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Thread: Current Events in Astronomy

  1. #141
    Lead Moderator calikid's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wally View Post
    From space.com
    NASA's TESS Satellite Launches to Seek Out New Alien Worlds
    It'll be awesome if they find spectroscopic evidence for life beyond Earth, we'll just have to wait and see.
    The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) program certainly sounds ambitious.
    Checking the brightest stars in Earth's sky for planets. Two year program, supposed to review 200,000 star systems.
    The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but
    progress. -- Joseph Joubert
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  2. #142
    From Newsweek
    Scientists Recognize First Asteroid Intruder From Another Solar System and Stuck in Ours


    Hopefully we can send a probe to study it in detail.
    My inner Mulder wants to believe, but my inner Scully remains skeptical.

  3. #143
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    Maybe not blue skies on Mars. But patches of blue firma are found in enhanced photos.

    A Large Streak of ‘Blue’ was Found on the Red Planet
    by CNN Wire

    Mars is often referred to as the Red Planet, but pictures from one of NASA’s orbiters showed what appeared to be a striking blue sand dune.

    The images were captured by the Mars Renaissance Orbiter, using the HiRISE camera, described on its website as “the most powerful camera ever sent to another planet.”
    Story Continues

    The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but
    progress. -- Joseph Joubert
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  4. #144
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    Not so great for USA viewers, but Africa & Asia should have a great Lunar Eclipse show this coming Friday.

    Total Lunar Eclipse - July 27–28, 2018.


    The second total lunar eclipse of 2018 will be visible in large parts of Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America. Totality will last for 103 minutes, making it the longest eclipse of the 21st century.
    Story Continues

    The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but
    progress. -- Joseph Joubert
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  5. #145
    My inner Mulder wants to believe, but my inner Scully remains skeptical.

  6. #146
    Lead Moderator calikid's Avatar
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    Sounds like a good day to park your plane.
    .
    Air Force remains silent after huge meteor hits near US military base.
    A meteor hit the earth and exploded with 2.1 kilotons of force last month, but the US Air Force has made no mention of the event.

    NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed an object of unspecified size travelling at 24.4 kilometres per second struck earth in Greenland, just 43 kilometres north of an early missile warning Thule Air Base on the 25th of July, 2018.

    Director of the Nuclear Information Project for the Federation of American Scientists, Hans Kristensen, tweeted about the impact, but America’s Air Force has not reported the event. Story Continues
    The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but
    progress. -- Joseph Joubert
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  7. #147
    From space.com Some new news regarding Kepler-1625b

    First Exomoon Found? Neptune-Sized World Possibly Spotted Orbiting Alien Planet
    My inner Mulder wants to believe, but my inner Scully remains skeptical.

  8. #148
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    The NASA "InSight" lander has touched down safely on MARS. November 2018.

    NASA’s InSight beams back breathtakingly clear photo of Mars
    NASA’s spacecraft that landed on Mars Monday has beamed back its first clear photo of the desolate Red Planet.

    “There’s a quiet beauty here. Looking forward to exploring my new home,” NASA tweeted late Monday, hours after its new InSight lander touched down.

    The image came after the rover had earlier sent back a somewhat blurry photo. The space agency said that in the interim the spacecraft had opened its solar panels, which allowed it to recharge its batteries for the mission.

    “Our Mars Odyssey orbiter phoned home, relaying news from @NASAInSight indicating its solar panels are open & collecting sunlight on the Martian surface,” NASA wrote in the tweet. “Also in the dispatch: this snapshot from the lander’s arm showing the instruments in their new home.”

    The InSight spacecraft landed on Mars on Monday after six-month journey to the planet. The dispatch that included the first clear photo of Mars from the mission were relayed to Earth by the Mars Odyssey orbiter.
    Story Continues


    The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but
    progress. -- Joseph Joubert
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  9. #149
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    NASA has reached the asteroid and is now making preparations to orbit the body.


    Hello, Bennu! NASA Asteroid-Sampling Probe Reaches Its Target Space Rock
    November 2018.
    By Mike Wall.

    The United States' first asteroid-sampling probe has arrived at its target, acing a deep-space rendezvous about 76 million miles (122 million kilometers) from Earth.

    NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft sidled up to the diamond-shaped asteroid Bennu today (Dec. 3) at about 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT), wrapping up a circuitous cosmic chase that lasted 27 months.

    "#WelcomeToBennu! After two years of travel — and more than a decade of planning and work by my team — I’m here. But Arrival is just the beginning…" team members wrote today via the mission's Twitter account, @OSIRISREx.

    OSIRIS-REx is now less than 12 miles (20 km) from Bennu, but the probe is flying along with the space rock rather than orbiting it. Orbital insertion won't come until Dec. 31, after OSIRIS-REx has performed a series of flybys that will bring the probe to within just 4.3 miles (7 km) or so of Bennu's boulder-strewn surface.

    During these close encounters, OSIRIS-REx will study Bennu in depth, allowing team members to nail down the 1,650-foot-wide (500 meters) asteroid's mass and precise shape.
    Story Continues

    The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but
    progress. -- Joseph Joubert
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  10. #150
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    Blasting a hole in the surface? Nothing like shipping a cannon aboard your rover mission.

    Japan space probe drops hopping rovers towards asteroid

    A Japanese space probe Friday released a pair of exploring rovers towards an egg-shaped asteroid to collect mineral samples that may shed light on the origin of the solar system.

    The "Hayabusa2" probe jettisoned the round, cookie tin-shaped robots toward the Ryugu astroid, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

    If the mission is successful, the rovers will conduct the world's first moving, robotic observation of an asteroid surface.

    Taking advantage of the asteroid's low gravity, they will jump around on the surface—soaring as high as 15 metres (49 feet) and staying in the air for as long as 15 minutes—to survey the asteroid's physical features with cameras and sensors.

    So far so good, but JAXA must wait for the Hayabusa2 probe to send data from the rovers to Earth in a day or two to assess whether the release has been a success, officials said.

    "We are very much hopeful. We don't have confirmation yet, but we are very, very hopeful," Yuichi Tsuda, JAXA project manager, told reporters.

    "I am looking forward to seeing pictures. I want to see images of space as seen from the surface of the asteroid," he said.

    The cautious announcement came after a similar JAXA probe in 2005 released a rover which failed to reach its target asteroid.

    Next month, Hayabusa2 will deploy an "impactor" that will explode above the asteroid, shooting a two-kilo (four-pound) copper object into the surface to blast a crater a few metres in diameter.
    Story Continues
    .
    The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but
    progress. -- Joseph Joubert
    Attachment 1008

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