An article just published in the journal “Icarus” describes a research that used data collected by the Cassini space probe to determine that Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, has a global underground ocean. That there was an ocean beneath the icy surface of Enceladus was a well-established fact from previous research but it remained to be seen whether the water was liquid all over beneath the surface or only in some warm enough areas.
Saturday, September 12, China launched a satellite announcing it only later. It’s not the first time that something like that happened because the Chinese provide information on their space missions when their government decides it and typically in limited amount. Officially, the launch involved a test communications satellite called TXJSSY-1 of a new type called Communications Engineering Test Satellite. However, various rumors spread out about the real nature of the launch, partly because of growing tensions in the South China Sea.
An article published in the journal “Geophysical Research Letters” describes a research on the implications of multiple asteroid impacts on the Moon some four billion years ago. Using data collected by NASA’s GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) twin space probes, a team of scientists led by MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) discovered a significant porosity in the lunar surface and a network of large seams below it.
A few hours ago, cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Aidyn Aimbetov and Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen came back to Earth on the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft, landed without problems in Kazakhstan. Padalka spent just over five months on the International Space Station, where he arrived on March 28, 2015 as part of Expedition 43. Aimbetov and Mogensen spent only a few days on the Station, where they arrived on September 4, 2015.
NASA has released a new image of the now famous white spots of Ceres, one of the most mysterious geological features found on this dwarf planet. The Dawn space probe is currently mapping its surface from an altitude of 1,470 km (915 miles) and that allowed to take pictures much more detailed than the ones previously available. These new images have a resolution of 140 meters (450 feet) per pixel and are providing new information about the white spots waiting for in-depth analyzes.
