NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for Next Tracking, Data Relay Satellite

NASA has selected United Launch Services LLC of Centennial, Colorado, to provide launch services for the agency’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M (TDRS-M) mission. The mission will launch in October 2017 aboard an Atlas V 401 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

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Saturn's Geyser Moon Shines in Close Flyby Views

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has sent back new images of Saturn's active moon Enceladus, acquired during its Oct. 28 flyby.

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Excitement Grows as NASA Carbon Sleuth Begins Year Two

Scientists poring over data from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission are seeing patterns emerge as they seek answers to questions about atmospheric carbon dioxide.

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CometWatch 26 October – 6 hours apart

CometWatch this week comprises two NAVCAM images acquired six hours apart on 26 October 2015. The images have been lightly enhanced to reveal some detail of the comet’s activity (the unprocessed images are available at the end of the post). In the six hours that passed Rosetta also moved 2.3 kilometres closer to the comet, resulting in slightly different image scales between the two images. Caption: Left: Comet 67P/C-G at 13:31:01 UT on 26 October from a distance of 312.7 km. The image scale is 26.6 m/pixel and the image measures 27.3 km across. Right: The view 6 hours later, at 19:27:53 UT, from a distance of 310.4 km. The image scale for the second image is 26.5 m/pixel and the image measures 27.1 km. Since Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s rotation period is a little over 12 hours, these two images are separated by about half a comet rotation, offering complementary views of the nucleus. In both orientations, jets can be seen rising from the sunlit side of the nucleus. In the left-hand image the large lobe is in the foreground, with Imhotep facing the viewer, albeit largely in shadow. Similarly, the outline of the Aten depression, also in shadow, can just be made out to the right. Above Aten, towards the centre of the image, are the Khepry and Aker regions, with Anhur towards the upper left of the large lobe. On the small lobe in the background it is mostly Bastet that is visible, with a hint of Wosret appearing as the flat portion at the top left. Six hours later and the comet’s small lobe is in the foreground, the large lobe in the background, with the Anuket region of the comet’s neck visible in between. On the large lobe the ridge separating Seth (itself not visible) from the smooth Anubis region can be […]

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Rewrite of Onboard Memory Planned for NASA Mars Orbiter

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will suspend activities next week to perform a multi-step update of onboard memory that is crucial in case of an unplanned computer reboot.

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Voyager 1 Helps Solve Interstellar Medium Mystery

A study provides new insights about the magnetic field of the interstellar medium, using data from Voyager 1 and other spacecraft.

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Deepest-Ever Dive Through Enceladus Plume Completed

NASA's Cassini spacecraft successfully completed its close flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus today, passing 30 miles (49 kilometers) above the moon's south polar region.

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First detection of molecular oxygen at a comet

ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has made the first in situ detection of oxygen molecules outgassing from a comet, a surprising observation that suggests they were incorporated into the comet during its formation. This news story is mirrored from the main ESA web portal. Rosetta has been studying Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko for over a year and has detected an abundance of different gases pouring from its nucleus. Water vapour, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are the most prolific, with a rich array of other nitrogen-, sulphur- and carbon-bearing species, and even ‘noble gases’ also recorded. Oxygen is the third most abundant element in the Universe, but the simplest molecular version of the gas, O2, has proven surprisingly hard to track down, even in star-forming clouds, because it is highly reactive and readily breaks apart to bind with other atoms and molecules. For example, oxygen atoms can combine with hydrogen atoms on cold dust grains to form water, or a free oxygen split from O2 by ultraviolet radiation can recombine with an O2 molecule to form ozone (O3). Despite its detection on the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn, O2 had been missing in the inventory of volatile species associated with comets until now. “We weren’t really expecting to detect O2 at the comet – and in such high abundance – because it is so chemically reactive, so it was quite a surprise,” says Kathrin Altwegg of the University of Bern, and principal investigator of the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis instrument, ROSINA. “It’s also unanticipated because there aren’t very many examples of the detection of interstellar O2. And thus, even though it must have been incorporated into the comet during its formation, this is not so easily explained by current Solar System formation models.” The team analysed more than 3000 samples collected […]

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Cometwatch from Earth: peak brightness and coma gases

