On October 10, 2013, Cassini captured a rare view of Saturn separated from it’s rings, a view that can never be seen from Earth. The image is a three-by-four mosaic of red, green, and blue filter images take from high above the equatorial plane. Click on the image to view a higher resolution version.
An overview of the Cassini spacecraft and it’s mission is outlined on the Cassini JPL NASA website.
Have you ever wondered what Pluto could have possibly done to lose it’s position as the ninth planet from the Sun? Well, it’s all about gaining a better understanding of our solar system.
Pluto, once dubbed Planet X, was originally discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh and was then later officially classified as the ninth planet from the Sun. As time went on Pluto continued to be considered to be the largest object past Neptune, which justified it’s planetary title, but as technology improved we began to find more and more objects in the outer solar system.
These objects in the outer solar system all orbit the Sun and are collectively known as the Kuiper Belt, which was officially discovered in 1992. The objects in the Kuiper Belt are numerous and made up of mostly of rock, metal, and ice. With more and more objects being discovered, it was likely that we would soon find a Kuiper Belt object that was larger than Pluto, which was eventually found in 2005. The object found was discovered by Mike Brown and his team and was later named Eris, which is 2,600 km across compared to Pluto’s 2,400 km. However, this information may be inaccurate as recent measurements have shown Eris to be much smaller than initially stated, in some cases it may actually be smaller than Pluto.
With all of these new discoveries it was becoming harder and harder to justify Pluto being our ninth planet. What really helped put an end to Pluto’s planet-hood was when we compared Pluto to the IAU’s (International Astronomical Union) definition of a planet which states that in order for an object to be considered a planet, it must meet the following requirements:
Pluto runs into a big problem with the third requirement as the would-be planet is less than 1% of the mass of any other object in it’s orbit. This officially makes Pluto a Dwarf Planet and thus no longer the ninth planet in our solar system. Regardless of Pluto’s new title, we will always have a place in our hearts for the tiny cold rock. In fact, we will be visiting Pluto in 2015 as NASA’s Horizons spacecraft will be reaching the Dwarf Planet after a 3 billion mile, 10 year journey to explore Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.
Also, it’s important to note that many disagree with these recent changes to Pluto’s classification and are advocating the overturning of the IAU definition of a planet that caused this debate and downgrade of Pluto. You can read more information about this effort on LaurelsPlutoBlog.
The mission is clear, NASA wants to capture and redirect an asteroid that’s about 7-10 meters in diameter, weighs around 500 tons and is reasonably close to Earth. After the asteroid is captured it will be placed in an orbit around our Moon. The next step will be to send up a manned spacecraft to intercept the now lunar orbiting asteroid/spacecraft and hitch onto it. Astronauts will then go outside the spacecraft and take samples of the asteroid to bring back to Earth.
This type of mission obviously requires an incredible amount of preparation and initial planning. One of the first steps will be improving asteroid detection here on Earth, then finding a Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) that we can capture. An asteroid suitable for capture would need to be relatively stable and slow moving, it can’t be spinning wildly end-over-end tumbling through space or it would be to difficult to grab. Part of the capture process involves the capturing spacecraft matching the rotation of the asteroid in order to be able to catch it, this process is demonstrated in the animated video above. Next, we would need to focus on the asteroids composition, after all, if we are going to make a mission out of it we mine as well pick the most interesting asteroid, perhaps one with valuable resources.
This mission will also be the first step that mankind has taken toward intercepting an asteroid, which is significant not only for researching the asteroid itself but also in learning ways to in which to protect our planet from future asteroid impacts, especially ones that could cause widespread destruction. We currently have no “real” plans for protecting our only home and although it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon, we should still be preparing and expanding our knowledge in this area. Asteroid mining techniques could also prove to be very useful on long missions into the far reaches of our solar system. We could possibly use asteroids as a source of fuel or for harvesting elements needed to sustain life or to build structures.
The goal is to make all of this happen by 2025. You can read more about the Asteroid Initiative on NASA’s official page.