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Space News Update — July 5, 2016 —

Contents

In the News

Story 1:

NASA's Juno Spacecraft in Orbit Around Mighty Jupiter

Story 2:

NASA Rover's Sand-Dune Studies Yield Surprise

Story 3:

New Horizons Receives Mission Extension to Kuiper Belt, Dawn to Remain at Ceres

Departments

The Night Sky

ISS Sighting Opportunities

NASA-TV Highlights

Space Calendar

Food for Thought

Space Image of the Week

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1. NASA's Juno Spacecraft in Orbit Around Mighty Jupiter

After an almost five-year journey to the solar system’s largest planet, NASA's Juno spacecraft successfully entered

Jupiter’s orbit during a 35-minute engine burn. Confirmation that the burn had completed was received on Earth at

8:53 p.m. PDT (11:53 p.m. EDT) Monday, July 4.

“Independence Day always is something to celebrate, but today we can add to America’s birthday another reason to

cheer -- Juno is at Jupiter,” said NASA administrator Charlie Bolden. “And what is more American than a NASA

mission going boldly where no spacecraft has gone before? With Juno, we will investigate the unknowns of Jupiter’s

massive radiation belts to delve deep into not only the planet’s interior, but into how Jupiter was born and how our

entire solar system evolved.”

Confirmation of a successful orbit insertion was received from Juno tracking data monitored at the navigation facility

at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, as well as at the Lockheed Martin Juno operations

center in Littleton, Colorado. The telemetry and tracking data were received by NASA's Deep Space Network

antennas in Goldstone, California, and Canberra, Australia.

“This is the one time I don’t mind being stuck in a windowless room on the night of the 4th of July,” said Scott

Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “The mission team did

great. The spacecraft did great. We are looking great. It’s a great day.”

Preplanned events leading up to the orbital insertion engine burn included changing the spacecraft’s attitude to

point the main engine in the desired direction and then increasing the spacecraft’s rotation rate from 2 to 5

revolutions per minute (RPM) to help stabilize it..

The burn of Juno’s 645-Newton Leros-1b main engine began on time at 8:18 p.m. PDT (11:18 p.m. EDT),

decreasing the spacecraft’s velocity by 1,212 miles per hour (542 meters per second) and allowing Juno to be

captured in orbit around Jupiter. Soon after the burn was completed, Juno turned so that the sun’s rays could once

again reach the 18,698 individual solar cells that give Juno its energy.

“The spacecraft worked perfectly, which is always nice when you’re driving a vehicle with 1.7 billion miles on the

odometer,” said Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager from JPL. “Jupiter orbit insertion was a big step and the most

challenging remaining in our mission plan, but there are others that have to occur before we can give the science

team the mission they are looking for.”

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Juno starts its tour of Jupiter in a 53.5-day orbit. The spacecraft saved fuel by executing a burn that places it in a

capture orbit with the 53.5-day orbit instead of going directly for the 14-day orbit that will occur during the

mission's primary science collection period. The 14-day science orbit phase will begin after the final burn of the

mission for Juno’s main engine on October 19.

Over the next few months, Juno’s mission and science teams will perform final testing on the spacecraft’s

subsystems, final calibration of science instruments and some science collection.

“Our official science collection phase begins in October, but we’ve figured out a way to collect data a lot earlier than

that,” said Bolton. “Which when you’re talking about the single biggest planetary body in the solar system is a really

good thing. There is a lot to see and do here.”

Juno's principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. With its suite of nine science instruments,

Juno will investigate the existence of a solid planetary core, map Jupiter's intense magnetic field, measure the

amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe the planet's auroras. The mission also will let

us take a giant step forward in our understanding of how giant planets form and the role these titans played in

putting together the rest of the solar system. As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter also can provide

critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars.

The Juno spacecraft launched on Aug. 5, 2011 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. JPL manages the

Juno mission for NASA. Juno is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight

Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in

Denver built the spacecraft. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

Juno carries a plaque dedicated to the famous astronomer Galileo Galilei provided by the Italian Space Agency.

