One year later: Endeavour still awing the people throughout Los Angeles
Controversy marked every step of Endeavour’s path to Los Angeles. From the beginning it was the old wrangling over which coast was the right coast – the ‘Left’ Coast or the East Coast? And did L.A. even deserve one of these precious birds? The answer to the questions posed all the way along became crystal …
Cassini swings high above Saturn to take a portrait
It’s a view as good as gold. A loop high above Saturn by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft revealed this stately view of the golden-hued planet and its main rings. The observation and resulting image mosaic were planned as one of three images for Cassini’s 2013 Scientist for a Day essay contest. The contest challenges students to …
Top 10 must-see list for new astronomers
It is very difficult to draw up a Top 10 list in any subject. In astronomy it is even more difficult due the the huge number of prospective candidates for the list. I have made it somewhat easier by restricting the list to things that beginners may view with relatively basic equipment. My list is …
Fiery end for ESA’s ATV Albert Einstein
ESA’s fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle cargo ferry, Albert Einstein, completed its five-month mission to the International Space Station by reentering the atmosphere today and burning up safely over an uninhabited area of the southern Pacific Ocean. Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATVs) are the most complex space vehicles ever developed in Europe and are the largest and …
How fast can Juno go?
When arriving at Jupiter, the planet’s gravity pulls in Juno faster and faster until the spacecraft reaches a speed of over 250,000 kilometers per hour (150,000 miles per hour) with respect to Earth – making it one of the fastest human-made objects ever. When it arrives at Jupiter, it slams on the brakes, firing its main engine in …
Juno’s flyby portrait of Earth
This false color composite shows more than half of Earth’s disk over the coast of Argentina, South America and the South Atlantic Ocean as NASA’s Juno probe slingshotted by on Oct. 9, 2013 for a gravity assisted acceleration to Jupiter. The mosaic was assembled from raw images taken by the Junocam imager. Juno will arrive …