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The Universe at Your Fingertips 2.0 DVD from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific is in our online store, filled with Earth and space science resources.

Space Missions

 

The spinning vortex of <a href="https://www.windows2universe.org/saturn/saturn.html">Saturn</a>'s north polar storm resembles a giant deep red rose surrounded by green foliage in this false-color <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia14944.html">image</a> from NASA's <a href="https://www.windows2universe.org/missions/cassini.html">Cassini spacecraft</a>. The eye is 2,000 kilometers across with cloud speeds as fast as 150 meters per second. It is not known how long this newly discovered north-polar <a href="https://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/hurricane/hurricane.html">hurricane</a> has been active. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 419,000 kilometers from Saturn.<p><small><em>NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI</em></small></p>According to <a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-277">NASA scientists</a>, the Voyager 1 spacecraft entered interstellar space in August 2012, becoming the first spacecraft to leave the <a href="/our_solar_system/solar_system.html&edu=elem">solar system</a>. The space probe is about 19 billion km from the <a href="/sun/sun.html&edu=elem">Sun</a>. <a href="/space_missions/voyager.html&edu=elem">Voyager 1 and 2</a> were launched in 1977 on a <a href="/space_missions/voyager.html&edu=elem">mission</a> that flew them both by <a href="/jupiter/jupiter.html&edu=elem">Jupiter</a> and <a href="/saturn/saturn.html&edu=elem">Saturn</a>, with Voyager 2 continuing to <a href="/uranus/uranus.html&edu=elem">Uranus</a> and <a href="/neptune/neptune.html&edu=elem">Neptune</a>. Voyager 2 is the longest continuously operated spacecraft. It is about 15 billion km away from the <a href="/sun/sun.html&edu=elem">Sun</a>.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of NASA</em></small></p>

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Explore Space Missions

Space Exploration

For as long as there have been people on Earth, we have looked up at the sky and wondered ...Read more

Human Spaceflight

It was not long after the first space satellites were launched that we succeeded in getting ...Read more

Satellites and Robotic Spacecraft

Satellites and robot spacecraft are important to space exploration. They let us explore space ...Read more

Space Missions Links

These are links to other great web sites about Space Missions. But beware: you don't want ...Read more

Tours

Take off on an Exploratour! Click on one of the many tours listed below to follow a guided ...Read more

Historical Events

4/24 Eruption of Mount Santa Maria in Guatemala on this date in 1902
4/24 Launch of the Hubble Space telescope on this date in 1990 Details
4/26 F5 tornado hits Andover, Kansas on this date in 1991 Details

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4/25 HHMI Workshops at the USA Science and Engineering Festival
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4/25 Celebrate Arbor Day on April 25!
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4/25 National DNA Day
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Did you know?

Did you know that many cultures have studied the heavens in the past?

Did you know that different cultures imagined different constellations, based on their own cultural context?

 

Earth and Space Science Concept of the Day

Do you know what this word or phrase means?

Tide
xTide : A tide is the regular rising and falling of the ocean's surface caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun on the ocean and the Earth's rotation.

Click on the word to find out!

Research Highlights

Deadly Tonga Earthquake Revealed as Three Big Quakes

Geologists have learned that a large earthquake and tsunami that killed 192 people on September 29, 2009 in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga was in fact a triple-whammy. The magnitude 8.1 "great earthquake"...Read more


Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation and NASA, our Founding Partners (the American Geophysical Union and American Geosciences Institute) as well as through Institutional, Contributing, and Affiliate Partners, individual memberships and generous donors. Thank you for your support! NASA AGU AGI NSF