MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – A NASA scientist will be available to reporters Tuesday, Oct. 9, to discuss Jupiter findings to be published Friday, Oct. 12, in the journal Science.
What NASA’s Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft found when it flew by Jupiter on Feb. 28, 2007, stunned scientists who now are releasing more information in nine journal articles in Science.
WHAT: Opportunity to conduct interviews about newly revealed Jupiter observations gathered by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft.
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. PDT Oct. 9, 2007.
WHO: Jeff Moore, New Horizons Jupiter Encounter science team lead from NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. Moore also is co-author of several the technical articles to appear in the journal, Science.
WHERE: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. To reach Ames, take U.S. Highway 101 to the Moffett Field, NASA Parkway exit and drive east on Moffett Blvd. to the main gate. Reporters who are U.S. citizens will be directed to park near the gate and asked to present government issued photo ID such as a drivers’ license in order to enter Ames’ grounds. After signing in, reporters will be given directions to Moore’s office.
BACKGROUND: New Horizons came within 1.4 million miles of Jupiter on Feb. 28, using the planet’s gravity to trim three years from the spacecraft’s travel time to Pluto. For several weeks before and after this closest approach, the piano-sized robotic probe trained its seven cameras and sensors on Jupiter and its four largest moons, storing data from nearly 700 observations on digital recorders and gradually sending that information back to Earth.
The flyby added 9,000 miles per hour to the spacecraft’s speed, pushing New Horizons past 50,000 miles per hour and setting up a flight near Pluto in July 2015.
The number of observations at Jupiter was twice that of those planned for Pluto. New Horizons made most of the observations of Jupiter during the spacecraft’s closest approach to the planet. More than 40,000 separate commands from the onboard computer guided the spacecraft.
New Horizons is the first mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program of medium-class spacecraft exploration projects.
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