Helpful Links
Solar System Space Missions:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/main/ - NASA's Dawn spacecraft, having visited Vesta, a large asteroid, in 2011-2012, is now orbiting the dwarf planet/largest asteroid Ceres. You'll find neat videos of both Ceres and Vesta here.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/ - Much farther out in the Solar System, New Horizons is rapidly approaching the colder dwarf planet/largest Kuiper Belt Object, Pluto. Its closest approach will occur this July.
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta - Rounding out the encounters with Solar System objects smaller than planets, the European-led Rosetta mission is orbiting a comet, and will fly along with it as it approaches perihelion.
A favorite destination for spacecraft is the planet Mars, which has seen many probes and generations of landers and rovers. For an overview, see the general Mars Exploration site http://mars.nasa.gov/. Sites of the currently/recently operating rovers are:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/ - Spirit (retired) and Opportunity, the previous generation
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/ - Curiosity (also known as the Mars Science Laboratory)
Sites about Exoplanets:
kepler.nasa.gov - Website of the original Kepler mission, now finished. Click on the Animations tab under Galleries for a lot of cool demos; keep an eye out for the Kepler Orreries.
keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov/K2/MissionConcept.shtml - Introduces the second chapter in the life of the Kepler spacecraft, which is currently surveying other regions of the sky, for briefer periods, and making new discoveries.
save-point.io - This is a platform for exoplanet games, apps, and portals to examining real data, sponsored by UT and developed by our own astronomers. The game Super Planet Crash was written by a postdoc who specializes in theoretical modeling of actual planetary systems.
planethunters.org - Another site that caters to the interested public, enabling people to participate in real exoplanet research. This is part of the "Zooniverse," an astronomical manifestation of the citizen science movement.
Current Sky Phenomena:
www.astronomy.com - The website of one of the two main popular astronomy magazines. If you don't see “Sky This Week” on the cycling display, click on the link by that title on the Observing menu, under either Recent Headlines or Topics.
www.skyandtelescope.com/ - The website of the other major popular astronomy magazine. Look for “This Week’s Sky at a Glance."
http://stardate.org/nightsky - StarDate magazine, website, and radio spot are produced by McDonald Observatory's Public Information Office.
http://outreach.as.utexas.edu/public/skywatch.html - From UT Astronomy; gives current star party information as well.