Live coverage: NASA’s Juno spacecraft arrives at Jupiter

Three experimental satellites sponsored by the U.S. military lifted off on an Electron rocket from Rocket Lab’s commercial spaceport in New Zealand on Sunday at 0600 GMT (2 a.m. EDT).

The first well-resolved image of the faraway chunk of rock fleetingly visited by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft on New Year’s Day reveals the object — officially named 2014 MU69 but nicknamed Ultima Thule — is made of two lobes scientists say came together in an ancient slow-speed collision just as the solar system’s planets were forming.

Scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have found the best evidence yet of a salty ocean of liquid water lurking beneath the surface of Jupiter’s largest moon Ganymede, ripening the icy world’s allure as mission planners design probes for more detailed exploration.