Brief observation of non-observation: no small-body works in the Feb. Nature Astronomy (arguably). The Ryugu paper was actually out in late Nov./early Dec, so its label “Feb 2024” is an accounting fluke. As with Science, there’s so much going on… Read More »No-Paper: Nature Astronomy
A good Feb issue (vol. 215) of Acta Astronautica, the less-tangible, harder-vacuum title of the AIAA: Stipsits, S. Legal considerations on a regional security organization for planetary defence p. 117 10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.11019 Bellome, A. Sánchez, J. P. García Mateas, J. C.… Read More »Note, Paper: Acta Ast(e)ronautica
Apparently the Feb issue of Meteoritics and Planetary Science is about quality, not quantity. Such is meteoritics in general: this subdiscipline doesn’t draw tourists, gawkers, and fanboys, so the serious people can get their work done: Ninomiya, K. Osawa, T.… Read More »Note, Paper: Brit-Met-Feb Rep
Water has been reported, with high confidence, on two more asteroids. Water is notable as the first objective of asteroid mining: obtaining propellant for the trip back, among other (later) uses. Arredondo, A., McAdam, M. M. Honniball, C. I. et.al. 2024… Read More »Pay Dirt: Confirmed (7) Iris, (20) Massalia Water
Happy Friday. The latest IAU nomenclature bulletin (vol. 4, #2) now makes it official. The main-belt asteroid- formerly under a temporary designation 1981 ET27- is now officially, permanently numbered and named. It is now (12994) Pitufo. The low number indicates… Read More »On The Rocks: Oros Trozos
One short month to the big annual meeting: Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, or LPSC. Not too late to register- early registration until Feb. 23, absolute deadline Mar. 4: http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2024/registration An entire special session is OSIRIS-REx, and that’s without general curation… Read More »…the big meeting: LPSC
This month’s Astronomy and Astrophysics is… an improvement (for us here) compared to Jan, but it’s no Dec: Edberg, N. J. T. Erikkson, A. I. Vigren, E. et al. Scale size of cometary bow shocks A51 /202346566 Bourchelle de Micas,… Read More »Note, Paper: Euro-Yarko
Last tidbits of asteroid-relevant papers in MNRAS (Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society) for January (vol. 527, issue 4): Xin, Y. Shi, J. Ma, Y. et al. Research of the Family Associations of Active Ast… p. 10309 10.1093/mnras/stad3883/7478013 Jiao,… Read More »Note, Paper: Yet More Monthly
Happy weekend. The January issue of Photonics Spectra happens to touch upon two aspects of small-body science; we’re becoming inescapable. Jérémy Picot-Clémente (Photonics Paves a Path to the Emerging New Space Sector, p. 80), notes how, in multiple photonic-relevant ways,… Read More »On The Rocks: See Spot Orbit. Spot Likes to Orbit!
Space Science Reviews has THE paper on the Comet Interceptor mission (for now). This is a whopper, with introduction sections as big as some “normal” papers. I lost count of the figures, which includes glamour shots of incoming hardware. Previously,… Read More »Whoa, Paper: Comet Interceptor in SSRv