NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is currently scheduled for launch tomorrow (10 February 2010) from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.

SDO is a powerful solar observatory which will look deep into the Sun and record images at 10 times higher resolution than HDTV. It is the first mission to be launched for NASA's Living With a Star (LWS) Program, designed to understand the causes of solar variability and its impacts on Earth. It is hoped that it will reveal how solar storms erupt, help us understand the Sun's influence on Earth and Near-Earth space and also help scientists build effective models for space weather forecasting.

Image: Artist's impression of SDO (NASA)

The Royal Observatory, Greenwich has just launched Solar Season, running until 9 May.

Come and see the Sun in a whole new light with new exhibition Solar Story, planetarium show Secrets of the Sun and a programme of talks, tours and workshops. Speakers include solar physicist Dr Lucie Green and ROG Curator for the History of Science and Technology Dr Rebekah Higgitt.

NASA announced on 3 February that it is extending the international Cassini-Huygens mission to explore Saturn and its moons to 2017, with a budget of $60 million per year.

This is the second extension to the mission which was originally launched in October 1997. Dubbed the Cassini Solstice Mission, this seven-year extension will allow scientists to study seasonal and other long-term weather changes to the ringed planet and its moons as it moves from winter to summer. It also will allow continued observations of Saturn's rings and magnetosphere.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

Read the full story on NASA's JPL website. Further Cassini information is available at www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Image: Looking down on Saturn's northern hemisphere, Cassini uses false-colour imaging to reveal different layers of cloud. PIA09212. © NASA/JPL/University of Arizona. View the ROG's online gallery of Cassini-Huygens images, Visions of Saturn.

On Friday (5 Feb 2010) NASA released the most detailed images yet taken of Pluto. The photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) show the dwarf planet's icy, mottled surface undergoing seasonal changes - the surface has become much redder and the illuminated northern hemisphere is getting brighter. The changes are probably due to surface ice sublimating to gas on the sunlit pole and then freezing again on the opposite pole as Pluto moves into the next phase of its 248-year seasonal cycle. Read the full story on NASA's website.

Image: NASA / HST

Read the ROG's Pluto fact file

Have you ever wondered how 18th- and 19th-century scientists explained the universe?

We've recently published a new section on Collections Online called Popular Astronomy, which reveals through our collections how genteel ladies, gentlemen and even the general public were learning about the heavens. It was hoped that teaching such topics might encourage individuals to turn away from more frivolous occupations and toward a contemplation of the sublime nature of the universe and its Creator.


Urania's Mirror or a View of the Heavens (AST0049) Many new objects are online for the first time, including orreries, lecture slides and wall hangings. We hope you enjoy viewing these fascinating items.


Orrery (AST1062)