Become an Exoplanet Hunter With Newest Zooniverse Citizen Science Project – Planet Hunters is the latest in the Zooniverse project, and users will help scientists analyze data taken by NASA’s Kepler mission, the biggest, badest exoplanet hunting telescope in space. The project goes live on December 16 at http://www.planethunters.org. -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today

Could This be the Start of a New Space Shuttle? – All is not lost for the space shuttle idea. Richard Branson is thinking big again and along with orbital sciences Corp, Sierra Nevada Corp and some others they may build a reusable taxi to space just like the space shuttle. NASA will find $200 million to help with the development. -Weirdwrap

A delicately violent celestial shell game – One of my favorite types of objects in space are the thin, ethereal shells of gas stars create when they die. So I was thrilled* to see this new image of one taken in exquisite detail by the Hubble Space Telescope: -Phil Plait / Bad Astronomy

X-rays From Lightning – What Superman would See – Using a custom-built camera the size of a refrigerator, Florida researchers have made the world’s first crude pictures of X-rays streaming from a stroke of lightning. -Daily Galaxy

Bright White Storm Raging on Saturn – About a week ago, a bright white storm emerged on Saturn’s northern hemisphere, and amateur astronomer/planet astrophotographer extraordinaire Anthony Wesley from Australia has captured a few images of it. “This is the brightest Saturn storm in decades,” Anthony said on his website, Ice In Space. “If you get a chance to see it visually then take it, as it may be one of the rare “Great White Spot” (GWS) outbreaks on Saturn.” -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today

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Photos

Discovery on the pad

ISS through clouds

Erupting Volcano

Geminid in Death Valley

Gallery Pick of the Day

Soyuz lift-off with ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli together with Dmitri Kondratyev and Catherine Coleman for a challenging 6-month mission on the International Space Station (ISS) as members of Expeditions 26/27. They were launched in the Soyuz TMA-20 spacecraft from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 15 December at 19:09 GMT. Paolo’s MagISStra mission will be Europe’s third long-duration mission on the ISS. Between December 2010 and June 2011 he will be part of the ISS crew as a flight engineer. - Credit: ESA - S. Corvaja, 2010

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

Top Stories

NASA Discovers Asteroid Delivered Assortment of Meteorites – An international team of scientists studying remnants of an asteroid that crashed into the Nubian Desert in October 2008 discovered it contained at least 10 different types of meteorites. Some of them contained chemicals that form the building blocks of life on Earth, and those chemicals were spread through all parts of the asteroid by collisions. -NASA

Near-Synchronous Explosions Connect Across the Vast Distances on the Sun – For several decades, scientists studying the sun have observed solar flares that appear to occur almost simultaneously but originated in completely different areas on the Sun. Solar physicists called them “sympathetic” flares, but it was thought these near-synchronous explosions in the solar atmosphere were too far apart – sometimes millions of kilometers distant – to be related. But now, with the continuous high-resolution and multi-wavelength observations with the Solar Dynamics Observatory, combined with views from the twin STEREO spacecraft, the scientists are seeing how these sympathetic eruptions — sometimes on opposite sides of the sun — can connect through looping lines of the Sun’s magnetic field. -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today

Galaxy Cluster Reveals Farthest Known Galaxy – Almost all of the bright objects in this Hubble Space Telescope image are galaxies in the cluster known as Abell 2218 -a cluster so massive and so compact that its gravity bends and focuses the light from galaxies that lie behind it. As a result, multiple images of these background galaxies are distorted into long faint arcs. -The Daily Galaxy

No Asteroid Particles Found in Second Hayabusa Compartment, But More in First – No visible material from asteroid Itokawa was found inside the second compartment of a canister returned to Earth by the Hayabusa spacecraft. However, JAXA also announced that more micron-sized grains have been found in the first compartment, opened earlier this year. -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today

93rd Birth Anniversary of Sir Arthur Clarke – Let’s cherish the 93rd birth anniversary of Sir Arthur Clarke, who rendered an immense service to the world, by means of his innovative concepts on telecommunication + thrilling scientific books, We should do something to remind the world about his being in a day like this, as what his imagination has rendered, continues to grow day by day -IYA 2009 / Sri Lanka

A Majestic Galaxy in One of the Largest Known Structures in the Observable Universe – This image shows a majestic face-on spiral galaxy located deep within the Coma Cluster of galaxies, which lies 320 million light-years away, in the northern constellation Coma Berenices. The galaxy, known as NGC 4911, contains rich lanes of dust and gas near its center. These are silhouetted against glowing newborn star clusters and iridescent pink clouds of hydrogen, the existence of which indicates ongoing star formation. -The Daily Galaxy

