Space

Mars Express Spots Triple Crater on Red Planet 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- November 5, 2020
ESA’s Mars Express orbiter has spotted three overlapping craters in Noachis Terra, an extensive landmass in the southern hemisphere of Mars.

By David Aragorn
NASA Contacts Voyager 2 Using Upgraded Deep Space Network Dish 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- November 4, 2020
The only radio antenna that can command the 43-year-old spacecraft has been offline since March as it gets new hardware, but work is on track to wrap up in February.

By David Aragorn
Where were Jupiter and Saturn born?0
- From Around the Web, Space
- November 3, 2020
An additional planet between Saturn and Uranus was kicked out of the Solar System in its infancy

By David Aragorn
OSIRIS-REx Stows Sample of Asteroid Bennu’s Regolith 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- November 3, 2020
On October 28, 2020, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully stowed its Sample Return Capsule (SRC) with a sample of surface material from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu.

By David Aragorn
A Rare Hybrid of a Comet And an Asteroid Is Showing Off Its Cometary Traits 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- November 3, 2020
Centaurs are rare celestial objects that can combine some of the different features of asteroids and comets. They’re basically rocky in nature, like asteroids, but can also throw out clouds of dust and gas as their exteriors vaporize, like comets.

By David Aragorn
NorthStar satellite system to monitor threat of space debris 0
- From Around the Web, Science & Technology, Space
- October 31, 2020
Space-based service will alert users to potential collisions between satellites and orbital junk

By David Aragorn
Juno Observes Sprites and Elves in Upper Atmosphere of Jupiter 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- October 31, 2020
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has been in orbit around Jupiter since 2016. One of its instruments is the ultraviolet spectrograph (UVS), which is primarily used to make ultraviolet images of Jupiter’s auroras. During the first four years of the mission, the UVS instrument has observed 11 transient bright flashes. These flashes look similar to lightning, but are located much higher in the atmosphere than the cloudy regions of Jupiter where lightning is generated. In a paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, researchers suggest that these are observations of transient luminous events in the gas giant’s upper atmosphere. In particular, they suggest that these events are elves, sprites or sprite halos, three types of transient luminous events that produce spectacular flashes of light very high in the Earth’s atmosphere in response to lightning strikes between clouds or between clouds and the ground.

By David Aragorn
Scans reveal failed planet-turned-asteroid worth up to $10,000 quadrillion 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- October 31, 2020
The wealth is out there.

By David Aragorn
Nasa’s Perseverance rover is halfway to Mars – but still has much more than half of its journey to go 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- October 30, 2020
The rover is taking a curved route due to the Sun’s gravitational pull

By David Aragorn
Mars-sized rogue planet found drifting through the Milky Way 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- October 30, 2020
Astronomers have discovered a planetary free agent floating through the Milky Way, unbound to the gravity of any nearby stars. The discovery, detailed Thursday in Astrophysical Journal Letters, suggests the Milky Way may be teeming with rogue planets.

By David Aragorn