Space Exploration News

The Wright Mons region on Pluto: darker/lower albedo, redder patches exist primarily on north-facing slopes but there are also more subtle differences in albedo and redness across the region; the region labeled A represents a redder unit transition to less red units at lower elevation. The longitude and latitude extents of the image are 160-182°E and 13-31°S. Image credit: Singer et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-29056-3.

Enormous Cryovolcanoes Spotted on Pluto

Mar 29, 2022 by News Staff

Cryovolcanoes (ice volcanoes) are similar to normal volcanoes but instead of being formed from molten rock, they are made by frozen liquids like ammonia...

Artist’s concept of ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Salt Water within Europa’s Icy Shell Could Be Transporting Oxygen into Its Subsurface Ocean

Mar 24, 2022 by News Staff

Some icy moons in the outer Solar System likely contain an ocean beneath their ice shells. Jupiter’s moon Europa is thought to have an ocean beneath...

This Juno image shows Jupiter, Io and Europa (from left to right). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Andrea Luck.

Juno Spots Jupiter and Two Jovian Moons

Mar 22, 2022 by News Staff

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has snapped a lovely photo of its target planet, Jupiter, and two Jovian moons: Io and Europa. This Juno image shows Jupiter,...

NASA’s Perseverance rover acquired this image on April 22, 2021, using its left Mastcam-Z camera. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

NASA Extends Flight Operations of Mars Helicopter Ingenuity

Mar 21, 2022 by News Staff

NASA’s Ingenuity mission will support the science campaign of the agency’s Perseverance rover exploring the ancient river delta of Jezero Crater until...

An artist’s impression of a rocky asteroid. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick, Space-art.co.uk / University of Warwick / University of Cambridge.

Small Asteroid Disintegrates over Norwegian Sea

Mar 16, 2022 by News Staff

A small near-Earth asteroid called 2022 EB5 disintegrated over the Norwegian Sea just two hours after its discovery on March 11, 2022. An artist’s impression...

Engineers Begin Assembly of NASA’s Europa Clipper

Mar 7, 2022 by News Staff

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will conduct detailed reconnaissance of Jupiter’s moon Europa to see whether the icy moon could harbor conditions...

This MAHLI image shows a tighter view of the flower-like rock artifact. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds ‘Coral’ on Mars

Mar 3, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Mars Hand Lens Imager on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has imaged a flower-like rock artifact in the Gale crater on Mars. This image from the MAHLI...

The Urvara basin on Ceres. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Dawn Detects Organics and Salts in Giant Crater on Ceres

Feb 23, 2022 by Sergio Prostak

Using the Framing Camera (FC) and the Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (VIR) aboard NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, planetary researchers have spotted bright...

Four possible domains of planetary intelligence: (a) on a planet with an immature biosphere (such as the Earth during the Archean Eon) there are insufficient feedback loops between life and geophysical coupled systems to exert strong co-evolution; (b) on a planet with a mature biosphere (such as Earth after the Proterozoic) the biosphere exerts strong forcing on the geophysical state establishing full co-evolution of the entire system; this feedback may provide some degree of long-term stabilizing (i.e. Gaian) modulations for the full system; (c) on a planet with an immature technosphere (represented by the current Anthropocene Earth) feedbacks from technological activity produce strong enough forcing on the coupled planetary system to drive it into new dynamical states; these forcings however are unconstrained by intention relative to the health of the civilization producing the technology; (d) on a planet with a mature technosphere, feedback loops between technological activity and biogeochemical and biogeophysical states have been intentionally modified to ensure maximum stability and productivity of the full system; alongside each planetary image, we show a schematic atmospheric spectrum; an immature biosphere would show an atmosphere mostly in equilibrium dominated perhaps by carbon dioxide (CO2); in a mature biosphere life would have changed atmospheric chemistry leading to a highly non-equilibrium state such as perhaps high concentrations of oxygen (O2); in an immature technosphere new ‘pollutant’ species appear, such as CFCs, while industrial activities such as combustion may alter the abundance of other pre-existing gases like CO2 and methane; in a mature technosphere all atmospheric constituents may have their concentrations modified to produce long-term stable and productive states for the full (civilization + biosphere) system; this is represented via a range of possible peaks for different constituents. Image credit: Frank et al., doi: 10.1017/S147355042100029X.

Can Planets Be Intelligent?

Feb 22, 2022 by News Staff

Conventionally, intelligence is seen as a property of individuals. However, it is also known to be a property of collectives. Examples include collective-decision-making...

