Unsuccessful Mars Rovers: The Failed Soviet Prop-M Rover
The Soviet Prop-M Mars Rover
With the recent landing of NASA’s latest Mars rover, Curiosity, there has been a renewed excitement for discoveries to be found on Mars. However, while the Curiosity rover currently has much of the attention of space rover fans, let’s take a moment and discuss all of the rovers that were sent to land on the planet but failed. After all, Curiosity was not the first rover to attempt to land on Mars.
Perseid Meteor Shower 2012
Where to look for Perseid Meteors
Keep your eyes on the night sky tonight and tomorrow night. The annual Perseid Meteor Shower peaks on August 11 and August 12 in 2012. Expect to see around 60 meteors per hour this year. Viewing should be pretty good because the moon will not enter the picture until the early hours of the morning.
The best viewing will be between the hours of 11pm and 3am. The intrepid writers here at Outer Space Universe will be out in force this weekend checking the meteor shower out. We’ll post any pictures we get here.
NASA Curiosity Rover Successfully Lands on Mars!
The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover
NASA announced today that the Curiosity Rover made a successful landing on Mars! This landing was the first of it’s kind for NASA. It combined a heat shield, a parachute and a rocket crane designed to hover over the landing site and lower the rover by cable to the Martian surface. Talk about some crazy great engineering! To top it off, it all had to be done by computer – no human operator involved in the landing.
M64 – The Black Eye Galaxy
M64 - The Black Eye Galaxy
M64, the Black Eye Galaxy is also known as the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy or the Evil Eye Galaxy. There are a couple of interesting things about this spiral galaxy that lies approximately 17 million light-years away from Earth.
Hubble Space Telescope’s Top 100 Images
Arp 273
I spend a lot of time browsing the Hubble archives getting lost in some of the most amazing images of objects in the universe. Did you know that the Hubble Space Telescope has a Top 100 Images List? Here you can find some of the best images that Hubble has ever brought to life.