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MRO Spies Tiny, Bright Nucleus During Comet Flyby
universetoday.com ^ | October 20, 2014 | Bob King do not say on

Posted on 10/20/2014 7:46:15 PM PDT by BenLurkin

Not to be outdone by the feisty Opportunity Rover, the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) turned in its homework this evening with a fine image of comet C/2013 Siding Spring taken during closest approach on October 19.

...

To photograph a fast-moving target from orbit, engineers at Lockheed-Martin in Denver precisely pointed and slewed the spacecraft based on comet position calculations by engineers at JPL. To make sure they knew exactly where the comet was, the team photographed the comet 12 days in advance when it was barely bright enough to register above the detector’s noise level. To their surprise, it was not exactly where orbital calculations had predicted it to be. Using the new positions, MRO succeeded in locking onto the comet during the flyby. Without this “double check” its cameras may have missed seeing Siding Spring altogether

(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy
KEYWORDS: comet; comet2013; cometsidingspring; sidingspring

1 posted on 10/20/2014 7:46:15 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin
Hey anybody could that. All cultures are equal you know.😉
2 posted on 10/20/2014 7:53:42 PM PDT by redangus
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To: BenLurkin

What a load of hype over a couple of blurry snapshots.


3 posted on 10/20/2014 9:22:19 PM PDT by Arthur McGowan
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To: Arthur McGowan

Yes the pics are underwhelming. Apparently they are proud of the technical virtuosity they exhibited in getting the pics at all. I guess the thing is going real fast and isn’t all that big.

I know if they’d asked me to do the math they’d have ended up with a picture of the floor or do thing like that.


4 posted on 10/20/2014 11:33:26 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: SunkenCiv

5 posted on 10/21/2014 1:35:39 PM PDT by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: martin_fierro

Quick, castratos! Pass out the white shoes, plastic bags, and rubber bands!


6 posted on 10/25/2014 8:17:21 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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