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Two Deployments Successfully Completed for James Webb Space Telescope's ‘Wings’

Recently inside the clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, engineers successfully completed two deployments for the James Webb Space Telescope's "wings" or side portions of the backplane structure that fold up. The wings and telescope structure are essential because they make up the telescope's carbon fiber framework which will hold all 18 of the telescope's mirrors and the tower for the primary mirror.

18 Nov 2015

Dignitaries Break Ground for Giant Magellan Telescope

Leading scientists, senior officials, and supporters from an international consortium of universities and research institutions are gathering on a remote mountaintop high in the Chilean Andes today to celebrate groundbreaking for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT).

12 Nov 2015

University of Bern Camera to be Integrated on ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter Spacecraft

A camera designed and built at the University of Bern left Bern today at 6:00 in the morning for Cannes in France where it will be integrated on the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) spacecraft at the premises of Thales-Alenia Space.

11 Nov 2015

Hobby-Eberly Telescope Receives Multi-Year, $25 Million Upgrade

The Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET), which Penn State and four other universities built and are operating, has opened a larger and sharper-imaging giant eye on the universe after getting a multi-year, $25 million upgrade. Able to use more of its primary mirror than was possible before, the telescope now ranks as the world’s third-largest optical telescope -- tied for the honor with the South African Large Telescope, which was patterned after the HET's design.

6 Nov 2015

New Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory Achieves its First Image

After several years and a massive team effort, one of the world’s largest telescopes, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) at The University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory, has opened its giant eye again, achieving “first light” as the world’s third-largest optical telescope.

4 Nov 2015

Soft X-ray Focusing Telescope Onboard Astrosat Sees First Light from Astronomical Source

The Soft X-ray focusing Telescope (SXT) onboard Astrosat, India's first satellite dedicated to astronomical observations, saw its first light from an astronomical source on Oct. 26, 2015, after the camera door was opened at 06:30UT. The telescope door covering the optics had already been opened 10 days earlier.

4 Nov 2015

Super Cold Test Begins for James Webb Space Telescope’s Integrated Science Instrument Module

An engineering team lifted and lowered the heart of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope into the giant thermal vacuum chamber at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. This move marks the start of the third and final cryogenic test at Goddard to prepare the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM), or the "heart" of the telescope, for space.

29 Oct 2015

OSIRIS Spectrograph Identifies Surface Mineral Chemical Composition of Jupiter's Moon Europa

Jupiter's moon Europa is believed to possess a large salty ocean beneath its icy exterior, and that ocean, scientists say, has the potential to harbor life. Indeed, a mission recently suggested by NASA would visit the icy moon's surface to search for compounds that might be indicative of life.

28 Oct 2015

New ‘Lobster’ X-Ray Mirror for Space Variable Objects Monitor Satellite Observatory

The University of Leicester announces today the signature of a contract to develop an innovative new type of X-ray mirror for a telescope to be flown on an orbiting observatory to be launched in 2021.

27 Oct 2015

Astronomers Compile Largest Astronomical Image

Astronomers at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum have compiled the largest astronomical image to date. The picture of the Milky Way contains 46 billion pixels. In order to view it, researchers headed by Prof Dr Rolf Chini from the Chair of Astrophysics have provided an online tool. The image contains data gathered in astronomical observations over a period of five years.

22 Oct 2015