News Archive / Author: Laurel Kornfeld
Laurel Kornfeld is an amateur astronomer and freelance writer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate of Science from Swinburne University’s Astronomy Online program. Her writings have been published online in The Atlantic, Astronomy magazine’s guest blog section, the UK Space Conference, the 2009 IAU General Assembly newspaper, The Space Reporter, and newsletters of various astronomy clubs. She is a member of the Cranford, NJ-based Amateur Astronomers, Inc. Especially interested in the outer solar system, Laurel gave a brief presentation at the 2008 Great Planet Debate held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.
Articles By Laurel Kornfeld
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Spitzer telescope to be decommissioned after 16 years
January 20th, 2020NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which has studied the universe in infrared light since its launch in August of 2003, will be decommissioned on Thursday, January 30, 2020.
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New Year, new headquarters for Blue Origin
January 9th, 2020With Blue Origin opening its new headquarters, 2020 appears to be a year of further expansion for NewSpace.
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New Horizons science instrument detects slowing of solar wind
December 12th, 2019NASA's New Horizons mission has caught 'wind' of the ragged edges of our Solar System.
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Two centaur missions proposed to NASA’s Discovery program
November 22nd, 2019NASA is considering two Discovery Program missions that would head to the deepest regions of our solar system to study far flung bodies that reside there.
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New Horizons’ second target is formally named Arrokoth
November 15th, 2019The double-lobed Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) located one billion miles beyond Pluto and visited by the New Horizons spacecraft on January 1, 2019, has been officially named Arrokoth, which means sky in the Native American Powhatan/Algonquian language.
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NASA funds study of possible Pluto orbiter
November 4th, 2019There's no doubt that NASA's New Horizons mission crushed it. This has emboldened the space agency to take their exploration of the far reaches of our solar system to the next level.
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New Horizons team releases images of Pluto’s far side
October 30th, 2019More than four years after New Horizons' historic July 2015 Pluto flyby, mission scientists have released detailed images of Pluto's far side, which the spacecraft was able to image only in low resolution on approach and following departure.
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Second group of names approved for features on Pluto
October 24th, 2019A second set of names for features on Pluto, already used informally by members of NASA's New Horizons mission, has received formal approval by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the organization that names celestial objects and their features.
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OPINION: NASA administrator enters decades-long Pluto debate
August 28th, 2019A comment by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine affirming he still considers Pluto to be a planet has drawn criticism from some media outlets that may be motivated more by politics than science. It is also a potential game changer in the decades-long planet debate.
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Curiosity rover marks seven years of Martian exploration
August 9th, 2019Seven years after successfully completing a difficult landing maneuver onto the floor of Mars' Gale Crater, NASA's Curiosity rover continues to make pioneering discoveries on the Red Planet.
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Cameras on Mars 2020 rover confirmed to have perfect vision
August 7th, 2019Tests conducted on several of the cameras that have been installed on the Mars 2020 rover have confirmed that they have perfect, 20/20 This is one of the more critical aspects of the mission as it will help guide the vision.
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NASA teaming up with commercial companies for return to the Moon
August 5th, 2019To achieve the goal of returning humans to the Moon by 2024, NASA announced it is teaming up with commercial companies to develop new technologies for landing on and taking off from the lunar surface.
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NASA releases report on weather satellite failure
August 2nd, 2019A NASA board assigned to investigate the April 2018 failure of an infrared-detecting instrument on board a next-generation weather satellite has released its report. The malfunction has been attributed to a pipe blockage that prevented the flow of needed coolant.
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I have the power! Mars 2020 rover completes critical milestone
July 29th, 2019With just one year to go before the Mars 2020 rover's scheduled launch, work is commencing on the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) that will serve as the rover's power source.
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Conference keeps focus on Pluto following New Horizons flyby
July 23rd, 2019LAUREL, MD. -- A four-day science conference organized by the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), Universities Space Research Association (USRA), and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) held July 14-18 focused on findings obtained by the New Horizons spacecraft as it flew by the Pluto system in 2015 and Kuiper Belt Object Ultima Thule in 2019.
