Author: Curacao Astronomy informer

This view combines information from two instruments on a NASA Mars orbiter to map color-coded composition over the shape of the ground within the Nili Fossae plains region of Mars. Carbonate-rich deposits in this area (coded green) hold some carbon formerly in the atmosphere’s carbon dioxide. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHUAPL/Univ. of Arizona… Read more“What Happened to Early Mars’ Atmosphere? New Study Eliminates One Theory”

Large-scale crossbedding in the sandstone of this ridge on a lower slope of Mars’ Mount Sharp is typical of windblown sand dunes that have petrified. NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its Mastcam to capture this vista on Aug. 27, 2015. Similarly textured sandstone is common in the U.S. Southwest. Credits:… Read more“Mars Panorama from Curiosity Shows Petrified Sand Dunes”

  This synthetic perspective view of Pluto, based on the latest high-resolution images to be downlinked from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, shows what you would see if you were approximately 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers) above Pluto’s equatorial area, looking northeast over the dark, cratered, informally named Cthulhu Regio toward the… Read more“New Pluto Images from NASA’s New Horizons: It’s Complicated”

An international crew of three is  ready for a two-day ride to the International Space Station. The Soyuz rocket that will lift them to space is set to launch tonight from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:37 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 2. Watch tonight’s launch LIVE on NASA TV… Read more“Next Soyuz Crew Ready for Launch”

The Expedition 44 crew was back at work today continuing a series of biomedical studies, physics experiments and maintenance tasks. Meanwhile, more science is on its way to the International Space Station aboard Japan’s fifth space freighter. Three cosmonauts studied magnetics, human digestion then participated in ultrasound scans and blood… Read more“Crew Explores Life Science While Waiting for Japanese Delivery”

Artistic conception of the Jupiter-like exoplanet 51 Eridani b, with the hot layers deep in its atmosphere glowing through the clouds. Because of its young age, this cousin of our own Jupiter is still hot and carries information on the way it was formed 20 million years ago. Credits: Danielle… Read more“NASA Scientists Help Understand Newly Discovered Planet”

Bursts of pink and red, dark lanes of mottled cosmic dust, and a bright scattering of stars — this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows part of a messy barred spiral galaxy known as NGC 428. It lies approximately 48 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Cetus… Read more“Hubble Sees a “Mess of Stars””