On 26 August, three weeks after it was launched, the Juno spacecraft turned around and took a photo of home. The maneuver was done to test the widefield camera, as part of a general testing procedure to check that all instruments are working properly. At the time the photograph was taken, Juno was almost 10 million kilometers from home and traveling at a speed of 125 thousand kilometers per hour.
Continue reading →Here in South Africa, we will be celebrating Spring Day tomorrow. The seasons are definitely changing – the black firebreaks are turning green as the grass grows in, the daily temperatures have climbed dramatically compared even to last week, and deciduous trees are sprouting new growth. Soon the rainy season will begin (although if you live in Cape Town then all bets are off) and a new cycle of life and growth begins. But we are astronomers! We are not … Continue reading →
WISE 1828+2650, the coldest brown dwarf known so far, is denoted by a green dot in very center of this infrared image. Credit: NASA/JPL When we think of a star, we usually imagine a nuclear-powered furnace of hot plasma, flowing and churning violently under the dual influences of convection and twisted magnetic field lines. But many stars are so small and dim that they don’t burn at all – they are not massive enough to start nuclear fusion in their … Continue reading →
It’s become the classic astronomy-themed internet hoax: “On 27 August of whichever year you’re reading this, Mars will be closer to Earth than at any time in the last bajillion years and it will look as big as the Moon!”.
Continue reading →NASA’s Juno mission lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech A few weeks ago, an Atlas V rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral marking the beginning of an exciting new robotic space mission. The Juno spacecraft, powered by the largest solar panels ever equipped on a deep space probe, will spend the next five years traveling to the planet Jupiter where it will study the gas giant from all angles. Juno is named for … Continue reading →
