The French space telescope COROT (Convection, Rotation, and Planetary Transits) was launched into a polar orbit by a Russian Soyuz rocket on December 27, 2006. COROT is 13 feet long, weighs 1,400 pounds, and has a 12-inch telescope. Its mission is to take repeated and precise measurements of the brightness of selected stars for five months.

At the 2,840 foot summit of the Sierra Negra in southeastern Mexico, a new telescope is being built. The Large Millimeter Telescope will have a 164 foot radio antenna. It will operate at wavelengths from .85 to 4 millimeters to study stars, galaxies, comets, planetary atmospheres, and the cosmic microwave background. It will be the world’s largest antenna operating at millimeter wavelengths.

Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has been in use for 16 years. NASA announced a space shuttle mission for 2008 to return to HST to extend and improve the observatory’s capabilities through 2013. The 11-day mission will be the fifth and probably the final servicing mission.

A nebula is a huge cloud of gas and dust in space. Star formation occurs in nebulas. The Orion Nebula is named after the constellation in which it appears, Orion (The Hunter). Orion is a very bright, easy-to-recognize constellation seen in the winter and spring sky. Orion has three bright stars that make up his belt, two bright stars at his shoulders, and two bright stars at his knees. The nebula is located near the tip of Orion’s knife, hanging from his belt.

A major blow to x-ray astronomy occurred in August, a month after the launch of the Japanese/American spacecraft Suzuku X-ray Observatory, formerly known as Astro-E2. The observatory lost the use of its most important instrument, the X-Ray Spectrometer (XRS). The scientific objectives for Suzaku were to study: hot plasmas in x and gamma rays; structure and evolution of the universe; wide band spectroscopy of black hole candidates and active galactic nuclei.

Two NASA satellites will be launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California no earlier than October 26th. CloudSat and Calipso (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations) will provide a new, 3-D perspective on Earth’s clouds and aerosols, or airborne particles. The satellites will use new technology to explore how clouds and aerosols form, evolve, and affect our water supply, climate, weather, and air quality.