Among his many achievements, Galileo Galilei discovered that moons orbited Jupiter in 1610. These satellites -- Io,

Europa, Ganymede and Callisto -- are also known as the Galilean moons.

The plaque measures 2.8 by 2 inches and is made of flight-grade aluminum and weighs six grams (0.2 ounces). It

was bonded to Juno's propulsion bay with a spacecraft-grade epoxy. The graphic on the plaque depicts a self-

portrait of Galileo.

The spacecraft also carries three Lego figurines representing Galileo, the Roman god Jupiter and his wife Juno.

Although most Lego toys are made of plastic, Lego made these figures of aluminum to endure the extreme

conditions of space flight.

To show his status as a thunder god, Lego gave its Jupiter mini-figure a lightning bolt to hold, while Juno has a

magnifying glass to signify her search through the truth. Galileo holds a tiny sphere resembling Jupiter (the planet)

and, of course, a telescope.

Source: NASA and NASA Return to Contents

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2. NASA Rover's Sand-Dune Studies Yield Surprise

Two sizes of ripples are evident in this Dec. 13, 2015, view of a top of a Martian sand dune, from NASA's Curiosity Mars

rover. Sand dunes and the smaller type of ripples also exist on Earth. The larger ripples are a type not seen on Earth nor

previously recognized as a distinct type on Mars. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Some of the wind-sculpted sand ripples on Mars are a type not seen on Earth, and their relationship to the thin

Martian atmosphere today provides new clues about the atmosphere's history.

The determination that these mid-size ripples are a distinct type resulted from observations by NASA's

Curiosity Mars rover. Six months ago, Curiosity made the first up-close study of active sand dunes anywhere

other than Earth, at the "Bagnold Dunes" on the northwestern flank of Mars' Mount Sharp.

"Earth and Mars both have big sand dunes and small sand ripples, but on Mars, there's something in between

that we don't have on Earth," said Mathieu Lapotre, a graduate student at Caltech in Pasadena, California, and

science team collaborator for the Curiosity mission. He is the lead author of a report about these mid-size

ripples published in the July 1 issue of the journal Science.

Both planets have true dunes -- typically larger than a football field -- with downwind faces shaped by sand

avalanches, making them steeper than the upwind faces.

Earth also has smaller ripples -- appearing in rows typically less than a foot (less than 30 centimeters) apart --

that are formed by wind-carried sand grains colliding with other sand grains along the ground. Some of these

"impact ripples" corrugate the surfaces of sand dunes and beaches.

Images of Martian sand dunes taken from orbit have, for years, shown ripples about 10 feet (3 meters) apart

on dunes' surfaces. Until Curiosity studied the Bagnold Dunes, the interpretation was that impact ripples on

Mars could be several times larger than impact ripples on Earth. Features the scale of Earth's impact ripples

would go unseen at the resolution of images taken from orbit imaging and would not be expected to be

present if the meter-scale ripples were impact ripples.

"As Curiosity was approaching the Bagnold Dunes, we started seeing that the crest lines of the meter-scale

ripples are sinuous," Lapotre said. "That is not like impact ripples, but it is just like sand ripples that form

under moving water on Earth. And we saw that superimposed on the surfaces of these larger ripples were

ripples the same size and shape as impact ripples on Earth."

Besides the sinuous crests, another similarity between the mid-size ripples on Mars and underwater ripples on

Earth is that, in each case, one face of each ripple is steeper than the face on the other side and has sand

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flows, as in a dune. Researchers conclude that the meter-scale ripples are built by Martian wind dragging sand

particles the way flowing water drags sand particles on Earth -- a different mechanism than how either dunes

or impact ripples form. Lapotre and co-authors call them "wind-drag ripples."

"The size of these ripples is related to the density of the fluid moving the grains, and that fluid is the Martian

atmosphere," he said. "We think Mars had a thicker atmosphere in the past that might have formed smaller

wind-drag ripples or even have prevented their formation altogether. Thus, the size of preserved wind-drag

ripples, where found in Martian sandstones, may have recorded the thinning of the atmosphere."

