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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New mission given the go-ahead to search for beginning of universe and possibly life
February 17th, 2019A new space probe designed to observe hundreds of millions of galaxies to gain a better grasp on how the universe evolved has just been given the greenlight. This new spacecraft is also being developed to search for water and organics, the elements necessary for life as we know it.
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MAVEN spacecraft to be moved to a lower Mars orbit
February 14th, 2019NASA's MAVEN orbiter is being prepared to act as a communications relay with the Mars 2020 rover, which is set to launch in 2020 and land in February 2021.
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New Horizons’ departure images shed new light on Ultima Thule’s shape
February 11th, 2019A new set of New Horizons flyby images taken on New Year's Day 2019 reveals Ultima Thule is shaped more like a flat object.
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Last Kepler images capture numerous planetary systems
February 10th, 2019Numerous planetary systems are visible in the final images taken by NASA's Kepler telescope on Sept. 25, 2018, just before it ran out of fuel.
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MarCO CubeSats no longer communicating with Earth
February 7th, 2019Twin tiny satellites launched with NASA's Mars InSight lander have been out of touch with mission controllers on Earth for slightly over a month.
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Dome-shaped shield provides protection to InSight seismometer
February 6th, 2019The seismometer on NASA's Mars InSight mission was provided with a dome-shaped shield for protection from the planet's extreme temperature variations.
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Curiosity measures gravity of Mount Sharp
February 3rd, 2019NASA's Curiosity rove has measured the gravity on Mount Sharp in much the same way Apollo 17 astronauts measured the Moon's gravity in 1972.
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Latest image reveals Ultima Thule’s surface features
January 27th, 2019The most detailed image of Ultima Thule returned by New Horizons reveals surface details, including pits on both the object's lobes and contrasting patterns of darkness and light in various regions.
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Cassini data reveals Saturn’s rotation rate, age of rings
January 26th, 2019Data collected by the Cassini spacecraft in its final oribts has enabled scientists to accurately calculate Saturn's rotation rate and the age of its rings.
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Company that will print 3D rockets approved to use Cape Canaveral launch facility
January 20th, 2019Relativity Space has received approval from the U.S. Air Force to use Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 16 for the construction of its own launch facilities.
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Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 resumes operations
January 17th, 2019The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has resumed science operations after spending a week and two days in a safety mode that suspended its activities.
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Animation shows Ultima Thule rotating as New Horizons approached
January 17th, 2019Using images of Ultima Thule by the the New Horizons spacecraft, mission scientists have created an animation depicting the Kuiper Belt Object's rotation during the last hours before the probe's approach.
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In first six months, TESS discovers three exoplanets and more
January 12th, 2019During the first six months of its two-year mission, NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) discovered three confirmed planets and many planet candidates while also observing other astronomical phenomena such as supernovae, asteroids, comets, and eclipsing binary stars.
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New Horizons team releases first stereo image of Ultima Thule
January 4th, 2019NASA's New Horizons team released the first stereo image of Ultima Thule, enabling viewers wearing 3D glasses to see its shape.
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First flyby images reveal Ultima Thule is a contact binary
January 3rd, 2019New Horizons' first close flyby images of Ultima Thule show the Kuiper Belt object to be a contact binary composed of two lobes joined together.
