compiled by David Kaplan

Rosetta Mission Ends With Spacecraft’s Dive Into Comet
Rosetta, the first spacecraft to orbit a comet, is dead, setting down in a final embrace with its companion of the past two years.

Radio signals from Rosetta flatlined at 7:19 a.m. Eastern after it did a soft belly-flop onto Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at a speed of two miles per hour, slower than the average walk… more

Under Hawaii’s Starriest Skies, a Fight Over Sacred Ground
MAUNA KEA, Hawaii — Little lives up here except whispering hopes and a little bug called Wekiu.

Three miles above the Pacific, you are above almost half the oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere and every step hurts. A few minutes in the sun will fry your skin… more

Jack Garman, Whose Judgment Call Saved Moon Landing, Dies at 72
On July 20, 1969, moments after mission control in Houston had given the Apollo 11 lunar module, Eagle, the O.K. to begin its descent to the moon, a yellow warning light flashed on the cockpit instrument panel… more

Space Art Propelled Scientific Exploration of the Cosmos—But Its Star is Fading Fast
In a serpentine building that snakes through the Connecticut countryside, a strange meeting took place this past July. A group of four scientists from NASA, including an astronaut, a robotics expert, and the agency’s deputy administrator, conferred with some 30 painters, sculptors and poets… more

Meet the Father of Modern Space Art
Twenty-five years before Neil Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface, Chesley Bonestell showed humanity a view from Saturn’s moon. The image was an astonishingly beautiful painting titled Saturn as seen from Titan… more

Star’s dust cloud gives birth to giant planet
Astronomers have discovered signs of a baby planet developing around another star… more