Dec 14/15 Meteors (night after the Geminids peak) – What a difference 24 hours makes! Only a day removed from the Geminids peak and rates have crashed to a fraction of their peak. During the past 5 nights SALSA3 detected 12, 22, 69, 124 and now 20 Geminids. This is a characteristic of the Geminids in that the post-peak rates fall off much more rapidly than the pre-peak increase. -Carl Hergenrother

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Photos

H-alpha Orion mosaic

Geminid bolide

IC1848 - Soul Nebula

Slewing

Venus Rising

Toronto, Ward’s Island

Lake Como, Italy

Waxing Gibbous Moon

Gallery Pick of the Day

Geminids over Kitt Peak - Credit & Copyright: David A. Harvey

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

All set for Paolo Nespoli launch tomorrow – The next spaceflight by a European astronaut is about to begin: ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli and his crewmates will be launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 15 December at 19:09 GMT to the International Space Station. -ESA

Meteors and the Geminids Peak – The Geminids did not dissapoint! Though the IMO ZHR Live page doesn’t seem to be updating observations made by myself and Salvador show ZHRs that equaled or even exceeded the expected value of 120. Over the course of about 3.33 hours I averaged about 1 meteor per minute under skies that range from a limiting magnitude of +5.0 (when the Moon was still up) to +5.7 (before the break of dawn).-Carl Hergenrother / Transient Sky

Qatar Led Team Discovers Exoplanet – When listing the major scientific powers, the tiny nation of Qatar is not one that generally comes to mind. However, a Qatar astronomer, partnered with teams from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) as well as other institutions has just discovered a new exoplanet, dubbed Qatar-1b. -Jon Voisey / Universe Today

Total Lunar Eclipse – December 21, 2010 – Both lunar and solar eclipses can only occur when the Earth, Sun and Moon are directly aligned… and that alignment is about to happen just four days before Christmas! While the winter treat of totality will lend itself to North America, many other parts of the world will be able to enjoy a partial eclipse as well. -Tammy Plotner / Universe Today

Cassini Spots Potential Ice Volcano On Saturn Moon – NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has found possible ice volcanoes on Saturn’s moon Titan that are similar in shape to those on Earth that spew molten rock. -NASA

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Photos

NGC 6934

Lunar hole in one

Wham! Asteroids collide in space!

Sunset of the Shuttle

Gallery Pick of the Day

Every space mission from the last 50 years on one map

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

Breaking News: Space Shuttle Discovery to Be Rolled Back from Launchpad – NASA managers made the decision on Monday afternoon that space shuttle Discovery will be rolled back from the launchpad for inspections and/or repairs. There’s no word from NASA yet on the reason for the decision, but presumably it has to do with the cracks on the “stringers,” or structural ribs of the shuttle’s external tank. -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today

NASA Probe Sees Solar Wind Decline En Route To Interstellar Space – The 33-year odyssey of NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has reached a distant point at the edge of our solar system where there is no outward motion of solar wind. -NASA

SpaceX Looking to Launch Next Dragon Spacecraft – to the ISS – With the success of the first and second launches of the Falcon 9 rocket as well as the successful recovery of the Dragon spacecraft, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has stated its intent to accelerate the pace of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program that the private space firm has with NASA. The company has been inspecting various elements of the Dragon spacecraft that launched to orbit on Dec. 8, to make potential changes to the next Dragon – in preparation for its flight. -Jason Rhian / Universe Today

Mystery on Saturn’s Satellite: Icy Debris Formed Iapetus’ Ridge? – As space-based probes and telescopes continue to reveal new and seemingly unimaginable features of our universe, a geological landmark on Saturn’s moon Iapetus ranks high on the list of things particularly peculiar. -www.jhuapl.edu

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Videos

Photos

Geminid Meteor

Geminid and M45

Tripple Eruption

Discovery on the launchpad

Gallery Pick of the Day

A nice Geminid during a large gap just after midnight - Credit: Richard Fleet

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

That’s no asteroid! – On the evening of 21 February 1906, A. Kopff discovered asteroid 596 Scheila. It was found to have a fairly typical Main Body orbit, meaning that it lives comfortably in the middle of the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter. Beyond that, it never attracted much notice, being just one amongst billions of asteroids. -Urban Astronomer

Incredible Engineering Camera Views of the Space Shuttle in Action – Whenever there is any issue with the space shuttle, you’ll hear talk about the engineering camera footage that NASA can look at to review with a fine-tooth comb everything that took place during launch and ascent. Here is a look at some of that footage — in high resolution, and in super slow-motion — to provide a glimpse of the intricate details engineers look for. -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today

Geminids – First Session Results – was able to spend ~40 minutes watching the Geminids so far tonight. This first session lasted from 11:43 pm (6:43 UT) till 12:28 am (7:28 UT). With a limiting magnitude of +5.4, I counted 23 meteors with 13 being Geminids and 10 being non-Geminids -Carl Hergenrother

