Rosetta flight director says Philae ready for release

Researchers have discovered that the hot gas in the halo of the Milky Way galaxy is spinning at about 400,000 mph in the same direction as the galaxy’s disc. For comparison, the disc of the Milky Way, which contains our stars, planets, gas and dust, is spinning at around 540,000 mph.

The Eagle Nebula, also known as Messier 16 (M16), as seen by ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory. A group of young, bright stars, not visible at these infrared wavelengths, are located near the centre of the image. The powerful light emitted by these stars is setting the surrounding gas ablaze, causing it to shine.

In the final months of Europe’s LISA Pathfinder mission, scientists have found an unexpected use for the trailblazing testbed for a future gravitational wave observatory by tracking the tiny dings made by microscopic particles that strike the spacecraft in deep space, exploiting the impacts to learn about the population of dust grains cast off by comets and asteroids across the solar system.