News – Astronomy Now

20 June 2021

NASA troubleshoots glitch with Hubble payload computer

17 June 2021 Astronomy Now

Engineers are troubleshooting a problem with the Hubble Space Telescope’s payload computer that has interrupted science observations.

16 Psyche may not be as metallic as previously thought

11 June 2021 Astronomy Now

Lab-based experiments suggest the asteroid 16 Psyche may be more rubble pile than metallic remnant of a dense planetary core.

Jupiter’s moon Ganymede seen up close for first time in 21 years

9 June 2021 Graham Carr

NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew by Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, Monday on the first close-up visit to the icy world since 2000. The first images from the flyby show Ganymede’s cratered, icy surface in “remarkable detail,” NASA said.

Engineers ‘sandblast’ InSight lander to clear dust from solar arrays

7 June 2021 Astronomy Now

Engineers come up with a novel way to clear light-obscuring dust from the InSight Mars lander’s solar panels: sandblasting.

After a 30-year hiatus, NASA is returning to Venus with two new probes

4 June 2021 Astronomy Now

NASA is funding two new missions to Venus, one an orbiting radar mapper and another that will drop a small probe into the cloud-shrouded planet’s churning atmosphere.

Mars helicopter ‘muscles through’ navigation glitch on sixth flight

31 May 2021 Stephen Clark

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter safely landed after wobbling, suffering power spikes, and enduring velocity fluctuations on its sixth flight at Mars.

China’s Zhurong Mars rover sends back first pictures

19 May 2021 Astronomy Now

The first images from China’s Zhurong Mars rover show the spacecraft is in good shape after landing on the red planet.

Voyager 1 sheds new light on interstellar medium

11 May 2021 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Voyager 1 probe, now 43 years outbound from Earth, is still at work, shedding new light on the interstellar medium.

Helium ‘rain’ in Saturn’s interior may influence magnetic field

7 May 2021 Astronomy Now

Data collected by the Cassini spacecraft during its final few orbits of Saturn is shedding new light on the planet’s deep interior.

Proposed Interstellar Probe gains momentum with Johns Hopkins study

28 April 2021 Astronomy Now

Engineers are testing prototype heat shields for a proposed interstellar probe that first would fly close by the Sun for a gravitational slingshot into deep space.