Adrastea, Jupiter's moon, discovered 1979

Adrastea, discovered in photographs taken by Voyager 2 July 8, 1979, is the small of the inner four moons of Jupiter. It is the first natural moon to be discovered by images taken by a spacecraft, instead of a telescope.  Two more inner moons Thebe and Metis were discovered in images taken by Voyager 1 a few months earlier.

It has a strange shape, measuring 20x16x14 km across.  It orbits Jupiter every 7 hours.

Galileo convicted of heresy 1633

Galileo Galilei was convicted of heresy by the Catholic Church June 22, 1633, forcing one of the greatest scientists of all time to live his remaining years under house arrest.  The Inquisition charged Galileo with holding the opinion that the sun, not the Earth, is at the center of the universe (solar system), not the other way around as it had been declared by the Holy Scripture.  He was forced to "abjure, curse, and detest" his Copernican heliocentric views.

Galileo passed away in January 1642.

Mariner 10 second flyby of Mercury 1974

Mariner 10, launched in November 1973, made its second of three flybys of Mercury September 21, 1974. It had made a flyby of Venus prior to its first visit of Mercury.  Mariner 10 managed to photograph almost half of the planet during its second encounter.  It flew within 30,000 miles of the southern hemisphere.

Pluto's Heart is available today on Amazon!

My latest short story Pluto's Heart is now available from JMS Books! 

Follow this link to order it on Amazon!


Read an excerpt here:

“Atmospheric pressure and standard temperature have been established,” the computer said. “You may now safely remove your helmet and space suit.”

“Finally,” he muttered. It took him almost five minutes to remove his suit, down to the nylon overalls he wore underneath and scanned the interior of the building. It appeared to be more machine shop than scientific outpost. Almost every square meter of the space was occupied with machinery and scientific equipment. A narrow path wound between the mountains of apparatus, just wide enough for him to pass through. Brian took a tentative step forward and his foot falls seemed to echo.

A noise from somewhere inside grabbed his attention and he made his way toward the sound. An opening appeared before him as he stepped around a stack of containers. A small living space, about three meters by four meters sat among the piles. It had a low bed, an exercise station and a kitchenette. A chamber jutted out from the wall into the room and Brian could see a toilet and shower inside.

A lone figure sat at a table, his back to Brian, hunched over a piece of scientific equipment.

“Zack?” Brian spoke in a soft voice, as not to startle him. How could he have not heard me enter? The airlock is not quiet, and the computer voice was loud enough to hear through my helmet.

The figure turned around

“Brian?” The red-bearded face appeared greyer and more drawn then when Brian had last seen him and Zack seemed thinner, but he was still the handsome man Brian fell in love with years ago.

Zack wore overalls similar to the one Brian had on, and heavy boots. He walked toward Brian who held his arms out for a hug.

When he got close enough, Zack punched him hard in the face. Brian fell back, landing on a pile of luggage straps.

He lay still for a few seconds, stunned, pain shooting through his skull. When the shock subsided, Brian struggled to get his feet and cleared his vision, noting Zack had not moved.

“Not the reception I was expecting,” Brian said, rubbing his cheek where Zack’s fist had connected, feeling the stubble that had grown during his trip.

“What did you expect?” Zack snapped. “You’re responsible for me being stranded on this fucking rock! Did you think I was going to welcome you with open arms and on my knees?”  His voice rose to a shout.

“Wait a minute,” Brian retorted. “You left me!  You wanted to come out here to get away from me!”

“I did not leave you,” Zack yelled.  “I was told you wanted to break up with me and the next thing I knew, I was shipped out to this frozen cesspool.”

“I was on the other side of Titan when you left,” Brian argued.  “We hadn’t talked for several days, so who told you I wanted to break up?”

Zack pressed his lips together and did not respond.

“Maybe the same person who told me you requested this assignment?”

“Assignment?” Zack looked surprised. His expression changed to amusement and he burst out laughing. “Do you think this is an assignment?” He spat out the last word. “This is a fucking death sentence,” he continued shouting. “We are never getting off this goddamned planet. At least I’ll have the satisfaction knowing you’re stuck here too. And will probably die here.  With luck before me.” He turned and walked back to his workstation.

Voyager 2 enters interstellar space!

Voyager 2, launched in August 1977, has finally reached interstellar space, beyond the heliosphere, the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the sun.  Voyager 1 crossed into interstellar space in 2011.

Voyager 2 is now just over 11 billion miles from Earth, but still within our solar system.  The Oort Cloud, a collection of small bodies under the influence of the sun's gravity, is considered the boundary of the solar system.  NASA expects it will take Voyager 2 about 300 years to reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud, and possibly 30,000 years to fly through it.

Dawn, NASA's mission to the Asteroid Belt, comes to an end

Dawn, the little spacecraft that could, has ended its mission into the asteroid belt.  Launched in September 2007, it is the first probe to orbit one celestial body and then leave to orbit another one.  Dawn arrived at Vesta in July 2011 and studied the protoplanet for 14 months.

Dawn left Vesta and traveled to Ceres, arriving in March 2015, where it remains.  It missed several scheduled communications and NASA has concluded it has run out of hydrazine, the fuel that helps the craft keep its antennae pointed toward Earth and its solar panels to the sun.

