NASA Science Briefing: Comet Siding Spring at Mars

With a view 100 times bigger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will aid researchers in their efforts to unravel the secrets of dark energy and dark matter, and explore the evolution of the cosmos. It also will discover new worlds outside our solar system and advance the search for worlds that could be suitable for life.

Observers in Western Europe should look to the east an hour before sunrise on Monday, 18 September to see not only dazzling Venus and the old crescent Moon in the same binocular field of view, but planets Mars and Mercury against the stars of Leo too.

The Dawn spacecraft has finally been able to get a good look at the famous bright spot on the surface of Ceres, with NASA releasing new images at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas.