... The remote planet Pluto and its moon Charon orbit the Sun at a mean distance of almost 6,000 million kilometres, or nearly fourty times farther out than the Earth. During a recent investigation by an international group of astronomers [1], the best picture ever of Pluto and Charon [2] was secured with the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera at the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). ... The new HST image was taken when Charon was near its maximum elongation from Pluto (0.9 arcseconds). ...

Ice Volcanoes Reshape Europa's Chaotic Surface . Ice-spewing volcanoes and the grinding and tearing of tectonic plates have reshaped the chaotic surface of Jupiter's frozen moon Europa, images from NASA's Galileo spacecraft reveal. ... Although the images do not show currently active ice volcanoes or geysers, they do reveal flows of material on the surface that probably originated from them, said Galileo imaging team member Dr. Ronald Greeley of Arizona State University, Tempe. ... Europa . ...

... Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, +44 (0)28 3752 2928 . ... This shows the Sun, Moon and Earth (not to scale) together with the . ... They have tested the technique on the Earthshine, the light reflected from the Earth by the Moon, and showed that it can reveal the presence of life in our planet. ... This technique uses the fact that the light reflected from the planet is polarised, whereas that emitted by the star is not. ... Polarised light can tell us about the reflecting surface...

... UA SCIENTIST & TEAM DISCOVER SURFACE FEATURES COVER TITAN (Science contacts: Peter H. Smith, (602) 621-2725; Mark Lemmon, (602) 621-1485; UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory) . Scientists for the first time have made images of the surface of Saturn 's giant, haze-shrouded moon, Titan. ... About three weeks before Cassini's first flyby of Titan, the spacecraft is to release the European Space Agency's Huygens Probe to parachute to Titan's surface. ... Upper left: hemisphere facing Saturn. ...

NASA Press Release Text - June 24, 1996 GALILEO READY FOR CLOSE FLYBY OF JUPITER'S BIGGEST MOON Now residing in orbit around Jupiter, NASA's Galileo spacecraft is primed for its first close flyby of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, at 2:29 a.m. EDT on June 27, 1996. ... In the days just before and after the Ganymede flyby, Galileo's other studies will include a search for auroral activity on Jupiter's nightside and observations of other Jovian moons: Io, Europa and Callisto. ...

... New ETC Release (20.2) . ... Data . ... HST Overview . ... FUV HV History . ... COS Data Handbook . ... As part of the ETC 20.2 release, the included COS and STIS throughputs have been updated to provide our best estimates for Cycle 20. ... Comparing the ETC 20.1.1 and 20.2 predictions for April 2013, the STIS NUV dark rate has decreased by 30%, the COS NUV dark rate has increased by 11%, and the FUV dark rates (for both spectroscopic and spectroscopic target acquisition modes) have increased by 130...

Astronomy Picture of the Day . Galileo's First Color Image of Io . ... 19.07.1996 . ... Credit: Galileo Project , JPL , NASA Explanation: Above is the first color image of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io released by the Galileo Project. ... The image was made on June 25 when the Galileo spacecraft approached within 1.4 million miles. ... While scientists continue to analyze this image and other recent Galileo data the robot spacecraft will continue to explore Jupiter's moons . ... July 1996 . ...

PRESS-RELEASE . ... The Descent Module (DM) of the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft has returned to Earth the commander and flight engineer of the 15th expedition of the International Space Station (ISS), as well as the space flight participant Malaysia’s national Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor who in the period from October 12 to October 21 2007 worked under the 13th visiting expedition program (VE-13). ... The Flight Director is RSC Energia First Deputy General Designer V.A. Soloviev. ...