The latest update from the professional ground-based observing campaign of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, with inputs from astronomers Colin Snodgrass, Alan Fitzsimmons, Cyrielle Opitom and Emmanuel Jehin. While Rosetta made a far excursion 1500 km from the comet to get a view of the wider coma and plasma environment during late September/early October, Earth-based observers have also been continuing to monitor the comet – from even greater distances! The image below was taken on 30 September, the same day that Rosetta reached its furthest distance from the comet during this excursion. To help put things into perspective, the image is also shown with two red dots: the right hand dot marks the centre of the nucleus, while the left hand one lies roughly 1500 km in the sunward direction, showing approximately where Rosetta was at the time the ground-based observations were made. Peak brightness Meanwhile, the ground-based astronomers have been analysing the comet’s brightness following perihelion – the comet’s closest approach to the Sun along its orbit – on 13 August. Based on measurements made by the 60-cm diameter TRAPPIST telescope located at the La Silla observatory in Chile, the comet appeared to show the peak in brightness at the end of August. Indeed, data obtained by the TRAPPIST telescope on 31 August indicated a dust production rate at the nucleus corresponding to approximately 1000 kg per second. The peak brightness on the same day was recorded as magnitude 12 (roughly 250 times dimmer than the faintest stars visible to the unaided naked eye, and thus decent-sized telescopes are needed to study the comet). Since the peak dust production rate measured on 31 August, the overall activity has reportedly been declining steadily, following the trend anticipated from observations made of 67P/C-G during previous perihelion passages (see Snodgrass et al 2013). How much mass is […]

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Black Hole Has Major Flare

The baffling and strange behaviors of black holes have become somewhat less mysterious, with new observations from two NASA missions.

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NASA Administrator to Discuss Agency’s Journey to Mars at Center for American Progress

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will speak about the agency’s accomplishments of the last six years and how they are advancing NASA’s journey to Mars at event hosted by the Center for American Progress in Washington from 10 to 11 a.m. EDT, Wednesday, Oct. 28.

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The story behind the Rosetta ‘claymation’

Earlier this month, the Royal Observatory Greenwich, UK, released a wonderful educational video about the Rosetta Mission using ‘claymation’ – animated clay figures. It was a big hit with the Rosetta team and so we caught up with Elizabeth Avery, senior manager of Astronomy Education at the ROG and one of the minds behind the video, to learn more about how it was put together. The same team at the ROG has also since released a complementary video called Space Rocks, about asteroids, comets, meteors, and meteorites. You can watch both videos as part of this post. What made you choose to focus on the Rosetta mission for this video? We have a very long list of things we would love to make videos about, so it is always a huge challenge to choose just one topic. When we were first thinking of ideas for a video project, Rosetta and Philae were in the news a lot, people were excited about such an amazing mission, and many of our visitors had lots of questions about it.  We knew these videos were going to be created for schools (age 9-14), so as with all our other schools videos, we asked our teacher forum what they would like. The Rosetta Mission and Space Rocks were topics that came up again and again, so we were confident they would be good topics to go for. Why did you choose 'claymation' to tell the story? This was actually something we hadn’t tried before.  The designer we were working with at Beakus suggested it and when we saw the first drafts, we knew we were on to a winner! After we had secured the funding, it took around two months to plan the videos, get scripts together, record the voiceovers, work with the designers, choose the music, and […]

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High-Tech Methods Study Bacteria on the International Space Station

Researchers used cutting-edge technology to analyze bacteria present on the International Space Station and compare it to controlled clean rooms on Earth.

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Dawn Mission Status Report Dawn Heads Toward Final Orbit

NASA's Dawn spacecraft fired up its ion engine on Friday, Oct. 23, to begin its journey toward its fourth and final science orbit at dwarf planet Ceres.

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Seven Key Facts About Cassini's Oct. 28 'Plume Dive'

Facts to help you understand what Cassini's upcoming Enceladus flyby is all about.

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NASA Seeks Student Experiments for Edge-of-Space Balloon Flight

NASA is accepting applications from graduate and undergraduate university students to fly their science and technology experiments to the edge of space on a scientific balloon mission.

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Space Station Crew Celebrates 15 Years of Human Space Exploration in Low-Earth Orbit

All six members of the Expedition 45 crew aboard the International Space Station will participate in a news conference at 10 a.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 2 to mark the start of continuous work by humans aboard the space-based laboratory 15 years ago. The 30-minute news conference will air live on NASA Television and agency’s website.

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Fuel Additive Could Lead to Safer Jet Fuel

A new study describes polymers that could potentially increase the safety of aviation fuel, both during transportation and in the event of a collision.

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NASA Awards Contract for Research, Education Program Support

NASA has awarded the NASA Research Education Support Service (NRESS) contract to Arctic Slope Technical Services, Inc. of Beltsville, Maryland.

