[meteorite-list] Cassini and Stardust "firsts"

From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Jun 24 13:58:07 2004
Message-ID: <20040624175804.73589.qmail_at_web51701.mail.yahoo.com>

------------------- Original Message -----------------
[meteorite-list] Cassini VIMS Team Finds That Phoebe
May Be Kin To Comets
MexicoDoug at aol.com MexicoDoug at aol.com
Wed Jun 23 15:50:24 EDT 2004

>>..."One intriguing result of the VIMS measurements
is the discovery of possible chemical similarities
between the materials on Phoebe and those seen on
comets," said VIMS team leader Robert H. Brown of the
University of Arizona...

>>...That Phoebe likely comes from the Kuiper belt and
not from the Mars-Jupiter asteroid belt is another
"first" for the Cassini mission, Brown noted. Cassini
has become the first spacecraft to flyby a Kuiper belt
object, he said...

MexicoDoug wrote:

Congratulations to this group, big time, what a feat
and imaging going over the spoils of victory !! ...
though it may have slipped by or not considered (??)
Voyager 2's 40,000 km flyby of Triton a "Kuiper"
object, but if this were really a "first" prize for
Cassini, then what would that be for Stardust's
Wild(2) daring 236 km flyby?, chopped liver? :)

Saludos, Doug

-------------- End of Original Message -------------

Extracted from:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/stardust_results_040617.html

"Brownlee is also intrigued by the utter lack of
similarities between Wild 2 and Phoebe, a fairly small
moon of Saturn recently imaged up close by the Cassini
spacecraft. Phoebe is thought to be a captured object,
having originated -- like Wild 2 -- beyond Neptune.
But Phoebe's gently sloping craters, which are riddled
with boulders, resemble those seen on asteroids. And
Phoebe has many small craters embedded in larger,
older craters."

"In another baffling surprise, Brownlee said, dozens
of photos show no small craters on Wild 2, only the
large craters that are presumably billions of years
old. Perhaps small craters erode away, he said."

It appears that claiming "firsts" is risky business
what with so many deep space probes blazing paths
through our solar system.

;-)
Bob V.
Received on Thu 24 Jun 2004 01:58:04 PM PDT