The researchers checked ripple textures preserved in sandstone more than 3 billion years old at sites

investigated by Curiosity and by NASA's Opportunity Mars rover. They found wind-drag ripples about the same

size as modern ones on active dunes. That fits with other lines of evidence that Mars lost most of its original

atmosphere early in the planet's history.

Other findings from Curiosity's work at the Bagnold Dunes point to similarities between how dunes behave on

Mars and Earth.

"During our visit to the active Bagnold Dunes, you might almost forget you’re on Mars, given how similar the

sand behaves in spite of the different gravity and atmosphere. But these mid-sized ripples are a reminder that

those differences can surprise us," said Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of NASA's Jet Propulsion

Laboratory in Pasadena.

After examining the dune field, Curiosity resumed climbing the lower portion of Mount Sharp. The mission is

investigating evidence about how and when ancient environmental conditions in the area evolved from

freshwater settings favorable for microbial life, if Mars has ever hosted life, into conditions drier and less

habitable.

Source: NASA

******

NASA Weighs Use of Rover to Image Potential Mars Water Sites

Ever since it was announced that there may be evidence of liquid water on present-day Mars, NASA scientists

have wondered how best to further investigate these long, seasonally changing dark streaks in the hope of

finding evidence of life – past or present – on the Red Planet.

“It’s not as simple as driving a rover to a potential site and taking a scoop of soil,” said Jim Green, NASA’s

director of planetary science. “Not only are these on steep slopes, we need to ensure that planetary protection

concerns are met. In other words, how can we search for evidence of life without contaminating the sites with

bugs from Earth?”

Pending approval of a mission extension, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover will continue to climb to progressively

higher and younger strata on Mount Sharp, investigating how long the ancient, water-rich environments found

so far persisted as Mars dried out. Reaching those destinations would bring the rover closer to locations where

dark streaks are present on some slopes (known as or recurring slope lineae or RSL). On the way, the route

would allow the one-ton rover to capture images of the potential water sites from miles away and see if any

are the seasonally changing type.

How close could the rover safely get to an RSL? “That’s exactly the question that needs to be addressed early

in the process,” said Catharine Conley, NASA’s planetary protection officer. “Kilometers away—it’s unlikely that

it would be an issue. In terms of coming much closer, we need to understand well in advance the potential for

Earth organisms to come off the rover, and that will tell us how far away the rover should stay.”

Source: NASA Return to Contents

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3. New Horizons Receives Mission Extension to Kuiper Belt, Dawn to Remain at

Ceres

Following its historic first-ever flyby of Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons mission has received the green light to fly

onward to an object deeper in the Kuiper Belt, known as 2014 MU69. The spacecraft’s planned rendezvous

with the ancient object – considered one of the early building blocks of the solar system -- is Jan. 1, 2019.

“The New Horizons mission to Pluto exceeded our expectations and even today the data from the spacecraft

continue to surprise,” said NASA’s Director of Planetary Science Jim Green. “We’re excited to continue onward

into the dark depths of the outer solar system to a science target that wasn’t even discovered when the

spacecraft launched.”

Based upon the 2016 Planetary Mission Senior Review Panel report, NASA this week directed nine extended

missions to plan for continued operations through fiscal years 2017 and 2018. Final decisions on mission

extensions are contingent on the outcome of the annual budget process.

In addition to the extension of the New Horizons mission, NASA determined that the Dawn spacecraft should

remain at the dwarf planet Ceres, rather than changing course to the main belt asteroid Adeona.

Green noted that NASA relies on the scientific assessment by the Senior Review Panel in making its decision on

which extended mission option to approve. “The long-term monitoring of Ceres, particularly as it gets closer to

perihelion – the part of its orbit with the shortest distance to the sun -- has the potential to provide more

significant science discoveries than a flyby of Adeona,” he said.

Also receiving NASA approval for mission extensions, contingent on available resources, are: the Mars

Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN), the Opportunity and

Curiosity Mars rovers, the Mars Odyssey orbiter, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), and NASA’s support

for the European Space Agency’s Mars Express mission.

