Asteroid Vesta Has Planet-like Feature - December 9, 2011 - Data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft that is currently visiting the asteroid Vesta shows that the asteroid has enormous mountains, valleys, hills, cliffs, troughs, ridges, craters, and plains. For more information on this report, visit the Science at NASA website at: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/09dec_vestaplanet

NASA Telescopes Help Find Rare Galaxy at Dawn of Time - December 21, 2011 - Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes have discovered that one of the most distant galaxies known is churning out stars at a shockingly high rate. The galaxy known as GN-108036 is located 12.9 billion light-years from Earth and is the brightest galaxy found to date at such great distances. For complete report on this discovery, see the NASA/JPL News report at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-392

Asteroid Vesta May Contain Water Ice - January 25, 2012 - Generally thought to be quite dry, roughly half of the giant asteroid Vesta is expected to be so cold and to receive so little sunlight that water ice could have survived there for billions of years, according to the first published models of Vesta’s average global temperatures and illumination by the sun. For complete report on this story, see the NASA/JPL News release at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-024

 News from Mercury

Strange Hollows Discovered on Mercury - October 24, 2011 - NASA’s Messenger spacecraft which went into orbit around Mercury last March has discovered thousands of peculiar depressions called hollows at a variety of longitudes and latitudes on the surface of Mercury. The hollows appear to be young and it is not known how they even got there. For complete report on this news story, see the NASA Science news article at: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/24oct_sleepy-hollows/

December 20, 2011 - The dwarf planet Pluto may be a long ways away from us but with the help of the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists may have discovered something new there - complex hydrocarbon and/or nitrile molecules lying on the surface. For complete report on this discovery, see the Southwest Research Institute News Release at: http://www.swri.org/9what/releases/2011/pluto.htm

Cassini Sees the Two Faces of Titan’s Dunes - January 23, 2012 - Analysis of radar data received from NASA’s Cassini orbiter mission has revealed regional variations among sand dunes on Saturn’s moon Titan. The result gives new clues about the moon’s climatic and geological history. For complete report, see the NASA/JPL News report at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-021

The Many Moods of Titan - February 23, 2012 - Data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft orbiting the Saturn system present new details of how Saturn’s moon Titan shifts with the seasons and even throughout the day. For complete report on this news story, see the NASA/JPL News report at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-048

Space Mission News

NASA’s Voyager Hits New Region at Solar System’s Edge - December 5, 2011 - NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region between our solar system and interstellar space where solar wind of charged particles coming from the Sun has calmed, our solar system’s magnetic field is piled up, and higher-energy particles from inside our solar system appear to be leaking out into interstellar space. For complete report on this story, see the NASA/JPL News report at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-372

Grail Spacecraft Enter Moon Orbit - January 1, 2012 - On Saturday, December 31, 2011, the GRAIL - A (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) spacecraft went into orbit around the moon and on Sunday, January 1, 2012, GRAIL - B also went into lunar orbit. Data obtained from these two spacecraft will help scientists understand what goes on below the lunar surface and how Earth and its rocky neighbors in the inner solar system developed into the diverse worlds we see today. For complete report, see the NASA/JPL News report at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-001

Cassini Significant Events - January 12, 2012 - The Cassini spacecraft that was sent to the planet Saturn back in 2004 is still operating and making its orbits around the ringed planet. The report from the mission’s website says that “The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired on Jan. 9 from the Deep Space Network tracking complex at Goldstone, California. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health with the exception of the CAPS instrument being powered off, all subsystems are operating normally.” To keep up to date on the Cassini mission, go to the Cassini Solstice Mission website at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/topheadlines/ and click on the News Releases and Significant Events “Full Story” links.

NASA Rover Beginning Ninth Year of Mars Work - January 24, 2012 - Eight years after landing on Mars for what was planned as a three-month mission, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is working on what essentially became a new mission five months ago. For complete report on this continuing mission on Mars, see the NASA/JPL News website at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-022

Proposed Mars Mission Has New Name - February 28, 2012 - A proposed Discovery mission concept led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. to investigate the formation and evolution of terrestrial planets by studying the deep interior of Mars was previously called GEMS (Geophysical Monitoring Station). It will now be called InSight. Keep in mind that so far this is just a proposed mission - it may or may not fly but it sounds like a great idea. To learn more about NASA’s proposed InSight mission, go to: http://insight.jpl.nasa.gov/

A news report appearing on the Examiner.com website on January 27, 2012 says that on Wednesday, January 25, 2012 a blinking orange colored light was seen up in the sky over Tarnow, a city located in the southwest part of Poland. According to the news report, several witnesses saw the UFO “flying high above the nearly deserted city streets on a dark and starless night.” There was no mention as to what time exactly that the UFO appeared in the sky and for how long it was seen or if it did anything really unusual except that it flew a little erratically. The report did say that there were no strange sounds associated with the UFO as have been with other UFO sightings recently. One witnesses did take a video of the object which may be seen at the following website: http://www.youtube.com/user/Rasiek. The top three images on the website show the bright, orange light in the dark sky over the town. Having a video of the object will obviously offer some proof or evidence that something unusual was up in the sky.

According to their mission statement, the Lunar and Planetary Institute which is located in Houston, Texas is a division of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and conducts research in planetary science that “supports the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) efforts to explore the solar system.”

More specifically, the Institute “serves as a scientific forum attracting world-class visiting scientists, postdoctoral fellows, students, and resident experts.” It “supports and serves the research community through newsletters, meetings, and other activities.” It also “collects and disseminates planetary data and engages, excites, and educates the public about space science.”

The Institute maintains a website on the internet which covers the latest news in planetary exploration and lists its various activities, meetings, etc. To learn more about this Institute, go online at: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/