Topic: Pluto

NASA Hubble Space Telescope questions answered by Jennifer Wiseman

April 28, 2013 |

Greenbelt, MD – NASA’s Jennifer Wiseman is the senior project scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, where the mission is managed.

The following questions and answers were provided in April 2013 about the history and the status of the Hubble.

Jennifer Wiseman is a senior astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where she serves as the Senior Project Scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope. (Credit: NASA)

«Read the rest of this article»

NASA’s STEREO-B spacecraft observes Comet Pan-STARRS survive it’s trip by the Sun

March 16, 2013 |

Written by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science at NASA

Washington, D.C. – For a comet, visiting the sun is risky business. Fierce solar heat vaporizes gases long frozen in the fragile nucleus, breaking up some comets and completely destroying others.

That’s why astronomers weren’t sure what would happen in early March when Comet Pan-STARRS, a first-time visitor to the inner solar system, dipped inside the orbit of Mercury.

«Read the rest of this article»

NASA reports Comet from the Oort Cloud to pass by Earth in March

February 7, 2013 |

Written by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science at NASA

Washington, D.C. – Far beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto, where the sun is a pinprick of light not much brighter than other stars, a vast swarm of icy bodies circles the solar system. Astronomers call it the “Oort Cloud,” and it is the source of some of history’s finest comets.

One of them could be heading our way now.

Comet Pan-STARRS was discovered by the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System atop the Haleakala volcano in Hawaii. Astronomers use the massive 1.8 meter telescope to scan the heavens for Earth-approaching objects, both asteroids and comets, that might pose a danger to our planet. In June 2011 a comet appeared, and it was named “Pan-STARRS” after  the acronym for the telescope.

«Read the rest of this article»

NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) makes discovery about the Trojan asteroids in the same orbit as Jupiter around the Sun

October 16, 2012 |

Written by Whitney Clavin
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Scientists using data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, have uncovered new clues in the ongoing mystery of the Jovian Trojans — asteroids that orbit the sun on the same path as Jupiter. Like racehorses, the asteroids travel in packs, with one group leading the way in front of the gas giant, and a second group trailing behind.

The observations are the first to get a detailed look at the Trojans’ colors: both the leading and trailing packs are made up of predominantly dark, reddish rocks with a matte, non-reflecting surface. What’s more, the data verify the previous suspicion that the leading pack of Trojans outnumbers the trailing bunch.

New results from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Explorer, or WISE, reveal that the Jovian Trojans — asteroids that lap the sun in the same orbit as Jupiter — are uniformly dark with a hint of burgundy color, and have matte surfaces that reflect little sunlight. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

«Read the rest of this article»

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope images reveal a Fifth Moon Orbiting Pluto

July 12, 2012 |

Mountain View, CA – A team of astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is reporting the discovery of another moon orbiting the icy dwarf planet Pluto.

The moon is estimated to be irregular in shape and 6 to 15 miles across. It is in a 58,000-mile-diameter circular orbit around Pluto that is assumed to be co-planar with the other satellites in the system.

“The moons form a series of neatly nested orbits, a bit like Russian dolls,” said team lead Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA.

This image, taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, shows five moons orbiting the distant, icy dwarf planet Pluto. The green circle marks the newly discovered moon, designated P5, as photographed by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 on July 7th. P4 was uncovered in Hubble imagery in 2011. (Credit: NASA; ESA; M. Showalter, SETI Institute)

«Read the rest of this article»

New Horizons Becomes Closest Spacecraft to Approach Pluto

December 4, 2011 |

Huntsville, AL – NASA’s New Horizons mission reached a special milestone yesterday, December 2nd, 2011, on its way to reconnoiter the Pluto system, coming closer to Pluto than any other spacecraft.

It’s taken New Horizons 2,143 days of high-speed flight – covering more than a million kilometers per day for nearly six years—to break the closest-approach mark of 1.58 billion kilometers set by NASA’s Voyager 1 in January 1986.

Current position of New Horizons as it races toward Pluto.

«Read the rest of this article»

NASA’s Mars Rover Well-Equipped for Studies

November 23, 2011 |

Written by Steven Siceloff
NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center

Kennedy Space Center, FL – The Mars Science Laboratory is taking a toolbox to Mars that any researcher would be proud of. A drill, metallic brush and even a laser are part of the gear set the Mars Science Laboratory called Curiosity is taking to the red planet in the most ambitious effort yet to discern exactly what is on the surface.

The spacecraft is to launch November 26th atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Liftoff is slated for 10:02am. It will take more than eight months for Curiosity to fly the 354 million miles on its path to Mars. Landing is expected in early August 2012.

Technicians look over the MSL Curiosity during inspections at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. (Photo credit: NASA)

«Read the rest of this article»

A Star with Spiral Arms

November 2, 2011 |

Written by Dr. Tony Phillips
Science at NASA

 Greenbelt, MD - For more than four hundred years, astronomers have used telescopes to study the great variety of stars in our galaxy. Millions of distant suns have been catalogued. There are dwarf stars, giant stars, dead stars, exploding stars, binary stars; by now, you might suppose that every kind of star in the Milky Way had been seen.

That’s why a recent discovery is so surprising. Researchers using the Subaru telescope in Hawaii have found a star with spiral arms.

Two spiral arms emerge from the gas-rich disk around SAO 206462, a young star in the constellation Lupus. This image, acquired by the Subaru Telescope and its HiCIAO instrument, is the first to show spiral arms in a circumstellar disk. The disk itself is some 14 billion miles across, or about twice the size of Pluto's orbit in our own solar system. (Credit: NAOJ/Subaru)

«Read the rest of this article»

Space Observatory Provides Clues to Creation of Earth’s Oceans

October 7, 2011 |

Written by Whitney Clavin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Astronomers have found a new cosmic source for the same kind of water that appeared on Earth billions of years ago and created the oceans. The findings may help explain how Earth’s surface ended up covered in water.

New measurements from the Herschel Space Observatory show that comet Hartley 2, which comes from the distant Kuiper Belt, contains water with the same chemical signature as Earth’s oceans. This remote region of the solar system, some 30 to 50 times as far away as the distance between Earth and the sun, is home to icy, rocky bodies including Pluto, other dwarf planets and innumerable comets.

New measurements from the Herschel Space Observatory have discovered water with the same chemical signature as our oceans in a comet called Hartley 2 (pictured at right). (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

«Read the rest of this article»

Dwarf Planet Mysteries Beckons New Horizons Probe

September 3, 2011 |

Written By: Dauna Coulter | Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

Washington DC - At this very moment one of the fastest spacecraft ever launched — NASA’s New Horizons — is hurtling through the void at nearly one million miles per day.  Launched in 2006, it has been in flight longer than some missions last, and still has four more years of travel to go.

New Horizons headed for the lonely world of Pluto on the outer edge of the solar system.

Although astronomers now call Pluto a dwarf planet, “it’s actually a large place, about 5,000 miles around at the equator,” says Alan Stern, principal investigator for the mission. “And it’s never been explored.”

«Read the rest of this article»

© 2006-2010 Clarksville, TN Online is owned and operated by residents of Clarksville Tennessee.
» We are Hosted by Compu-Net Enterprises; In Partnership with Discover Clarksville and Discover Paris