Day: April 1, 2015

Hover campaign promises bird’s-eye view of Mercury’s surface

General Articles / By / 1 April, 2015

The MESSENGER spacecraft depicted flying over Mercury’s surface. NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington   The MESSENGER team initiated the “hover” observation campaign, which was designed to gather data from the planet at ultra-low altitudes until the last possible moment. By Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, Maryland | Published: Thursday, …

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NASA satellites catch a “growth spurt” from a newborn protostar

Blog, Slider / By / 1 April, 2015

Infrared images from instruments at Kitt Peak National Observatory (left) and NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope document the outburst of HOPS 383, a young protostar in the Orion star-formation complex. Background: A wide view of the region taken from a Spitzer four-color infrared mosaic. E. Safron et al.; Background: NASA/JPL/T. Megeath (U-Toledo)   The observed outburst …

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Iron rain fell on early Earth, new Z machine data supports

Blog, Slider / By / 1 April, 2015

An artist’s concept shows a celestial body about the size of our moon slamming at great speed into a body the size of Mercury. NASA/JPL-Caltech Instead of core formation occurring by iron sinking down to the growing Earth’s core in large blobs, that iron was vaporized, spread out in a plume over the surface of …

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