NASA Space Telescope Discovers Largest Ring Around Saturn

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered an enormous ring around Saturn -- by far the largest of the giant planet's many rings.



The new belt lies at the far reaches of the Saturnian system, with an orbit tilted 27 degrees from the main ring plane. The bulk of its material starts about six million kilometers (3.7 mill PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered an enormous ring around Saturn -- by far the largest of the giant planet's many rings.

NASA's strike on moon worked, mission official says

NASA said Friday's rocket and satellite strike on the moon was a success, kicking up enough dust for scientists to determine whether or not there is water on the moon.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/10/09/probe.moon.crash/index.html

Revealed: The flash nobody saw when Nasa'...a quest to discover water

It was billed as one of the most ambitious missions in the history of space exploration - two spacecraft smashing into the surface of Moon and creating a six-mile high cloud of dust visible from telescopes on the Earth.
Instead there was disappointment for millions as live pictures relayed back from the Moon showed no sign of an impact.
Now, however, Nasa has released a photograph showing the flash of light as its massive Centaur rocket struck the lunar surface.

50 years of space exploration condensed into one rather beautiful image. Make sure that you click the items to get the historical details

[NASA Photos Show Moon Strike Created Plume

NASA's much-hyped mission to hurl a spacecraft into the moon turned out some worthwhile data after all, scientists said.
New images show a mile-high plume of lunar debris from the Cabeus crater shortly after the space agency's Centaur rocket struck Oct. 9.
"We were blown away by the data returned," Anthony Colaprete, the mission's chief scientist, said in a report Friday from the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., which managed the launch. "The team is working hard on the analysis, and the data appear to be of very high quality."
In media coverage before the impact, many observers said they were disappointed at the lack of spectacle.
But scientists said the mission was carried out for "a scientific purpose, not to put on a fireworks display for the public," said space consultant Alan Stern, a former NASA associate administrator for science.....