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Discovery’s Launch No Earlier Than Dec. 17 – NASA managers have targeted space shuttle Discovery’s launch for no earlier than Dec. 17. Shuttle managers determined more tests and analysis are needed before proceeding with the STS-133 mission. The launch status meeting planned for Monday, Nov. 29, has been postponed and will be rescheduled. -NASA

The 2010 Shoemaker NEO Grant Recipients – The 2010 Gene Shoemaker Near Earth Object Grants totaled $33,285 (US) and were awarded to six amateur astronomers from four countries -Planetary Society

The Sun Steals Comets from Other Stars – The next time you thrill at the sight of a comet blazing across the night sky, consider this: it’s a stolen pleasure. You’re enjoying the spectacle at the expense of a distant star. Sophisticated computer simulations run by researchers at the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) have exposed the crime. -NASA

Longstanding Cepheid Mass Mystery Finally Solved – Cepheid variable stars – a class of stars that vary in brightness over time – have long been used to help measure distances in our local region of the Universe. Since their discovery in 1784 by John Pigott, further refinements have been made about the relationship between the period of their variability and their luminosity, and Cepheids have been closely studied and monitored by professional and amateur astronomers. -Nicholos Wethington / Universe Today

Stripes Are Back in Season on Jupiter – New NASA images support findings that one of Jupiter’s stripes that “disappeared” last spring is now showing signs of a comeback. These new observations will help scientists better understand the interaction between Jupiter’s winds and cloud chemistry. -NASA/JPL

NASA EPOXI Flyby Reveals New Insights Into Comet Features – NASA’s EPOXI mission spacecraft successfully flew past comet Hartley 2 on Thursday, Nov. 4. Scientists say initial images from the flyby provide new information about the comet’s volume and material spewing from its surface. -NASA/JPL

Cassini Back to Normal, Ready for Enceladus – NASA’s Cassini spacecraft resumed normal operations today, Nov. 24. All science instruments have been turned back on, the spacecraft is properly configured and Cassini is in good health. Mission managers expect to get a full stream of data during next week’s flyby of the Saturnian moon Enceladus. -NASA/JPL

Near-Earth asteroid (NEA) 162173 (1999 JU3) is a potential flyby and rendezvous target for interplanetary missions – Near-Earth asteroid 162173 (1999 JU3) is a potential flyby and rendezvous target for interplanetary missions because of its easy to reach orbit. The physical and thermal properties of the asteroid are relevant for establishing the scientific mission goals and also important in the context of near-Earth object studies in general. Our goal was to derive key physical parameters such as shape, spin-vector, size, geometric albedo, and surface properties of 162173 (1999 JU3). – arxiv.org

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Jupiter

M42 - Orion Nebula

M31 - Andromeda Galaxy

Sunrise at KSC

IC 1805 - Heart Nebula

M81 and M82

NGC6334 Cat's Paw Nebula

Moon

Gallery Pick of the Day

Centaurus A and Omega Centauri - A large field image of one of the most popular couples of the southern sky. The dark skies and the long exposure permit to see lots of dust in the whole area. Pentax 67 lens SMCP 300 mm ED(IF) @ f4 + Paramount ME, 280 mins LRGB exposure with a FLI Proline 16803. - Credit: Marco Lorenzi

The photo above is “Pick of the Day” from one of the three galleries: Astronomy Gallery, Space Shuttle Gallery and Space Station Gallery.

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Andromeda: born out of a massive collision? – Was the Andromeda Galaxy, the largest and most massive galaxy in our local neighborhood, shaped into its current structure due to a monstrous collision over 6 billion years ago? According to a new study by some French astronomers, the answer is oui. -Phil Plait / Bad Astronomy

How big is Pluto, anyway? – These days, a question like that is easy to answer: type it in to Google, click on the Wikipeadia entry, and read the answer: 2306 +/- 20 km. The +/- (to be read “plus or minus”) is important here: every measurement has limitations and an often critical part of science is correctly quantifying those limit. The correct interpretation of 2306 +/- 20 km is that 2306 km is the most likely value, but, within a certain range of probability, the value could be as low as 2286 or as high as 2326 km. The value could still be higher or lower, but the probability is small. -Mike Brown

NASA’s Stardust Spacecraft Burns for Another Comet Flyby – Eighty-six days out from its appointment with a comet, NASA’s Stardust spacecraft fired its thrusters to help refine its flight path. The Stardust-NExT mission will fly past comet Tempel 1 next Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14, 2011). It will perform NASA’s second comet flyby within four months. -Science Daily

Masten Space Systems And Space Florida Sign Letter Of Intent – Masten Space Systems and Space Florida have signed a Letter of Intent to explore performing demonstration launches of a Masten suborbital reusable launch vehicle from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. -Space Travel

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New York

Krakatau, Indonesia

London, Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam

Soyuz Descent Module

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NGC 7822 Sh2-171 in Hubble Palette - Ha=11Hrs OIII=5Hrs SII=5Hrs Scope TMB 130mm Camera Apogee U8300 - Credit: Bill Snyder - http://billsnyderastrophotography.com/

The photo above is “Pick of the Day” from one of the three galleries: Astronomy Gallery, Space Shuttle Gallery and Space Station Gallery.-

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Why Making Neutral Antimatter is Such A Big Deal! – Antimatter is some of the most wonderful stuff in the Universe. All of the normal matter on Earth — that you’re used to — is made up of atoms, which in turn are made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, like so. But every particle that exists, whether it’s a fundamental particle (like a quark, electron, or photon) or a composite particle (like a neutron or proton), also has an antiparticle! -Ethan Siegel / Science Blogs

Europe maintains its presence on the final frontier – ESA has decided to extend the productive lives of 11 of its operating space science missions. This will enable ESA’s world-class science missions to continue returning pioneering results until at least 2014. -ESA

Spitzer Reveals a Buried Explosion Sparked by a Galactic Train Wreck – Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have found a stunning burst of star formation that beams out as much infrared light as an entire galaxy. The collision of two spiral galaxies has triggered this explosion, which is cloaked by dust that renders its stars nearly invisible in other wavelengths of light. -Adam Hadhazy – Spitzer Space Telescope / NASA

Making stars: Studies show how cosmic dust and gas shape galaxy evolution – Astronomers find cosmic dust annoying when it blocks their view of the heavens, but without it the universe would be devoid of stars. Cosmic dust is the indispensable ingredient for making stars and for understanding how primordial diffuse gas clouds assemble themselves into full–blown galaxies. -University of Chicago

The Atmosphere of WASP-17b – One of the greatest potentials of transiting exoplanets is the ability to monitor the spectra and examine the composition of the planet‘s atmosphere. This has been done already for HD 18733b and HD 209458b. In a new article by a team of astronomers at Keele University in the UK, absorption spectroscopy has been applied to the unusual exoplanet WASP-17b, which is known to orbit retrograde. -Jon Voisey / Universe Today

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Heart and Soul Nebulas in Ha

Douglas H. Wheelock during EVA

Foam crack in ET

Zoomed-in on crack in ET

Gallery Pick of the Day

A brilliant burst of star formation is revealed in this image combining observations from NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes. The collision of two spiral galaxies, has triggered this luminous starburst, the brightest ever seen taking place far away from the centers, or nuclei, of merging galaxies. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/H. Inami (SSC/Caltech)

The photo above is “Pick of the Day” from one of the three galleries: Astronomy Gallery, Space Shuttle Gallery and Space Station Gallery.-

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Delta IV Heavy Roars Off Launch Pad on Secret NRO Mission – United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully launched a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, sending a classified surveillance satellite to space. Liftoff occurred on Nov. 21 at 5:58 p.m. EDT. The enormous rocket thundered to life, and as almost to underscore the secretive nature of the mission, the fiery exhaust was only visible for a short while before disappearing into thick clouds. However, long after the rocket was out of view, it made its journey known through its roar. The vibration was so visceral that vehicles and windows of buildings in the immediate area began to rattle with the raw power that was unleashed. -Jason Rhian / Universe Today

Students Develop Space Station Experiment – Everyone has to check out the five star incredible ***video*** from Valley Christrian High School in San Jose, California, as both students and adult mentors show the enthusiasm, passion and expertise that has gone into this first high school research project aboard the U.S. National Laboratory of the International Space Station. -Spaceports

NASA Study Brings Advanced Visualization to Hospitals – Guest contributor Matthew Hibbard investigates a down-to-Earth application for software intended to analyze space imagery. -Discovery News

The Strange Black Holes in Andromeda and Milky Way Galaxies – Chandra X-Ray Observatory took the first x-ray picture of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) on October 13, 1999. The blue dot in the center of the image is a “cool” million-degree x-ray source where a supermassive black hole with the mass of 30-million suns is located. – Daily Galaxy

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Delta-4 launch

Sunrise from the ISS

Perth at night

Full Moon

Gallery Pick of the Day

Smaller, dimmer galaxies appear to flit like moths around a radiant street light in this image captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The brilliant central object is a supergiant elliptical galaxy, the dominant member of a galaxy cluster with the mouthful of a name MACSJ1423.8+2404. This great swarm of galaxies is located about five billion light-years away in the constellation Boötes (the Herdsman) - Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA

The photo above is “Pick of the Day” from one of the three galleries: Astronomy Gallery, Space Shuttle Gallery and Space Station Gallery.-

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BRIAN MARSDEN (1937 Aug. 5-2010 Nov. 18) – Brian Geoffrey Marsden was born on 1937 August 5 in Cambridge, England. His father, Thomas, was the senior mathematics teacher at a local high school. It was his mother, Eileen (nee West), however, who introduced him to the study of astronomy, when he returned home on the Thursday during his first week in primary school in 1942 and found her sitting in the back yard watching an eclipse of the sun. Using now frowned-upon candle-smoked glass, they sat watching the changing bite out of the sun. What most impressed the budding astronomer, however, was not that the eclipse could be seen, but the fact that it had been predicted in advance, and it was the idea that one could make successful predictions of events in the sky that eventually led him to his career. -M.P.E.C. 2010-W10 / Minor Planet Center

Exoplanet of Extragalactic Origin Could Foretell Our Solar System’s Future – While astronomers have detected over 500 extrasolar planets during the past 15 years, this latest one might have the most storied and unusual past. But its future is also of great interest, as it could mirror the way our own solar system might meet its demise. This Jupiter-like planet, called HIP 13044 b, is orbiting a star that used to be in another galaxy but that galaxy was swallowed by the Milky Way. While astronomers have never directly detected an exoplanet in another galaxy, this offers evidence that other galaxies host stars with planets, too. The star is nearing the end of its life and as it expands, could engulf the planet, just as our Sun will likely snuff out our own world. And somehow, this exoplanet has survived the first death throes of the star. -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today

A comet creates its own snowstorm – NASA has just released new results and images from the EPOXI spacecraft’s visit to the comet Hartley 2 from November 4… and like the previous ones, these are absolutely stunning jaw-droppers. What scientists have found is that the comet’s solid nucleus is sitting in the middle of a veritable snowstorm! -Phil Plait – Bad Astronomy

Hubble Captures New ‘Life’ in an Ancient Galaxy – New observations with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope are helping to show that elliptical galaxies still have some youthful vigor left, thanks to encounters with smaller galaxies. Images of the core of NGC 4150, taken in near-ultraviolet light with the sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), reveal streamers of dust and gas and clumps of young, blue stars that are significantly less than a billion years old. Evidence shows that the star birth was sparked by a merger with a dwarf galaxy. -NASA

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Sunset

The Moon

Cairo, Egypt

Aurora over Tromso, Norway

Gallery Pick of the Day

Credit: NASA, ESA, R.M. Crockett (University of Oxford, U.K.), S. Kaviraj (Imperial College London and University of Oxford, U.K.), J. Silk (University of Oxford), M. Mutchler (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore), R. O'Connell (University of Virginia, Charlottesville), and the WFC3 Scientific Oversight Committee

The photo above is “Pick of the Day” from one of the three galleries: Astronomy Gallery, Space Shuttle Gallery and Space Station Gallery.-

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Physicists Create and Trap Antimatter, Universe Doesn’t Explode – In a paper today, scientists from Switzerland’s CERN lab reveal they created and trapped a form of antimatter for the first time ever. There’s no practical use for this except, you know, figuring out why the universe exists. -Adrian Chen

A Cosmologist’s Wish List: Four Most-Wanted Discoveries – Cosmology is a fairly young science, one which attempts to reconstruct the history of our Universe from billions of years ago. Looking back so far in time is extremely difficult, and adding to the complexity is that many of the pillars upon which the theories of cosmology rest have only been conceived within the last 20 years or so. -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today

New Geography Trivia Challenge From Space – You can now test your knowledge of the world’s geography in a new trivia game on Twitter sponsored by NASA and the astronauts on board the International Space Station. It is kind of like our own “Where In the Universe Challenge” but strictly of images from Earth, and in this contest, there are even actual prizes. Astronaut Scott Kelly started the game this week, which is Geography Awareness Week. His vantage point is perfect for hosting the game, as where else can you get a better view of the various geographical features on our planet than from the International Space Station? -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today

Infrared Telescope Spots ‘Space Jellyfish’ : Big Pic – NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has spotted a bizarre-looking object floating amongst the ocean of stars: a fluorescing jellyfish. However, looks can be deceiving; this ‘jellyfish’ is actually a well-known planetary nebula, but astronomers have never seen it like this before. -Discovery News

UK takes ‘open source’ route into space – The fundamental barrier to greater space activity is the cost of access. If people didn’t have to part with squillions to get up there, far more spacecraft would go into orbit than is currently the case. And it’s a problem that amplifies itself as well. -Jonathan Amos / BBC Blogs

Hands of the Apollo Astronauts – There are Neil’s. And there are Buzz’s. And Pete Conrad’s. And Alan Shepard’s. These are the hands of the Apollo astronauts, the plaster casts created to make their custom gloves in Houston, Texas, 1968. High five! -Gizmodo

Bonus: Nov 15, 2010 – Yo Mama Jokes: Astrophysics Edition – Yo’ mama so fat: … she absorbs 90% of the neutrino’s incident upon her; … she’s held up by neutron degeneracy pressure; … I stand next to her so I can age more slowly -Calamities of Nature

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M42 in Hubble Palette

M42 in False Colors

M42 in narrowband

M42 in RGB

Comet C/2010 V1 Ikeya Murakami

M33 - Triangulum Galaxy

NGC 7000 / North America

M45 - Pleiades

Gallery Pick of the Day

Sunrise at KSC - Credit: Jen Scheer

The photo above is “Pick of the Day” from one of the three galleries: Astronomy Gallery, Space Shuttle Gallery and Space Station Gallery.