Tag: Planetary Science
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China releases more images from far side of the moon
China’s Yutu 2 rover on the far side of the moon. This image was released by Chinese space officials Friday, Jan. 11. Credit: CNSA/CLEP Chinese officials on Friday released more imagery from the Chang’e 4 mission, a robotic lander and rover exploring the far side of the moon after a successful landing Jan. 3. The…
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Chinese rover begins exploring far side of the moon
China’s Yutu 2 rover drives off the Chang’e 4 landing platform on the far side of the moon. Credit: CNSA/CASC/CLEP A robotic Chinese spacecraft named Chang’e 4 braked out of lunar orbit and slowed to a controlled touchdown on the far side of the moon Thursday, a first in the history of space exploration. The…
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Most distant object ever visited resembles a snowman
The Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69 — nicknamed “Ultima Thule” — appears as a dual-lobe contact binary in this photo captured by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft at a distance of around 18,000 miles (28,000 kilometers). Credit: NASA/SWRI/JHUAPL LAUREL, Maryland — The first well-resolved image of the faraway chunk of rock fleetingly visited by NASA’s New…
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New Horizons scientists elated as Ultima Thule’s shape comes into view
At left is a composite of two images taken by New Horizons’ high-resolution Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), which provides the best indication of Ultima Thule’s size and shape so far. Preliminary measurements of this Kuiper Belt object suggest it is approximately 20 miles long by 10 miles wide (32 kilometers by 16 kilometers). An artist’s…
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Video: Queen guitarist Brian May discusses his song celebrating Ultima Thule flyby
Queen guitarist and contributing New Horizons scientist Brian May wrote a song celebrating the spacecraft’s New Year’s flyby with Ultima Thule, a supposed block of ice and rock in the Kuiper Belt beyond the orbit of Pluto. May is expected to release the track shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day at the Johns Hopkins…
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Early image of Ultima Thule revealed, providing hints on its shape
John Spencer, the New Horizons Deputy Project Scientist, reveals the first multi-pixel image of Ultima Thule which provide hints at its shape during a news conference at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
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Video: New Horizons phone home will confirm health of spacecraft
New Horizons Mission Operations Manager (MOM) Alice Bowman describes how New Horizons will turn to Earth and ‘phone home’ to confirm if the flyby of Ultima Thule was a success.
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New Horizons phones home, confirms successful flyby
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, center, celebrates with school children at the moment the spacecraft was planned to reach its closest approach to Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule at 12:33 a.m. EST (0533 GMT) Jan. 1. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls NASA’s New Horizons…
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Video: The New Horizons team hold news conference after flyby declared a success
Watch as the New Horizons team hold a press conference an hour after they received confirmation that the spacecraft had successfully flown by Ultima Thule and had recorded the expected amount of science data.
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OSIRIS-REx completes New Year’s Eve orbit insertion burn at asteroid
This mosaic image of asteroid Bennu is composed of 12 PolyCam images collected on Dec. 2 by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from a range of 15 miles (24 kilometers). Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona After four weeks of navigating in the vicinity of asteroid Bennu, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft fired its thrusters for eight seconds Monday to slip into…