Space and Solar System

As NASA launched the 101st space shuttle flight on November 30, Spaceflightnow.com looks back at the past 20 years of blastoffs in a special gallery feature. Especially stunning night time shots!

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

Some of the most incredible pictures from deep space can be seen here. You won't be dissapointed!

What do auroras look like? What makes them happen? Where can you see them? Why are they different colors?

This site explains everything and includes links to auroral forecasts, a huge gallery of great photos (some taken from satellites), and tips on how to photograph this beautiful, rare phenomena!

Dec. 3, 2003:

Immense cracks in our planet's magnetic field can remain open for hours, allowing the solar wind to gush through and power stormy space weather.

Images from Mars Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) spacecraft are now being posted daily on the Internet. NASA's mission is expected to provide 15,000 visible light images, but already there has been criticism that not enough pictures are being released quickly enough to the public providing anything of value that has not been seen already by the Mar Orbiter Camera (MOC).

THEMIS began mapping Mars from an orbit of 420 kilometers in mid-February, taking images in both infrared and visible light.

If you're interested in satellites or astronomy, you've come to the right place! Here you will find all the information you need to observe satellites such as the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle, spectacular events such as the dazzlingly bright flares from Iridium satellites as well as a wealth of other spaceflight and astronomical information.

You can save your Latitude and Longitude details in the site's data base without having to re-enter the information next time you visit the site.

This interesting news board issues articles on space projects associated with the Red Planet and keeps readers informed of the latest discoveries.

March 15, 2004:

NASA-funded researchers have discovered the most distant object orbiting the sun. It's a mysterious planet-like body three times farther from Earth than Pluto.

Find out what's new from NASA's explorations on Mars.

The Project Apollo Archive serves as an online reference source and repository of digital images pertaining to the historic manned lunar landing program.

The Archive was created by Kipp Teague in February 1999 as a companion web site to his \"Contact Light\" personal retrospective on Project Apollo.

This is the Internet base of researcher Richard Hoagland whose theories regarding the "Martian Monuments" are described in Hancock's "The Mars Mystery". There is a regularly updated bulletin section, a conference area with many different ongoing discussions, an archive section and much more.

The Science Directorate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center sponsors the Science@NASA web sites. The mission of Science@NASA is to help the public understand how exciting NASA research is and to help NASA scientists fulfill their outreach responsibilities.

Every few days a new article is published. No need to keep checking the site - just subscribe to Science@NASA updates and you will be informed by email.

Find out about recent solar flares and sunspot activity. You can view a spectacular archive image gallery of the Northern Lights and get advanced notification of impending aurora's. News updates of close encounters with asteroids and comets issued. Eclipses, meteor showers, planetary and other space events and phenomena can be found on this very informative site.

January 16, 2004:

NASA's Stardust spacecraft photographs the nucleus of Comet Wild 2 at a distance of 236 km and reveals barn-sized boulders, 100-meter high cliffs, and some weird terrain including what looks like impact craters as large as 1 km across. Read this NASA@science article

This guide to the constellations contains comprehensive information about the planets, stars and constellations. It also provides links to a number of other useful astronomy resources. An excellent introduction to astronomy for those slightly overwhelmed by the astronomical direction taken in so much of Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval's work, it has a fascinating picture change each day.