Space and astronomy news
While the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft was orbiting asteroid Bennu, one of the instruments on board happened to catch a glimpse of a black hole ‘out of the corner of its eye,’ so to speak. While intently focusing on the asteroid, the Regolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) happened to catch the X-rays from a newly flaring stellar …
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft reached its target, asteroid Bennu (101955 Bennu), on December 3rd, 2018. Since then, the spacecraft has been examining the asteroid’s surface, looking for a suitable landing spot to collect a sample. The problem is, Bennu has a much rockier and challenging surface than initially thought.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx arrived at asteroid Bennu in December 2018. During the past year, it’s been imaging the surface of the asteroid extensively, looking for a spot to take a sample from. Though the spacecraft has multiple science objectives, and a suite of instruments to meet them, the sample return is the key objective. Now, NASA …
Continue reading “It’s Time to Decide. Where Should OSIRIS-REx Take a Sample from Bennu?”
What would it be like to be onboard the Cassini orbiter as it made its way around Jupiter and Saturn and their moons? Pretty cool. Now a new video made from Cassini images pieces together parts of that stately journey.
After reviewing data from the New Horizons mission, an international team of scientists determined that Pluto has dunes made of grains of methane
This past December, the New Horizons probe took a series of pictures from the Kuiper Belt, thus breaking the record for the most distant images ever taken!
A new study by members of the New Horizons team has provided an explanation for Pluto’s mysteries “bladed terrain”.
Using data from the New Horizons spacecraft, the mission team has created some new maps of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.
Juno made history the other day when it conducted the closest pass in history to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, and the photos are already coming in!
We’ve posted several ‘flyover’ videos of Mars that use data from spacecraft. But this video might be the most spectacular and realistic. Created by filmmaker Jan Fröjdman from Finland, “A Fictive Flight Above Real Mars” uses actual data from the venerable HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and takes you on a 3-D …
Continue reading “Ever Wondered What Final Approach To Mars Might Feel Like?”