Billion-Star Mapping

Last December the European Space Agency launched the Gaia Spacecraft. Gaia is a space observatory that is suppose to map around billion stars, each star 70 times over the span of 5 years. Using 2 identical telescopes with 1.45m*0.5m primary mirrors looking at say 500nm light, it has a resolution limit of:
θ = 1.22 (500nm/1.45m) = 4.21E-7 rad = .0867''
Since each star will be imaged 70 times Gaia can use parallax to measure the distance to each star. Gaia also will be using Photometric instruments to measure characteristics like temperature and gravity; and Radial Velocity Spectrometers to measure the velocity of stars. After the 5 years of mapping astronomers will have billions of data that will help explain the formation of the universe and perhaps even predict the future.

http://www.space.com/24616-gaia-billion-star-mapping-spacecraft-photo.html

Saturn's Auroras

Have you seen one of those beautiful auroras in Alaska? Well imagine that on Saturn! The Hubble Space Telescope observed this occurrence in April of 2013. With data from Hubble and Cassini, probe orbiting Saturn, NASA has put together a new video that shows Saturn's auroras.

http://www.space.com/24650-saturn-auroras-hubble-cassini-video.html

Sail Technology

Space exploration is limited to the technology we can use. Few years ago NASA proposed a project The Terrestrial Planet Finder. The TPF was a collection of satellite telescopes 'linked' together, it would increase the apparent aperture size to improve the resolution of what we can observe. However, this project's budget was through the roof because of how heavy the launch will be. Over in Europe the European Space Agency has researched a way to remove old satellites that finished their missions already. The traditional method of retrieving satellites is to have sufficient fuel to fly it back, this method would increase the weight of the satellite. With the new sail technology, it lowers the cost and mass needed to return satellites. By opening the Deorbit Sail the drag will pull the spacecraft out of orbit and back to earth. This makes it possible to upgrade and reuse old satellites. This kind of research are small steps to sending bigger satellites and systems of satellites that will maximize resolution. 

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering/Clean_Space/Tacking_sails_to_a_satellite

Black Hole Gobble Gas Cloud

We all know that at the center of the Milky Way there is a black hole, Sagittarius A*. in 2007 astronomers discovered gas cloud G2 around Sag A*. G2 is observed from the VLT to be falling into Sag A*, this is expected to happen in March. The observations and measurements on G2 has been made in the hydrogen Brackett-gamma and Paschen-alpha recombination lines which have corresponding wavelengths 1875 nm and 103 nm. However, as the G2 starts to be 'gobbled' by Sag A* it will emit x-ray emissions which is best observed by NASA's Swift telescope. This will be the first time we can observe the interaction of the black hole and it's surrounding. It is also cool to see something get sucked into a black hole!

http://www.space.com/24362-milky-way-black-hole-gas-cloud.html

Aufwachen, Rosetta!

Rosetta is a satellite launched by the European Space Agency back in March of 2004. The Rosetta mission is mainly to reach comet 67P, Tschurjmow-Gerasimenko. All this time Rosetta has been orbiting Earth, Mars, and Sun to gain speed and rotate into comet 67P's orbit. Rosetta has been using solar power to get into the corresponding orbits, however, it went into a hibernation as it travels toward the comet since it is to far from the sun. Rosetta has woken back up from this 957 day hibernation and is getting ready to approach the comet. 

http://www.dw.de/aufwachen-rosetta/a-17363168

Here is a cool website that shows where Rosetta has traveled and where it is now.
 https://util1.estec.esa.int/rosetta/where_is_rosetta/

An Unblinking Eye

From small on when I looked up in the sky I would only see stars. I assumed that there were only clusters of stars with all sorts of sizes but never thought about other objects that can form not seen by the eye. For example this beautiful Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) seen from the Hubble Space Telescope. Who would have thought that clouds of gas and material ejected in pulses by a star can produce such magnificent image.

http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2004/09/An_unblinking_eye