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What's New in Lunar & Planetary Science

Data returned by the Voyager 1 spacecraft indicate it passed into a zone of the heliosphere known as the depletion region, an area which shows some of the characteristics of interstellar space but is still dominated by the Sun's magnetic field. More information is available in the NASA Press Release.

Asteroid 1998 QE2 flew within 5.8 million km of Earth, making its closest approach at 20:59 UT (4:59 EDT) on 31 May. The asteroid is approximately 2.7 km across, and a small moon, roughly 600 meters across, has been discovered in orbit about 1998 QE2. More.....

Results from the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) on the Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity) mission during its cruise show that radiation levels for human explorers to Mars could be above acceptable limits with current shielding and propulsion systems. For more, see the May 30 NASA Press Release.

This Day in Planetary and Lunar Exploration History

July 01

1847: Asteroid 6 Hebe discovered by K. L. Hencke.
1999: Giotto flies by Earth at distance of 219,000 km.
2004: Cassini reaches Saturn, flies by 20000 km above the cloud tops, and goes into orbit.