#kuiperkatastronomy

[kuiperkat]

Happy #Perihelion Day! We made our closest approach to the sun at approximately 9:17am, EST! Of course, on a rare 50° day in January, I was out enjoying it! (at New York, New York)

[kuiperkat]

At the behest of Carl Sagan, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 carry a 152 by 229 mm (6.0 by 9.0 in) gold-anodized aluminum plaque in case either spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life-forms from another planetary system. The plaques feature the nude figures of a human male and female along with several symbols that are designed to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft. The plaque is attached to the antenna support struts to provide some shielding from interstellar dust. #SpaceTechTuesday #Pioneer10 #solarsystem #spaceprobe #spaceexploration #technology #kuiperkatastronomy #engineering #science #CarlSagan #NASA (at New York, New York)

[kuiperkat]

Pioneer 10 (originally designated Pioneer F) is an American space probe, that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Thereafter, Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to achieve escape velocity from the Solar System. Pioneer 10 was assembled around a hexagonal satellite bus with a 2.74 meters (9 ft 0 in) diameter parabolic dish high-gain antenna, and the spacecraft was spin stabilized around the axis of the antenna. Its power was supplied by four radioisotope thermoelectric generators that provided a combined 155 watts at launch. This project was conducted by the NASA Ames Research Center in California, and the probe was manufactured by the now defunct TRW Inc. It was launched on March 2, 1972, by an Atlas-Centaur expendable vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Between July 15, 1972, and February 15, 1973, it became the first spacecraft to traverse the asteroid belt. Photography of Jupiter began November 6, 1973, at a range of 25,000,000 kilometers (16,000,000 mi), and a total of about 500 images were transmitted. The closest approach to the planet was on December 4, 1973, at a range of 132,252 kilometers (82,178 mi). During the mission, the on-board instruments were used to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter, the solar wind, cosmic rays, and eventually the far reaches of the Solar System and heliosphere. The last successful reception of telemetry was received from Pioneer 10 on April 27, 2002; subsequent signals were barely strong enough to detect, and provided no usable data. The final, very weak signal from Pioneer 10 was received on January 23, 2003 when it was 12 billion kilometers (80 AU) from Earth. #SpaceTechTuesday #Pioneer10 #solarsystem #spaceprobe #spaceexploration #technology #kuiperkatastronomy #engineering #science #NASA (at New York, New York)

[kuiperkat]

Voyager 2 is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977 to study the outer planets. Part of the Voyager program, it was launched 16 days before its twin, Voyager 1, on a trajectory that took longer to reach Jupiter and Saturn but enabled further encounters with Uranus and Neptune. It is the only spacecraft to have visited either of the ice giants. With its primary mission ended on October 2, 1989, Voyager 2 is now in its extended mission to study the outer reaches of the Solar System and has been operating for 39 years, 3 months and 14 days. It remains in contact through the Deep Space Network. Upon reaching interstellar space, Voyager 2 is expected to provide the first direct measurements of the density and temperature of the interstellar plasma. The probe was moving at a velocity of 15.4 km/s (55,000 km/h) as of December 2014 and is traveling through the heliosheath. At a distance of 112.5 AU (1.68×1010 km) from the Sun as of October 2016, Voyager 2 is one of the most distant human-made objects, along with Voyager 1, New Horizons, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11. Voyager 2 has a set course for Sirius – the brightest star in the sky. Traveling 40,000mph it will take 296,000 years to reach Sirius. -- Source: Wikipedia/Image: SpaceProb.es #SpaceTechTuesday #Voyager2 #spaceprobe #spaceexploration #technology #kuiperkatastronomy #engineering #science #NASA #JPL

[kuiperkat]

Good morning, #Jupiter! #KuiperKatAstronomy #Corona #Queens #NYC #planetgazing #astrocelltography (at New York Hall of Science)

[kuiperkat]

Evening stroll with #Venus and #Mars (and an airplane too!). #KuiperKatAstronomy #Corona #Queens #NYC #astrocelltography #eveningsky (at Corona, New York)

[kuiperkat]

Thanks again, @stamfordmuseum for having me! #KuiperKatAstronomy #astronomy #stars #science #WomenInSTEM #lectureseries (at Stamford Observatory)

[kuiperkat]

Thank you so much for having me, @stamfordmuseum! Hope to see you again in the spring! #KuiperKatAstronomy #astronomy #stars #science #WomenInSTEM #successface (at Stamford Museum & Nature Center)