Artist Concept of New Horizons At Jupiter (Image: SwRI & JHU APL)
Happy 2010 everyone! This week’s report is the first for a year in which Sir Arthur C. Clarke wrote about a return mission to a Jovian orbit. No human missions to Jupiter on the books for the year but we will try and keep you up to date on space related activities.
The one launch scheduled for last week, the launch of the DirecTV 12 satellite on a Proton rocket, took place on schedule and without incident. No launches scheduled for this week so lets take a look at what else is going on in space this week.
Interesting Hubble Observations
In many ways, all of the Hubble observations are interesting, but here is a list of some of the standouts in the coming week. A more complete list can be found at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) This Week On HST Website.
The Parallax of the Planet Host Star XO-3
Infrared Survey of Star Formation Across Cosmic Time
GHOSTS: Stellar Outskirts of Massive Spiral Galaxies
This is a small list of the overall observations. You may also see some of these observations popping up in other weeks as many observation programs consist of several observations over time.
Elsewhere In The Solar System
Big news for Solar System travel this week! As reported by Wired Science writer Alexis Madrigal, the New Horizons mission has made it halfway to Pluto and in record time. New Horizons is floating through space at a scorching 31,000 miles per hour and is currently between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus.
Have a great week everyone!
