NASA

Do you want to be NASA's new deejay? The space agency has opened a vote for the public to choose their favorite song to wake up the six crew members of Endeavor's STS-134 mission, the last before it is withdrawn from circulation.

For the first time in the history of astronomy, a probe has entered the orbit of the planet Mercury. Messenger, which has traveled 7.9 million kilometers to reach its goal, will study the planet closest to the Sun for twelve months.

Next Saturday the 19th look at the sky at dusk. The Moon will be located 356,575 kilometers from Earth, that is, 7% closer to the average distance that separates our planet from its satellite (382,900 kilometers). This will make it look much larger in the Northern Hemisphere.

NASA plans to launch the Glory satellite today, which will study the influence of the Sun and particles in the atmosphere on Earth's climate change. The Glory, launched with a Taurus XL rocket, will be incorporated into the "A-Train" program, made up of the set of Earth observation satellites that are already in orbit and that investigate the variables that affect the climate.

NASA's Discovery space shuttle took off yesterday Thursday, shortly before 11 p.m., bound for the International Space Station (ISS). This is the last trip of the veteran shuttle, which this time transports six astronauts, along with the android Robonaut 2 (R2), the multipurpose module Leonardo and other equipment.

Two space probes have been placed at points diametrically opposite to the Sun to study how the flow of energy and solar matter affects the Earth. "This is a great moment for Solar Physics," said Angelos Vourlidas, NASA STEREO mission scientist.

"It's official: the Sun is a sphere" says NASA in a statement in which it has presented new images of the solar surface and its atmosphere, which will give a vision of the star around which our planetary system revolves and will help improve climatological predictions.

Seven astronauts perished aboard NASA's Challenger space shuttle on January 28, 1986. A quarter of a century later, the accident that occurred just 73 seconds after lift-off, more than 15 kilometers above the Atlantic Ocean, remains the most serious failure. remembered from the history of space exploration.