Space Highlights - May 18, 2017

May 18, 2017

A Russian-made Soyuz rocket launched the Boeing-made SES-15 communications satellite into orbit this past week from French Guiana.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Arianespace_launches_SES_15_using_Soyuz_rocket_999.html


SpaceX launched the Inmarsat-5 F4 communications satellite into orbit aboard a FalconX booster this week.  This was the heaviest geosynchronous satellite launch yet made by a FalconX rocket, leaving no fuel remaining in the tanks to attempt a recovery of the booster's first stage.
http://www.space.com/36852-spacex-launches-inmarsat-5-f4-satellite.html


Satellite photos indicate that North Korea is upgrading its Sohae launch facility, possibly for another satellite launch or ballistic missile test.
https://sputniknews.com/military/201705191053769022-north-korea-sohae-launch-site/


NASA has released another batch of photographs as the Cassini spacecraft continues its ring-diving orbits around Saturn.
http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/missions/solar-system/cassini-image-shows-saturn-heading-toward-solstice/


The Opportunity rover has begun its descent into "Perserverance Valley," entering the rim of a giant Martian crater.
http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/missions/solar-system/nasas-opportunity-mars-rover-begins-study-perseverance-valley/


NASA officials have revealed that the Curiosity rover was very nearly lost some six months after it had landed on Mars, due to a software glitch that could have permanently disabled the rover.
http://www.space.com/36841-mars-rover-curiosity-computer-glitch-60-minutes.html


NASA has released a new time-lapse video of the dwarf planet Ceres, as captured by the Dawn spacecraft.
http://www.space.com/36874-ceres-opposition-sun-movie-dawn.html


Researchers have identified a moon orbiting the third largest dwarf planet, 2007 OR10 in the outer reaches of the solar system.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170518140249.htm


Researchers have successfully mapped the magnetic field lines of a giant exoplanet over 1000 light years away.  The planet, HAT-P-7b is nearly 80-percent more massive than Jupiter, and orbits its star every couple of days - leading to a very hot and active atmosphere.
https://phys.org/news/2017-05-variable-hot-giant-exoplanet-magnetic.html


Results released from the first trial run of the XENON1T, the most sensitive instrument yet devised to hunt for the existance of WIMPS (weakly interacting massive particles), has yet to find evidence for one of the hypothesized forms of dark matter.
https://phys.org/news/2017-05-xenon1t-sensitive-detector-earth-wimp.html