Space Sciences

Launched from Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 15, 1997, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will reach the Saturnian region in July 2004. The mission is composed of two elements: The Cassini orbiter that will orbit Saturn and its moons for four years, and the Huygens probe that will dive into the murky atmosphere of Titan and land on its surface. The sophisticated instruments onboard these spacecraft will provide scientists with vital data to help understand this mysterious, vast region. Cassini-Huygens is an international collaboration between three space agencies. Seventeen nations contributed to building the spacecraft. The Cassini orbiter was built and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Huygens probe was built by the European Space Agency. The Italian Space agency provided Cassini's high-gain communication antenna. More than 250 scientists worldwide will study the data collected.

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is a proposed ground-based 8.4-meter, 10 square-degree-field telescope that will provide digital imaging of faint astronomical objects across the entire sky, night after night. In a relentless campaign of 10-second exposures, LSST will cover the available sky every three nights, opening a movie-like window on objects that change or move on rapid timescales: exploding supernovae, potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids, and distant Kuiper Belt Objects. The superb images from the LSST will also be used to trace the apparent distortions in the shapes of remote galaxies produced by lumps of Dark Matter, providing multiple tests of the mysterious Dark Energy.

The USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona has a rich history of participation in space exploration and planetary mapping, starting in 1963 when the Flagstaff Science Center was established to provide lunar geologic mapping and assist in training astronauts destined for the Moon.

Throughout the years, the program has participated in processing and analyzing data from numerous missions to planetary bodies in our solar system, assisting in finding potential landing sites for exploration vehicles, and mapping our neighboring planets and their moons. The USGS Astrogeology Science Center strives to research to better understand the origins, evolutions, and geologic processes operating on these celestial bodies.

The Planetary Habitability Laboratory (PHL) is a research and education virtual laboratory dedicated to studies of the habitability of Earth, the Solar System, and exoplanets. Check the projects link for more details about the scientific projects. There are also links to scientific and educational materials, data and software tools related to planetary science and astrobiology that might be of interest to scientists, students, and the general public. The PHL is managed by the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo.

Space Weather impacts numerous facets of everyday life, from where airplanes can safely fly, to how accurately a farmer plows his field. In addition, there are a large variety of phenomena that are driven by the variability of the sun over periods ranging from hours to years. SWPC provides information for novices and experts alike about the impacts and phenomena of Space Weather.

Since 1961, more than 400 human beings have ventured into space. Now aboard the International Space Station, astronauts are working to improve life on Earth and extend life beyond our home planet.

JILA astrophysicists want to understand our origins and place in the scheme of things. That's why they investigate topics ranging from the dynamics of our sun to the fundamental properties that give rise to the universe itself. Their quest is aided by vast amounts of new data gathered by ground- and space-based instruments such as the Apache Point 3.5 m telescope, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, the Far UV Spectroscopic Explorer, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the X-ray Multimirror Mission X-ray (XXM-Newton) Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. JILA scientists will also be part of the science team for the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph for the HST (if NASA allows the project to proceed) and the multi-satellite Constellation X-ray Observatory.

Building on the legacy of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and SDSS-II, the SDSS-III Collaboration is working to map the Milky Way, search for extrasolar planets, and solve the mystery of dark energy.

SDSS-III began to collect data in 2008, and will continue until 2014, using the Sloan Foundation 2.5-meter Telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico. SDSS-III consists of four surveys, each focused on a different scientific theme.

At McDonald Observatory, we have several telescopes, built at various times since the Observatory's founding in the 1930s. Astronomers use them to study everything from the asteroids and planets in our own solar system to galaxies billions of light-years away in space and time. Though they bring the mysteries of the universe to us, their workings are anything but mysterious. They gather and focus light from objects in the sky, so that it can be directed into an instrument attached to the telescope, and ultimately, studied in detail by a scientist.

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is a multi-mission operations center for NASA’s flagship observatories and a world-class astronomical research center. Established in 1981, the Institute has developed and executed the science program for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) since its launch in 1990. Today, STScI is developing new technologies for the science and flight operations center for NASA’s next Great Observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in 2018. STScI is also developing major science operations for NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), set to launch in the mid 2020s, and studying Advanced Space Telescope Concepts for future large missions in the 2030s and beyond.

