Recent News in...

Astrophysics

Observations from HST and the Kepler space telescope have provided evidence for the first moon discovered orbiting a planet outside of our solar system. The discovery was announced on 03 October 2018. The moon may be the size of Neptune, orbiting a planet several times the mass of Jupiter with the designation Kepler-1625b. More...

Heliophysics

The Voyager 2 became the second spacecraft (the first was Voyager 1) to escape the heliosphere and enter insterstellar space. More...

The Parker Solar Probe made its first perihelion pass on 05 November 2018, coming within 25 million km of the Sun. The probe will orbit the Sun over the course of the next seven years, ultimately coming closer than 7 million km from the Sun's surface.

Lunar and Planetary Science

The CNSA (Chinese National Space Administration) Chang'e 5 lunar sample return mission successfully entered lunar orbit on 28 November at 13:15 UT after a 17 minute thruster firing. It launched on 23 November at approximately 20:30:12 UT (3:30:12 p.m. EST ; 4:30:12 a.m. 24 November Beijing Time).

The sample return capsule from the JAXA (Japanese Space Agency) Hayabusa2 mission, carrying material from the asteroid Ryugu, will reenter the atmosphere and land in the Woomera Test Range in Australia on 5/6 December. Landing will be between 3:30 and 4:30 a.m. December 6 Australian Central Daylight time (17:00-18:00 UT Dec. 5 ; noon - 1 p.m Dec. 5 EST). More precise estimates are forthcoming.

The OSIRIS-REx mission performed its touch-and-go (TAG) maneuver to retrieve a sample from the asteroid Bennu on October 20. The 4 1/2 hour operation culminated with OSIRIS-REx descending to the Nightingale region and using its sampling arm to conduct the TAG operation at roughly 22:08 UT Earth Received Time (6:08 p.m. EDT). Images of the sampler head indicate a good sample was obtained, and the sample has now been stowed in the sample return capsule. For more, see the NASA Press Release.