‘Solar System’ Archives
MESSENGER sees a new side to Mercury
By a new side of Mercury of course I mean totally new, never before seen, first time ever! Today is the day of the 3rd flyby, and MESSENGER has started to send back data and images. A series of high resolution image were taken which contains portions never before seen by a spacecraft. Take a look at this image. [...]
Throwing rocks at the Moon
If you are going to throw rocks at the Moon, you should try doing it NASA style. There is just over a week to go before the LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observation Sensing Satellite) mission sends the Centaur Upper stage rocket crashing into the Moon, creating a 10km plume near the Moon's southern pole. If you have a 10" or bigger scope you might [...]
New Horizons: Half way to Pluto….
It is just me or is it sort of sad that 40 years after just about everyone watched the Apollo missions, you have to dig deeper and deeper to find out what cool stuff Nasa is up to. For example, did you know that earlier this month the New Horizons spacecraft passed the 1/2 way mark to Pluto. 1.34 Billion Miles from Earth, 14 times further out [...]
Mercury Rising..
With approximately 2 days to go, the MESSENGER spacecraft took a quick snap of our Sun's closest planet. This is the third flyby which brings the spacecraft to within 142 miles of the surface and sets the stage for Oribit insertion March 2011. For more details on this program visit http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/ Credit: NASA/Johns [...]
Juno still on course for 2011 Launch
Juno is still on schedule for a 2011 Aug launch. This is a solar powered 5 year trip to Jupiter. But the really cool thing about the Juno programme is that it is the first spacecraft to attempt to make it past the Kuiper belt to the outer planets using Solar cell technology. Juno will fly closer to the planet than the Galileo spacecraft giving us [...]
Saturn – beautiful new Cassini image
With Saturn having its rings edge on to the Sun, you might think all the cool pictures are going to have to wait. Well take a look at this Cassini image and tell me what you make of it. Take a close look and while you cannot see the moon Enceladus, you can see its shadow beside the shadow of the ring. Stunning...thanks Cassini!
Water Water everywhere….
It doesn't rain but it pours! Certainly thats what it feels like when within just a short few hours you start to hear about water on the moon (yes the moon!) and now on Mars. Given the fact that water may be more abundant than previously thought it is reasonable to deduce that we can use this information to help us decide possible future [...]
Mars
Images of the plant mars from Hubble..