Saturn Rings Formed From Moon Gone – Saturn’s rings are one of the most awe-inspiring features in the solar system but they may have had a violent creation 4.5 billion years ago according to a new theory advanced by astronomer Robin M. Canup at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, published in Nature. -Spaceports

Comet C/2010 X1 (ELENIN) discoverd Dec 10, 2010 by H15 ISON-NM Observatory, Mayhill. Observer L. Elenin. 0.45-m f/2.8 astrograph + CCD

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(596) Scheila

Geminids

Filament Eruption

The Moon Last Night

Gallery Pick of the Day

This picture of NGC 6572 shows the intricate shapes that can develop as stars exhale their last breaths. Hubble has even imaged the central white dwarf star, the origin of the dazzling nebula, but now a faint, but hot, vestige of its former glory. - Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

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

Preview of the 2010 Geminids – In the contest for best meteor shower of the year two showers are perennial candidates, the Perseids of August and next week’s Geminids. It’s usually a toss up as to which is better though over the past few years the Geminids have been better more times than not. If the sky is clear where you live, this Tuesday morning will provide one of the few nights of the year when it’s almost guaranteed that you will be able to observe a meteor after about 10-20 minutes of observing. -Carl Hergenrother

The SpaceX Business Plan: Help Build a Spacefaring Civilization – Elon Musk conceded that the space business world is an extraordinarily difficult place to make money. But that isn’t his main priority anyway. -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today

Venus Has a Moon? – Astronomers have been busy trying to determine the spin period and composition of Venus’ moon. December 8, 2010, results were announced by JPL/Caltech scientists, led by Michael Hicks. -Mike Simonsen / Universe Today

Technicians Set Up Tank for Test Next Week – At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians at Launch Pad 39A have installed an environmental enclosure on space shuttle Discovery’s external fuel tank for a tanking test planned for no earlier than Wednesday, Dec. 15. -NASA

Odyssey Orbiter Nears Martian Longevity Record – By the middle of next week, NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter will have worked longer at Mars than any other spacecraft in history. -NASA/JPL

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Venus by Akatsuki

Small Magellanic Cloud

NGC 6334 - Cat's Paw Nebula

The hidden arms of M94

Gallery Pick of the Day

Snow Storm across the U.S. Midwest - The blast of snow and cold air that moved across the Midwestern United States in early December 2010 is visible in this true-color image. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired the image at 11:00 a.m. Central time on December 7, two days after the weekend snow storm. - Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.

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

Top Stories

Spectacular meteor ‘fireball’ explosion over Britain leaves stargazers buzzing ahead of Geminid space shower – The “very bright” meteor lit up the skies from Somerset to Aberdeen, leaving the astronomy world abuzz. Despite lasting just five seconds, witnesses thought they were watching a rare meteor shower because it was such a dazzling display. -Andrew Hough / The Telegraph

How to Settle, Once and for All, the Whole “What’s a Planet?” Debate – When I was a kid, I knew exactly what a planet was: It was something big and round, and it orbited the sun. There were nine such beasts in the celestial menagerie. We knew Pluto was a misfit—smallish, distant, and orbiting on a weird elliptical path—but we had no doubt it was part of the family. The other planets certainly fit my description, and all was well. -Phil Plait / Bad Astronomy

Keck Observatory Pictures Show Fourth Planet in Giant Solar System – Astronomers announced the discovery of a fourth giant planet joining three others orbiting a nearby star with information that challenges our current understanding of planet formation. The dusty young star named HR8799, located 129 light years away, was first recognized in 2008 when the research team presented the first-ever images of a planetary system orbiting a star other than our sun. -Keck Observatory

Stunning ISS View of Volcanos on Earth – What a view! This photograph taken by one of the astronauts on the International Space Station shows several snow-covered volcanoes on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today

NASA’s Plan to Save Astrophysics From Space Telescope’s Budget Overruns – The $1.5 billion in cost overruns needed to complete the planned successor to the Hubble Space Telescope had NASA astrophysicists fearing for the future of other projects. But it appears NASA won’t suck funds from other astrophysics research to pay for the telescope. -Wired

WASP-12b: A Carbon Rich Exoplanet – Since its discovery in 2008, WASP-12b has been an unusual planet. This 1.4 Jovian mass, gas giant lies so close to its parent star that gas is being stripped from its atmosphere. But being stripped away isn’t the only odd property of this planet’s atmosphere. A new study has shown that it’s full of carbon. -Jon Voisey / Universe Today

What would happen if the sun went dark – Perhaps you caught the moon last night in the southwestern sky – a thin crescent lit by sunlight. If your timing was right, with the sky not too bright and moon not too low, you may have also seen the entire outline of the moon. -Astrobob

