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| Cassini confirms liquid surface on Titan |
| Observations with the VIMS instrument on Cassini have identified the presence of liquid ethane in one of the large lake-like features observed on Saturn's moon, Titan. These results are reported by R. Brown and colleagues in the 31 July issue of Nature. |
| Date: 31 Jul 2008 |
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| Titan Flyby - 31 July 2008 |
| Just over two months after its last visit, Cassini once again approaches Titan for the mission's forty-sixth targeted encounter with the large moon: T45. This is the first Titan encounter in Cassini's Equinox Mission.
The closest approach to Titan occurs on Thursday, 31 July, at 02:13:11 UT at an altitude of 1613 kilometres above the surface and at a speed of 6.3 kilometres per second. The latitude at closest approach is 43.3° S and the encounter occurs on orbit number 78. |
| Date: 30 Jul 2008 |
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| ICEUM10/LEAG/SRR Cape Canaveral 2008 |
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| Date: 30 Jul 2008 |
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| CoRoT exoplanet stands out from the crowd |
| Analysis of data from the CoRoT spacecraft along with complementary ground-based observations reveal CoRoT-Exo-4b to be a gas-giant planet whose parent star appears to rotate in sync with the planet's orbit. This object is also of interest as it occupies a previously empty region of the mass-period parameter space for transiting exoplanets. |
| Date: 28 Jul 2008 |
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| Lenses galore - Hubble finds large sample of very distant galaxies [heic0814] |
| New Hubble Space Telescope observations of six spectacular galaxy clusters acting as gravitational lenses have given significant insights into the early stages of the Universe. Scientists have found the largest sample of very distant galaxies seen to date: ten promising candidates thought to lie at a distance of 13 billion light-years (a redshift of ~ 7.5). |
| Date: 24 Jul 2008 |
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| XMM-Newton discovery of nova V598 Pup |
| On 9 October 2007 XMM-Newton discovered a new bright X-ray source as it slewed across the sky. Follow-up optical observations from ground identified the counterpart to be a nova, V598 Pup. |
| Date: 18 Jul 2008 |
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| Venus Express to fly closer to Venus |
| A series of orbit control manoeuvres (OCMs) is underway to alter the orbit of the Venus Express spacecraft, with the goal of reducing the pericentre altitude to 185 km. These manoeuvres, which began on 13 July, provide new opportunities for scientific observations of regions which have not been probed by the spacecraft so far. |
| Date: 15 Jul 2008 |
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| Preparations underway for Rosetta flyby of asteroid Steins |
| On 5 September 2008 the Rosetta spacecraft will make its closest approach to asteroid Steins. Preparations are underway to ready the spacecraft for this important scientific milestone. |
| Date: 08 Jul 2008 |
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