Although the weather forecast is not too good, observers in Scotland and northern England could see asteroid (12655) 5041 T-3 occult a 5.7-magnitude star in western Cetus close to 7:48pm tonight.
Europe’s Philae spacecraft is set to go for landing on a comet, a never-before-tried maneuver that includes a perilous seven-hour descent and an uncontrolled touchdown.
A potential problem with a rocket thruster designed to keep the Philae lander from bouncing off comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after touchdown Wednesday will make the probe’s daring descent even more challenging, officials said.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has picked up the faint, ghostly glow of stars ejected from ancient galaxies that were gravitationally ripped apart several billion years ago.
NASA’S Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has spied a new crater on the lunar surface; one made from the impact of NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission.
As it entered the Saturn system on June 11, 2004, Cassini passed Phoebe, the largest of Saturn’s outer or “irregular” moons, at an altitude of just 2,068 kilometres.