NASA‘s Juno: Spacecraft Has Successfully Entered Orbit Around The Gas Giant Jupiter. 

Our planet seen from Saturn, captured by the Cassini spacecraft

Image credit: NASA / Cassini

Comet PanSTARRS

Gorgeous picture of Comet PanSTARRS taken by Carl Gruber on March 2, 2013 at a mountain lookout in Melbourne.

A once in a lifetime event visible every 75-76 years, Halleys comet returned in 1986. Halley is the only short-period comet that is clearly visible to the naked eye from Earth. It has been documented since 240 BC.

Just a typical Saturday in our courtyard calling Ohio using Morse code.

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is such a crazy, turbulent storm (the largest known storm in the universe) that it creates sound waves that travel hundreds of miles up and actually heat the planet’s upper atmosphere.

I repeat: sound waves are heating Jupiter’s atmosphere. The area above the Spot is a thousand degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the surrounding atmosphere.

Here’s the journal paper. Here’s our story.

Image credit: Space Telescope Science Institute/NASA

This morning, an Atlas V rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying a US Navy communications satellite into space. 

It was another smooth take off for the United Launch Alliance, the company that manufactures the Atlas V. It was a particularly beautiful launch as well; the rocket left a spectacular multi-colored trail in its wake as it ascended into space

“JUNO PROBE MAKES HISTORY BY ENTERING JUPITER’S ORBIT AFTER FIVE-YEAR JOURNEY”

Last night, NASA and its Juno probe made history by entering a new probe in orbit around Jupiter. The Juno spacecraft, which had left Earth five years ago, finally entered Jovian orbit after a 35 minute rocket engine manoeuvre to slow down its approach to the planet and get caught by its gravity. Unlike other engine firings in the past, Juno’s manoeuvre was especially dangerous since no previous spacecraft had ever dared to pass so close to Jupiter; its intense radiation belts can destroy unprotected electronics. Luckily, since the probe was built like a tank with titanium shielding, a few minutes later, a sequence of tones transmitted from the spacecraft confirmed the braking manoeuvre had been a smashing success prompting wild cheering at NASA’s mission control in Pasadena, California. “All stations on Juno co-ord, we have the tone for burn cut-off on Delta B,” Juno Mission Control had announced. “Roger Juno, welcome to Jupiter.” Juno’s main objective is to sense Jupiter’s structure and chemistry to gather clues on how the gas giant formed some four-and-a-half-billion years ago. However, much of this observation will not take place until mid-October when Juno performs a second rocket engine burn to tighten its orbit to just 14 days. By then, Juno will be able to answer some interesting questions about the planet including where it formed  in the early Solar System and whether Jupiter has a solid core or a core made of compressed gas. After the mission ends, Juno is scheduled to dive into Jupiter’s atmosphere in February 2018 to ensure that there is no possibility of it crashing into and contaminating any of Jupiter’s large moons.

Read more about this fascinating story on: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36710768

Knate Myers - View from the ISS at Night