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/ - The New Horizons mission flew past Pluto and its five moons in July 2015; images and findings are still coming out. There are tentative plans for the spacecraft to visit one or more other Kuiper Belt Objects, but no specific targets have yet been announced.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta - The European-led Rosetta mission is orbiting a comet, flying along with it as it orbits the Sun. Together they have gone through perihelion (in August 2015), stimulating sprays of icy vapor from the central body. As you've heard, the lander Philae has had its ups and downs, but overall the mission has been quite successful.

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.

http://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. You can also sample this site by going to the 13th floor and finding the glass display case just around the corner from the elevator, where you can try things out.

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.