Astronomic media coverage from Earth
A Nasa probe is to start photographing the icy world of Pluto, to prepare itself for a historic encounter in July.
The New Horizons spacecraft has travelled 5bn km (3bn miles) over nine years to get near the dwarf planet – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30954673
The missing Mars robot Beagle2 has been found on the surface of the Red Planet, apparently intact. High-resolution images taken from orbit have identified its landing location, and it looks to be in one piece – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30784886
Scientists have paired NASA’s Cassini spacecraft with the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio-telescope system to pinpoint the position of Saturn and its family of moons to within about 2 miles (4 kilometres) – http://astronomynow.com/2015/01/09/scientists-pinpoint-saturn-with-exquisite-accuracy/
More about Saturn here – http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.cfm?SciencePageID=51
There could be at least two unknown planets hidden well beyond Pluto, whose gravitational influence determines the orbits and strange distribution of objects observed beyond Neptune. This has been revealed by numerical calculations made by researchers at the Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Cambridge. – http://phys.org/news/2015-01-trans-neptunian-planets-solar.html
Southampton students aiming to put the first life on Mars – http://www.southampton.ac.uk/mediacentre/news/2014/dec/14_232.shtml – 10 September 2014
NASA probe nears end of pioneering mission to Pluto after nine-year journey – http://www.itv.com/news/2015-01-04/nasa-probe-nears-end-of-pioneering-mission-to-pluto-after-nine-year-journey/
More about the mission to Pluto on the NASA website: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/