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CometWatch 18 October

Today's CometWatch entry was taken by Rosetta’s NAVCAM taken on 18 October 2015, at 433 km from the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The scale is 36.9 m/pixel and the image measures 37.8 km across. The contrast was increased to reveal the comet's activity, showing the glow of outflowing material from various regions on the nucleus. In this view, the comet is oriented with the small lobe on the left and the large lobe on the right. Visible on the small lobe are parts of the Hatmehit, Maftet and Ma'at regions and, towards the centre of the image, the small regions of Nut and Serqet. Hints of the Anuket and Hapi regions can be seen on the comet's neck, while the large lobe presents the circular features of Seth alongside the smooth terrains of Anubis and parts of the complex Atum region. The original 1024 x 1024 image of today's CometWatch is provided below:

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NASA Calls for American Industry Ideas on ARM Spacecraft Development

NASA, through JPL, has issued a call to American industry for innovative ideas involving the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission.

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NASA Calls for American Industry Ideas on ARM Spacecraft Development

NASA, through its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, has issued a call to American industry for innovative ideas on how the agency could obtain a core advanced solar electric propulsion-based spacecraft to support the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM).

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NASA Teleconference to Preview Historic Flyby of Icy Saturn Moon

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will sample an extraterrestrial ocean on Wednesday, Oct. 28, when it flies directly through a plume of icy spray coming from Saturn's moon Enceladus. The agency will hold a news teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT on Monday, Oct. 26, to discuss plans for and anticipated science results from the historic flyby.

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NASA Teleconference to Preview Historic Flyby of Saturn Moon

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will sample an extraterrestrial ocean next week when it flies directly through a plume of icy spray from Enceladus. A news telecon on Monday, Oct. 26, will preview the event.

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NASA Completes Critical Design Review for Space Launch System

For the first time in almost 40 years, a NASA human-rated rocket has completed all steps needed to clear a critical design review (CDR). The agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) is the first vehicle designed to meet the challenges of the journey to Mars and the first exploration class rocket since the Saturn V.

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Borneo on Fire

Thick smoke from the worst forest fires in nearly two decades blankets the island of Borneo in an Oct. 14 satellite image from NASA's MISR instrument.

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NASA Spots the 'Great Pumpkin': Halloween Asteroid a Treat for Radar Astronomers

NASA scientists are tracking the upcoming Halloween flyby of an asteroid with optical observatories and radar capabilities of the Deep Space Network at Goldstone, California.

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NASA's K2 Finds Dead Star Vaporizing a Mini 'Planet'

A tiny, rocky object is likely being torn apart as it spirals around a white dwarf star.

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NASA Awards Contract for Technical, Administrative Services

NASA has contracted with Logical Innovations, Inc. of Houston to provide technical and administrative services in support of the directorates, programs, and offices at the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.

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Texas Students Talk Space with One-Year Space Station Crew

High school students from Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) Early College High School in Austin, Texas, will find out what it’s like to spend a year in space when they talk to the one-year crew currently living and working on the International Space Station at 10:25 a.m. EDT on Friday, Oct. 23.

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NASA Study Improves Understanding of LA Quake Risks

A new NASA-led analysis of a moderate earthquake that shook Greater Los Angeles in 2014 offers new insights into the potential for future earthquakes in the region.

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NASA satellite observations are giving scientists a comprehensive suite of tools to analyze the evolving El Niño and its global impacts as never before.

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Daily Views of Earth Available on New NASA Website

NASA launched a new website Monday so the world can see images of the full, sunlit side of the Earth every day. The images are taken by a NASA camera one million miles away on the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Air Force.

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Hubble Maps Show Jupiter Changes and Prepare for Juno

New Hubble Jupiter views are helping scientists monitor the giant planet and prepare for NASA's Juno mission, which will arrive there next year.

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CometWatch 9 October

This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by Rosetta’s NAVCAM on 9 October from a distance of 579 km. The image scale is 49.4 m/pixel and the image measures 50.5 km across. The contrast is increased to better see the comet’s activity, with several distinct active regions clearly visible. In this orientation the comet’s small lobe is in the background, with primarily the Anuket region visible, and the large lobe is in the foreground with parts of Atum, Anubis and Khonsu visible. Rosetta is currently on its return leg of a 1500 km far excursion to study the wider coma and plasma environment from afar, and is scheduled to reach a distance of 450 km from the comet by tomorrow (Saturday).   The original 1024 x 1024 pixel image is provided below.