Source: NASA

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Dawn Completes Primary Mission

NASA's Dawn mission exceeded all expectations during its primary mission to Vesta and Ceres. Credits: NASA/JPL-

Caltech

On June 30, just in time for the global celebration known as Asteroid Day, NASA's Dawn spacecraft completes

its primary mission. The mission exceeded all expectations originally set for its exploration of protoplanet Vesta

and dwarf planet Ceres.

The historic mission is the first to orbit two extraterrestrial solar system targets, and the first to orbit any

object in the main asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. On March 6, 2015, Dawn also became the first

spacecraft to enter orbit around a dwarf planet.

An infographic highlights some of the accomplishments of Dawn's journey since launching in September 2007.

Dawn has traveled 3.5 billion miles (5.6 billion kilometers) since launch, and has made 2,450 orbits around

Vesta and Ceres. The spacecraft has returned about 69,000 images, combined, of both bodies.

Dawn's advanced ion propulsion system made it possible for the spacecraft to orbit two targets in the main

asteroid belt. The spacecraft has logged about 48,000 hours of ion engine thrusting.

Scientists have learned a great deal about these unique, massive residents of the asteroid belt through data

from the mission. Dawn has revealed that while Vesta is a dry body, Ceres could be as much as 25 percent

water ice by mass. Dawn also discovered many intriguing features at both bodies -- Vesta is home to a

mountain whose height is more than twice that of Mount Everest, and Ceres has a crater called Occator with

mysterious bright features that continue to spark scientific investigation.

Source: NASA Return to Contents

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The Night Sky

Source: Sky and Telescope Return to Contents

Tuesday, July 5 • Arcturus is the brightest star high in the

west. Equally bright Vega is similarly high in

the east. A third of the way from Arcturus to

Vega, look for dim Corona Borealis, the

Northern Crown, with its one modestly bright

star, Gemma or Alphecca. Two thirds of the

way, you'll find the dim Keystone of

Hercules.

Wednesday, July 6 • Can you see the thin crescent Moon yet, low

in the west in twilight? Jupiter and Regulus

point the way, more or less, as shown at

right.

• As evening grows late, even the lowest star

of the Summer Triangle climbs high in the

east. That's Altair, a good three or four fists

at arm's length below or lower right of Vega.

Inside the Summer Triangle, near the line

from Vega to Altair, is the grand double star

Albireo, 2nd magnitude. But do you know

about the "false Albireo" in the same

binocular field? It consists of Alpha and 8

Vulpeculae, a wider pair that's also orange

and blue.

Thursday, July 7 The thin waxing crescent Moon hangs low in the west at dusk. Look for Regulus about 3° to its

right or upper right, as shown above. Much farther to their upper left is Jupiter.

Friday, July 8 The waxing crescent Moon shines in the west at dusk. Jupiter shines some 3° or 4° upper left of

it for North America. As night comes on, look for Sigma Scorpii, magnitude 4.0, glimmering 0.9°

to Jupiter's upper left (not shown on the twilight chart above).

Saturday, July 9 • Jupiter now shines lower right of the Moon during and after dusk.

The waxing crescent Moon advances up out of the sunset toward Jupiter.

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ISS Sighting Opportunities (from Denver)

Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears

Tue Jul 5, 5:11 AM 2 min 12° 10° above SSE 12° above ESE

Thu Jul 7, 5:00 AM 4 min 30° 10° above SSW 23° above E

Fri Jul 8, 4:09 AM 4 min 15° 11° above SSE 10° above E

Sat Jul 9, 4:51 AM 4 min 78° 13° above SW 44° above ENE

Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information

NASA-TV Highlights (all times Eastern Time Zone)

Tuesday, July 5

2 p.m. - Replay of the Post Juno Orbital Insertion NASA Science Briefing (NTV-1 (Public), NTV-3 (Media))

6 p.m. - NASA Television Video File News Feed File of the ISS Expedition 48-49 Crew’s Soyuz MS-01 Mating,

