Space Highlights - April 26, 2017

April 26, 2017

Among the microsatellites that were piggy-backed onto a recent supply launch for the International Space Station, was a satellite to measure plasma characteristics built by students at Aalto University in Finland, as well as a series of satellites intended to take measurements of the Earth's upper atmosphere designed by students at a high school in Israel, and the University of Colorado in Boulder, among others.
https://phys.org/news/2017-04-aalto-satellite-space.html
https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-high-school-students-launch-nano-satellite-into-space/


Mongolia's first communications satellite has been announced - with the Asia Broadcast Satellite re-branding its ABS 2A satellite as the Mongol-Sat1.  The ABS 2A was manufactured by Boeing and was launched in January.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mongolia-satellite-idUSKBN17L18W
http://www.satellitetoday.com/telecom/2017/04/19/abs-co-brands-abs-2a-capacity-mongolsat-1/


The Cassini spacecraft has made its final, close fly-by of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, passing within 608 miles of the moon's surface.
http://earthsky.org/space/cassini-final-titan-flyby-april-2017


NASA has released images of a giant canyon on the surface of Saturn's moon Tethys, as captured by the Cassini spacecraft during a recent encounter.
http://www.space.com/36586-saturn-moon-tethys-canyon-cassini-photo.html


NASA's Opportunity rover is leaving behind "Cape Tribulation", the promitory on the edge of a crater that it has been exploring for the past several months, to head towards "Perserverance Valley" - which is believed to be a dry, ancient riverbed that cuts into the wall of the crater.
https://www.universetoday.com/135129/opportunity-leaving-tribulation-behind/
http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/missions/solar-system/opportunity-mars-rover-leaves-tribulation-perseverance/


Researchers have assembled a detailed map for one of the candidate landing sites for NASA's next planned Mars rover, scheduled to touch down in 2020.
http://www.astrobio.net/also-in-news/researchers-produce-detailed-map-potential-mars-rover-landing-site/
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170420113741.htm


A photograph recently released from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter depicts the landing platform for the Opportunity Mars rover, still visible in the center of the small crater where the lander came to rest in 2004.
http://www.space.com/36587-mars-rover-opportunity-landing-site-new-photo.html


Researchers have identified an exoplanet some 40 light years from Earth, which some scientists have suggested could be a good candidate for searching for alien life.  The planet orbits a red dwarf star that is "very quiet", unlike Proxima B, for example, which also hosts a planet in its habitable zone but which is known to have an active history of intense flares.
http://www.space.com/36587-mars-rover-opportunity-landing-site-new-photo.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Newly_Discovered_Exoplanet_May_be_Best_Candidate_in_Search_for_Signs_of_Life_999.html


Recent computer simulations of galaxy formation continue to provide evidence for the existence of dark matter, indicating that without its presence, galaxies would not exist as we see them today.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Simulated_Galaxies_Provide_Fresh_Evidence_of_Dark_Matter_999.html