Campbell et al. show that the diameter and radius of curvature of a circular light sail should be comparable in magnitude, both on the order of a few meters, in optimal designs for gram-scale payloads. Image credit: Campbell et al., doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c03272.

Laser-Driven Light Sails Will Need to Billow Like Parachute: Study

Feb 17, 2022 by News Staff

As part of the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative, University of Pennsylvania researcher Igor Bargatin and his colleagues are designing the size, shape and...

This image of Ganymede was captured by NASA’s Juno mission during a close flyby in June 2021. The enhanced-color version of the image was created by citizen scientist Thomas Thomopoulos. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Thomas Thomopoulos.

Juno Spots Dark-Rayed Crater on Ganymede

Feb 16, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new image from the JunoCam instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft shows a large crater on Ganymede, the Jupiter’s largest moon. This image of Ganymede...

Psyche Isn’t Pure Iron Asteroid, New Research Suggests

Feb 16, 2022 by News Staff

Observations of an asteroid group indicate that they may have metal-rich surfaces, but those asteroids with measured densities are about half as dense...

Three prominent features on Arrokoth now have official names. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Arrokoth’s Prominent Features Given Official Names

Feb 16, 2022 by News Staff

The Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth was the target of the January 1, 2019 flyby by NASA’s New Horizons mission. Three prominent features on Arrokoth now...

When flying past Venus on July 11, 2020, the WISPR instrument onboard Parker Solar Probe detected a bright rim around the edge of the planet that may be nightglow. The prominent dark feature in the center of the image is Aphrodite Terra, the largest highland region on the Venusian surface. Bright streaks in WISPR, such as the ones seen here, are typically caused by a combination of cosmic rays, sunlight reflected by grains of space dust, and particles of material expelled from the spacecraft’s structures after impact with those dust grains. The number of streaks varies along the orbit or when the spacecraft is traveling at different speeds, and scientists are still in discussion about the specific origins of the streaks here. The dark spot appearing on the lower portion of Venus is an artifact from the WISPR instrument. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory / Naval Research Laboratory / Guillermo Stenborg / Brendan Gallagher.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Captures Stunning Images of Venus’ Night Side

Feb 10, 2022 by News Staff

During two gravity-assist flybys on July 11, 2020 and February 20, 2021, the Wide-Field Imager for Parker Solar Probe (WISPR) imager on board NASA’s...

This infrared image, taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, shows an aurora at the southern pole of Saturn. Image credit: NASA / Cassini / VIMS Team / University of Arizona / University of Leicester / JPL / ASI.

Weather Drives Saturn’s Powerful Aurorae, Planetary Scientists Say

Feb 9, 2022 by News Staff

Saturn is unique among planets observed to date in that some of its aurorae are generated by swirling winds within its atmosphere, and not just from the...

This image from ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter shows a giant impact crater in Acidalia Planitia on Mars. Image credit: ESA / CaSSIS / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Trace Gas Orbiter Spots ‘Tree Stump’ Crater on Mars

Feb 2, 2022 by News Staff

ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has spotted an ice-rich impact crater in Acidalia Planitia, a Martian plain between the Tharsis volcanic province and Arabia...

The Paleolithic settlement at Abu Hureyra in what is now Syria may have been destroyed 12,800 years ago because of a comet. Image credit: Jennifer Rice, Comet Research Group.

Near-Earth Comet Exploded over North America about 1,500 Years Ago

Feb 2, 2022 by News Staff

Archaeologists have found meteorites, microspherules, iridium and platinum anomalies, and burned charcoal-rich habitation surfaces at 11 archaeological...

Many technologies key to modern society are vulnerable to solar storms. Image credit: National Space Weather Program.

Extreme Solar Storm Hit Our Planet 9,200 Years Ago

Jan 27, 2022 by News Staff

During solar storms, the Sun expels large amounts of energetic particles that can react with the atmosphere of Earth and produce cosmogenic isotopes such...

This image from the Context Camera onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Bosporos Planum on Mars; the white specks are salt deposits found within a dry channel; the largest impact crater in the scene is nearly 1.5 km (one mile) across. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Water Flowed on Martian Surface as Recently as Two Billion Years Ago, Study Suggests

Jan 27, 2022 by News Staff

It’s commonly believed that Martian liquid water evaporated about 3 billion years ago, but a duo of planetary scientists from Caltech and Johns Hopkins...