submitted by Clement 234 days ago (via sci.esa.int)
ESA is planning on launching a mission similar to Saturn's Cassini but for Jupiter. One of the mission's main goals would be to try to discover if there is - or not, liquid water under the ice crust on Jupiter's moon Europa. We could then send "hydrobots" to see if there is any tiny hint of life in Europa's hypothetical underground oceans.
submitted by Clement 259 days ago (via astronomybuff.com)
Damn, we're in the middle of the sun's low activity period, which happens about every 11 years. We'll have to wait a few more before lots of sunspots, cool flares, and amazing protuberences reappear
The probe Cassini approached Saturn's moon Encleadus and got caught in som "geyser fumes" from it, apparently organic material. Luckily for the spacecraft which costed $3 billion, it wasn't harmed by the gas and will continue to provide us with interesting information about Saturn
Hubble has captured one of the best and cool shots ever: two interacting galaxies, just like the mice galaxies or the antennae. The pic shows the galaxies in high detail as well as the exchange of matter taking place between both galaxies. A nice foreshadowing of what might happen to our Milky Way when it collides with the Andromeda Galaxy (M 31) in about 2 million years' time. Check it out!
Comet 17P/Holmes now makes for an unexpected sight in the night sky. In the night of 23 to 24 October the comet has brightened by an enormous factor of 1 million, from a magnitude of about 17 to a magnitude of about 2.7. Professional Astronomers aren't sure of what caused this sudden brightening of the comet, and expect results from observation data in the time to come
