After its thrusters shut off prematurely, the European Space Agency's newest lander probably crash-landed from 2–4 kilometers above the surface.
Instruments and techniques
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Rosetta Spacecraft Death-Dives into Comet Companion—On Purpose
On the way to its demise, the probe intimately viewed a dust-spewing pit and measured close up the gravity field, temperature, and other features of the comet.
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Final Mirror Segment Added to Powerful Future Space Observatory
After years of planning, testing, and assembly, the James Webb Space Telescope, the world's largest infrared, space-based observatory, is taking shape.
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New Step Toward Finding Earth 2.0
Researchers unveil a way to tease out the wobble of a star caused by unseen planets despite the confounding effects of star spots, which are the sunspots of distant stars.
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Hearing Sparks Concerns About Planetary Science Funding
Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle questioned the administration's proposed cuts and whether support for future missions would be adequate.
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Comet Lander Makes a Hard Discovery
The Philae probe, dropped onto a comet by the Rosetta spacecraft, has made contact with a surface thought too hard to be on a comet and has detected a few organic molecules new to comet exploration.
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Philae Scientists Make Plans for Revived Mission
With their robotic explorer awake again, Philae's handlers get ready to give Comet 67P-Churyumov-Gerasimenko renewed scrutiny and to get a better bead on where the lander clings to the spinning orb of rock and ice.
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NASA Selects Science Instruments for Europa Mission
The instruments chosen for a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa include cameras, spectrometers, magnetometers, and an ice-penetrating radar.
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Mercury's Secrets Revealed by Soon-to-Crash Spacecraft
From finding water ice on Mercury to discovering magnetic field lines cutting through the planet, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft has spent its lifetime unveiling Mercury's secrets.
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Group Calls for More Focus on Potentially Hazardous Asteroids
A declaration from astronauts, scientists, and others calls for dramatically increasing the detection and tracking of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects.