astronomy.
Aug. 1, 2013	Size Does Matter, But So Does Dark Energy	The universe is filled with giant clusters and superclusters of galaxies. They line up along filaments, forming the largest structures in our universe-a cosmic web of galaxies separated by great intergalactic voids. But the existence of these massive structures-which could be as large is 4 billion light years across-may challenge some of the most basic principles of cosmology. Do these filaments mean we have to refine our understanding of the universe, or could there be another explanation? Find out in this month?s column.
Sept. 1, 2013	How to Hunt for Your Very Own Supernova!	Less than 0.1% of all stars are massive enough to create supernovas at the end of their lives. That shouldn't stop you from trying to find your own supernova, though! Check out this month's article to learn how.
Oct. 1, 2013	Government Shutdown - Oct 2013	Our apologies for the inconvenience, but unless the United States federal government shutdown is resolved by October 11, 2013, we will be unable to deliver the October article.
Nov. 1, 2013	The Most Volcanically Active Place is Out-of-this-World!	Io might seem like an unlikely place to find volcanoes. Yet when Voyager 1 visited this tiny moon of Jupiter, it found hundreds of volcanic calderas and an active eruption reaching 300 kilometers into space! Why is such a tiny, far off world such a hotbed for volcanism? Read this month's column to find out!
Dec. 1, 2013	The Big Picture: GOES-R and the Advanced Baseline Imager	Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) have the ability to monitor dangerous storms in close to real-time. But monitoring the activity of a specific storm has always come with a trade-off: focusing on a single storm means you can't look at weather in other places. That could change with the launch of the next generation of GOES?the GOES-R series. In this month's column, learn about these satellites' new instrument, the Advanced Baseline Imager, that will make this trade-off a thing of the past.
Jan. 1, 2014	Surprising Young Stars in the Oldest Places in the Universe	Some of the oldest stars in the universe can be found in what are known as globular star clusters?ancient relics of the early universe formed when some nascent cosmic clouds were too small to collapse in on themselves. Yet within these clusters of ancient stars lies a sprinkling of very young stars. How is this possible? Read this month?s column to find the answer.
Feb. 1, 2014	A Two-Toned Wonder from the Saturnian Outskirts	When Giovanni Cassini first discovered Saturn's Moon Iapetus in 1671, he noticed something strange. It could only be seen when it was on the west side of Saturn. Cassini concluded two things: Iapetus was tidally locked with Saturn, and one of its sides must be brighter than the other?an idea confirmed by modern observations. But it hasn't been until recently that we have known the cause of Iapetus' two-toned exterior. The culprit, it turns out, may surprise you!
March 1, 2014	Old Tool, New Use: GPS and the Terrestrial Reference Frame	Flying over 1300 kilometers above Earth, the Jason 2 satellite knows its distance from the ocean down to a matter of centimeters, allowing for the creation of detailed maps of the ocean's surface. This information is invaluable to oceanographers and climate scientists. By understanding the ocean's complex topography - its barely perceptible hills and troughs - these scientists can monitor the pace of sea level rise, unravel the intricacies of ocean currents, and project the effects of future climate change.
April 1, 2014	The Power of the Sun's Engines	Here's something to think about: One second of the sun's emissions could power all the world's energy needs for over 700,000 years. Learn more about the sun's power as Ethan Siegel puts this staggering amount of energy into perspective in this month's column.
May 1, 2014	The Hottest Planet in the Solar System	We've all heard of the greenhouse affect - the process where a planet's atmosphere allows heat in but blocks some of that heat from escaping back into space. It's a major reason why Earth's climate is so stable while many other inner planets suffer wild temperature swings. It is also the reason why the second closest planet to the sun is, by far, the warmest planet in the solar system. Learn more about Venus's extreme heat and its cause in this month's column!
May 1, 2014	(un)Fasten your Seatbelts	The "fasten seatbelts" light turns off, and you get up to ask the stewardess for a pillow; it's going to be a long flight. Only a kilometer ahead in the cloudless sky, a downward draft of sheering winds looms. When the plane hits these winds, the "turbulence" will shake the cabin violently and you could be seriously hurt.
June 1, 2014	A Glorious Gravitational Lens	In 1979, two identical-looking quasars were discovered. Later dubbed the Twin Quasar (QSO 0957+561), scientists quickly realized that both objects were, in reality, the same quasar. This discovery resulted in the confirmation of gravitational lenses?something first proposed in 1937. The light traveling from this quasar is actually bent and split by the gravity of a massive galaxy in the foreground, making us see double. Learn about how this incredible phenomenon can actually be used to peer deep into the distant universe and how you might be able to observe a gravitational lens on your own. It's all in this month's column!
July 1, 2014	The Invisible Shield of our Sun	Voyager 1 famously entered interstellar space back in the summer of 2012. In doing so, it left behind the protection of our Sun?a mighty shield called the heliosphere. What is the heliosphere, how is it created, and what does it shield our solar system from? Find out the answers to all these questions and more in this month's column!
Aug. 1, 2014	Droughts, Floods and the Earth's Gravity, by the GRACE of NASA	You might think that the only satellite mission capable of monitoring groundwater around the world would spend its time somehow peering through the surface to measure underground water. But you would be wrong! The mission, named GRACE, is actually two satellites, and what they really do is measure subtle changes in Earth?s gravity field. What can Earth?s gravity field tell us about our changing groundwater reserves? Find out in this month?s column!
Sept. 1, 2014	Twinkle, Twinkle, Variable Star	Despite the tumultuous and extreme conditions within our sun, its energy output varies only slightly-about 0.1%. Take a look at a red giant, though, and you could witness variabilities thousands of times that over the course of a single year. A great example of this is the first pulsating variable star ever discovered-Mira. Why does Mira behave this way, and what does it tell us about the fate of our own sun? Find out in this month's column!
Sept. 1, 2014	Why Did It Take So Long To Discover Uranus?	A carefully trained eye in perfect conditions can spot the dim light of Uranus without a telescope. Despite this fact, it wasn?t officially discovered until 1781?thousands of years after the other visible planets were documented. Part of the problem was not finding it, but correctly identifying it.
Oct. 1, 2014	Where Does the Sun's Energy Come From?	This month, the Space Place is doing something a little bit different for our monthly column-providing you with a beautifully informative and educational poster about the mechanics of our sun. This poster accompanies our latest "Space Place in a Snap" animation. This "Snap" series is a set of narrated videos and posters that, together, explain basic scientific concepts in a dynamic new medium. Entertaining in their own right, we also wish to bring this new resource to your attention as an educational tool. In this edition, we address the important question of why our sun is so hot.
Oct. 1, 2014	3-D Gallery	Find out what it is like to walk on the moon or float in space in this month's article.
Nov. 1, 2014	Where the Heavenliest of Showers Come From	Meteor showers that illuminate the night sky periodically throughout the year not only put on spectacular shows for us, they also remind us that there is more to our solar system than simply planets, moons, and a sun. But where do the objects that make these awesome shows come from, and why do many of them occur periodically each year? Read this month's column to find out! As an added bonus, you will also get some advice on seeing a pretty sweet meteor shower coming up this December.
Nov. 1, 2014	Rosetta's Lander Touches Down on a Comet!	Early this morning (10:30 am EST 11/12/14), the NASA and ESA Rosetta mission succeeded in setting down gently on a comet 310 million miles from the Earth. European Space Agency scientists and executives high-fived and hugged each other when the landing was confirmed. Spacecraft have crashed into comets before, but this is the first soft, or controlled landing, in history.
Jan. 1, 2015	Minor Mergers have Massive Consequences for Black Holes	If galaxies with large amounts of stars all have black holes at their centers, then shouldn't we be able to see some fraction of Milky Way-sized galaxies with not just one, but multiple supermassive black holes at their center? Find out in this month's column!
Feb. 1, 2015	The Heavyweight Champion of the Cosmos	Dark energy may be driving most galaxy clusters apart from one another. But on occasion, huge galaxy clusters can merge, forming the largest gravitationally bound structures in the universe. The largest such cluster ever discovered is the El Gordo galaxy cluster. Learn more about it in this month's column!
March 1, 2015	The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway	You probably know of the connection between solar storms and the beautiful Northern (and Southern) Lights. But did you realize that until this century, it was all theoretical? Find out how the Sun-Earth connection was discovered to really work by reading this month's article.
April 1, 2015	Is the Most Massive Star Still Alive?	The brilliant specks of light twinkling in the night sky, with more and more visible under darker skies and with larger telescope apertures, each have their own story to tell. In general, a star's color correlates very well with its mass and its total lifetime, with the bluest stars representing the hottest, most massive and shortest-lived stars in the universe. Even though they contain the most fuel overall, their cores achieve incredibly high temperatures, meaning they burn through their fuel the fastest, in only a few million years instead of roughly ten billion like our sun.
May 1, 2015	The "G" in GOES Is What Makes It Go	How do you keep a satellite suspended above the same point on Earth for years to come? You put it in geostationary orbit. Surprisingly, the calculations for this type of orbit were worked out by Kepler some 400 years ago.
June 1, 2015	No Surprise! Earth's Strongest Gravity Lies Atop The Highest Mountains	A combination of instruments aboard NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, including the SuperSTAR accelerometer, the K-band ranging system and the onboard GPS receiver, have enabled the construction of the most accurate map of Earth's gravitational field ever: to accelerations of nanometers per second squared.
July 1, 2015	On The Brightness Of Venus	Throughout the past few months, Venus and Jupiter have been consistently the brightest two objects visible in the night sky (besides the moon) appearing in the west shortly after sunset. Jupiter is the largest and most massive planet in the solar system, yet Venus is the planet that comes closest to our world. On June 30th, Venus and Jupiter made their closest approach to one another as seen from Earth - a conjunction - coming within just 0.4° of one another, making this the closest conjunction of these two worlds in over 2,000 years.
Aug. 1, 2015	Solar Wind Creates-and Whips-a Magnetic Tail Around Earth	As Earth spins on its axis, our planet's interior spins as well. Deep inside our world, Earth's metal-rich core produces a magnetic field that spans the entire globe, with the magnetic poles offset only slightly from our rotational axis. If you fly up to great distances, well above Earth's surface, you'll find that this magnetic web, called the magnetosphere, is no longer spherical. It not only bends away from the direction of the sun at high altitudes, but it exhibits some very strange features, all thanks to the effects of our parent star.
Sept. 1, 2015	Measure the moon's size and distance during the next lunar eclipse	A lunar eclipse is coming up on September 28th, and this supermoon eclipse will last for hours. Use the partial phases to measure the size of and distance to the moon, and see how close you can get!
Oct. 1, 2015	How we know Mars has liquid water on its surface	Of all the planets in the solar system other than our own, Mars is the one place with the most Earth-like past. Geological features on the surface all tell the same story: that of a wet, watery past. But although we've found plenty of evidence for molecular water on Mars does that mean there is water in its liquid phase today?
Nov. 1, 2015	Our Solar System Is Almost Normal, But Not Quite	It was just over 20 years ago that the very first exoplanet was found and confirmed to be orbiting a star not so different from our own sun. Fast forward to the present day, and the stellar wobble method, wherein the gravitational tug of a planet perturbs a star's motion, has been surpassed in success by the transit method, wherein a planet transits across the disk of its parent star, blocking a portion of its light in a periodic fashion. Thanks to these methods and NASA's Kepler spacecraft, we've identified many thousands of candidate planets, with nearly 2,000 of them having been confirmed, and their masses and densities measured.
Dec. 1, 2015	How will we finally image the event horizon of a black hole?	One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein first put forth his theory of General Relativity, which laid out the relationship between spacetime and the matter and energy present within it. While it successfully recovered Newtonian gravity and predicted the additional precession of Mercury's orbit, the only exact solution that Einstein himself discovered was the trivial one: that for completely empty space. Less than two months after releasing his theory, however, the German scientist Karl Schwarzschild provided a true exact solution, that of a massive, infinitely dense object, a black hole.
Dec. 1, 2015	The Closest New Stars To Earth	When you think about the new stars forming in the Milky Way, you probably think of the giant star-forming regions like the Orion Nebula, containing thousands of new stars with light so bright it's visible to the naked eye. At over 400 parsecs (1,300 light years) distant, it's one of the most spectacular sights in the night sky, and the vast majority of the light from galaxies originates from nebulae like this one. But its great luminosity and relative proximity makes it easy to overlook the fact that there are a slew of much closer star-forming regions than the Orion Nebula; they're just much, much fainter.
Jan. 1, 2016	The Loneliest Galaxy In The Universe	Our greatest, largest-scale surveys of the universe have given us an unprecedented view of cosmic structure extending for tens of billions of light years. With the combined effects of normal matter, dark matter, dark energy, neutrinos and radiation all affecting how matter clumps, collapses and separates over time, the great cosmic web we see is in tremendous agreement with our best theories: the Big Bang and General Relativity. Yet this understanding was only possible because of the pioneering work of Edwin Hubble, who identified a large number of galaxies outside of our own, correctly measured their distance (following the work of Vesto Slipher's work measuring their redshifts), and discovered the expanding universe.
Feb. 1, 2016	The Closest New Stars To Earth	When you think about the new stars forming in the Milky Way, you probably think of the giant star-forming regions like the Orion Nebula, containing thousands of new stars with light so bright it's visible to the naked eye. At over 400 parsecs (1,300 light years) distant, it's one of the most spectacular sights in the night sky, and the vast majority of the light from galaxies originates from nebulae like this one. But its great luminosity and relative proximity makes it easy to overlook the fact that there are a slew of much closer star-forming regions than the Orion Nebula; they're just much, much fainter.
March 1, 2016	Gravitational Wave Astronomy Will Be The Next Great Scientific Frontier	Imagine a world very different from our own: permanently shrouded in clouds, where the sky was never seen. Never had anyone see the Sun, the Moon, the stars or planets, until one night, a single bright object shone through. Imagine that you saw not only a bright point of light against a dark backdrop of sky, but that you could see a banded structure, a ringed system around it and perhaps even a bright satellite: a moon. That's the magnitude of what LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) saw, when it directly detected gravitational waves for the first time.
April 1, 2016	Hubble Shatters The Cosmic Record For Most Distant Galaxy	The farther away you look in the distant universe, the harder it is to see what's out there. This isn't simply because more distant objects appear fainter, although that's true. It isn't because the universe is expanding, and so the light has farther to go before it reaches you, although that's true, too. The reality is that if you built the largest optical telescope you could imagine -- even one that was the size of an entire planet -- you still wouldn't see the new cosmic record-holder that Hubble just discovered: galaxy GN-z11, whose light traveled for 13.4 billion years, or 97% the age of the universe, before finally reaching our eyes.
May 1, 2016	NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) to revolutionize Earth-watching	If you want to collect data with a variety of instruments over an entire planet as quickly as possible, there are two trade-offs you have to consider: how far away you are from the world in question, and what orientation and direction you choose to orbit it. For a single satellite, the best of all worlds comes from a low-Earth polar orbit.
June 1, 2016	Hubble's bubble lights up the interstellar rubble	When isolated stars like our Sun reach the end of their lives, they're expected to blow off their outer layers in a roughly spherical configuration: a planetary nebula. But the most spectacular bubbles don't come from gas-and-plasma getting expelled into otherwise empty space, but from young, hot stars whose radiation pushes against the gaseous nebulae in which they were born. While most of our Sun's energy is found in the visible part of the spectrum, more massive stars burn at hotter temperatures, producing more ionizing, ultraviolet light, and also at higher luminosities. A star some 40-45 times the mass of the Sun, for example, might emits energy at a rate hundreds of thousands of times as great as our own star.
July 1, 2016	Venus and Jupiter prepare for their close-up this August	As Earth speeds along in its annual journey around the Sun, it consistently overtakes the slower-orbiting outer planets, while the inner worlds catch up to and pass Earth periodically. Sometime after an outer world--particularly a slow-moving gas giant--gets passed by Earth, it appears to migrate closer and closer to the Sun, eventually appearing to slip behind it from our perspective. If you've been watching Jupiter this year, it's been doing exactly that, moving consistently from east to west and closer to the Sun ever since May 9th.
Aug. 1, 2016	Is there a super-Earth in the Solar System out beyond Neptune?	When the advent of large telescopes brought us the discoveries of Uranus and then Neptune, they also brought the great hope of a Solar System even richer in terms of large, massive worlds. While the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt were each found to possess a large number of substantial icy-and-rocky worlds, none of them approached even Earth in size or mass, much less the true giant worlds. Then, the discovery of Sedna in 2003 turned out to be even more groundbreaking than astronomers realized.
Sept. 1, 2016	One Incredible Galaxy Cluster Yields Two Types of Gravitational Lenses	There is this great idea that if you look hard enough and long enough at any region of space, your line of sight will eventually run into a luminous object: a star, a galaxy or a cluster of galaxies. In reality, the universe is finite in age, so this isn't quite the case. There are objects that emit light from the past 13.7 billion years--99 percent of the age of the universe--but none before that. Even in theory, there are no stars or galaxies to see beyond that time, as light is limited by the amount of time it has to travel. But with the advent of large, powerful space telescopes that can collect data for the equivalent of millions of seconds of observing time, in both visible light and infrared wavelengths, we can see nearly to the edge of all that's accessible to us.
Oct. 1, 2016	Is Proxima Centauri's 'Earth-like' planet actually like Earth at all?	n August 24, 2016, scientists announced that the stellar wobble of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our sun, indicated the existence of an exoplanet. At just 4.24 light years away, this planet orbits its red dwarf star in just 11 days, with a lower limit to its mass of just 1.3 Earths. If verified, this would bring the number of Earth-like planets found in their star's habitable zones up to 22, with 'Proxima b' being the closest one
Nov. 1, 2016	Dimming stars, erupting plasma, and beautiful nebulae	Boasting intricate patterns and translucent colors, planetary nebulae are among the most beautiful sights in the universe. How they got their shapes is complicated, but astronomers think they've solved part of the mystery-with giant blobs of plasma shooting through space at half a million miles per hour.
Dec. 1, 2016	Big Science in Small Packages	About 250 miles overhead, a satellite the size of a loaf of bread flies in orbit. It's one of hundreds of so-called CubeSats - spacecraft that come in relatively inexpensive and compact packages - that have launched over the years. So far, most CubeSats have been commercial satellites, student projects, or technology demonstrations. But this one, dubbed MinXSS ("minks") is NASA's first CubeSat with a bona fide science mission.
Jan. 1, 2017	Comet Campaign: Amateurs Wanted	In a cosmic coincidence, three comets will soon be approaching Earth--and astronomers want you to help study them. This global campaign, which will begin at the end of January when the first comet is bright enough, will enlist amateur astronomers to help researchers continuously monitor how the comets change over time and, ultimately, learn what these ancient ice chunks reveal about the origins of the solar system.
Feb. 1, 2017	Solar Eclipse Provides Coronal Glimpse	On August 21, 2017, North Americans will enjoy a rare treat: The first total solar eclipse visible from the continent since 1979. The sky will darken and the temperature will drop, in one of the most dramatic cosmic events on Earth. It could be a once-in-a-lifetime show indeed. But it will also be an opportunity to do some science.
March 1, 2017	What It's Like on a TRAPPIST-1 Planet	This artist's concept allows us to imagine what it would be like to stand on the surface of the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1f, located in the TRAPPIST-1 system in the constellation Aquarius. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (IPAC)
April 1, 2017	NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) to Monitor Earth	Later this year, a new Earth-monitoring satellite will launch into a polar orbit around our planet. The new satellite--called JPSS-1--is a collaboration between NASA and NOAA. It is part of a mission called the Joint Polar Satellite System, or JPSS.
May 1, 2017	The Fizzy Seas of Titan	With clouds, rain, seas, lakes and a nitrogen-filled atmosphere, Saturn's moon Titan appears to be one of the worlds most similar to Earth in the solar system. But it's still alien; its seas and lakes are full not of water but liquid methane and ethane.
June 1, 2017	The Shape of the Solar System	When Stamatios (Tom) Krimigis was selected for the Voyager mission in 1971, he became the team's youngest principal investigator of an instrument. Little did he know, though, that more than 40 years later, both Voyager 1 and 2 still would be speeding through space, continuing to literally reshape our view of the solar system.
July 1, 2017	Twenty Years Ago on Mars?	On July 4, 1997, NASA's Mars Pathfinder landed on the surface of Mars. It landed in an ancient flood plain that is now dry and covered with rocks. Pathfinder?s mission was to study the Martian climate, atmosphere and geology. At the same time, the mission was also testing lots of new technologies.
Aug. 1, 2017	The 2017 Solar Eclipse Across America	On August 21st, the sky will darken, the temperature will drop and all fifty United States will be able to see the Moon pass--at least partially--in front of the Sun. It's a solar eclipse!
Sept. 1, 2017	Cassini Says Goodbye	On September 15th, the Cassini spacecraft will have its final mission. It will dive into the planet Saturn, gathering information and sending it back to Earth for as long as possible. As it dives, it will burn up in the atmosphere, much like a meteor. Cassini's original mission was supposed to last four years, but it has now been orbiting Saturn for more than 13 years!
Oct. 1, 2017	Spooky in Space: NASA Images for Halloween	Have you ever seen a cloud that looks sort of like a rabbit? Or maybe a rock formation that looks a bit like an elephant? Although you know that a cloud isn't really a giant rabbit in the sky, it's still fun to look for patterns in images from nature. Try to spot some familiar spooky sites in these space images!
Nov. 1, 2017	Studying Storms from the Sky	The United States had a rough hurricane season this year. Scientists collect information before and during hurricanes to understand the storms and help people stay safe. However, collecting information during a violent storm is very difficult. By using satellites like GOES-16 and Suomi-NPP to observe severe storms from above, researchers and experts stay up to date in a safe and fast way.
Dec. 1, 2017	Snowy Worlds Beyond Earth	There are many places on Earth where it snows, but did you know it snows on other worlds, too? In this month's article, learn about a few places where you might find snow beyond Earth.
Jan. 1, 2018	Sixty Years of Observing Our Earth	The United States launched its first satellite on Jan. 31, 1958. It was called Explorer 1, and it weighed in at only about 30 pounds. This little satellite carried America's first scientific instruments into space: temperature sensors, a microphone, radiation detectors and more.
Feb. 1, 2018	What is the Ionoshpere?	High above Earth is a very active part of our upper atmosphere called the ionosphere. The ionosphere gets its name from ions-tiny charged particles that blow around in this layer of the atmosphere. In 2018, NASA has plans to launch two missions that will work together to study the ionosphere.
March 1, 2018	Measuring the Movement of Water on Earth	As far as we know, water is essential for every form of life. On our planet, we find water at every stage: liquid, solid (ice), and gas (steam and vapor). Our bodies are mostly water. We use it to drink, bathe, clean, grow crops, make energy, and more. With everything it does, measuring where the water on Earth is, and how it moves, is no easy task. NASA scientists have to get creative to study it all. One way they will measure where all that water is and how it moves, is by launching a set of spacecraft this spring called GRACE-FO.