Its mission lasted three years longer than anticipated.

Mariner 10 makes third, final, and closest flyby of Mercury 1975

Mariner 10 made its third and last flyby of the planet Mercury, March 16, 1975.  The probe was launched November 3, 1973, the last of NASA's Mariner program and made a flyby of Venus February 5, 1974. 

It made three flybys of Mercury, the last being the closest at 203 miles above the surface near the north pole.  Mariner 10 discovered a tenuous atmosphere consisting of helium, a magnetic field and a large, iron-rich core.  Daytime temperatures can reach 369 °F and nighttime temperatures can drop as low as -297 °F.

Mariner 10 remains in orbit around the sun.

Pioneer 10 launched 1972

Taking advantage of a rare alignment of the outer planets, NASA launched Pioneer 10 March 2, 1972.  NASA started preparing for the mission in 1964 and created two spacecraft, Pioneer F and Pioneer G.  Later they were renamed Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11.

On November 8, 1973, Pioneer 10 crossed the orbit of Sinope, an outer moon of Jupiter and made its closest approach to the planet December 3.  The electron radiation around Jupiter caused false commands to be made but many were corrected by contingency commands.  An image of Io and some close-up pictures of Jupiter were lost but the spacecraft obtained pictures of Ganymede and Europa.

On its way out of the solar system, Pioneer 10 crossed the orbit of Saturn in 1976, the orbit of Uranus in 1979, and the orbit of Neptune in 1983.  It is the first spacecraft to leave the solar system.

The mission officially ended March 31, 1997 but the Deep Space Network kept track of its signal until January 23, 2003 when Pioneer 10 sent its last signal.

NASA Discover Eighth Planet Circling Distant Star

Our solar system is no longer top dog in the Milky Way.  NASA, using Artificial Intelligence in which computers "learned" how to identify planets, discovered Kepler-90i, a rocky planet that orbits its star once every 14.4 days and has a surface temperature about 800° C.  That brings Kepler-90's system up to eight planets, the same as ours.  But all of Kepler-90's planets have orbits closer than Earth's is to our sun. 

Software engineers came up with a way to "train" the neural network to identify transiting exoplanets using previously proven signals and then tested it.  The neural network correctly identified true planets and false positives 96% of the time.  The computers can now sort through the massive amount of data that humans can't do easily or as quickly. 

The data that led to this discovery was collected from NASA's Kepler Space Telescope.  Kepler-90 is a Sun-like star about 2545 light-years away from Earth in the Draco constellation.

First interstellar asteroid, small, dim and unobtrusive, causes huge excitement!

The space science community is all abuzz about our first visitor from another star!  The cigar-shaped asteroid with a reddish hue is about 400m (1/4 mile) wide and ten times as long.  This elongated shape is unlike anything in our solar system.

Named Oumuamua (oh-MOO-uh-Moo-uh, which is Hawai'ian for 'a messenger from afar arriving first'), the asteroid is dim, but it has a huge variation in brightness, about a factor of 10.  The elongated objects in our solar system are at most three times as long as they are wide, and have a brightness variation of about 3.

Oumuamua was discovered October 19 by the University of Hawai'i's Pan-STARRS1 telescope, funded by NASA's Near-Earth Objective Observations (NEOO) program, which tracks comets and asteroids that might pose a threat to Earth.

Initial calculations indicate Oumuamua came from Vega, the bright star in the northern constellation of Lyra.  But Vega was nowhere near its position now back when Oumuamua began its journey 300,000 years ago.  It is traveling about 59,000 miles/hour.  It slingshotted past the Sun on September 9 at 196,000 miles/hour!

After leaving our solar system, Oumuamua will head to the Pegasus constellation.




https://www.nasa.gov/feature/solar-system-s-first-interstellar-visitor-dazzles-scientists

Chiron discovered 1977

Chiron, an asteroid/minor planet/comet/centaur/whatsit, was discovered by Charles Kowal November 1, 1977 from images taken October 18 from the Palomar Observatory in southern California.  It may have been observed as far back as 1895.

At first, Chiron (named after the wisest and justest centaur from Greek mythology) was classified as a minor planet because its orbit lay between Saturn and Uranus, much further than the asteroid belt.  Subsequently, its classification was downgraded to an asteroid. 

Then in 1988, it brightened by 75% which is characteristic of comets, but not asteroids.  In 1993, a tail was discovered so NASA thought it was a comet.  So they decided, why not classify it as both a comet and a minor planet.  Chiron is officially known as a centaur, a dual classification of comet and minor planet, orbiting between the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2060_Chiron

Mariner 5 flies by Venus 1967

Mariner 5, launched June 14, 1967, made its closest approach to Venus on October 19, 1967.  It was meant to be a backup for Mariner 4, but with the success of that mission,  it was modified for a Venus mission. 

Liftoff went without many problems and data sent during its flyby corroborated the Soviet's Venera 4 lander which arrived at Venus the day before, that the Venusian atmosphere was hotter and more denser than previously thought.

