... Alien Life . ... During a mission planned to last a Martian year (nearly two of our years) after landing , Curiosity will use its instruments to investigate whether this area of Mars has ever enjoyed conditions suitable for life , especially the presence of liquid water.Lower layers of Aeolis Mons could reveal there was once a lake within Gale Crater long ago.But this is just the beginning of what ... Methane Not Detected by Curiosity Rover Does Not Rule Out Life on Mars . ... Astronotes...

Astronomy Picture of the Day . Apollo 16: Exploring Plum Crater . ... 19.03.2000 . ... Credit: John W. Young, Apollo 16 Crew , NASA Explanation: Apollo 16 spent three days on Earth's Moon in April 1972. The fifth lunar landing mission out of six, Apollo 16 was famous for deploying and using an ultraviolet telescope as the first lunar observatory , and for collecting rocks and data on the mysterious lunar highlands . ... Publications with keywords: crater - apollo program - Apollo 16 - Moon . ...

... Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2013 June 19 . Milky Way Over Crater Lake with Airglow . ... Finally, the bright arch across the image is the central band of the Milky Way, much further away, on the average, than the nearby stars, and shaped mostly by gravity . Contrary to appearances, the Milky Way band glows by itself and is not illuminated by the airglow. ...

... Bad Astronomy . ... Bitesize Astronomy . ... Bad Astro Store . ... Site Info . ... It is from from Voyager 1 and shows a whopping big impact crater dominating the profile of the moon. Note that Mimas is about 400 kilometers across (about 250 miles). ... The wall around the crater is 5 kilometers high, and that central peak rises 6 kilometers above the surface (many impact craters have a large central peak which is caused by a pressure rebound from the impact). ... 2008 Phil Plait. ...

... Brown University - Vernadsky Institute Microsymposium 38, October 27-29, 2003, Moscow, Russia . ... Michael G. G., European Space Agency, Research and Scientific Support Department, ESA/ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, greg.michael@esa.int . ... 2Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow, greg.michael@esa.int . ... Brown University - Vernadsky Institute Microsymposium 40, 2004, Moscow, Russia . ... Brown University - Vernadsky Institute Microsymposium 42, October 10-12, 2005, Moscow, Russia . ...

National Aeronautics and Space Administration . ... Jeffrey N. Williams (COLONEL, U.S. ARMY, RETIRED) . ... Williams has served in the Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA), Space Station, and Soyuz Branches of the Astronaut Office, led the development of a space shuttle cockpit upgrade, and completed temporary assignments at Marshall Space Flight Center supporting the test and evaluation of the International Space Station Laboratory Module and at NASA Headquarters in support of legislative affairs. ...

... Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, +44 (0)28 3752 2928 . 12"/18" Armagh Schmidt Telescope. The reflector by George Calver was converted into a Schmidt telescope in 1950. The Royal Society provided a grant for the conversion of the optical parts by the firm of Cox, Hargreaves and Thomson, who also provided a synchronized drive. ... Through a gift from Mr. T. Scott of Armagh, a dome was built (see P. Moore, "Armagh Observatory 1790-1967" , p.49). ... See also: . ...

Educator's Guide to Impact Craters . ... Just about all craters have deep central depressions, raised rims, and a blanket of ejected material surrounding them. ... Look for classical cratering features: basin, raised rim, ejecta blanket (material excavated from the crater and dumped around it, visible as white flour on the colored powder), and rays (material shot out at high velocity forming lines pointing directly away from the impact site). ... The material lies like a blanket around the crater. ...

A team of scientists believes they have discovered a chain of impact craters in the central African country of Chad that suggests ancient Earth may have been hit by a large, fragmented comet or asteroid similar to the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet that slammed into Jupiter in 1994. The craters were discovered in radar images of the Earth taken by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in April and October of 1994. ...