Welcome to Astronotes
Hello, I’m Colin, welcoming you to Astronotes, the Planetarium’s official blog. Here you will find the latest news and views from the fascinating worlds of astronomy and space exploration. We hope you will come here to learn what is hot and exciting, profound or even weird from worlds beyond ours . So that's the introduction out of the way, now on with the Universe!
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Robot Exploration Archive
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Curiosity on Mars: How did NASA do it?
Posted on August 6, 2012 | No CommentsNASA Mars Exploration Program Team are now achieving such a level of accuracy in landing craft on the Martian surface that the targeted landing area for Curiosity was like an... -
Welcome to Mars!
Posted on August 6, 2012 | No CommentsI had my doubts, but NASA didn’t let us down when the Agency’s Curiosity rover was successfully landed in Gale Crater, Mars at 5.14 UTC this morning. The first images... -
Curiosity Goes to Gale Crater
Posted on July 31, 2012 | No CommentsOn 6 August, while many of us are enjoying the Olympics, staff at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be nervously watching their monitors, waiting for a message from Mars.If all... -
Spirit, this was your life!
Posted on July 5, 2011 | No CommentsSpirit, one of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers has finally transmitted its last data back to Earth. We look back upon the career of this valiant space explorer. Our neighbouring planet... -
How space is revolutionising archeology
Posted on June 29, 2011 | No CommentsSpace technology is transforming archeology. Use of satellite imagery is revealing details of the past previously inaccessible to scholars of ancient times. Studying the ancient civilizations of the past is... -
Hubble Space Telescope: Ten amazing facts you didn’t know
Posted on March 5, 2011 | 2 CommentsGleaned from NASA and Hubblesite.org, here are some facts you may not know about the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). 1. The HST’s history is longer than you might have thought,... -
Unique Martian Sky Crane Tested
Posted on January 21, 2011 | 3 CommentsNASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is to use a unique system called a “sky crane” to touch down next year on the Red Planet. Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have... -
How you can leave your name on other worlds!
Posted on October 1, 2010 | No CommentsI’d like to tell you that I’m on the surface of an asteroid called Itokawa. I travelled there on a Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency mission called Hayabusa and was left... -
Hooray for Hayabusa: Japan’s asteroid pioneer
Posted on October 1, 2010 | No CommentsThe team at the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency deserve congratulations for the amazing (and hopefully record-breaking) Hayabusa mission to asteroid 25143 Itokawa. Launched in 2003 (the spacecraft was called MUSES-C... -
Hubble’s view of the Mystic Mountain
Posted on September 24, 2010 | No CommentsThat amazing instrument, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), has just celebrated its twentieth anniversary since it was placed in orbit. Since then, (after a rocky start, remember that dodgy mirror?)...