It went into safe mode, some time around closest approach to earth. In safe mode a spacecraft shuts most everything down except the most essential services and prepares to reboot on command from mission control. It’s a way of dealing with potential computer problems that might otherwise put the system into a permanent hanged state.
Despite this glitch, it looks like everything went well.
The comet C/2012 S1, or ISON as it is called, will pass close to the sun this November. The big question is whether it will put on a big show for the unaide eyes of everyone or just be visible to those looking through telescopes. At the moment is it is showing off for those watching it through such aids: Green light for ISON: Comet blazes in stunning shots – PhotoBlog
Created in 2013 as the new interpretive film for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) public Visitor Center, this 24-minute production explores the synergies of technology and human curiosity that power the world’s most productive radio telescope. Narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Jodie Foster (star of the film “Contact,” which was based on the novel by Carl Sagan and filmed at the VLA), the program depicts many of the people whose diverse efforts enable the VLA to be a cutting-edge resource for astronomers and humanity worldwide.
For more information about the VLA, where we welcome visitors at no charge, visit public.nrao.edu. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
This SETI Institute talk combines two amazing developments of our day – the discovery of exoplanets and the development of giant telescopes. Jeff Kuhn of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii gives an excellent presentation (suitable for a wide audience) about The Colossus Project: Designing an optical/IR instrument to detect life outside the solar system:
This talk describes an effort to detect life, and even conduct a planetary census, in our cosmic neighborhood. I’ll describe some results from the Colossus group, an interdisciplinary science and engineering team, working to show how telescopes much larger than the TMT or EELT could be built today by relaxing some of the astronomical requirements of current “world’s largest telescope” projects.
