NASA's newest space telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, was launched into orbit only two months ago. Named for the late Indian-American Nobel laureate, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, the Chandra Observatory is already providing scientists with the first "X-ray images and spectra of violent, high-temperature events and objects." In addition to their sheer mystique, these color images increase...

The Extrasolar Visions Web site provides a searchable guide to extra solar planets. These include planets of normal stars, pulsar planets, brown dwarfs, protoplanetary disks and protoplanets, extragalactic worlds, massive compact halo objects, and disproven or doubtful worlds. Visitors can search for these objects or view the week's 20 most popular systems, 20 most interesting systems, or the 20...

This week's In the News highlights the recent finding of distant galaxies by the Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists recently activated the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) aboard the Hubble Telescope to peer into formerly unseen areas of the universe. What they saw were the "faintest galaxies ever seen." The distance to these galaxies cannot be confirmed until the year...

At this website, the National Public Radio (NPR) offers the latest Space-related news, research, and events. The fascinating articles include links to external websites and related stories, numerous images, useful graphics, and the ability to email the story to friends. Users can search through archived articles as well. For those who like to listen while they work, NPR offers audio for all the...

NASA Mission Specialist Dan Tani successfully deployed Starshine 2 from the Space Shuttle Endeavor into its own orbit. What exactly is Project Starshine? Its name stands for Student Tracked Atmospheric Research Satellite, a cooperative project producing an 85 pound sphere-shaped satellite with a surface covered by 845 aluminum mirrors. The mirrors were polished by 30,000 students in 660 schools in...

This article from Space.com describes how scientists from NASA’s Deep Impact mission intend to fix the spacecraft’s blurry vision problem by applying a mathematical process to the images after they have been transmitted to Earth. The author briefly descibes the process, called deconvolution, and discusses some challenges that the researchers will need to address. Readers can also learn more about...

This website, maintained by the California Institute of Technology, describes the two-and-a half-year mission of the Spitzer Space Telescope to "obtain images and spectra by detecting infrared energy, or hear, radiated by objects in space between wavelengths of three and 180 microns." Scientists can find images and explanations of the instrumentation, data and analysis, and an overview of the...