Tag Archives: NASA

METEORS FROM HALLEY’S COMET

Space Weather News for Oct. 20, 2017
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METEORS FROM HALLEY’S COMET: Earth is entering a stream of debris from Halley’s Comet, source of the annual Orionid meteor shower. Last night, NASA’s network of all-sky meteor cameras detected 23 Orionid fireballs over the USA–a result of comet dust hitting the atmosphere at speeds exceeding 65 km/s (145,000 mph). Forecasters expect the shower to peak on Oct. 21-22 with as many as 25 meteors per hour. Visit Spaceweather.com for observing tips and sky maps.

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Above: An Orionid fireball streaks over the Allegheny Observatory in Pittsburgh on Oct. 20, 2017. Photo credit: NASA’s All-Sky Fireball Network. More images may be found in the Realtime Meteor Photo Gallery.


The Women of NASA LEGO

Shamelessly snitched from File 770:

HISTORIC FIGURES. The Women of NASA LEGO set goes on sale November 1. The collectible was produced after winning fan approval through the LEGO Ideas website.

Four trailblazing figures from NASA’s history are set to launch as new LEGO minifigures on Nov. 1. NASA astronauts Sally Ride and Mae Jemison, astronomer Nancy Grace Roman and computer scientist Margaret Hamilton are celebrated for their contributions to space exploration and astronomy in the new LEGO Ideas set, “Women of NASA.” Based on a fan-proposed and supported design, the set includes representations of the four female space pioneers, as well as three LEGO builds that recreate the spacecraft and settings where the women made their mark on space history. “Great for role playing space exploration missions,” LEGO said in a press release announcing the set on Wednesday (Oct. 18). “Explore the professions of some of the groundbreaking women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) with the LEGO Ideas Women of NASA set,” The 231-piece building toy is recommended for ages 10 and older. It will retail for $24.99.

 

Goodbye, and thanks for all the science!

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft and ESA’s Huygens probe expanded our understanding of the kinds of worlds where life might exist and eight more reasons the mission changed the course of planetary exploration.  Nine Reasons Cassini-Huygens Matters


https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html

Loss of contact with the Cassini spacecraft occurred at 4:55 a.m. PDT (7:55 a.m. EDT), with the signal received by NASA’s Deep Space Network antenna complex in Canberra, Australia.

 

We are Not alone!

Astronomers have discovered an asteroid that shares our orbit.



A small asteroid has been discovered in an orbit around the sun that keeps it as a constant companion of Earth, and it will remain so for centuries to come. Full story at http://go.nasa.gov/1UdQoAF

NASA suspends InSight mission to Mars

Unable to fix a leak with the mission’s main science instrument in time to make the 2016 launch window, NASA must wait two years to try again.

“The JPL and CNES teams and their partners have made a heroic effort to prepare the InSight instrument, but have run out of time given the celestial mechanics of a launch to Mars,” said JPL Director Charles Elachi. “It is more important to do it right than take an unacceptable risk.”
Read more from Sky and Telescope.
Or if you are really, really into Mars missions, pop over to the NASA site.