The University of Colorado Boulder will play a key role in a NASA mission launching this week to study how space weather affects Earth’s two giant radiation belts known to be hazardous to satellites, astronauts and electronics systems on Earth.

If you’re a planetarium junkie in the Boulder area, your experience is about to get a major upgrade. The astrophysical and planetary sciences department, home to Fiske Planetarium, announced today the launch of a complete upgrade to the projection and other presentation systems that power the planetarium’s big-screen experience. The remodel will turn the dome of the planetarium into an all-encompassing video theater.

Several hundred people are expected to gather on the University of Colorado Boulder campus July 12-13 to celebrate the 50 th anniversary of JILA, a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) known around the world for its discoveries in atomic, molecular and optical physics. In addition, the president-elect of the American Physical Society will be on hand to officially announce JILA’s designation as an historic physics site.

NIST news release Like many new measurement tools, the laser frequency comb seemed at first a curiosity but has found more practical uses than originally imagined. The technique for making extraordinarily precise measurements of frequency has now moved beyond physics and optics to advance biomedicine by helping researchers evaluate a novel instrument that kills harmful bacteria without the use of liquid chemicals or high temperatures.

It’s no secret that Mars is a beaten and battered planet -- astronomers have been peering for centuries at the violent impact craters created by cosmic buckshot pounding its surface over billions of years. But just how beat up is it?

An international research team led by the University of Colorado Boulder has generated the first laser-like beams of X-rays from a tabletop device, paving the way for major advances in many fields including medicine, biology and nanotechnology development.

University of Colorado Boulder students and faculty have been selected to develop a remotely operable, robotic garden to support future astronauts in deep space. The project is one of five university proposals selected to participate in the 2013 Exploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge led by NASA and the National Space Grant Foundation.

University of Colorado Boulder Professor Andrew Hamilton, doggedly determined to go where no man has gone before, continues to fascinate the public with his stunning and scientifically sound visualizations that take viewers into the guts of black holes.

On May 24, 1962, University of Colorado Boulder alumnus Scott Carpenter lifted off from Earth in NASA’s Aurora 7 space capsule mounted atop a Mercury-Atlas rocket at Cape Canaveral, Fla., swiftly climbing to roughly 165 miles in altitude.

On Sunday, May 20, Coloradans will see a “bite” taken out of the sun as the moon moves across the sun causing a partial solar eclipse. The eclipse starts at 6:22 p.m. with maximum eclipse at 7:30 p.m. and the sun will set at 7:50 p.m. Watch live this Sunday: