NASA's New Horizon spacecraft flew past Ultima Thule

The New Horizon Spacecraft has flown past Ultima Thule, a trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt. This marks a new beginning in the era of exploration from the enigmatic Kuiper Belt region. Discoveries about Ultima Thule The New Horizon ..

Month: Current Affairs - January, 2019

InSight lander places its first instrument (SEIS) on Mars

InSight, NASA’s new Mars lander, has set up its first instrument on planet Mars. The instrument placed by InSight, which landed on Mars on 26th November, is a quake monitor (seismometer) that will listen for quakes and wobbles. It is ..

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2018

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft find evidence of water on asteroid Bennu

NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft has found water locked inside asteroid Bennu. Bennu is too small to have ever hosted liquid water, but this finding does indicate that liquid water was present at some time ..

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2018

NASA’s spacecraft OSIRIS-REx arrives at its targeted asteroid Bennu after 2-year journey

NASA’s first-ever OSIRIS-REx mission designed to visit asteroid and return sample of its dust back to Earth reached its destination, Bennu, two years after its launch. It will use its suite of five science instruments to study asteroid for the ..

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2018

Over 100 new exoplanets discovered using NASA’s Kepler Space telescope

Scientists have discovered cache over 100 new exoplanets using data from NASA’s Kepler Space telescope (KST) as well as ground-based observatories. Exoplanet also called as extrasolar planet, is planet that orbits star other than Sun. The discovery of 100 new ..

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2018

NASA retires Kepler space telescope

NASA has retired Kepler space telescope after it ran out of fuel needed for further science operations. This brings end of nine-and-a-half year mission of Kepler space telescope in which it had discovered over 2,600 intriguing exoplanets from outside our ..

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2018

European Space Agency and JAXA launches an unmanned Bepi Colombo spacecraft to Mercury

The European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have successfully launched an unmanned Bepi Colombo spacecraft into orbit from an Ariane 5 rocket for a joint mission to Mercury, the planet closest to the sun. The spacecraft ..

Parker Solar Probe completes first Venus flyby: NASA

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has successfully completed flyby of Venus at distance of about 2,415 kilometres during its first gravity assist from planet. These gravity assists will help spacecraft tighten its orbit closer to Sun over course of the mission. ..

Month: Current Affairs - October, 2018

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft catches its first glimpse of its target Bennu asteroid

NASA’s asteroid sampling spacecraft OSIRIS-REx has captured first images of its target asteroid Bennu and began its final approach towards it after almost two-year journey. OSIRIS-Rex stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer. The first glimpses of targeted ..

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2018

NASA launches Parker Solar Probe mission to touch Sun

On August 12, the US space agency NASA has successfully launched the Parker Solar Probe mission to send a satellite closer to the Sun than any before. The rocket carrying the Parker Solar Probe lifted off from Space Launch Complex ..