BBC: Measuring the exact locations of bodies in the solar system has been difficult. But such measurements are important for determining the orbits of the planets and calculating the correct trajectories for spacecraft. Dayton Jones of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and his colleagues used the Very Long Baseline Array, a collection of 10 radio telescopes spread from Hawaii to the Virgin Islands, to precisely locate the Cassini spacecraft relative to a grid of distant quasars. With that measurement, calculating Saturn’s position was easy because Cassini is in orbit at a known distance around the planet. The best previous measurements of Saturn’s location were 20 times less precise.
Despite the tumultuous history of the near-Earth object’s parent body, water may have been preserved in the asteroid for about a billion years.
October 08, 2025 08:50 PM
Get PT in your inbox
Physics Today - The Week in Physics
The Week in Physics" is likely a reference to the regular updates or summaries of new physics research, such as those found in publications like Physics Today from AIP Publishing or on news aggregators like Phys.org.