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Closest Northern Views of Saturn's Moon Enceladus

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has begun returning its best-ever views of the northern extremes of Saturn's icy, ocean-bearing moon Enceladus.

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NASA Awards Contract for Aerospace Systems Research, Technology Development

Under its Basic and Applied Aerospace technology (BAART) multiple-awards contract, NASA has awarded contracts to 11 companies to support research and technology development for aerospace systems at the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

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NASA Awards Venture Class Launch Services Contracts for CubeSat Satellites

NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP) has awarded multiple Venture Class Launch Services (VCLS) contracts to provide small satellites (SmallSats) -- also called CubeSats, microsats or nanosatellites -- access to low-Earth orbit.

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Cassini Begins Series of Flybys with Close-up of Saturn Moon Enceladus

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will wrap up its time in the region of Saturn's large, icy moons with a series of three close encounters with Enceladus starting Wednesday, Oct. 14.

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Cassini Begins Series of Flybys with Close-up of Saturn Moon Enceladus

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will wrap up its time in the region of Saturn's large, icy moons with a series of three close encounters with Enceladus starting Wednesday, Oct. 14. Images are expected to begin arriving one to two days after the flyby, which will provide the first opportunity for a close-up look at the north polar region of Enceladus.

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NASA Appoints Mark Kirasich to Serve as Orion Program Manager

NASA has appointed Mark Kirasich to be manager of the agency’s Orion Program. The Orion spacecraft is being developed to send astronauts to deep space destinations, such as an asteroid and ultimately to Mars, launching on the agency’s Space Launch System rocket.

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Interpreting images – more on how the comet got its shape

On 28 September, a scientific paper was published in Nature, presenting a view on the formation scenario of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, based on Rosetta OSIRIS images (read our news report here). The paper, led by Dr Matteo Massironi of the University of Padova, Italy, evaluated two possible models to explain the comet's curious shape: the merging of two cometesimals or the erosion of a single object. Observational data and thorough analysis of the comet's gravity field pointed towards the first of the two hypotheses: 67P/C-G seems to have originated from two separately formed comets that merged at low speed. The topic has generated a lot of discussion in the comments thread of this blog, in particular by proponents of an alternative explanation put forward by one of our blog readers Mr A. Cooper who suggests that the comet was once a single body that has since been stretched into two separate lobes. We asked Matteo to share his opinion not only on this subject but also on the general topic of how planetary images are interpreted in order to arrive at a robust scientific theory. Here is what he wrote: Sorry for my late reply, but I wanted some time to go through the blog where the stretching hypothesis is described before saying something about the supporting geological proofs. As a scientist, I do not normally read works that have not been rigorously reviewed and published in scientific journals. Probably that is my fault and I want to thank ESA to have created this interesting blog allowing so many people to be an active part of Rosetta’s discoveries. As a geologist, I would first like to point out some basic principles to follow when dealing with space images for geological interpretations. I believe these suggestions could be of some help to […]

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CubeSat to Demonstrate Miniature Laser Communications in Orbit

NASA and The Aerospace Corporation of El Segundo, California, have received confirmation the Optical Communications and Sensor Demonstration (OCSD) CubeSat spacecraft is in orbit and operational. OCSD launched aboard an Atlas V rocket Thursday from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

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Comet jet in 3D

OSIRIS scientists have created a spectacular anaglyph view of a jet seen blasting from the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August. Rosetta observed increased levels of cometary activity in the weeks around perihelion as the comet made its closest approach to the Sun along its orbit, at a distance of about 186 million km – between the orbits of Earth and Mars. On the approach, the increasing solar radiation heated up the comet’s nucleus, causing its frozen ices to escape as gas and stream out into space at an ever-greater rate, dragging the comet’s dust with it. A period of peak of activity, where distinct jets increase in number and intensity, is thus expected in the weeks around perihelion. The jet shown here is one such example of the high level of activity seen over the last months; it was witnessed on 12 August, just one day before perihelion. But creating a 3d anaglyph of dynamic events like this is notoriously difficult: often the jets are too faint or their duration is too short to find two high-quality images taken several minutes apart that are suitable to pair together to create this type of view. However, the OSIRIS team got lucky with this particular event, capturing two images separated by about two-and-a-half minutes. The image shows a bright, collimated jet embedded in a broader emission structure. The three dimensional perspective also reveals the conical shape of the jet and that the collimated feature is emitted towards the observer. Jets have been seen to originate from a large diversity of morphological features on the comet’s surface, such as pits, cliffs or icy boulder fields. The physical processes responsible for the different jet structures are subject to much discussion, but anaglyphs like these can certainly help in gaining an understanding of their […]

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NASA Eyes on Earth Aid Response to Carolina Flooding

NASA is using data from Earth-observing satellites in space to aid in the response to the devastating flooding affecting the Carolinas.

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NASA Releases Plan Outlining Next Steps in the Journey to Mars

A report that provides an update on NASA's strategy for human deep space exploration that will enable our journey to Mars.

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NASA, Global Aviation Leaders Talk Green Aviation and More at Annual Summit

Representatives from 21 aviation research organizations around the world came together this week at NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California to explore solutions for many of today’s most significant aviation challenges.

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NASA's Curiosity Rover Team Confirms Ancient Lakes on Mars

A new study from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity team confirms that Mars was, billions of years ago, capable of storing water in lakes over an extended period.

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NASA Announces Winners for 3-D Printed Container Contest

A workshop where tools floated around would be difficult to work in. So, NASA has chosen two winning designs from K-12 students for a 3-D printed container to help astronauts on the International Space Station keep things in order.

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International Space Agencies Meet to Advance Space Exploration

Statement from the space agencies participating in the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG).

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CometWatch 1 October

Today's CometWatch entry is an image from Rosetta’s NAVCAM taken on 1 October 2015, at a distance of 1323 km from the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The scale is 113 m/pixel and the image measures 115 km across. The contrast was increased to bring out the comet's activity. From this perspective, the double-lobed shape of the nucleus is not as obvious as it is in some of the more iconic images of 67P/C-G; in this view, the large lobe is in the foreground, on the left, while the small lobe can be seen in the background, towards the right. The Imhotep region dominates the view on the large lobe. To its right, parts of the newly identified regions on the comet's southern hemisphere are also visible: Anhur and Khonsu on the large lobe, Sobek on the neck and Wosret on the small lobe. When this image was taken, Rosetta was approaching the nucleus again after having reached a distance of about 1500 km as part of a far excursion to study the comet's environment at large. The spacecraft is now about 600 km from the comet. The original 1024 x 1024 image of today's CometWatch is provided below:

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NASA Names John Honeycutt Space Launch System Program Manager

NASA has named John Honeycutt manager for the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) Program. Now under development, SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built -- able to carry astronauts in NASA's Orion spacecraft on deep space missions, including to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars.

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NASA to Announce Selections for Small Satellite Launch Contract

NASA will host a news conference at 1 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to announce the outcome of the Venture Class Launch Service (VCLS) competition. The news conference will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

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NASA Challenge Seeks Ways to Use Mars’ Natural Resources for Astronauts

Living off the land is different when the land is 140 million miles away, so NASA is looking for innovative ideas to use in situ (in place) Martian resources to help establish a human presence on the Red Planet.

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NASA Offers Licenses of Patented Technologies to Start-Up Companies

NASA is unveiling a new opportunity for start-up companies to license patented NASA technology with no up-front payment. The Startup NASA initiative addresses two common problems start-ups face: raising capital and securing intellectual property rights.

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NASA Television to Air CubeSat Launch Events

Thirteen NASA and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)-sponsored CubeSats are scheduled to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 8:49 a.m. EDT (5:49 a.m. PDT) Thursday, Oct. 8, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Prelaunch media briefings and launch commentary coverage will air live on NASA Television and the agency's w

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Exoplanet Anniversary: From Zero to Thousands in 20 Years

October 6 marks the 20th anniversary of the first discovery of a planet orbiting a normal star.

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NASA Selects Student Teams for 2016 High-Powered Rocket Launch Challenge

NASA selected 55 student teams from across the nation to participate in the 2015-2016 NASA Student Launch challenge, to be held April 13-17 near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

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Geology Award Going to Mars Landing Site Expert at JPL

A prestigious geology award will be presented in early November to a leader in selecting landing sites on Mars: Matt Golombek of JPL.

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NASA Orbiter Views Sites of Fiction Film's Mars Landings

Images from a NASA Mars orbiter's telescopic camera reveal details of regions on Mars that serve as the setting for the new Hollywood movie, "The Martian."

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JPL's Role in Making 'The Martian' a Reality

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory plays an important role in the novel and film "The Martian."

