The New Frontier

The sky above is studded with stars and countless galaxies In them we can read not only our origin but also our final destination Technology is on the brink of taking us to places we have only dreamed of

The moon is our closest celestial companion It lights our night sky and gently tugs at our shores Few have walked on her surface but her allure remains strong

They orbit between our planet and our star Mercury and Venus make up half of our terrestrial planets but we still know very little about them As we take a closer look at our companions we find more questions than answers

Mars has fired our imagination for thousands of years The tantalizing possibility of life has made it the most inviting planet in our solar system It is the only other place that man may one day call home

From the beginnings of our solar system 45 billions years ago there remain many clues to reveal its evolution Remnant debris asteroids and comets are whats left of the building blocks to our celestial neighborhood

In the cold dark expanse of our solar system beyond the asteroid belt lie the giant planets Some can be seen with the naked eye others have been visited by our camera What secrets do they hold

There are many more worlds in our solar system than just the planets The mysterious moons of the gas giants may hold much more than we ever imagined Each one is unique and each one deserves a scrutinous eye

The sun bathes our planet in warmth and light It powers the machinery of nature our weather and it encourages and sustains life on land and at sea We study it closely and it can reveal the secrets of all other stars

As scientists and astronomers peer more closely and with ever more fidelity at nearby stars they are discovering countless exo planets How many Earthlike planets are out there Could one of them hold life not so different from our own

The night sky is a time machine The further we look out into the universe the further back in time we reach Most of what we see is actually dark matter and dark energy but its nature eludes us for the moment