The Center for Astrophysics combines the resources and research facilities of the Harvard College Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory under a single director to pursue studies of those basic physical processes that determine the nature and evolution of the universe. Today, some 300 Smithsonian and Harvard scientists cooperate in broad programs of astrophysical research supported by Federal appropriations and University funds as well as contracts and grants from government agencies. These scientific investigations touch on almost all major topics in astronomy.

The CfA-Arizona Space Telescope Lens Survey (CASTLeS) is a collaboration between scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the University of Arizona. We intend to carry out a complete survey of all known galaxy-mass gravitational lens systems (those with image separations of less than 10 arcseconds). We plan to use the Hubble Space Telescope to obtain deep, high-resolution images in the optical and near infrared, using NICMOS/NIC2 for H band observations and WFPC2/PC1 for V and I band images where they do not yet exist. This information can be used to address a number of problems in modern cosmology and galaxy evolution.

Born of the extraordinary accomplishments of 20th century physics, astronomy, geology, and biology, the Origins program takes up the challenge of answering questions as old as our species. When Galileo first turned his tiny telescope to the night sky, he saw the Milky Way resolved into millions of stars, in one stroke expanding our grasp of the universe to a scale that had not been imagined from the sight of eyes alone. The growth of scientific culture and tools over the next three centuries revealed a vast realm, each at-first-incomprehensible discovery assimilated into an increasingly uncomfortable reality. The eruptive growth of 20th century astronomy has brought us an appreciation of how vast, old, and unearthly the universe is, and has left humanity struggling for a sense of our own significance consistent with the reality of who and what we are. But science has also given us something that will help, by promising answers to our ancient questions: Where did we come from? Are we alone? When the answers to these questions are known, our civilizations will evolve new visions of who we are and what our futures might be. Already we have learned enough to appreciate that the universe is enormous and ancient, but lifetiny and transientis its precious jewel.

New Horizons, launched Jan. 19, 2006, is designed to help us understand worlds at the edge of our solar system by making the first reconnaissance of Pluto and Charon - a "double planet" and the last of the traditional planets to be visited by spacecraft. Then, as part of an extended mission, New Horizons could visit one or more objects in the Kuiper Belt region beyond Neptune.

Want to know when a spacecraft will be flying over your city? Check out a list of quick and easy sightings by city.

The ROE story began when the first Chair of Astronomy within the University was established in 1786, astronomy having been taught in Edinburgh since the opening of the town’s college in 1583. The ROE continues to develop as a leading force in UK and world astronomy. Its potent mix of activities on Blackford Hill - research, astronomical instrumentation and public understanding of science via a Visitor Centre - continue to thrive.

KIPAC is an Independent Laboratory of Stanford University, initiated by a generous grant from Fred Kavli & the Kavli Foundation, housed at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and on Stanford campus in the Varian Physics building. Funded in part by Stanford University and the United States Department of Energy. Our Mission is to bridge theoretical and experimental physics communities, and bring their combined strengths to bear on some of the most challenging and fascinating problems in particle astrophysics and cosmology.

The Solar Physics Group at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center was formed in the early 1970's in conjunction with the Apollo Skylab Mission. These pages contain an overview of solar physics itself along with highlights of our own work, our current projects, and possible future missions.

The ASC/Alliances Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes aims to solve the long-standing problem of thermonuclear flashes on the surfaces of compact stars such as neutron stars and white dwarf stars, and in the interior of white dwarfs (i.e., Type Ia supernovae). Our Center - the "FLASH Center" - is funded by the DOE ASC/Alliances Program to build a state-of-the-art simulator code for solving nuclear astrophysical problems related to exploding stars. This website contains information about the astrophysics, the code, and related basic physics and computer science efforts. Please follow the appropriate links. We also distribute the FLASH code. Procedure and conditions are described on the Code Request Page.

The International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) was formed in June 2002 with a mission to facilitate the international coordination and collaboration necessary for the development and deployment of the tools, systems and organizational structures necessary to enable the international utilization of astronomical archives as an integrated and interoperating virtual observatory.