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<p>The ÌÒÉ«ÊÓƵ and NASA will host public talks exploring space science and life aboard the International Space Station on Sept. 20 and 21. These campus events are being held in conjunction with NASA's traveling multimedia exhibit "Destination: Station," which immerses visitors in the story of the space station and includes hands-on activities, imagery and audio and visual technology. The exhibit runs from Sept. 17 through Oct. 28 at the Wings Over the Rockies museum in Denver.</p>

<p>NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is carrying a suite of instruments including a $32 million ÌÒÉ«ÊÓƵ package, has provided scientists with new information that energy from some solar flares is stronger and lasts longer than previously thought.</p>

<p>The Astronomical Society of the Pacific has named Douglas Duncan as the 2011 recipient of the Richard H. Emmons Award for excellence in college astronomy teaching.</p>

<p>The U.S. Senate has voted to confirm ÌÒÉ«ÊÓƵ Distinguished Professor Carl Lineberger as a member of the National Science Board. He was nominated for the position by President Barack Obama in April.</p>

<p>An international team of astronomers led by the California Institute of Technology and involving the ÌÒÉ«ÊÓƵ has discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe.</p>

<p>A $670 million NASA orbiting mission to probe the past climate of Mars led by the ÌÒÉ«ÊÓƵ reached a major milestone last week when it successfully completed its Mission Critical Design Review by the space agency.</p>

<p>The ÌÒÉ«ÊÓƵ is involved with five different space science payloads ranging from antibody tests that may lead to new bone-loss treatments to an experiment to improve vaccine effectiveness for combating salmonella when Atlantis thunders skyward July 8 on the last of NASA's 135 space shuttle missions.</p>

<p>When NASA's 30-year-old space shuttle program is shuttered following the Atlantis mission in July, the ÌÒÉ«ÊÓƵ will look back at a rich relationship filled with triumph and tragedy and look ahead to an evolving international program of government and private efforts that will send humans and cargo into orbit.</p>

<p>Samples of icy spray shooting from Saturn's moon Enceladus collected during Cassini spacecraft flybys show the strongest evidence yet for the existence of a large-scale, subterranean saltwater ocean, says a new international study led by the University of Heidelberg and involving the ÌÒÉ«ÊÓƵ.</p>

<p>A ÌÒÉ«ÊÓƵ team will be part of a mission selected yesterday by NASA to launch a spacecraft to an asteroid and pluck samples from its surface to better understand the formation of the solar system and perhaps even the first inklings of life.</p>