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Every since human beings have been gazing up at the stars, we have wondered whether there are other living creatures out there. Ancient humans often believed that the gods resided above us, and the stars and constellations they formed became part of a living, divine cosmos of which earth was an integral part. Specific beliefs varied from culture to culture. The Mongolians had one of the simplest names - they called it the “Great Blue Sky.” When Genghis Khan needed to win a battle, or the lowliest nomad had to find his herd, it was to the “Great Blue Sky” over the Mongolian countryside that they turned to for help.

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Few things are as fascinating to astronomers or the general public as black holes. Can you imagine something so dense that light cannot escape from it? That sucks in everything that comes its way? If the earth were as compact as a black hole, it would be a ball about a half-inch across! Few things in the universe completely boggle the human mind as black holes.

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Do you know what a black hole is? Do they really exist? Black holes have fascinated people’s imaginations for decades and have inspired many stories and movies.

Simply put, a black hole is the last phase in a massive star’s life cycle. But to better understand this concept, you need to know about the life of a star.

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The Huygens probe was launched from the Cassini space craft, and on January 14th, 2005 the probe landed on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.

Titan is about 746 million miles (1.2 billion kilometres) from Earth and the largest of Saturn’s moons. The Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.

This picture was taken from the Cassini spacecraft as it sped outward from Saturn on its first orbit. At the left, Saturn’s shadow stretches almost completely across the rings, while at the right, the planet’s face is illuminated by the far-off sun.

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Encircled by large rings and more than 18 moons, Saturn is a unique planet that has been a mystery to us Earthlings for hundreds of years. Known as the “Jewel of the Solar System,” the planet was formed over four billion years ago and is the second largest planet in our solar system, and the sixth planet from the sun.

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Saturn is a fascinating planet, and we’ll learn more and more about it with information that comes back to earth from the Cassini space craft, which is now orbiting Saturn. In this article you’ll find some interesting facts about Saturn, the “windy planet.”

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Have you ever thought about what it might be like on another planet?

People have wondered about Mars for hundreds of years. Often known as the Red Planet because of its color in the sky, Mars was seen throughout history as a suspicious omen — a symbol of war and agression. Today, scientists are studying Mars for signs of past life on the planet.

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When is dust beautiful? When it’s cosmic! Did you know that the earth is constantly being hit by space dust? There are trillions of tiny rocks and dust particles in outer space and the earth runs into about 400 tons of this dust every single day!

This is not boring, normal, just lie around kind of dust. This dust can put on quite a show! Most of the specks of dust burn up when they hit the Earth’s atmosphere, causing the shooting stars that we can see on a clear night. Usually no bigger than a grain of sand, the specs that burn up completely before reaching the Earth’s surface are called meteoroids. Meteors are the streaks of light in the sky that meteoroids create, and are commonly known as falling stars or shooting stars.

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If you would like to see shooting stars, then August is the month to do it. The Perseid Meteor Shower show off in the first part of the month. Here are the details.

The meteors will radiate from the constellation Perseus, which, in North America, rises in the evening in the northeast. But you don’t need to look in this direction. The Perseids are known for their long trails and should streak across much of the night sky. Look anywhere from 30 degrees to 80 degrees above the horizon and about 45 degrees away from the constellation Perseus.

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On February 7, 1999, a Delta II rocket took off from Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida. The Rocket propelled the Stardust Spacecraft on its mission to collect tail dust from a comet named Wild 2, (pronounced “Vilt 2″ after the name of its Swiss discoverer). This is the first ever space mission dedicated exclusively to the exploration of a comet.

With equipment like a Dust Flux Monitor and a Comet and Interstellar Dust Analyzer, Stardust is all set to collect dust particles and report its findings back to earth. The stellar dust samples will be stored in a specially designed grid that looks like a large tennis racket. The grid sections are filled with a substance called Aerogel and the comet dust will be suspended in the Aerogel for safekeeping on the journey home.

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Here is a great question for you…if you do not know the answer try to ask your friends and see if they know the answer.

Question: What was the first animal in space?

Answer: Laika, the Russian space dog.

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” These famous words were uttered by Neil Armstrong as he made history as the first man to walk on the moon.

The year was 1969 and the United States was determined to be the first nation to successfully land on and explore the moon’s surface. An estimated 600 million viewers were glued to their television sets to witness Astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins make this historical journey. On July 16, 1969, these three courageous astronauts blasted off in the spacecraft Apollo 11. They traveled through space for four days before they neared the surface of the moon.

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