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Photos

NGC 6960 - Veil Nebula

NGC 1499 - California Nebula

NGC 2239 - Rosette Nebula

M81 and M82

Launch of SpaceX Falcon9

Launch of SpaceX Falcon 9

Dragon spacecraft splashdown

Sunspots at Sunrise

Gallery Pick of the Day

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft lift off from Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., at 10:43 a.m. EST, Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010. In orbit, the Dragon capsule went through several maneuvers before it re-entered the atmosphere and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean about 500 miles west of the coast of Mexico. This is first demonstration flight for NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, which will provide cargo flights to the International Space Station in the future. - Credit: NASA/Tony Gray and Kevin O'Connell

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

Geminids Meteor Shower 2010: What You Might See – The final meteor shower of 2010 is the Geminids, the peak of which falls on the night of the 13/14 December 2010. The Geminids is described by the IMO as “one of the finest, and probably the most reliable, of the major annual showers presently observable”, and this year’s shower is set to put on a good show. -Steve Owens / Meteorwatch

Geminid Meteor Shower Defies Explanation – The Geminid meteor shower, which peaks this year on Dec. 13th and 14th, is the most intense meteor shower of the year. It’s also NASA astronomer Bill Cooke’s favorite meteor shower—but not for any of the reasons listed above. “The Geminids are my favorite,” he explains, “because they defy explanation.” -NASA

Japan’s Akatsuki to Reach Venus Today – Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft will arrive at Venus later today, and will enter orbit around the planet. The box-shaped orbiter will make observations from an elliptical orbit, from a distance of between 300 and 80,000 kilometers looking for — among other things — signs of lightning and active volcanoes. -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today

SpaceX Delays Falcon 9 Launch Attempt To Dec. 9 – SpaceX will delay the launch attempt of the Falcon 9 rocket until at least Thursday, Dec. 9. At a press conference today, company president Gwynne Shotwell said a final review of closeout photos this morning found some indications of a potential issue on a second stage nozzle. Reports from journalist Robert Pearlman on Twitter said the Falcon 9 had been lowered from the vertical launch position. And Shotwell said if they have to replace the nozzle, the launch would be no earlier than Friday, Dec. 10. -Nancy Atkinson / Universe Today

15 years ago, Galileo arrived at Jupiter – At about 2200 UTC, a 340kg probe from NASA’s robot spacecraft Galileo will plummet into Jupiter becoming the first probe to fly through the atmosphere of a gas giant planet. -NASA/APOD

So You Think You Can Solve a Cosmology Puzzle? – Cosmologists have come up with a new way to solve their problems. They are inviting scientists, including those from totally unrelated fields, to participate in a grand competition. The idea is to spur outside interest in one of cosmology’s trickiest problems — measuring the invisible dark matter and dark energy that permeate our universe. -NASA/JPL

The Milky Way Project is live – The Milky Way Project is a joint venture between the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and the Zooniverse. So how can you help? Using our bubble-drawing interface, our hope is that you will find bubbles and note any important or unusual characteristics. For example, if you can see what looks like a knot in the bubble, flag it! This knot might tell us something about how the bubble is affecting star formation in the region. -Zooniverse

A HUGE looping prominence on the Sun! – That was taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory at about 17:50 UT, or just an hour or so ago as I post this. Wow! That prominence must be nearly a million kilometers across! [Update: Geeked on Goddard estimates it at 700,000 km.] Mind you, on the scale of this image, the entire Earth would be about 5 pixels in size. -Phil Plait / Bad Astronomy

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Launch of Apollo 17

Galileo Spacecraft

Looping prominence

Space Shuttle Discovery

Gallery Pick of the Day

On December 16, 1992, 8 days after its encounter with Earth, the Galileo spacecraft looked back from a distance of about 6.2 million kilometers to capture this remarkable view of the Moon in orbit about Earth - Credit: NASA/JPL

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

At least 34 meteors are included in this composite image as they rain through Australian skies during the annual Geminid Meteor shower - Credit: Phil Hart

At the end of three days of astrophotography at the Leon Mow Dark Sky Site in Victoria, Australia, Phil Hart captured about 34 Geminids in the composite image above. For two hours, Phil’s Canon 5D MKII set at 3200 ISO kept taking 8 second-long exposures through a 24mm f1.4 lens, all on a Vixen GP-DX equatorial mount. The resulting image is a composite of those 8 second shots stacked against a single 2 minute exposure capturing surrounding stars and the Milky Way through the constellation Orion and Canis Major with Sirius at the top. The image may seem to be inverted to those of us who are used to the sky viewed from the northern hemisphere. Of course, having been taken in Australia, the constellations appear upside down.

Monster Geminid Meteor Fireball over Mojave Desert - Credit: Wally Pacholka (AstroPics.com, TWAN)

Many more great pictures capturing meteors of one of the greatest annual meteor shower are available in the Meteorwatch Gallery.