A farewell image of Mars , @NASAInSight’s new home, captured by one of the twin #MarCO CubeSats that flew along with the mission and relayed data and images from today’s #MarsLanding. Learn how these briefcase-sized, experimental spacecraft worked: https://go.nasa.gov/2FKecvb
The Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC), located on the robotic arm of NASA’s InSight lander, took this picture of the Martian surface on Nov. 26, 2018, the same day the spacecraft touched down on the Red Planet. The camera’s transparent dust cover is still on in this image, to prevent particulates kicked up during landing from settling on the camera’s lens. This image was relayed from InSight to Earth via NASA’s Odyssey spacecraft, currently orbiting Mars.
How NASA Will Know When InSight Touches Down
As the InSight lander descends into Mars’ atmosphere, it will broadcast simple radio signals called “tones” back to Earth. Engineers will be tuning in from two locations: the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy’s facility at Effelsberg, Germany. Their results will be relayed to Mission Control at JPL and engineers at Lockheed Martin Space in Denver.
These tones don’t reveal much information, but radio engineers can interpret them to track key events during InSight’s entry, descent and landing (EDL). For example, when InSight deploys its parachute, a shift in velocity changes the frequency of the signal. This is caused by what’s called the Doppler effect, which is the same thing that occurs when you hear a siren change in pitch as an ambulance goes by. Looking for signals like these will allow the team to know how InSight’s EDL is progressing.
A multitude of magnificent, swirling clouds in Jupiter’s dynamic North North Temperate Belt is captured in this image from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Appearing in the scene are several bright-white “pop-up” clouds as well as an anticyclonic storm, known as a white oval.
This color-enhanced image was taken at 1:58 p.m. PDT on Oct. 29, 2018 (4:58 p.m. EDT) as the spacecraft performed its 16th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, Juno was about 4,400 miles (7,000 kilometers) from the planet’s cloud tops, at a latitude of approximately 40 degrees north.
(Oct. 4, 2018) — The International Space Station photographed by Expedition 56 crew members from a Soyuz spacecraft after undocking. NASA astronauts Andrew Feustel and Ricky Arnold and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev executed a fly around of the orbiting laboratory to take pictures of the station before returning home after spending 197 days in space. The station will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the launch of the first element Zarya in November 2018.
After 9 years in space collecting data that revealed our night sky to be filled with billions of hidden worlds, @NASA is retiring the @NASAKepler space telescope.
Parker Solar Probe Breaks Record, Becomes Closest Spacecraft to Sun
Parker Solar Probe now holds the record for closest approach to the Sun by a human-made object. The spacecraft passed the current record of 26.55 million miles from the Sun’s surface on Oct. 29, 2018, at about 1:04 p.m. EDT, as calculated by the Parker Solar Probe team.
The previous record for closest solar approach was set by the German-American Helios 2 spacecraft in April 1976. As the Parker Solar Probe mission progresses, the spacecraft will repeatedly break its own records, with a final close approach of 3.83 million miles from the Sun’s surface expected in 2024.
“It’s been just 78 days since Parker Solar Probe launched, and we’ve now come closer to our star than any other spacecraft in history,” said Project Manager Andy Driesman, from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. “It’s a proud moment for the team, though we remain focused on our first solar encounter, which begins on Oct. 31.”
Parker Solar Probe is also expected to break the record for fastest spacecraft traveling relative to the Sun on Oct. 29 at about 10:54 p.m. EDT. The current record for heliocentric speed is 153,454 miles per hour, set by Helios 2 in April 1976.
Astronomers Find First Evidence of Possible Moon Outside Our Solar System
Using NASA’s Hubble and Kepler space telescopes, astronomers have uncovered tantalizing evidence of what could be the first discovery of a moon orbiting a planet outside our solar system.
This moon candidate, which is 8,000 light-years from Earth in the Cygnus constellation, orbits a gas-giant planet that, in turn, orbits a star called Kepler-1625. Researchers caution that the moon hypothesis is tentative and must be confirmed by follow-up Hubble observations.
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is getting a signal boost
Last week, NASA sponsored a workshop that overviewed current searches for technosignatures, signs of deliberate engineering beyond Earth that manifest as anything from radio transmissions to structures orbiting other stars. The workshop comes on the heels of a congressional proposal to give the agency $20 million over 2 years to help “private sector and philantrhopic organizations” search for technosignatures.
In an unrelated announcement Tuesday, the billionaire-backed group Breakthrough Listen announced they will use the the newly christened MeerKAT telescope array in South Africa to scan up to a million stars for radio signals over the next 5 years.
‘Everything about this flyby is tougher’: New Horizons just over 100 days from Ultima Thule
On New Year’s Day 2019, the spacecraft will come within 3,500 kilometers of 2014 MU69, an estimated 37-kilometer-wide object the mission team has nicknamed Ultima Thule. The encounter will take place 6.6 billion kilometers from Earth, where it takes more than 6 hours for radio signals traveling at the speed of light to reach NASA’s Deep Space Network.
There will only be one chance for New Horizons to perfectly aim its cameras and science instruments at Ultima Thule as it zips past at 14 kilometers per second, and there may be unforeseen hazards in the spacecraft’s path. Nevertheless, Jim Green, the director of NASA’s planetary science division, is looking forward to the drama.
Planet Mars, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope on July 18, 2018. Moons Phobos (right) and Deimos (left) can also be seen lurking around.
Astronaut Rickey Arnold sees Hurricane Florence from the ISS
Through the Perpetual Fire and Flames of the Delta 4 Heavy thanks to @Plotaverse - #DeltaIVHeavy #ULA #ParkerSolarProbe @ulalaunch @torybruno pic.twitter.com/GOYFd7tLFH
— Erik Kuna 🚀 (@erikkuna)August 12, 2018
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