Launched on its historic voyage to Jupiter on October 18, 1989, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft also got some good looks at several members of our solar system before it reached the giant planet — and one of them was the 12-mile-long asteroid Gaspra, of which it made its closest pass on October 29, 1991. The image…
Tag: science
Never Forget a Phase with this 2014 Moon Calendar
Looking for a great gift for your favorite astronomy fan (even if that happens to be yourself?) Then check out this very cool 2014 Moon Calendar from Ashland Astronomy Studio in Oregon — it shows you an entire year of Moon phases, eclipses and other lunar events so you’ll always be in tune with the Moon!…
This is Earth From Juno
Last Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2013, NASA’s Juno spacecraft made a slingshot pass of Earth in order to get the necessary speed boost to reach Jupiter in 2016. As it came within 347 miles of our planet’s surface, passing closest over the southern Atlantic at 3:21 p.m. EDT, it used its JunoCam (developed by the San…
NASA’s Juno Spacecraft to Fly By Earth Today, Destined for Jupiter
Today’s the day! NASA’s Juno* spacecraft, launched back on August 5, 2011 (I should know, I was there) will get a little help from its friends (that’s us!) as it passes by Earth to get a gravitational power-boost on its way to Jupiter. The exact time of Juno’s closest approach is 3:21 p.m. EDT (12:21…
Meet the Asteroid That Could Smash Into Earth in 2880
There are over 10,000 near-Earth objects (NEOs) that have been identified so far, asteroids and comets of varying sizes that approach the Earth’s orbital distance to within about 28 million miles (45 million km). Of the 10,000 discoveries, roughly 10 percent are larger than six-tenths of a mile (one kilometer) in size – large enough to have…
It Wasn’t a Rock, It Was a Rock COMET!
Sometimes asteroids aren’t always what they seem. Such is the case with the asteroid Phaethon, which also happens to be the source of a well-known meteor shower in December. As it turns out, Phaethon isn’t an asteroid at all — it’s a comet. But don’t think it’s as cut-and-dried as that… Phaethon isn’t the “dirty…
Curiosity Gets the Big Scoop on Martian Water
Making a big splash (pun intended) in the space news world today is the report that NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity has found traces of water in samples of Martian soil! The samples were scooped from an area nicknamed “Rocknest” in October 2012 and analyzed with the SAM instrument suite (read more on that here.)…
Saturn’s Atmosphere is More Varied Than it Looks, With Tropical “Jungles” and Ammonia “Deserts”
Saturn might look like a placid beige ball in backyard telescopes but in reality it has very dynamic weather patterns and climates, rivaling the storms of Jupiter and the varied climates of Earth, based on long-term microwave observations by the Cassini spacecraft. (Yes, microwaves are good for much more than heating up your coffee.)
Alan Friedman on Photographing the Sun
I’ve featured many of Alan Friedman’s amazing photos of the Sun here on Lights in the Dark, starting from the very first one I came across via the venerable Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) in November 2009. I’ve even featured Alan’s work in several articles I’ve written for National Geographic News, Discovery News, and Universe…
No, this isn’t a shot from the film “Gravity” (but it could be)
I could say “how have I never heard of this!?” but the truth is I wasn’t blogging about space in February 2006 when this image was taken. Still, it’s no less incredible to watch! But if you’re not already familiar with this, it may not be exactly what you think…
Voyager 1: It’s Officially Out
“We made it! 35 years and 13 billion miles.” Those were the words of project scientist Ed Stone today during a NASA news conference about the Voyager 1 spacecraft, which, after traveling the far reaches of our Solar System for decades on end, has finally passed the physical boundaries of the heliosphere and entered interstellar…
Titan’s Misty Mountains May Have “Roots As Nobody Sees”
It’s been thought for some time that Saturn’s largest moon Titan has a complex internal structure consisting of multiple layers of ice and liquid water. At one point it was even suggested that there are water ice “cryovolcanoes” on Titan, where watery slush oozes to the surface and freezes solid in the moon’s 270-degree-below temperatures,…
Lights in the Dark 