Tag: extension

The Future of New Horizons: Beyond Pluto

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With the historic fly-by of Pluto last month, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft gave us an up-close look at the former 9th planet, showing that it is a dynamic world with icy plains, tall mountains, and an atmosphere.  But now that New Horizons has passed by Pluto, it has the infinite cosmic horizon in its stead.  So what’s next for the $700 Million spacecraft? Its battery will keep it going for a few more decades, and it will likely pass beyond the edge of the solar system, in the stead of the Voyager crafts.  What else is ahead? The good news is...

Rosetta Approved for Epic Comet Landing!

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The Rosetta orbiter lies in a vast empty space, inhabited only by its orbital companion – a 4 Km wide ball of ice and dust, spitting out gases and other material as it is warmed by the Sun’s rays.  It’s next mission milestone comes on August 13th, 2015, when the duo reaches perihelion, the closest point to the Sun in their orbit.  It will be the first time a spacecraft has the opportunity to study the outgassing and behaviour of a comet as it orbits close to the Sun.  So far the comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko has been slowly increasing in...