8 are out there

8 are out there. Here's the roundup.

Besides Cassini, eight missions have passed the asteroid belt – and several are still broadcasting from the furthest solar system and beyond.

Pioneer 10
Launched: 3 March 1972

Pioneer 10 was the first probe to cross the asteroid belt, traversing it between July 1972 and February 1973. Arriving at Jupiter in December 1973, it passed some 132,000 kilometres from its cloud tops, and obtained fuzzy images of the four large “Galilean” moons, Ganymede, Europa, Callisto and Io. Now out of contact, this true space pioneer was last spotted coasting towards the constellation Taurus and the red star Aldebaran, which it should reach some 2 million years from now.

Current status: Last contact 23 January 2003, now estimated to be 16 billion kilometres from Earth

Pioneer 11
Launched: 6 April 1973

Visiting Jupiter a year after Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11 continued to Saturn, testing the dangers of navigating the planet’s rings and flying within 21,000 kilometres of its surface on 1 September 1979. It almost collided with a small Saturnian moon and photographed Titan, the largest moon. An anomalous slowing of both the Pioneer probes brought long-lasting speculation that the established laws of gravity didn’t work in space. The “Pioneer anomaly” is now thought to be down to heat loss from the probes’ thermoelectric generators.

Current status: Last contact 30 September 1995, now estimated to be 14 billion kilometres from Earth, heading towards the constellation Scutum

Voyager 2
Launched: 20 August 1977

In the 1960s, space scientists realised that a happy configuration of the outer solar system would allow one probe to visit four planets. Voyager 2 remains the only probe to have visited the two furthermost ice giants: Uranus in January 1986 and Neptune in August 1989. Its primary radio receiver failed in 1978, but 40 years on it is still sending back data as it crosses the edge of the solar system, called the heliosheath, and enters interstellar space.

Current status: 17 billion kilometres from Earth, heading towards the constellation Telescopium

Voyager 1
Launched: 5 September 1977

Voyager 1 launched after Voyager 2, but took a faster trajectory to Jupiter and Saturn, arriving at both first. Its route was optimised to bring it within 6500 kilometres of Titan, confirming Pioneer 11’s observation that the moon possessed a thick atmosphere. On 14 February 1990, Voyager 1 turned its camera to take the first family portrait of Earth and other solar system planets. Still transmitting from interstellar space, Voyager 1 is now the furthest human-made object from Earth. Both Voyager probes carry “golden records” of sounds and images of Earth for any alien intercepter.

Current status: 21 billion kilometres from Earth, heading towards the constellation Ophiuchus

Galileo
Launched: 18 October 1989

Galileo was the first mission to spend years orbiting a planetary system, rather than simply passing through on its way elsewhere. On its six-year journey to Jupiter, it turned its instruments on Earth, picking up signs of life such as the absorption of red light by chlorophyll. Inserted into Jupiter orbit on 7 December 1995, Galileo’s activities included sending a probe into the giant planet’s atmosphere . It also collected data supporting the theory that Jupiter’s moon Europa has a subsurface liquid ocean.

Current status: Mission terminated with a plunge into Jupiter’s atmosphere on 21 September 2003

Ulysses
Launched: 6 October 1990

The prime objective of the Ulysses probe was to survey the sun, but it took a long gravitational slingshot around Jupiter, thus entering an orbit over the top of the solar system that enabled it to monitor the sun’s north and south poles.

Current status: Decommissioned 30 June 2009

Cassini-Huygens
Launched: 15 October 1997

Spending 13 years cruising Saturn’s moons, Cassini fulfilled the goal of sending a probe to the moon Titan.

Current status: Mission due to terminate in Saturn’s atmosphere, 15 September 2017

New Horizons
Launched: 19 January 2006

It is the fastest spacecraft ever launched, but by the time New Horizons reached Pluto on 14 July 2015, its destination had changed: Pluto had been controversially downgraded by the International Astronomical Union from “planet” to “dwarf planet” in August 2006. New Horizons took intriguing photos of this rocky world’s hazy atmosphere and surprisingly varied, craggy surface, as well as its moons. It is now on its way for a rendezvous with the snappily titled space rock (486958) 2014 MU69 in the Kuiper belt, where it is expected to arrive on 1 January 2019.

