OrbitalHub

ESA dixit:

“The video shows the motions of two million stars about 1.1–1.5 million years in the future. It displays a map of the full sky as seen from the Sun. The star initially circled is Gliese 710; its trajectory is then indicated with the extending line. Gliese 710 will have a close encounter with our Sun in about 1.3 million years, coming within the Oort Cloud reservoir of comets that resides in the outskirts of our Solar System. The star is predicted to pass within about 2.3 trillion kilometres, the equivalent of about 16 000 Earth–Sun distances. The stars are plotted in galactic coordinates and the plane of the Milky Way stands out as the horizontal band with greater density of stars.”

Video credit: ESA

NASA dixit:

“October 27, 2015. Janus and Tethys demonstrate the main difference between small moons and large ones. It’s all about the moon’s shape. Moons like Tethys (660 miles or 1,062 kilometers across) are large enough that their own gravity is sufficient to overcome the material strength of the substances they are made of (mostly ice in the case of Tethys) and mold them into spherical shapes. But small moons like Janus (111 miles or 179 kilometers across) are not massive enough for their gravity to form them into a sphere. Janus and its like are left as irregularly shaped bodies.

Saturn’s narrow F ring and the outer edge of its A ring slice across the scene. This view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 0.23 degrees below the ring plane. The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 593,000 miles (955,000 kilometers) from Janus. Image scale at Janus is 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) per pixel. Tethys was at a distance of 810,000 miles (1.3 million kilometers) for an image scale of 5 miles (8 kilometers) per pixel.”

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

NASA dixit:

“On August 30, engineers at our Stennis Space Center wrapped up a summer of hot fire testing for flight controllers on RS-25 engines that will help power the new Space Launch System rocket being built to carry astronauts to deep-space destinations, including Mars. The 500-second hot fire of a flight controller or “brain” of the engine marked another step toward the nation’s return to human deep-space exploration missions. Four RS-25 engines, equipped with flight-worthy controllers will help power the first integrated flight of our Space Launch System rocket with our Orion spacecraft, known as Exploration Mission One.”

Video credit: NASA