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International Space Station Partners Release Major Update to Docking Standard

The International Space Station Multilateral Coordination Board (MCB) has approved a major update to the station docking system standard. First released in 2010, the docking standard established a common station-to-spacecraft equipment interface to enable spacecraft of multiple types to dock to the space station.

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CometWatch 30 September – Far, far away

Today's CometWatch entry is an image taken by Rosetta’s NAVCAM on 30 September 2015, about 1488 km from the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The image was taken a few hours after the spacecraft had reached the farthest point – 1500 km from the nucleus – on its far excursion to study the coma and plasma environment of 67P/C-G on a broader scale. The scale is 127 m/pixel and the image measures 130 km across. The contrast was increased to reveal the comet's activity. In this orientation, the small comet lobe is on the left and the large lobe on the right. The last time Rosetta was at similar distances from the comet nucleus was in late July 2014, during the last few days of the 'chasing' phase, before the spacecraft arrived at 67P/C-G on 6 August 2014. For a qualitative comparison, take a look at these two CometWatch images from that period, taken on 30 July 2014, 1630 km from the nucleus, and on 31 July 2014, 1327 km from the nucleus. At that time, the comet was about 540 million km from the Sun and only moderately active compared to current levels of activity. The comet is now just over 200 million km from the Sun, after passing through perihelion – the closest point to our star along its orbit – on 13 August. Having reached the farthest point from the comet on the far excursion that started on 23 September, Rosetta is now approaching again, and will be back to about 500 km from the nucleus by 7 October. The original 1024 x 1024 image of today's CometWatch is provided below:

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Rosetta's First Peek at the Comet's Dark Side

Using the Microwave for Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO) instrument aboard Rosetta, scientists have studied the southern polar regions of its target comet at the end of their long winter season.

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NASA Sets Coverage Schedule for CubeSat Launch Events

Thirteen NASA and National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)-sponsored CubeSats are scheduled to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket Thursday, Oct. 8, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Prelaunch media briefings and launch commentary coverage will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

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Virginia Students to Speak Live with Space Station Crew

A group of students from Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax, Virginia, will get the chance to speak with an astronaut who once studied in their classrooms and now is working and living on the International Space Station.

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Rosetta’s first peek at the comet’s south pole

Using the Microwave Instrument on the Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO), scientists have studied the comet's southern polar regions at the end of their long winter season. The data suggest that these dark, cold regions host ice within the first few tens of centimetres below the surface in much larger amounts than elsewhere on the comet. Since its arrival at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta has been surveying the surface and the environment of this curiously-shaped body. But for a long time, a portion of the nucleus – the dark, cold regions around the comet's south pole – remained inaccessible to almost all instruments on the spacecraft. Due to a combination of its double-lobed shape and the inclination of its rotation axis, Rosetta's comet has a very peculiar seasonal pattern over its 6.5 year-long orbit. Seasons are distributed very unevenly between the two hemispheres, each of which comprises parts of both comet lobes and of the 'neck'. For most of the comet’s orbit, the northern hemisphere experiences a very long summer, lasting over 5.5 years, and the southern hemisphere undergoes a long, dark and cold winter. However, a few months before the comet reaches perihelion – the closest point to the Sun along its orbit – the situation changes, and the southern hemisphere transitions to a brief and very hot summer. When Rosetta arrived at 67P/C-G in August 2014, the comet was still experiencing its long summer in the northern hemisphere and regions on the southern hemisphere received very little sunlight. Moreover, a large part of this hemisphere, close to the comet’s south pole, was in polar night and had been in total darkness for almost five years. With no direct illumination from the Sun, these regions could not be imaged with Rosetta’s OSIRIS science camera. In addition, their low temperatures – ranging between […]

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NASA Selects Investigations for Future Key Planetary Mission

Three proposed science investigations with JPL project management have been chosen by NASA for further investigation.

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NASA Awards Contract for Software Engineering Support at Goddard

NASA has awarded a contract to Arctic Slope Technical Services, Inc. (ASTS) of Beltsville, Maryland for information technology support for programs and projects at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

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NASA Selects Investigations for Future Key Planetary Mission

NASA has selected five science investigations for refinement during the next year as a first step in choosing one or two missions for flight opportunities as early as 2020. The submitted proposals would study Venus, near-Earth objects and a variety of asteroids.

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NASA Awards Contract for Engineering Software, Hardware

NASA has awarded a contract to National Instruments Corporation of Austin, Texas, to provide system design software and measurement and control systems hardware while consolidating the procurement of agency end-user software licenses.

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