60-second Space

On January 20th the European Space Agency woke its Rosetta probe after two-and-a-half years in hibernation, in preparation for its final approach to a comet  

More than 3,000 astronomers assembled last week for the 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Clara Moskowitz reports

Two recently found supernovae are much farther away and brighter than almost any star explosion ever seen, perhaps because they wound up as rapidly spinning magnetars. Clara Moskowitz reports

The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer satellite that went into hibernation in 2011 has been brought to life as an asteroid lookout. Clara Moskowitz reports

Ten-year-old Nathan Gray of Nova Scotia officially becomes the youngest person ever to identify a new supernova. Clara Moskowitz reports

Don't miss viewing Comet ISON, visible in the east before dawn, with a tail now as long as the bowl of the Big Dipper. Clara Moskowitz reports

India aims to become the fourth entity to send a mission to Mars with its launch of the Mars Orbiter Mission, aka Mangalyaan. Clara Moskowitz reports.

At a symposium on the danger of asteroid impacts, Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart said it's time for the planet to develop a strategy should a big rock come our way. Clara Moskowitz reports.

Two of the three known planets around the star Kepler 56 orbit their host out of line with the star's equator. Clara Moskowitz reports.

Voyager 1's own record of the plasma vibrations in its vicinity conclusively show that it has reached the space between the stars. John Matson reports

The distributed computing project Einstein@Home uses home computers to search through years of telescope data to find pulsars. John Matson reports.

NASA's WISE satellite surveyed the universe before being mothballed in 2011. Now it's being resurrected as a near-Earth asteroid scanner.

Although the Kepler space telescope's stabilization system is beyond repair, it has produced reams of data that have yet to be fully searched for exoplanets. John Matson reports.

The only issue related to the flip of the sun's magnetic field is that it corresponds with the peak of the sunspot cycle, when the sun is prone to launch flares and bursts of plasma into space that can effect satellites and power grids. John Matson reports.

Since it landed on Mars on August 6, 2012, the Curiosity rover has done photography, geology and roamed a good kilometer. John Matson reports

A huge cloud of plasma south of our galactic black hole could be evidence of a past feeding frenzy. John Matson reports

Theory said that muon neutrinos could transform into electron neutrinos. A neutrino detector confirms this by catching many more electron neutrinos than it should have otherwise. John Matson reports

The black hole in galaxy NGC 1277 is way more massive than usual. Astronomers hypothesize it was ejected from another galaxy before settling in its new home. John Matson reports

The star WX UMa went from 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit to 30,000 degrees F in less than three minutes. Chris Crockett reports

A reaction between two common molecules occurs much faster at frosty interstellar temperatures than on our toasty Earth due to a cold-stabilized transition and quantum tunneling. John Matson reports