Comets are balls of ice and rock that have highly elliptical orbits and reside beyond the orbit of Neptune in what is called the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper belt is not the only comet stronghold in the solar system though; the Oort cloud, which extends upto a light year away from the sun, is a … Continue reading Comets up-close! →

Bidding time until some more data arrives from the New Horizons spacecraft

New Horizons has to send so much data that it will take uptill October- December of next year for all the data to be received!Mind you, while I was checking the Deep Space Network yesterday, it was transmitting data at 1.5-1.8 kbps... 

Pluto's Moon Hydra, which was hitherto very less known. Now, we can see a distinct shape forming. You might say, well, its not that impressive, but this thing is tiny!This was taken by the onboard RALPH instrument. It depicts the variations of methane spectra absorption on the Plutonian surface. The norther parts are suspected to … Continue reading Flyby Pictures! →

Images are scheduled to be released after a press conference at 3pm EDT. Stay tuned for more. Due to it being late night here in Nepal, some updates may be belated. 

These are some of the first pictures of the respective planets:Earthrise, taken by Apollo 8 A UV image of Venus, taken by Mariner 10. A picture of Jupiter taken by Voyager 1. A Picture of Neptune, taken by Voyager 2. A picture of the surface of Mars, taken by Mariner 4Majestic Saturn, a picture taken by Voyager 1Mercury, as … Continue reading The Planets →

No scientific data has been received yet. Only the signal of confirmation of successful flyby has been received.

New Horizons has successfully called back! We should be receiving some data from the flyby soon! Looking forward to be back in 8 hours from now!