to this page. Thank you!
You are visitor number
to this page. Thank you!
|
| |||
 |
Excerpts from JPL mission updates are provided as a public service as part |
Background screen credits: NGC 5775 - Imaged March 21/22, 2001 using the 16" Kitt Peak Visitors Center telescope as part of the Advanced Observing Program.
"Scientists are fascinated by a dark, lake-like feature recently observed on Saturn's moon Titan. NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured a series of images showing a marking, darker than anything else around it. It is remarkably lake-like, with smooth, shore-like boundaries unlike any seen previously on Titan.
"I'd say this is definitely the best candidate we've seen so far for a liquid hydrocarbon lake on Titan," said Dr. Alfred McEwen, Cassini imaging team member and a professor at the University of Arizona, Tucson. The suspected lake area measures 234 kilometers long by 73 kilometers wide (145 miles by 45 miles), about the size of Lake Ontario, on the U.S. Canadian border."
For the latest mission status reports, visit Cassini Mission Status web page. The speed and location of the spacecraft along its flightpath can be viewed on the "Where is Cassini Now?" web page.
"NASA's Deep Impact mission promises to create spectacular July Fourth fireworks in space when it shoots a 820-pound copper-tipped bullet into the frigid heart of Comet Tempel 1, creating a window to materials frozen in time since the solar system was born.
The washing machine-sized projectile will be released from its mothership spacecraft at 2:07 a.m. EDT (0607 GMT) Sunday for the day-long cruise to oblivion.
"We put the impactor in the comet's path so that the comet overtakes it. So it is like standing in the middle of the road with semi truck bearing down on you," said Rick Grammier, Deep Impact project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
The impactor and comet collide at 1:52 a.m. EDT (0552 GMT) Monday, releasing the energy equivalent of 4.5 tons of exploding TNT as they smash together at 23,000 mph. The intense forces vaporize the projectile as the circular crater -- perhaps 300 feet in diameter and 100 feet deep -- is rapidly excavated."
View star map of the comet at the time of impact. Courtesy of Tom Teter and "theSky" program. Relative view of an observer at approximately 40° north latitude, Comet Tempel 1 is only 14° above the southwestern horizon at time of impact (0552 UTC [GMT], July 4 - adjust your times accordingly). Tempel 1 at Impact
For the latest mission status reports, visit http://www.nasa.gov/deepimpact and http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/.
Stardust LPSC 2004 Abstracts
"Abstracts of the Stardust science results from the Comet Wild 2 encounter are now available here (Adobe Acrobat reader required): ftp://www.lpi.usra.edu/pub/outgoing/lpsc2004/full07.pdf"
For more information on the Stardust mission - the first ever comet sample return mission - please visit the Stardust home page.
"A true martian workhorse, the Mars Global Surveyor has been returning vital data from the red planet for eight years. In late May, the Mars Orbital Camera aboard the spacecraft returned its 200,000th picture of Mars! This impressive image highlights a northern middle-latitude martian crater."
Mars Global Surveyor Images - June 23-29, 2005
"The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available:
Information about how to submit requests is online at the new Mars Orbiter Camera Target Request Site, at http://www.msss.com/plan/intro"
Newly-released MOC images can be seen in the MOC Gallery, a web site maintained by Malin Space Science Systems, the company that built and operates MOC for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA.
Mars Global Surveyor has begun its eighth year orbiting the red planet. MGS reached Mars on 12 September 1997. The first MOC images were obtained on 15 September 1997.
Visit the MGS pages at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/index.html. There are over 200,000 images of Mars from the MGS, check out the newest MGS images of the surface of Mars.
The new images of the European Space Agency's Mars Express and NASA's Mars Odyssey are available on the Internet from NASA at http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/mgs-images.html and from Malin Space Science Systems, the San Diego company that built and operates the camera, at http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/19/index.html. "
Mars Odyssey Themis Images June 20-24, 2005
The Odyssey data are available through a new online access system established by the Planetary Data System at: http://starbrite.jpl.nasa.gov/pds/"
Visit the Mars Odyssey Mission page.
"Spirit started this week by completing two remote sensing sols on June 18 and 19 (sols 518 and 519). The rover made observations with its panoramic camera, navigation camera, and miniature thermal emission spectrometer."
Opportunity Status: Examining 'Purgatory' - sol 490-496, June 17, 2005
"Opportunity is happy to be moving again and it's heading back to "Purgatory Dune." The rover's wheels dug wonderful trenches during its egress, and the science team is eager to get the robotic arm out and have a look at the soil inside and outside of the tracks. As you can imagine, Opportunity has been driving very carefully, backing away from the dune, turning around and then re-approaching it."
Visit the Mars Exploration Rover page.
The author will accept any suggestions, constructive criticisms, and corrections. Please feel free to send me any new links or articles to share as well. I will try to accommodate any reasonable requests. Please feel free to send questions, comments, criticisms, or donations to the email address listed below. Enjoy! Return to Top
- Email Newsletter archives - http://www.freelists.org/archives/astronews/
URL: http://bfa3.home.att.net/astro.html
