Improved Saturn positions help spacecraft navigation, planet studies, fundamental physics
Thursday, January 8, 2015 - 18:00
in Astronomy & Space
Scientists have used the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio-telescope system and NASA's Cassini spacecraft to measure the position of Saturn and its family of moons to within about a mile—at a range of nearly a billion miles. This feat improves astronomers' knowledge of the dynamics of our Solar System and also benefits interplanetary spacecraft navigation and research on fundamental physics.