In Brief:

Cassini image of asteroid Masursky

February 16, 2000
Web posted at: 1:49 p.m. EST (1849 GMT)

(CNN) -- New images taken by the camera onboard the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft are giving scientists the first size estimates on asteroid 2685 Masursky and preliminary evidence that it may have different material properties than previously believed, NASA said this week.

"The Masursky images represent the first time that Cassini has gathered information on a body not extensively studied from Earth," said Carolyn C. Porco, Cassini imaging team leader and associate professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Cassini's camera took pictures of the asteroid when the spacecraft was seven hours and five-and-a-half hours before closest approach, at a distance of 1.6 million kilometers (960,000 miles), NASA said in a statement.

"So far, the images reveal that the side of Masursky imaged by Cassini is roughly 15 to 20 kilometers (9 to 12 miles) across," Porco said.

The Cassini spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at Saturn in July 2004 to begin a four-year exploration of the ringed planet and its moons.

(CNN) -- NASA has received approval to begin building the Comet Nucleus Tour, or CONTOUR, spacecraft, slated to launch in July 2002.

CONTOUR will fly past at least two comets, take high resolution images and collect and analyze gas and dust to reveal the comets' makeup, NASA said in a statement.

Scientists also hope CONTOUR will clear up the many mysteries of how comets evolve as they approach the sun and their ices begin to evaporate.

The CONTOUR mission is managed for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, in Laurel, Maryland.

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