I gave an update on the Vera Rubin Observatory. Undeniably, VRO is (will be…) a game changer. Also noteworthy but less newsworthy: the SPHEREx spacecraft is built: spherex.caltech.edu SPHEREx, for Spectro-PHotometric ices and Epoch of Reionization Explorer, is a NASA… Read More »First Light (Flight) in Sight…
JUICE is running, Europa Clipper is built and in checkout for launch this year… and the small-body community is onboard. Space Science Reviews- no lightweights- had been running a “collection” (articles aligned in theme, but not date like in the… Read More »Note, Paper: E-Ticket!
I held out, but ultimately May is not a rich month for Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (vol. 530, #1): Aravind, K. et al. Optical spectroscopy of comets using Hanle Echelle Spectrograph (HESP) p. 393–404 stae666 We don’t… Read More »Note, Paper: Monthly, comet-y
Can’t forget Icarus, the Solar-System-dedicated journal. Now, From June (v. 415): Tang, Y. Lauretta, D. S. Ballouz, R. L. et al. Characterization of a mass movement site in Ben… a 116056 .2024.116056Smirnov, E. A. A comparative analysis of machine learning… Read More »Note, Paper: Icarus (2)
The April “issue” (part of vol. 529, billed as three issues) of MNRAS (Royal Astronomical Society’s journal) isn’t complete; issue #3 is still in progress. I’ll go ahead and cite the first two: Vol. 529, #2: Sun, S. Shi, J.… Read More »Note, Paper: most Monthly Notices of
That was easy: no new papers (comet or otherwise) in the latest (April) edition of Cometary Science Newsletter.
… to conclude. Besides obvious results on Ryugu/Bennu, the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference covered lots of other topics this year. You know, Planetary Science: -The DART mission succeeded, as we saw. An entire session (Tue 8:20 am), Characterization of… Read More »LPSC Meeting 2024, part 3
Wow, what a mother lode in the March issue (vol. 167, #3) of AJ. Transition objects galore: Explicit comets (including high, supervolatile-based activity), Kuiper Belt- and Jupiter Trojan-objects (likely quasi-comets that just don’t warm up enough), and general sky search:… Read More »Note, Paper: Astronomical Journal, pre-Vernal
The journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta suffers from being overextended. After all, its domain is from underground, to interstellar space, and back to pre-Solar Nebula/stellar nucleogenesis. But that doesn’t mean stay away, it means pick and choose the small-body-worthy content.… Read More »Note, Paper: We do Ryugu
Icarus, the Solar System Astronomy journal, has some worthy papers as you might expect. First, a holdover from the “March” Icarus issue (vol. 410- not like months are even relevant any more for a virtual “issue”): Kamada, A. Kuroda, T.… Read More »Note, Paper: Icarus and the water