April 1, 2018	What's It Like Inside Mars?	Mars is Earth's neighbor in the solar system. NASA's robotic explorers have visited our neighbor quite a few times. By orbiting, landing and roving on the Red Planet, we've learned so much about Martian canyons, volcanoes, rocks and soil. However, we still don't know exactly what Mars is like on the inside. NASA is launching a new mission called Mars InSight to help scientists find out!
May 1, 2018	What Is the Asteroid Belt?	There are millions of pieces of rocky material left over from the formation of our solar system. These rocky chunks are called asteroids, and they can be found orbiting our Sun. Most asteroids are found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. They orbit the Sun in a doughnut-shaped region of space called the asteroid belt.
July 1, 2018	A Close-Up View of Mars	In July 2018, skywatchers can get an up close view of Mars-even without a telescope! In fact, on July 31, Mars will be closer to Earth than it has been in 15 years. Why is that? Download this month's article to find out!
Aug. 1, 2018	The Best Meteor Shower of the Year	If you're a fan of meteor showers, August is going to be an exciting month! The Perseid meteor shower is the best of the year, and in 2018, the peak viewing time for the shower is on a dark, moonless night-perfect for spotting meteors.
Sept. 1, 2018	A Trip Through the Milky Way	Feeling like you missed out on planning a last vacation of summer? Don't worry-you can still take a late summertime road trip along the Milky Way!
Oct. 1, 2018	Observe the Moon	This year's International Observe the Moon Night is on Oct. 20. Look for astronomy clubs and science centers in your area inviting you to view the Moon at their star parties that evening!
Nov. 1, 2018	November's Dance of the Planets	November's crisp autumn skies bring great views of our planetary neighbors. The Moon pairs up with Saturn and Mars in the evenings, and mornings feature eye-catching arrangements with dazzling Venus. Stargazers wanting a challenge can observe a notable opposition by asteroid 3 Juno on the 17th and watch for a few bright Leonid meteors.
Dec. 1, 2018	Observe Apollo 8's Lunar Milestones	December marks the 50th anniversary of NASA's Apollo 8 mission, when humans first orbited the Moon in a triumph of human engineering. The mission may be most famous for ?Earthrise,? the iconic photograph of Earth suspended over the rugged lunar surface. "Earthrise" inspired the imaginations of people around the world and remains one of the most famous photos ever taken. This month also brings a great potential display of the Geminids and a close approach by Comet 46P/Wirtanen
Jan. 1, 2019	An Evening Eclipse and Morning Conjunctions	Observers in the Americas are treated to a total lunar eclipse the evening of January 20th, 2019. Early risers can spot some striking morning conjunctions between Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon late in January.
Feb. 1, 2019	Hexagon at Night, Quartet in the Morning	Can you spot the Winter Hexagon? With its bright six stars, this giant asterism can be a key to finding many winter constellations. Telescope users are treated to a conjunction between Mars and Uranus in the evening. Mercury makes a good appearance above the western horizon after sunset. Morning observers are treated to shifting lineups of bright planets with the Moon at the beginning and end of the month, along with a conjunction of Venus and Saturn.
March 1, 2019	Springtime Planet Party	March brings longer days for Northern Hemisphere observers, especially by the time of the vernal equinox on March 20. Ruddy Mars shines in the west after sunset and travels from Aries towards the Pleiades in Taurus. Early risers are treated to the majority of the bright planets - Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn - dancing in the southeastern morning skies, with the Moon passing between them at the beginning and end of March. Elusive Mercury joins the lineup for a difficult but intriguing morning showing by the end of the month.
Nov. 1, 2021	Measure the Night Sky	Fall and winter months bring longer nights, and with these earlier evenings, even the youngest astronomers can get stargazing. One of the handiest things you can teach a new astronomer is how to measure the sky - and if you haven't yet learned yourself, it's easier than you think!

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