This Week in History: July 26-August 1
JULY 28, 2014: The Pan-STARRS program in Hawaii discovers the centaur designated as 2014 OG392; it has an orbital period of 42.8 years and will pass perihelion in November 2021 at a heliocentric distance of 10.0 AU. An observational analysis published earlier this year indicates sustained cometary activity, however, this report was published too late …
Comet of the Week: NEOWISE C/2020 F3
Perihelion: 2020 July 3.68, q = 0.295 AU For the second time during the course of “Ice and Stone 2020” I have found it appropriate to swap out my originally intended “Comet of the Week” for a comet currently appearing in our skies. For the past three weeks, Comet NEOWISE has been putting on a …
Special Topic: Terrestrial Impact Craters
The “Special Topics” presentation six weeks ago on “Lunar and Planetary Impacts” discussed how the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei noticed craters on the moon the first time he turned his recently-made primitive telescope towards that object. Indeed, almost any kind of optical aid, be this in the form of binoculars or a small telescope, will …
All About Mars
The planet Mars is probably the most studied planet, other than Earth, in our solar system. Like Earth, Mars is a terrestrial planet, as opposed to a gas planet like Jupiter for example. Mars is often referred to as the Red Planet, due to the brownish-red color of its surface caused by iron oxide in …
Gazing upon Mars
Throughout our exclusive Mars 2020 Exploration Mission Guide, we included a number of images of Mars captured by the plethora of orbiters, landers and rovers that the nations of Earth have sent to study the planet. Here we are including a large selection of those images. Many of the images are false-color or otherwise enhanced …
Mars 2020 Mission Overview
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is NASA’s next mission to Mars as well as being the most complex and scientifically advanced robotic mission sent to the Red Planet. The $2.4 Billion Mars Perseverance rover is a flagship mission dedicated to the search for signs of life beyond Earth, as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, …