Boulder, Colorado -- Scientists from the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson, Arizona, have discovered that a solar jet stream deep inside the Sun is migrating slower than usual through the star's interior, giving rise to the current lack of sunspots and low solar activity, according to work being presented this week at the meeting of the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society (AAS/SPD).

Images from the moon will be sent to Earth with higher power and increased efficiency due to communications hardware provided by NASA's Glenn Research Center. The hardware, called the traveling wave tube amplifier, was built by L-3 Communications Electron Technologies, Torrance, Calif., under Glenn's supervision. Incorporated in NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, it is a critical part of the primary communication system that will send data from the spacecraft to Earth as it circles the moon.

Southwest Research Institute has received confirmation from NASA Headquarters that the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) misson has been approved to begin its implementation phase. MMS will perform a definitive investigation of one of the most basic and important physical processes in the universe -- magnetic reconnection. The mission is scheduled to launch in August 2014.

Herschel opened its 'eyes' on 14 June and the Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer obtained images of M51, 'the whirlpool galaxy' for a first test observation. Scientists obtained images in three colours which clearly demonstrate the superiority of Herschel, the largest infrared space telescope ever flown.

Angelle Tanner, a post-doctoral scholar at JPL and Caltech, studies planets in distant solar systems, called extrasolar planets. The golden prize in this field is to find a planet similar to Earth - the only planet we know that harbors life. While more than 350 extrasolar planets have been detected, most are gas planets, with no solid surface. Many are located in orbits closer to their parent star than Mercury is to the sun. In other words, not very similar to Earth.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) would like to release the final still images taken by the onboard High Definition Television (HDTV) of the lunar explorer "KAGUYA" just prior to its maneuvered falling to the Moon. The images are attached below. The KAGUYA was launched on September 14, 2007, and was controlled to be dropped to the Moon on June 11, 2009, as its mission was completed.