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Dawn spacecraft begins approach to dwarf planet Ceres

29th December 2014 by KLADAS

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has entered an approach phase in which it will continue to close in on Ceres, a Texas-sized dwarf planet never before visited by a spacecraft. Dawn launched in 2007 and is scheduled to enter Ceres orbit in March 2015.

Dawn recently emerged from solar conjunction, in which the spacecraft is on the opposite side of the sun, limiting communication with antennas on Earth. Now that Dawn can reliably communicate with Earth again, mission controllers have programmed the maneuvers necessary for the next stage of the rendezvous, which they label the Ceres approach phase. Dawn is currently 400,000 miles (640,000 kilometers) from Ceres, approaching it at around 450 miles per hour (725 kilometers per hour).

The spacecraft’s arrival at Ceres will mark the first time that a spacecraft has ever orbited two solar system targets. Dawn previously explored the protoplanet Vesta for 14 months, from 2011 to 2012, capturing detailed images and data about that body.

This is an excerpt from the full NASA article which you can read more at the following link.

Filed Under: Space News

The quest for organic molecules on the surface of Comet 67P/C-G

2nd December 2014 by KLADAS

For scientists engaged with large complex projects like Rosetta, there is always a delightful period early on when, unbound by practical realities, it is possible to dream. And so it was that at one time the scientists were thinking about having a lander with the capability to hop around a comet’s surface. In this way it would be possible to make measurements from different parts of the comet.

Interestingly, this unplanned opportunity presented itself on 12 No-vember 2014, when Philae landed not once but three times on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

The Ptolemy instrument on Philae is a compact mass spectrometer designed to measure the composition of the materials making up 67P/C-G, with a particular focus on organic molecules and mineral compo-nents. Earlier in 2014, Ptolemy had collected data at distances of 15,000, 13,000, 30, 20, and 10 km from the comet, while Philae was still attached to Rosetta.

This short excerpt is from an ESA blog from the Ptolemy team, you can read more at the following link.

Filed Under: Space News

Supermassive Black Holes Even Heavier Than Thought

26th November 2014 by KLADAS

The enormous black holes that lurk at the hearts of all galaxies are significantly bigger than astronomers had imagined, a new study suggests.
Researchers have used a new method to measure the distance to the active spiral galaxy NGC 4151 — whose core is dubbed the “Eye of Sauron” because of its resemblance to the structure in the “Lord of the Rings” films — with unprecedented precision. This calculation enabled them to determine the mass of NGC 4151’s central black hole more accurately — and the results were surprising.

This is an excerpt from Space.com, you can read the full article at this link

Filed Under: Astronomy

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Patron: Sir Henry Bellingham MP