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25 August 2010
JAXA Delays Releasing Details of Hayabusa Sample Return
No news yet if there are specks of asteroid dust in the Haybusa sample return container. JAXA has decided to postpone releasing any information, including publishing a detailed analysis of the particles that may have been collected. According to The Japan Times, JAXA said it is taking more time than originally expected to collect the [...]
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11 August 2010
WISE Cryostat is Depleting
NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, is losing its cool. The spacecraft is running out of the frozen coolant needed to keep its heat-sensitive instrument chilled, and will only be in operation for 2-3 more months. While the spacecraft was designed to be rather short-lived – 7 to 10 months — it still is [...]
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12 July 2010
Rosetta Meets Asteroid Lutetia
Over the weekend, the Rosetta spacecraft flew by asteroid Lutetia, returning the first close up images of this battered, cratered body. By all accounts, the flyby was a spectacular success with Rosetta performing faultlessly. Closest approach took place at 16:10 GMT on July 10, at a distance of 3,162 km (1964 miles). The images show [...]
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09 July 2010
Watch Live Webcast of Rosetta Flyby of Asteroid Lutetia July 10
On July 10, ESA's Rosetta spacecraft will fly past 21 Lutetia, the largest asteroid ever visited by a satellite. After weeks of maneuvers and optical observations, Rosetta is perfectly lined up to skim by the asteroid only 3,162 km (2,000 miles) away. ESA is hosting a live webcast at 16:00 GMT on July 10. Below [...]
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06 July 2010
Hayabusa Sample Return Canister Opened, Contains Material
The sample return canister from the Hayabusa spacecraft has been opened, and does contain a small amount of dust particles, according to the JAXA website. This is very encouraging news! However, it is not yet known if the dust is from the asteroid Itokawa, where Hayabusa briefly touched down, or if it could be from [...]
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14 June 2010
Hayabusa Sample Return Capsule Retrieved
Scientists from Japan were given the go-ahead to retrieve the sample return capsule from the Hayabusa spacecraft, which is hoped to contain the first piece of asteroid ever brought to Earth, perhaps providing insight into the origins of asteroids – and our universe. The capsule was ejected three hours before reaching Earth, where the [...]
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13 June 2010
Hayabusa Returns!
Japan's little spacecraft that could returned to Earth, putting on quite a show over the Australian outback, making a fiery reentry. Hayabusa returned around 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) in the Woomera Prohibited Area of South Australia. In the video you'll see a little speck of light ahead of the falling debris: [...]
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13 May 2010
WISE Pictures the Tadpole Nebula with a String of Pearls
The Tadpole nebula is looking very stylish in this new infrared image from the WISE spacecraft, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. An asteroid appears like a string of pearls — seen as a line of yellow-green dots in the boxes near center — in this stitched together mosaic. The Tadpole is a star-forming [...]
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25 January 2010
WISE Bags its First Near-Earth Asteroid
Well, that didn't take long: The WISE spacecraft (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) spotted its first near-Earth asteroid on January 12, 2010, two days before the official start of its all-sky survey. That's a pretty good catch, considering WISE just popped it lens cover a couple of weeks ago (December 29, 2009) and [...]
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12 March 2009
Dawn Spacecraft on Target for Vesta Following Gravity Assist
Recently, the Dawn spacecraft – on its circuitous route to the asteroid belt — used the gravity of Mars to provide a little 'kick' to the spacecraft's velocity. Universe Today finally had the chance to catch up with the team from the Dawn mission following this maneuver to find out how things went, [...]
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02 September 2008
Countdown to Asteroid Flyby
Time critical is approaching for the Rosetta spacecraft and it's flyby the asteroid 2867 Steins. Closest approach is expected at on September 5, at 20:58 CEST, (Central European Summer Time), 2:58 pm EDT (US Eastern Daylight Time). To help the public follow the flyby, the Rosetta team now has a blog available, [...]
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25 August 2008
Rosetta Prepares for Meet-Up With Asteroid Next Week
ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft will make an historic encounter with asteroid (2867) Steins on September 5, 2008 at 20:58 CEST (Central European Summer Time), 2:58 pm EDT (US Eastern Daylight Time.) A few days ago, Rosetta conducted a successful trajectory correction maneuver using images from the spacecraft's cameras to calculate the asteroid's location, to [...]
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27 September 2007
Dawn is Gone
The big day arrived, and nothing could keep that spacecraft on the ground. At 7:34 am EDT NASA's Dawn spacecraft was lofted into space atop a Boeing Delta 2 rocket, beginning a 3 billion km (1.7 billion mile) journey to meet with two different large asteroids. If all goes well, the spacecraft will make its [...]
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20 September 2007
Learning How to Stop Dangerous Asteroids
You know the cliche: it's not a question of if an asteroid will strike the Earth, it's a question of when. Why wait for the asteroid impact, let's get out there and learn how to prevent an impact in the first place. Part of this learning process will be to study potential Earth-crossing asteroids in [...]
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12 September 2007
Dawn is on the Launch Pad
Despite delays and near cancellation, NASA's Dawn spacecraft is now on the launch pad, all ready to begin its mission to two of the largest asteroids in the Solar System. If all goes well, Dawn will blast off as early as September 26th from Cape Canaveral aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket. Next stop, Asteroid [...]
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