Planetary Society Blog for Saturday 31 January 2015

Planetary Society Blog

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Camera now measuring even fainter Near-Earth Objects

Posted: 30 Jan 2015 05:03 PM PST
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/bruce...r-objects.html

Camera purchased with the support of a 2009 Shoemaker NEO Grant is now on a
new telescope providing follow-up measurements for even fainter near-Earth
objects.

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Talking to Pluto is hard! Why it takes so long to get data back from New
Horizons

Posted: 30 Jan 2015 07:53 AM PST
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily...o-is-hard.html

As I write this post, New Horizons is nearing the end of a weeklong optical
navigation campaign. The last optical navigation images in the weeklong
series will be taken tomorrow, but it will likely take two weeks or more
for all the data to get to Earth. Two weeks! Why does it take so long?

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Dawn Journal: Closing in on Ceres

Posted: 30 Jan 2015 06:31 AM PST
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest...-on-ceres.html

Dawn's chief engineer Marc Rayman gives an update on the mission as it gets
ever closer to its next target: The dwarf planet Ceres.