compiled by Arlene & David Kaplan

China’s Chang’e-4 Launches on Mission to the Moon’s Far Side
China is aiming to go where no one has gone before: the far side of the moon. A rocket carrying the Chang’e-4 lunar lander blasted off at about 2:23 a.m. local time on Saturday from Xichang Satellite Launch Center…more

Nasa’s Voyager 2 probe ‘leaves the Solar System’
The Voyager probes are both outside the heliosphere, a protective bubble created by the Sun that extends beyond the orbit of Pluto. The Voyager 2 probe, which left Earth in 1977, has become the second human-made object to leave our Solar System…more

It’s a Briefcase! It’s a Pizza Box! No, It’s a Mini Satellite
Orbiting instruments are now so small they can be launched by the dozens, and even high school students can build them. High school students and faculty from Irvine, Calif., conducted tests that simulated the harsh conditions of space. Their latest tiny satellite, IRVINE02, went into orbit on Dec. 3…more

Nasa’s Jupiter mission Juno reveals giant polar storms
Nasa’s Juno mission to the gas giant Jupiter has reached its halfway mark and has revealed new views of cyclones at the poles. As it orbits the planet every 53 days – Juno performs a science-gathering dive, speeding from pole to pole…more

Saturn With No Rings?
It Could Happen, and Sooner Than Astronomers Expected. The “ring rain” that falls into the gas giant is so abundant that the icy bands could disappear in 300 million years, or even sooner…more

It’s the Solar System’s Most Distant Object.
Astronomers Named It Farout. Orbiting 11 billion miles from the sun, this tiny world offers additional clues in the search for the proposed Planet Nine. All they can see is a pinkish dot of light in the night sky, but that is enough to infer that they are looking at a…more

Nasa’s InSight deploys ‘Marsquake’ instrument
The American space agency’s InSight mission to Mars has begun to deploy its instruments. The lander’s robotic arm has just placed the bell-shaped seismometer package on the ground in front of it…more

Sun-skimming mission starts calling home
Just weeks after making the closest ever flyby of the Sun, Nasa’s Parker Solar Probe is sending back its data. Included in the observations is this remarkable image of the energetic gas, or plasma, flowing out from the star…more