Thursday, August 7, 2014

ScienceDaily: Astronomy News

ScienceDaily: Astronomy News

Rosetta: 100 kilometres to 'touchdown'

Posted: 06 Aug 2014 06:47 AM PDT

The Rosetta spacecraft is approaching just 100 kilometres from its target comet, "Chury", today. After a ten-year journey, the Bernese instrument, ROSINA, will soon "smell" the first molecules of the comet's gas tail.

Triangulum galaxy snapped by VST

Posted: 06 Aug 2014 06:47 AM PDT

The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile has captured a beautifully detailed image of the galaxy Messier 33. This nearby spiral, the second closest large galaxy to our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is packed with bright star clusters, and clouds of gas and dust. The new picture is amongst the most detailed wide-field views of this object ever taken and shows the many glowing red gas clouds in the spiral arms with particular clarity.

Rosetta spacecraft arrives at comet destination

Posted: 06 Aug 2014 04:12 AM PDT

After a decade-long journey chasing its target, ESA's Rosetta has today become the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet, opening a new chapter in Solar System exploration. Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and Rosetta now lie 405 million kilometres from Earth, about half way between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars, rushing towards the inner Solar System at nearly 55,000 kilometres per hour.

How Rosetta arrives at a comet

Posted: 01 Aug 2014 08:11 AM PDT

After travelling nearly 6.4 billion kilometres through the Solar System, ESA's Rosetta is closing in on its target. But how does a spacecraft actually arrive at a comet?

Rosetta takes comet’s temperature

Posted: 01 Aug 2014 08:11 AM PDT

ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has made its first temperature measurements of its target comet, finding that it is too hot to be covered in ice and must instead have a dark, dusty crust.
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