NASA spacecraft took a photo at a distance of 3.7 million kilometers from Earth

(ORDO NEWS) — The American space agency NASA has finally unveiled an impressive image of its new space probe, Deep Space 1, an asteroid hunter, which is currently located at a distance of 3.7 million kilometers from Earth.

This unusual image of the Deep Space 1 spacecraft was presented today to commemorate International Asteroid Day 2020. The photo was taken using the Hale telescope on Mount Palomar, astronomers of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Here’s what NASA said in the accompanying signature:

“We see a trace of the path opposite the constellation Gemini.

At this point, the spacecraft was moving away from the Earth at a speed of 1.1 miles per second relative to the Earth.

“This image was taken on November 16, 1998, 23 days after the launch of the spacecraft from Cape Canaveral. The spacecraft was moving away from the Earth at a speed of 1.1 miles per second relative to the Earth. This ship, 1.5 meters high, shone four million times fainter than the faintest star visible with the naked eye. ”

“The top of the image is the north. Each side of this square image is five arc minutes or approximately 0.08 degrees. ”

Deep Space 1 was the first mission under the NASA’s New Millennium Program, which tested new technologies for use in future scientific missions.

Among the new technologies, Deep Space 1 included a xenon ion powerplant, autonomous navigation, a high-performance solar panel and a miniature camera / spectrometer.

At the moment, Deep Space 1 is already far ahead of its main goals, having also successfully passed Braille asteroid 9969 and Comet Borrelli. He managed to get an image that is still considered one of the best images and data ever collected as a result of a close collision with an asteroid or comet.

Thus, the success of Deep Space 1 paved the way for future ion-spacecraft missions. In particular, this applies to those who make a technically difficult journey to asteroids or comets, for example, the Dawn mission.

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