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Water Ice on Vesta Too?
What Caused This?Credit NASA / JPL NASA / JPL announced on December 6th the discovery of “long , narrow, sinuous” gullies on the asteroid Vesta. Although no one is claiming at this point that the...
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Orbital Sciences Passes Spacecraft Milestone
Dawn SpacecraftCredit : NASA Orbital Press Release: ORBITAL-BUILT SATELLITES EXCEED 1,000 YEARS OF CUMULATIVE IN-ORBIT OPERATIONAL EXPERIENCE — Company’s 30-Year History Includes 146 Satellites Built...
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NASA Ion Engine Shutting Down After Marathon 5 and Half Year Test Run
Electric AvenueCredit : NASA NASA is shutting down its NEXT (NASA’s Evolutionary Zenon Thruster) ion engine which has been running continuously at the Glenn Research Center for over five years. From...
View ArticleCeres and Vesta as Seen From the Curiosity Rover on Mars
On Thursday, JPL published the above photo with graphic, which depicts the first time the asteroids Vesta and Ceres, or any asteroid for that matter, have been photographed from the surface of the Red...
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Nest Stop: The Dwarf Planet Ceres
Ceres In Sight : Image Credit NASA 2014 is not quite over with just yet, but it is not too soon to begin marking your calendars for what could be one of the most intriguing events of 2015, the arrival...
View ArticleIcy “Dwarf Planet” Ceres Looming Larger as Dawn Approaches
Ceres Photographed on January 15 / Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA Closing in on its March 6 rendezvous with the dwarf planet Ceres, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has provided its best image...
View ArticleCeres Rising
Two enlarged images of Ceres taken on February 12 / Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA Dawn’s arrival at Ceres is now just over two weeks away. From NASA.gov: “Craters and mysterious...
View ArticleMysterious Ceres Keeps Surprising
Latest image of Ceres, taken from 29,000 miles miles away. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA Ceres just keeps getting more interesting. From NASA.gov: “Dwarf planet Ceres continues to...
View ArticleImaging Icy Worlds: Dawn, Cassini and New Horizons Promise a Hot Summer
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute 2015 is shaping up as a banner year for imaging icy worlds. The ion powered Dawn probe arrived at the Dwarf planet Ceres in the Main Asteroid...
View ArticleTurning Up the Power on Solar Electric Propulsion
NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) ion thruster. / Image Credit NASA. After arriving at the dwarf planet Ceres one month ago, NASA’s ion powered Dawn spacecraft entered an initial capture orbit...
View ArticleDawn Spacecraft Finds Mysterious “Lonely Mountain” on Ceres
Image Credit NASA/JPL While much of the space science community is anxiously awaiting the July 14th flyby of the New Horizons probe at the system headlined by former planet Pluto, a much more...
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At Ceres, NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Spirals Closer for a Summer Finale
Topographic map of Ceres. Purple is low, red is high. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA As July draws to a close and August begins, the cycle of the seasons can seem to be advancing...
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Dawn Images “Lonely Mountain” From New Orbit at Ceres
New Image of Ceres’ “Lonely Mountain”NASA (Full image here) NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has arrived at its new mapping orbit, and is beginning to send back spectacular images of the dwarf planet’s surface...
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Enter The Expanse: Actual Sci-Fi on SyFy
Repairing The KnightCredit: SyFY It doesn’t take place “a long time ago” nor in a galaxy “far, far away,” but if your interests run towards what a future in space might look like in a universe where...
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Dawn Imagery Soaring Over Ceres
Ceres: How About a Closer Look?NASA From NASA: “The movie shows Ceres in enhanced color, which helps to highlight subtle differences in the appearance of surface materials. Scientists believe areas...
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Feeling the “Burn” of Solar Thermal Propulsion
Integrated Solar Upper Stage ConceptCredit: NASA For a brief period in the 1990’s, Solar Thermal Propulsion appeared to be on the cusp of becoming the next big thing in space technology. While that...
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After Exploring Vesta and Ceres, NASA’s Dawn Mission Team Brings Home Well...
Members of the Dawn mission accept the 2015 Robert J. Collier Trophy recognition. From left to right: Joseph Makowski of Orbital ATK, Keyur Patel of JPL, Robert Mase of JPL, Marc Rayman of JPL and...
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ESO’s HARPS Captures Unexpected Changes in Ceres’ Mysterious Bright Spots
Unexpected Changes Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA A bit if interesting news regarding Ceres that comes not from the Dawn spacecraft, but rather from the ground based observation from the...
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Juno Arrives at Jupiter, NASA Extends A Host of Other Missions As Well
Credit: NASA It is in many ways high summer for NASA’s fleet of robotic spacecraft deployed throughout the solar system. On Monday evening, as the fireworks were lighting up the night sky across much...
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Study: Ceres Likely Harbors Water Ice in Polar Craters
Blue areas represent zones of permanent shadowCredit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA A paper published in Geophysical Research Letters concludes that in addition to whatever ice reserves the dwarf...
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