January 5

New view of Mercury

Cassini made the first of this year’s five scheduled close approaches to Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, at a distance of about 600 miles (950 km). It may get more shots at the haze-enshrouded moon, though, because NASA could extend Cassini’s mission, which is scheduled to end in July, beyond the planned four years.

January 14

MESSENGER, the first spacecraft to visit Mercury in more than three decades, made its first pass by the planet, flying within 125 miles (200 km) of its rocky surface. MESSENGER will enter orbit around Mercury in 2011.

March 12

Water squirts from Enceladus in a false-color view. (NASA/JPL/SSI)

Cassini flew just 30 miles (50 km) above Enceladus, the second-largest moon of Saturn. Scientists targeted the craft to fly through a jet of frozen water that is squirting from cracks in the moon’s crust, helping explain why Enceladus has liquid water beneath its icy surface.

April 9

India will launch Chandrayaan-1 (Hindi for “Moon craft”). During its two-year orbital mission, it will photograph the surface, chart the mineral composition of lunar rocks, compile a topographic map, and look for water at the lunar poles. It also will release a probe that will burrow into the surface.

 

Phoenix views the Martian landscape. (NASA/JPL/U. OF ARIZ.)

May 25

Phoenix Mars Lander landed in the high northern plans of Mars to begin a 90-day mission. It will dig into the frozen ground in search of water ice and the chemical building blocks of life. The lander also will monitor Mars weather. It will operate until the Sun drops below the horizon later this year, depriving Phoenix of power.

June 11

NASA launched the Gamma-ray Large Area Telescope. It will study some of the most powerful objects and events in the universe, including gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, and the disks of hot gas that encircle some supermassive black holes.

October 19

NASA launched IBEX, the International Boundary Explorer. It will probe the extent of the magnetic bubble that surrounds our solar system and its interaction with intergalactic space.

See also Explorations in 2007

This document was last modified: December 19, 2008