Rollout to the Launch Pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and Launch Pad Interviews (includes

activities from July 3 and 4) (all channels)

8 p.m. - NASA TV Video-File News Feed of the ISS Expedition 48-49/Soyuz MS-01 Vehicle Encapsulation and Crew

Activities at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (Ivanishin, Rubins, Onishi; includes activities from July 1-2)

(NTV-1 (Public), NTV-3 (Media))

9 p.m. - Replay of the Post Juno Orbital Insertion NASA Science Briefing (NTV-1 (Public), NTV-3 (Media))

10 p.m. - NASA Television Video File News Feed File of the ISS Expedition 48-49 Crew’s Soyuz MS-01 Mating,

Rollout to the Launch Pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and Launch Pad Interviews (includes

activities from July 3 and 4) (all channels)

Wednesday, July 6

12 p.m. - Replay of the Russian State Commission Meeting and Final ISS Expedition 48-49 Pre-Launch Crew News

Conference in Baikonur, Kazakhstan (Ivanishin, Rubins, Onishi) (all channels)

8:30 p.m. - ISS Expedition 48-49 Soyuz MS-01 Launch Coverage (Ivanishin, Rubins, Onishi; launch scheduled at

9:36 p.m. ET; includes video B-roll of the crew’s launch day pre-launch activities at 8:40 p.m. ET) (all channels)

Thursday, July 7

Midnight, - Video File of ISS Expedition 48-49/Soyuz MS-01 Pre-Launch, Launch Video B-Roll and Related

Interviews (all channels)

1:30 p.m. - Video B-Roll Feed of ISS Expedition 49-50 Crew Training – JSC (all channels)

Friday, July 8

11:30 p.m., - ISS Expedition 48-49/Soyuz MS-01 Docking Coverage (Ivanishin, Rubins, Onishi; docking scheduled

at 12:13 a.m. ET July 9) – JSC via Moscow, Russia (all channels)

Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website. Return to Contents

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Space Calendar

Jul 05 - Comet 207P/Hill Closest Approach To Earth (1.934 AU)

Jul 05 - Comet C/2014 W5 (Lemmon-PANSTARRS) At Opposition (2.090 AU)

Jul 05 - Comet 47P/Ashbrook-Jackson At Opposition (2.391 AU)

Jul 05 - Comet 145P/Shoemaker-Levy At Opposition (2.760 AU)

Jul 05 - Comet P/2009 WX51 (Catalina) Closest Approach To Earth (2.864 AU)

Jul 05 - Asteroid 31664 Randiiwessen Closest Approach To Earth (1.481 AU)

Jul 05 - Asteroid 230975 Rogerfederer Closest Approach To Earth (1.818 AU)

Jul 05 - Asteroid 31319 Vespucci Closest Approach To Earth (2.254 AU)

Jul 05 - Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69 At Opposition (42.313 AU)

Jul 05 - Kuiper Belt Object 2014 PN70 At Opposition (43.028 AU)

Jul 06 - Comet P/2008 T4 (Hill) At Opposition (3.692 AU)

Jul 06 - Asteroid 3430 Bradfield Closest Approach To Earth (1.527 AU)

Jul 06 - Asteroid 12574 LONEOS Closest Approach To Earth (1.907 AU)

Jul 07 - Soyuz MS-1 Soyuz-FG Launch (International Space Station 47S)

Jul 07 - Comet P/2010 D1 (WISE) At Opposition (2.944 AU)

Jul 07 - Asteroid 2 Pallas Occults 2UCAC 36922360 (12.5 Magnitude Star)

Jul 07 - Centaur Object 10199 Chariklo Occults UCAC4-279-186300 (12.9 Magnitude Star)

Jul 07 - Apollo Asteroid 2016 MO Near-Earth Flyby (0.017 AU)

Jul 07 - Asteroid 736 Harvard Closest Approach To Earth (0.949 AU)

Jul 07 - Asteroid 8630 Billprady Closest Approach To Earth (1.056 AU)

Jul 07 - Asteroid 3869 Norton Closest Approach To Earth (1.172 AU)

