After 172 days and 431 million kilometers (268 million miles) of deep space stalking, Deep Impact successfully reached out and touched comet Tempel 1. The collision between the coffee table-sized impactor and city-sized comet occurred at 1:52 a.m. EDT
- NASA/JPL
In a dress rehearsal for the rendezvous between NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft and comet 9P/Tempel 1, the Hubble Space Telescope captured dramatic images of a new jet of dust and gas streaming from the icy comet - Space Telescope Science Institute
Scientists are fascinated by a dark, lake-like feature recently observed on Saturn's moon Titan. NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured a series of images showing a marking, darker than anything else around it - NASA
Astronomers have spotted the most distant Einstein ring ever seen. It offers valuable insight both on the galaxy which acts as a gravitational lens and on the more distant galaxy whose light it magnifies - New Scientist
"This is the first observational evidence that planets can survive the white dwarf formation process of a star several astronomical units away", astronomers say
- Universe Today
A giant cloud in space is emitting regular flashes of laser light, astronomers have shown. The laser is powered by the spinning corpse of a dead star - New Scientist
NASA has not completely met — "closed" — three of the 15 safety recommendations for returning to flight, according to an independent oversight panel, the Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group - Astronomy
The first shuttle to launch since the Columbia accident in February 2003 will blast off on 13 July, NASA's top managers announced on Thursday - New Scientist
The University of Chicago’s Nicolas Dauphas has developed a new way to calculate the age of the Milky Way that is free of the unvalidated assumptions that have plagued previous methods - University of Chicago