As mentioned in my update last month, we do expect to conduct a launch countdown in late September as scheduled. Having said that, it is still possible that we encounter an issue that needs to be investigated, which would delay launch until the next available window in late October. If preparations g...
Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (Saint-Malo, 17 July 1698 - Basel, 27 July 1759) was a French mathematician, philosopher and man of letters. He became the Director of the Académie des Sciences, and the first President of the Berlin Academy of Science, at the invitation of Frederick the Great. Re...
Luna 19 (a.k.a. Lunik 19) (Ye-8-LS series), was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program. Luna 19 extended the systematic study of lunar gravitational fields and location of mascons (mass concentrations). It also studied the lunar radiation environment, the gamma-active lunar surface, an...
Ananke is a retrograde irregular satellite of Jupiter. It was discovered by Seth Barnes Nicholson at Mount Wilson Observatory on the 28th September, 1951 and is named after the mythological Ananke, the personification of Necessity, and the mother of the Moirae by Zeus. The adjectival form of the...
The BBC and the National Geographic Channel are making a documentary based on the controversial theories of a Wollongong academic, who claims that meteorites hit the earth every 1000 years. New York-based production company Pangolin Pictures has been filming for the documentary this week at Gre...
Asteroid Caught Marching Across Tadpole Nebula A new infrared image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, showcases the Tadpole nebula, a star-forming hub in the Auriga constellation about 12,000 light-years from Earth. As WISE scanned the sky, capturing this mosaic of sti...
The Astronomers' Ball 22nd October To celebrate London Science Festival the Royal Observatory Greenwich presents an evening of astronomy, fun and music on the Prime Meridian of the world. Mingle with some of Europe's top stargazers and find out about astronomy past, present and future with a rang...
Orbital elements:
2011 SM102 Earth MOID = 0.0897 AU
Epoch 2011 Aug. 27.0 TT = JDT 2455800.5 MPC
M 353.27995 (2000.0) P Q
n 0.25055845 Peri. 251.03243 +0.99952199 -0.01360944
a 2.4918966 Node 109.73973 +0.02333124 +0.92116802
e 0.5630823 Incl. 1.69003 -0.02028417 +0.38892707
P 3.93 H 24....
These Abbe-type orthoscopic oculars are good value for anyone seeking a high-contrast planetary eyepiece. These orthoscopic eyepieces are a four-lens design, and feature excellent contrast, flat fields, superior colour correction, and freedom from scattered light. The chrome-plated bra...
Title: A numerical and statistical analysis of low-energy transfer orbits to the Moon Authors: Roberto Capuzzo-Dolcetta, Marco Giancotti We present a study of a class of Earth-Moon transfer trajectories, called low-energy orbits, that only require small velocity impulses to inject a probe in...
Title: EK Eridani: the tip of the iceberg of giants which have evolved from magnetic Ap stars Authors: M. Auričre (1), R. Konstantinova-Antova (2), P. Petit (1), C. Charbonnel (3,1), B. Dintrans (1), F. Ligničres (1), T. Roudier (1), E. Alecian (4), J.F. Donati (1), J.D. Landstreet (5), G.A. Wade (4...
Title: The Araucaria Project. Accurate determination of the dynamical mass of the classical Cepheid in the eclipsing system OGLE-LMC-CEP-1812 Authors: G. Pietrzynski, I. Thompson, D. Graczyk., W. Gieren, B. Pilecki, A. Udalski, I. Soszynski, G. Bono, P. Konorski, N. Nardetto, J. Storm We have...
Benjamin Apthorp Gould (September 27, 1824 - November 26, 1896) was a pioneering American astronomer. He is notable for creating the Astronomical Journal, discovering the Gould Belt, and for founding of the Argentine National Observatory and the Argentine National Weather Service. Read more
NASA To Host News Conference On Asteroid Search Findings NASA will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. EDT on Thurs., Sept. 29, to reveal near-Earth asteroid findings and implications for future research. The briefing will take place in the NASA Headquarters James E. Webb Auditorium, located at 300 E...