Jul 07 - Atira Asteroid 413563 (2005 TG45) Closest Approach To Earth (1.186 AU)

Jul 07 - Asteroid 7100 Martin Luther Closest Approach To Earth (1.628 AU)

Jul 07 - Asteroid 30439 Moe Closest Approach To Earth (1.642 AU)

Jul 07 - Asteroid 1618 Dawn Closest Approach To Earth (1.775 AU)

Jul 07 - Asteroid 3255 Tholen Closest Approach To Earth (1.961 AU)

Jul 08 - Dwarf Planet 134340 Pluto At Opposition (32.115 AU)

Jul 08 - Comet 96P/Machholz At Opposition (3.982 AU)

Jul 08 - Comet 171P/Spahr At Opposition (4.082 AU)

Jul 08 - Asteroid 10001 Palermo Closest Approach To Earth (1.473 AU)

Jul 08 - Asteroid 23638 Nagano Closest Approach To Earth (1.490 AU)

Jul 08 - Apollo Asteroid 11885 Summanus Closest Approach To Earth (1.558 AU)

Jul 08 - 5th Anniversary (2011), STS-135 Launch (Space Shuttle Atlantis, International Space Station, Final Space Shuttle Launch)

Jul 08 - 45th Anniversary (1971), Solrad 10 Launch

Jul 09 - Moon Occults Jupiter

Source: JPL Space Calendar Return to Contents

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Food for Thought

Static Electricity May Transport Dust across Airless Planetary Bodies

A NASA-funded research team, led by Mihaly Horanyi at the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU-Bolder),

has conducted laboratory experiments to bring closure to a long-standing issue of electrostatic dust transport,

explaining a variety of unusual phenomena on the surfaces of airless planetary bodies, including observations

from the Apollo era to the recent Rosetta comet mission. The research being done at the Institute for Modeling

Plasma, Atmospheres and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT) was recently published in the journal Geophysical Research

Letters, and explains how dust may be transporting across vast regions above the lunar surface and rings of

Saturn, without winds or flowing water.

“Electrostatic dust processes have been hypothesized to explain these space observations. However, no

theories until now were able to support these explanations,” said Mihaly Horanyi, principal investigator of

IMPACT research team.

The team recorded micron-sized dust particles jumping several centimeters high under ultraviolet (UV)

radiation or exposure to plasmas. On the moon, these dust particles would have been lofted more than 10 cm

above the lunar surface, leading researchers to conclude that the moon’s “horizon glow,” seen in images taken

by Surveyor 5, 6, and 7 five decades ago, may have been caused in part by sunlight scattering in a cloud of

electrostatically lofted dust particles.

Vaguely similar to the way dragging your feet across the carpet can generate an electric charge, the

movement of electrons in the tiny spaces between dust particles can generate surprisingly large charges and

forces, which can lift and move dust particles off the ground.

In addition to single particles, clusters of dust were lofted, which showed that electrostatic processes may be

responsible for the Rosetta detection of fluffy dust particles released from the surface of Comet 67P.

These laboratory observations reveal that dusty surfaces can become smooth due to dust mobilization and

could help explain the formation of the “dust ponds” like those seen on asteroid Eros and comet 67P, and the

unexpectedly smooth surface on Saturn’s icy satellite Atlas.

Source: NASA Return to Contents

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Space Image of the Week

The Cat's Eye Nebula

Image Credit: J. P. Harrington (U. Maryland) & K. J. Borkowski (NCSU) HST, NASA

Explanation: Three thousand light-years away, a dying star throws off shells of glowing gas. This image from

the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the Cat's Eye Nebula to be one of the most complex planetary nebulae

known. In fact, the features seen in the Cat's Eye are so complex that astronomers suspect the bright central

object may actually be a binary star system. The term planetary nebula, used to describe this general class of

objects, is misleading. Although these objects may appear round and planet-like in small telescopes, high

resolution images reveal them to be stars surrounded by cocoons of gas blown off in the late stages of stellar

evolution.

Source: NASA APOD Return to Contents