Jupiter showing its bruises after being pelted with fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.Credit: Hubble Space Telescope Comet Team July 1994.  The planet Jupiter reels under the impact from a series of high-velocity objects slamming into its thick soupy atmosphere.  Witnesses on Earth watch breathlessly as Jupiter turns slowly, revealing 21 black wounds slowly spreading their stain across Jupiter’s striped waist.  All fingers point accusingly at comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which astronomers knew to be hellbent on its suicide mission against Jupiter … Continue reading →

Russia’s new Elektro-L weather satellite has recently announced its presence by returning some truly stunning high-resolution whole-Earth images.  Launched in January this year, Elektro-L is parked in a geostationary orbit above the Indian Ocean, where it will monitor both oceanic conditions and local space weather, and will be used for both global and local weather forecasts. Elektro-L is noteworthy in that it is the first spacecraft that Russia has conceived, designed, built and launched since the fall of the Soviet … Continue reading →