The hexagon shaped hurricane that occupies the entire north pole of Saturn has fascinated astronomers since it was discovered during the Voyager missions in the early ’80s. About a year ago, the Cassini spacecraft passed above it and, thanks to a favorable sunlight, it was able to take high resolution pictures of this peculiar weather phenomenon. Now NASA has released these photos during a Google+ hangout that had purpose to present them.
The Chinese rover Yutu, which means jade rabbit, was just launched on a Long March 3B carrier rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center starting the Chang’e 3 mission, which in addition to the rover includes a lander. After about half an hour, lander and rover, after successfully separating from the rocket’s third stage, took the path to the Moon.
NASA has confirmed that the Mars Rover Curiosity has resumed its normal operations on Saturday, November 23, 2013, after a few days its work had been suspended following the detection of an electrical abnormality. The rover was never in real dangers but as a precaution it was decided to interrupt the scientific research it’s pursuing in order to proceed to a diagnosis of the problem without any worries.
The three identical satellites that form the Swarm constellation were launched from the Russian Plesetsk cosmodrome using a Rokot rocket. Their purpose is to study the Earth’s magnetic field. The satellites have been successfully put into orbit and after about one hour and a half communications have been established with all the three of them.
