- Industry: Astronomy
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Planetary Science Research Discoveries (PSRD) is an educational site sharing the latest research by NASA-sponsored scientists on meteorites, asteroids, planets, moons, and other materials in our Solar System. The website is supported by the Cosmochemistry Program of NASA's Science Mission ...
A global mapping mission to the Moon launched in 1994 by the U. S. Department of Defense, with science support from NASA.
Industry:Astronomy
The geologic history of Earth's Moon has been divided into five broad time periods, or systems. From oldest to youngest, these are pre-Nectarian, Nectarian, Imbrian, Eratosthenian, and Copernican. These systems are defined by the number of impact craters on the ground surface (more craters = older surface) correlated to the absolute ages determined for the lunar rock samples returned to Earth by the U. S. Apollo missions and unpiloted Soviet Luna missions. The Copernican system extends from 1. 1 billion years ago to the present day.
Industry:Astronomy
The largest of the known asteroids; a dwarf planet. Also called 1 Ceres because it was the first asteroid to be discovered (by Piazzi in 1801).
Industry:Astronomy
One of three types of meteorites from Mars (the SNC meteorites). Chassignites are dunites, a rock composed almost entirely of the mineral olivine. The signature stone, Chassigny, fell in France in 1815.
Industry:Astronomy
An explanation for the shift in an asteroid's orbit around the Sun due to a thermal thrust caused by the body's uneven heating by sunlight. The illuminated side of an asteroid absorbs the sunlight and heats up. After a short delay produced by thermal inertia, the asteroid re-radiates the thermal energy and this causes a recoil spin that pushes the asteroid away from its current orbital path. In 2003, scientists used radar data from the Arecibo Observatory of Asteroid 6489 "Golevka" to obtain the first-ever measurements of the Yarkovsky Effect. (Named for the Russian engineer who came up with the idea around the year 1900. )
Industry:Astronomy
A pattern found in iron meteorites due to a change in crystal structure of iron-nickel metal grains during cooling. This structural change produces a pattern of crystallographically oriented kamacite (low-nickel content, usually up to 7. 5 wt% nickel) plates in taenite (high-nickel content, ~20 to 50 wt% nickel).
Industry:Astronomy
U. S. Mission to Mars, composed of two spacecraft, launched in 1975. Viking 1 and Viking 2 both consisted of an orbiter and a lander. Primary mission objectives were to obtain high resolution images of the Martian surface, characterize the structure and composition of the atmosphere and surface, and search for evidence of life. Viking Mission website from the National Space Science Data Center.
Industry:Astronomy
The fourth in NASA's Discovery program of low-cost spacecraft with highly focused science goals, Stardust was comprised of a spacecraft and capsule that completed a seven-year, 3-billion-mile journey to a comet in 2006. The capsule returned to Earth, carrying an aerogel collector that captured particles from comet Wild 2 as well as interplanetary dust. The Stardust capsule is now on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.
Industry:Astronomy