NASA discovered earlier Mariner 5 was in a slow roll and soon after its flyby, contact was lost.  The mission was ended November 5 and the defunct spacecraft is in a heliocentric orbit.

Farewell, Cassini, the little probe that could!

Just before 8am EDT today, Cassini, the spacecraft sent to study Saturn and her moons, sent her last signal.  She plunged into the Saturnian atmosphere to end a massively successful mission.  Launched October 15, 1997, she spent Cassini spent 7 years en route and arrived at Saturn in 2004.  For 13 years, she has explored the gas giant and released the Huygens probe from the ESA to land on Titan, a first for a celestial body in the outer solar system.

Cassini did flybys of Jupiter, our moon and Asteroid 2685 Masursky.  She discovered new moons Methone, Pallene, Polydeucesin, Daphnis, Anthe, Aegaeon and S/2009 S 1.  I'm sure they will find a better name for the last one.

She also performed flybys of moons Titan, Phoebe, Enceladus, Iapetus, Rhea, Hyperion and Dione.

Seventeen countries joined together in this effort.

Pioneer 11 encounters Saturn 1979

Launched April 6, 1973, Pioneer 11 became the first space probe to encounter Saturn on September 1, 1979.  It followed Pioneer 10 through the asteroid belt and past Jupiter, but then headed toward Saturn.  During its flyby, it discovered a new ring and almost collided with a new moon discovered the day before, Epimetheus.  After the Voyager flybys, it was discovered that Janus (already known moon) and Epimetheus occupy the same orbit and are about the same size, so it could have been either one.

On September 29, 1995, NASA announced it was closing the project after over 22 years.

Voyager 2 flies by Neptune 1989

Proteus

Launched in August 1977, Voyager 2 made a flyby of the planet Neptune August 25, 1989.  It is the only spacecraft to have visited Neptune and Uranus.  During its pass, it took photographs of Triton, Neptune's largest moon and discovered Proteus, the second largest moon.

Voyager 2 is expected  to enter interstellar space in 2019 or 2020.  It is still sending weak signals and will continue to do so until about 2025.

Epimetheus, Saturn's moon, up close!

While the Cassini spacecraft prepares for her swan song and death dive into the Saturnian atmosphere, she is still orbiting the planet and taking pictures of everything.  In February, Cassini performed a flyby of the inner moon Saturn XI or Epimetheus.

The moon Janus was discovered in December 1966 by two separate astronomers and believed there to be only one moon.  In 1978, two more astronomers determined that 1966 observations were best explained by two distinct objects, sharing very similar orbits.  Voyager 1 confirmed this in 1980, so the two astronmers Stephen Larson and John Fountain are credited with Epimetheus' discovery.

Epimetheus is only about 70 miles in diameter which means it is too small to have an atmosphere or to be geologically active.  It has two named craters, Hilairea and Pollux, characters from Castor and Pollux of Greek mythology.

Mariner 10 flies by Mercury, 1974

Mariner 10, launched November 3, 1973, became the first spacecraft to encounter Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun. It made ultraviolet observations of Comet Kohoutek in January 1974 and passed Venus February 5. It made its first flyby of Mercury March 29, 1974.  The second was September 21 and the third (and last) March 16, 1975.

It was decommissioned about a week later.

Cassini sends back beautiful images of Saturnian moons

Tethys

Daphnis - the wave maker

Mimas - the Death Star

Pandora

Prometheus

For over 12 years, the Cassini spacecraft has been orbiting Saturn, studying its moons, its rings and its atmosphere.  It is sending back some beautiful pictures of Saturnian moons.  It is scheduled to be destroyed by sending it into Saturn's atmosphere to avoid contamination of the moons.  (Huygens didn't contaminate Titan?).

Venera 9, first spacecraft to land on Venus, 1975

Image of Venusian surface taken by Venera 9

Venera 9, launched June 8, 1975, touched down on Venus and transmitted the first images ever from the surface of another planet.  The lander detached from the orbiter on October 20 and made a soft landing 2 days later near Beta Regio.  It transmitted for 53 minutes before falling silent. It detected hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, bromine and iodine.  Venera 9 measured a surface pressure 90 times that of earth and a sultry atmosphere of 485° C.

Mariner 2, spacecraft to Venus, launched 1962

Mariner 2, the world's first successfully interplanetary spacecraft, was launched August 27, 1962. It took 109 days to reach Venus, passing within 21,000 miles of the planet on December 14.  It sent back valuable information about the Venusian atmosphere and interplanetary space.

Mariner 2 was not equipped with a camera so no images of Venus are available but it did carry important scientific instrumentation:

1. Microwave radiometer and infrared radiometer to measure temperatures of the Venusian atmosphere.
2. Fluxgate magnetometer to measure planetary and interplanetary magnetic fields.
3. Ionization chamber to measure high-energy cosmic radiation.
4. Particle detector to measure lower radiation.
5. Cosmic dust detector to measure the flux of cosmic dust particles in space.
6. Solar Plasma Spectrometer to measure the spectrum of low-energy positively-charged particles (solar wind).

The last transmission from Mariner 2 was received January 3, 1963 and has since been in a heliocentric orbit.