Welcome to Astronotes
Hello, IтАЩm Colin, welcoming you to Astronotes, the PlanetariumтАЩs official blog. Here you will find the latest news and views from the fascinating worlds of astronomy and space exploration. We hope you will come here to learn what is hot and exciting, profound or even weird from worlds beyond ours . So that's the introduction out of the way, now on with the Universe!-
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How Did New Horizons Get to Pluto so Quickly?
Posted on June 5, 2015 | 11 CommentsOur Solar System is vast. We on Earth cruise around the Sun in an orbit with a radius of about 150 million km (93 million miles), but the most distant […] -
Rosetta: ESA’s Comet Explorer
Posted on February 11, 2014 | 1 CommentComets are frozen lumps of ice (often called volatiles) and rock that come from distant parts of our Solar System. As they move closer and around the Sun, the frozen […] -
What Ever Happened to Beagle 2?
Posted on December 13, 2013 | 5 CommentsOn 25 December 2003 space exploration fans expected an extra Christmas gift. Beagle 2, a robotic spacecraft was to descend on the dusty plains of Mars. Once settled there, the […] -
Voyager Goes Interstellar
Posted on October 28, 2013 | 2 CommentsA rare astronomical event due to occur in the late 1970s inspired the desire to send a spacecraft to the most distant planets in our Solar System and beyond. That […] -
Curiosity on Mars: How did NASA do it?
Posted on August 6, 2012 | 2 CommentsNASA Mars Exploration Program Team are now achieving such a level of accuracy in landing craft on the Martian surface that the targeted landing area for Curiosity was like an […] -
Welcome to Mars!
Posted on August 6, 2012 | 1 CommentI had my doubts, but NASA didn’t let us down when the Agency’s Curiosity rover was successfully landed in Gale Crater, Mars at 5.14 UTC on 6 August 2012. […] -
Curiosity Goes to Gale Crater
Posted on July 31, 2012 | 3 CommentsOn 6 August, while many of us are enjoying the Olympics, staff at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be nervously watching their monitors, waiting for a message from Mars.If all […] -
Spirit, this was your life!
Posted on July 5, 2011 | 1 CommentSpirit, one of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers has finally transmitted its last data back to Earth. We look back upon the career of this valiant space explorer. Our neighbouring planet […] -
How space is revolutionising archeology
Posted on June 29, 2011 | No CommentsSpace technology is transforming archeology. Use of satellite imagery is revealing details of the past previously inaccessible to scholars of ancient times. Studying the ancient civilizations of the past is […] -
Unique Martian Sky Crane Tested
Posted on January 21, 2011 | 8 CommentsNASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is to use a unique system called a “sky crane” to touch down next year on the Red Planet. Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have […]