Tag: SWRI
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NASA’s Juno mission is about to peel back the layers on Jupiter
A version of this story was originally published in Astronomy Now magazine. NASA’s Juno spacecraft, seen here in an artist’s illustration, will become the second mission to orbit the solar system’s king planet. Credit: Lockheed Martin Whether you’re a casual stargazer or armed with a toolkit of observing gadgets, chances are you have caught a…
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Juno switched to autopilot mode for Jupiter final approach
Artist’s concept of the Juno spacecraft at Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Four days out from arriving at the solar system’s biggest planet, NASA’s Juno spacecraft received a final uplink of commands Thursday governing the robotic probe’s high-velocity braking maneuver Monday to steer into orbit around Jupiter. Juno will run on autopilot for the rest of its…
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With Juno on Jupiter’s doorstep, Hubble eyes glowing Jovian auroras
Peering a half-billion miles across the solar system, the Hubble Space Telescope has caught a glimpse of brilliant auroras flashing over Jupiter’s north pole as NASA’s Juno orbiter speeds toward the gas giant for a close-up look. Part of Juno’s multi-pronged scientific campaign is aimed to determining how Jupiter’s auroras form and evolve, along with investigations…
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Juno’s British-built engine readied for all-important firing at Jupiter
Artist’s concept of the Juno spacecraft’s Leros 1b main engine firing. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Ground controllers pressurized the Juno spacecraft’s propulsion system Tuesday to prep for a July 4 rocket firing by the probe’s UK-made rocket engine that will steer the spinning, solar-powered robot into orbit around Jupiter. Kicking off more than 20 months observing Jupiter’s…
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Timeline of Juno’s historic arrival at Jupiter
NASA’s Juno spacecraft must complete a carefully-planned sequence of events as it closes in on Jupiter for a make-or-break orbit insertion burn July 4. The timeline posted below shows the schedule of major events in the weeks ahead of Juno’s arrival at Jupiter, plus the minute-by-minute sequence of steps planned for July 4. Times below…
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Juno right on target for July 4 rendezvous with Jupiter
Artist’s concept of the Juno spacecraft on approach to Jupiter. Credit: Lockheed Martin NASA’s Juno spacecraft, running on solar power more than 500 million miles from the sun, is on final approach for a Fourth of July arrival at Jupiter for a year-and-a-half campaign of exploration. Engineers this week are preparing the probe for a…
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See the highest-resolution snapshots from July’s Pluto flyby
In this highest-resolution image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, great blocks of Pluto’s water-ice crust appear jammed together in the informally named al-Idrisi mountains. Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI Scientists are marveling at some of the best views of Pluto recorded by the New Horizons spacecraft during its July 14 flyby of the unexplored icy dwarf in a…
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NASA probe finds intriguing ice flows under hazy skies on Pluto
This new global mosaic of Pluto was created by combining four black-and-white images from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager and color data from the probe’s Ralph instrument. The LORRI images were taken July 14, when New Horizons was approximately 280,000 miles (450,000 kilometers) from Pluto. Features as small as 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometers) are…
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Scientists thrilled with mountains on Pluto, chasms on Charon
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION A snapshot of Pluto shows fresh deposits of water ice bedrock and 11,000-foot mountains, revealing evidence Pluto’s surface is one of the youngest in the solar system. Photo credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI Post-flyby images from NASA’s New Horizons probe show Pluto is a surprisingly active world in the deep freeze…
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Cliffs, chasms and craters revealed in latest New Horizons images
An annotated version of an image of Pluto captured July 11 by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) instrument. Pluto’s northern hemisphere appears in the image, with its equator near the bottom of the disk. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI The first hints of dramatic cliffs, chasms and craters are showing up in new imagery of Pluto…