JUICE: Earth? or BUST (14 Apr 2023)

 Jupiter, Planet, Solar System, Spacecraft  No Responses »
Apr 152023
 

The European Space Agency(ESA) launched its JUICE mission to Jupiter on the 14th of April 2023. Its ultimate targets are the icy moons of Jupiter, hence the JUpiter ICy moons Explorer moniker. But its first planetary target is not Jupiter. First off, it is heading for the Earth. In fact, Jupiter will only be its 5th planetary encounter. The space craft will get a velocity boost from Earth in August 2024, Venus in August 2025, another from Earth in September 2026 and the final Earth gravity boost in January 2029. Only then will the JUICE spacecraft have enough energy to make the trek all the way to Jupiter. It will arrive at its final destination in July 2031.

The mission’s purpose is to investigate the possibility of habitable environments on the three Jovian moons that are suspected to have significant amounts of liquid water beneath their surface ice: Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. To that end the mission carries a suite of science instruments contributed by Japan, France, the US(NASA), Germany, Italy, the UK, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

This animation is a set of ten 60 second images taken on the evening of the 14th. I hope to get additional imagery of the JUICE spacecraft on each of the 3 Earth gravity assist passes.

 Posted by at 14:24

JWST heading for L2.

 Solar System, Spacecraft  No Responses »
Dec 262021
 

Launched on Christmas day 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is now heading for its duty location over a million miles from the Earth at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point. This location puts the scope in a heliocentric orbit with the Earth continually between the telescope and the Sun. At the L2 location, the Earth’s gravity pulls a much smaller object into an orbit faster than it normally would have, allowing it to match the Earth’s orbital period.

The JWST is optimized for infra-red imaging. Light from very early in the age of the expanding universe has been so stretched out over the aeons that it is too long to be seen by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). JWST is designed specifically for that frequency of light allowing the scope to see further into the past than the HST.

I used a JPL generated ephemeris to guide my scope last night and was able to catch the JWST on its way. The animation is seventy-five 60 second images. There were some quick moving clouds passing overhead but they weren’t dense enough to obscure the scopes progress.

 Posted by at 13:48

Solar Orbiter flyby

 Spacecraft  No Responses »
Nov 272021
 

Normally, I’d complain about spacecraft streaking through my astrophotos. But not this time. This was entirely planned. This streak was made by the Solar Orbiter.

Solar Orbiter [C:1x60s]

The Solar Orbiter is a ESA/NASA probe currently on its way to study the Sun. It was launched on the 10th of February 2020 from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas V. Eventually, its orbit will bring it as close to the Sun as 0.29 AU (well inside Mercury’s perihelion) and as far away as 0.91 AU. Its orbit will also be adjusted to be inclined 24° to the plane of the solar system allowing the first photographic view of the Sun’s poles. It will take 3.5 years to reach its operational orbit and at that time will take the closest images ever taken of the Sun. It has already done one flyby of Venus and will use 6 additional Venus flybys to lower its perihelion to the final distance. However, in order to get the correct orientation for the next Venus flyby it had to use the Earth to adjust its orbit. That one and only Earth flyby was last night (Friday, the 26th at 2230 CST). It came as close as 285 miles as it flew over northern Africa and the Canary Islands. Mission engineers were prepared to adjust the flyby parameters if it looked like the probe would be threatened by debris from the recent Russian ASAT test. Here on the Florida panhandle we had to wait for the probe to come out of Earth’s shadow in order to see it. This image was taken just after it emerged into sunlight at 2250 CST.

 Posted by at 23:16

2020 SO – Say goodbye to our little friend.

 Asteroid, Spacecraft  No Responses »
Feb 032021
 

As a quick review, 2020 SO is the Centaur upper stage that launched NASA’s Surveyor 2 towards the Moon. It then entered a heliocentric orbit that closely matched the Earth’s. It had flown past the Earth unobserved several times but the September 2020 pass was observed by the PAN-STARRS 1 system in Hawaii and it was quickly realized that it would be captured by the Earth. In December, NASA verified that the object was not an asteroid but the long lost spacecraft.

It has been in Earth orbit since November 2020 when the Moon’s gravity slowed 2020 SO’s speed and Earth loosely captured it. Last night (2 Feb) the spacecraft made a final close pass by the Earth at about half the distance to the Moon. This time the Moon’s gravity added energy to the object and it will break free of Earth’s gravity on the 8th of March.

SO 2020’s Earth orbit.
Image via Phoenix7777/ Wikimedia Commons.

This animation is 120 30-second exposures. I attempted to calibrate the individual exposures but, as mentioned above, the object was very close to the Moon and there was a huge gradient in the images due to scattered light. So the raw images made a better video.

 Posted by at 13:20

“Asteroid” 2020 SO

 Asteroid, Spacecraft  2 Responses »
Nov 232020
 

UPDATE: During yesterday’s (01 December) close pass scientists used NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (NIRTF) on top of Mauna Kea to compare 2020 SO’s IR signature with that of a Centaur upper stage currently in Earth orbit. They matched, leading the scientists to state that 2020 SO is indeed the Centaur upper stage that sent Surveyor 2 towards the Moon in 1966.

I was finally able to image MPC object 2020 SO last night. The object was discovered on the 17th of September by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope and given the designation 2020 SO. This animation is a series of 300 second images and you can see by the amount the object streaked, how fast it is moving. That apparent movement is due to its proximity. The object is currently trapped by Earth’s gravity and will remain in orbit for several months until the Earth and Moon’s gravity combine to send it back into its own heliocentric orbit.

What is unique about 2020 SO is its orbit and speed prior to its encounter with Earth is very unusual for an asteroid. It is not unusual for a manmade object launched from Earth. 2020 SO is suspected to be the Centaur upper stage that sent the 1966 Surveyor 2 probe towards its rendezvous with the Moon. The probe impacted the Moon but the Centaur continued, as expected, into an solar orbit. The Centaur was first successfully flown in 1963 and has been upgraded several times.

Atlas V version of the Centaur upper stage. Credit: NASA (2005)

I am guessing here but I think the late, great Arecibo radio telescope would have been tasked with observing the object during its close December pass. Spectroscopic studies will be carried out with the intent on identifying the object as the Centaur based on its titanium-oxide white paint.

 Posted by at 15:58
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