Click here to get the New Scientist poster.

Obesity 101

We all know how crappy our food is thanks to companies like Nestle, McDonalds and Burger King, among significant others, but us rubes tend not to know the catastrophic impact to developing countries when these same entities peddle their questionable wares in relentless pursuit of profit no matter what the cost may be.

A New York Times examination of corporate records, epidemiological studies and government reports — as well as interviews with scores of nutritionists and health experts around the world — reveals a sea change in the way food is produced, distributed and advertised across much of the globe. The shift, many public health experts say, is contributing to a new epidemic of diabetes and heart disease, chronic illnesses that are fed by soaring rates of obesity in places that struggled with hunger and malnutrition just a generation ago.

The new reality is captured by a single, stark fact: Across the world, more people are now obese than underweight. At the same time, scientists say, the growing availability of high-calorie, nutrient-poor foods is generating a new type of malnutrition, one in which a growing number of people are both overweight and undernourished.

It's all about the money. - Robert E.

Simply Stunning

Snarky but effective :)

Love my Galaxy S8 but Google's upcoming new phone sounds interesting without question. :)

Toons et al ...

Et Tu Brutus?

Pennywise ... Pound Foolish.

It's not me babe.

It's a joke, right?

Mission's end

15 September 2017
The international Cassini mission has concluded its remarkable exploration of the Saturnian system in spectacular style, by plunging into the gas planet’s atmosphere.

Confirmation of the end of mission arrived at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at 11:55 GMT/13:55 CEST with the loss of the spacecraft’s signal having occurred 83 minutes earlier at Saturn, some 1.4 billion km from Earth.

With the rocket propellant for manoeuvering the spacecraft fully expended as planned touring Saturn and its moons for the last 13 years, the mission concluded with the intentional plunge into the gas planet. This ensures that Saturn’s icy moons, in particular ocean-bearing Enceladus, do not risk being contaminated by microbes that might have remained on board the spacecraft from Earth, and are left pristine for future exploration.

Ocean Moon Enceladus Setting Behind Saturn | NASA Cassini Mission 

The Last Goodbye

We will miss you big time.

Cassini is set to make groundbreaking scientific observations of Saturn, using eight of its 12 science instruments. All of the mission's magnetosphere and plasma science instruments, plus the spacecraft’s radio science system, and its infrared and ultraviolet spectrometers will collect data during the final plunge.

Chief among the observations being made as Cassini dives into Saturn are those of the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS). The instrument will directly sample the composition and structure of the atmosphere, which cannot be done from orbit. The spacecraft will be oriented so that INMS is pointed in the direction of motion, to allow it the best possible access to oncoming atmospheric gases.

Faithful to the end. 

RIP

Amazing facts without question ... Click here for the Cassini toolkit.

Cassini yet again ...

Nature never disappoints, especially through the eyes of Cassini.

Over a period of 13 years, Cassini has captured about 450,000 spectacular images within the Saturn system, providing new views of the “lord of the rings” and a plethora of iconic images. To honor the art and science of Cassini, this book was developed collaboratively by a team from NASA’s Planetary Science Division (PSD), NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI). While these images represent the tip of the iceberg—each telling a story about Saturn and its mysterious moons—our hope is that the mission will inspire future artists and explorers. The sheer beauty of these images is surpassed only by the science and discoveries they represent.

Awestruck sums it up without question.

Exceeding all expectations :)

Nothing more needs to be said. 

Science done right, without question

Just another gift from Cassini. This time, an in and out move on Saturn's rings.

This movie sequence of images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft offers a unique perspective on Saturn's ring system. Cassini captured the images from within the gap between the planet and its rings, looking outward as the spacecraft made one of its final dives through the gap as part of the mission's Grand Finale.

Using its wide-angle camera, Cassini took the 21 images in the sequence over a span of about four minutes during its dive through the gap on Aug. 20, 2017. The images have an original size of 512 x 512 pixels; the smaller image size allowed for more images to be taken over the short span of time.

This sequence shows how she did it.

Science done right without question.