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NASA in the News

31 May 2013
Astronomy

At www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-182&cid=release_2013-182 … asteroid 1998 QE2 passed 15 lunar distances from the Earth in the last few days. It was 1.7 miles in diameter and has a rotation period of less than 4 hours. It was accompanied by a satellite object 2000 feet in diameter.

At www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-181&cid=release_2013-181 … in a report on the rocks and debris found on Mars by Curiosity Rover it seems they might represent an ancient stream bed, it has been decided. Pebbles and gravels embedded in conglomerate rock representingh a stream ankle to hip deep. See also http://phys.org/print289128186.html … where there are some nice images of the pebbles and gravels contained within a conglomerate formation (a sediment that has been hardened into rock).

At www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-184&cid=release_2013-184 … NASAs GRAIL mission may have solved the mystery of the Moon's surface gravity anomalies it is alleged. These are uneven. GRASIL studied the internal structures and composition of the Moon for some months and the data was polished up with some neat modelling on a computer screen and the result is they are able to purport several large dense regions, or mascons, characterised by a strong gravitational pull. Mascons lurk beneath the surface, it is said, and cannot be seen by optical cameras. The study was in the journal Science (May 30th, 2013). The mascons were generated by impact events – in the remote past (of course).

At http://phys.org/print289107953.html … NASAs Cassini mission spacecraft, still out there orbiting the Saturn system, has found evidence Dione was active geologically in the recent past. Dione has a smooth like surface, a rock hard ice crust that is said to resemble a snooker ball. However, it has now been found out – lurking behind that bland exterior is a subsurface ocean. Other Moons, such as Emceladus and Titan, and Jupiter's Moon Europa, are also known to have subsurface oceans, and they are anything but inactive.

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