Space Exploration News

An artist’s impression of the ultra-short-period sub-Neptune exoplanet TOI-1634b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Helium Rain is Possible inside Jovian Planets, New Experiments Suggest

May 27, 2021 by News Staff

Jupiter, Saturn and numerous giant exoplanets discovered to date consist mostly of hydrogen and helium. In 1977, planetary scientists predicted the existence...

The surface of Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view; image scale is 1.6 km per pixel; north on Europa is at right. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SETI Institute.

Europa Has Volcanoes on the Floor of Its Subsurface Ocean, Study Suggests

May 26, 2021 by News Staff

Jupiter’s moon Europa harbors underneath a tectonically modified ice shell a salty ocean in direct contact with its rocky interior. Such an oceanic environment...

Mars is kept company by two cratered moons -- an inner moon named Phobos and an outer moon named Deimos. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Malin Space Science Systems / Texas A&M University.

Phobos and Deimos are Fragments of Larger Martian Moon, Study Suggests

May 19, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Phobos and Deimos, two satellites of Mars, originated from disintegration of a much larger moon between 1 and 2.7 billion years ago, according to new computer...

Sketch of the relative positions of NASA’s and ESA’s spacecraft that observed the February 12, 2021 coronal mass ejections; ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft was ‘behind’ the Sun from the perspective of Earth; the Earth was about 12 degrees west of Sun-center as seen from Solar Orbiter; ESA’s Proba-2, which orbits the Earth, and the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), which is located in orbit around the Lagrange point 1, 1.5 million km in front of the Earth towards the Sun, also viewed the coronal mass ejection; NASA’s STEREO-A (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) also caught a glimpse of the event from its viewpoint away from the direct Sun-Earth line; together the spacecraft provide valuable, different perspectives on the same event. Image credit: ESA.

Solar Orbiter Observes Two Huge Eruptions on Sun

May 18, 2021 by News Staff

The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), the Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) and the Metis coronagraph onboard the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter captured different...

Perseverance used its dual-camera Mastcam-Z imager to capture this (enhanced) image of Santa Cruz, a hill within Jezero Crater, on April 29, 2021, the 68th Martian day of the mission. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS.

Perseverance Begins to Study Floor of Jezero Crater

May 13, 2021 by News Staff

NASA’s Perseverance rover is focusing its science instruments on rocks that lay on the floor of Jezero Crater, which is located on the western edge of...

Illustration of NASA’s Voyager spacecraft showing the antennas used by the Plasma Wave Subsystem and other instruments. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Voyager 1 Detects Plasma Waves in Interstellar Medium

May 12, 2021 by News Staff

Launched in September 1977, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft flew by Jupiter in 1979 and then Saturn in late 1980. In August 2012, it crossed the heliopause...

This image of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu was captured on April 9, 2021, by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / University of Arizona.

OSIRIS-REx Is On Its Way Back to Earth with Sample of Asteroid Bennu’s Regolith

May 12, 2021 by News Staff

On May 10, 2021, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft fired its main engines full throttle for seven minutes; this burn thrust the spacecraft away from the asteroid...

Horvath et al. found strong evidence for geologically recent volcanic activity in Elysium Planitia, Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL / MSSS / Murray Lab.

Mars Could Still Be Volcanically Active, Planetary Scientists Say

May 11, 2021 by News Staff

Volcanic activity on Mars peaked during the Noachian and Hesperian periods, between 3 and 4 billion years ago, with smaller eruptions in isolated locations...

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter was captured after landing on May 7, 2021, by the Mastcam-Z imager aboard the Perseverance rover. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS.

Ingenuity Completes Its Fifth Flight on Mars

May 10, 2021 by News Staff

On May 7, 2021, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter successfully completed its fifth flight with one-way journey from the ‘Wright Brothers Field’ to a new...

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter (above center to the right) is viewed by one of the hazard cameras aboard the Perseverance rover during the helicopter’s fourth flight on April 30, 2021. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Listen to NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter in Flight

May 7, 2021 by News Staff

NASA’s Perseverance rover used a microphone on its SuperCam laser instrument to listen as the Ingenuity helicopter flew for the fourth time on April...

Saturn’s interior with a stably stratified helium insoluble layer (HIL). Image credit: Yi Zheng, HEMI / MICA Extreme Arts Program.

Helium Rain Layer Influences Unique Magnetic Field of Saturn, Study Suggests

May 6, 2021 by News Staff

Detailed measurements from the Grand Finale phase of NASA’s Cassini mission revealed distinctive features of Saturn’s magnetic field. These features...

Venus in real colors, processed from Mariner 10 images. Image credit: Mattias Malmer / NASA.

Parker Solar Probe Detects Natural Radio Emission from Ionosphere of Venus

May 5, 2021 by News Staff

On July 11, 2020, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe made its third flyby of Venus. During 7 min around the closest approach, one of the spacecraft’s scientific...

Geologic map of the southwest peak-ring area of the Schrödinger basin, including structural features, geologic units and inferred lithologies in the peak ring. Image credit: Czaplinski et al., doi: 10.3847/PSJ/abdb34.

Scientists Create Detailed Geologic Map of Moon’s South Polar Region

May 5, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of planetary researchers from the University of Arkansas and elsewhere has produced a high-resolution geologic map of the Schrödinger...

Asteroid 2018 LA in space (top left image by the Catalina Sky Survey) and the first 23 meteorites recovered on the ground as photographed in situ (scale of each figure is about 4 x 4 cm). Meteorites are shown in order of find (MP-01 top left, to MP-23 bottom right). Image credit: Jenniskens et al., doi: 10.1111/maps.13653.

Asteroid 2018 LA Likely Came from Vesta, Researchers Say

Apr 30, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

2018 LA, a 1.5-m-wide asteroid that disintegrated harmlessly over Botswana, Africa, just hours after its discovery on June 2, 2018, is only the second...

Hubble photo of Mars taken when the planet was 50 million miles (80 million km) from Earth on May 12. The photo reveals details as small as 20 - 30 miles (32.2 - 48.3 km) across. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / J. Bell, ASU / M. Wolff, Space Science Institute.

High-Altitude Ice Clouds Caused Greenhouse Effect on Early Mars, New Study Suggests

Apr 27, 2021 by News Staff

Mars is cold today but once had water lakes and flowing rivers. The early warm climate cannot be explained by basic models of the early Mars greenhouse...

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter can be seen hovering during its third flight on April 25, 2021, as seen by the left Navigation Camera aboard the Perseverance rover. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Ingenuity Helicopter Sets New Records during Its Third Flight

Apr 26, 2021 by News Staff

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter took off at 4:31 a.m. EDT (1:31 a.m. PDT), or 12:33 p.m. local Mars time, on April 25, 2021, rising 5 m (16 feet); then it...

This image was taken by the WATSON camera on the robotic arm of Perseverance on April 6, 2021 (46th Martian day, or sol, of the mission). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Perseverance Extracts Pure Oxygen from Carbon Dioxide-Rich Martian Air

Apr 23, 2021 by News Staff

On April 20, 2021, the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover converted some of carbon...

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

NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Completes Its Second Flight on Mars

Apr 22, 2021 by News Staff

Lasting 51.9 seconds, Ingenuity’s experimental flight on April 22, 2021, added several new challenges to its first flight, including a higher maximum...

The young Mars would have had enough water to cover its entire surface in a liquid layer about 140 m deep, but it is more likely that the liquid would have pooled to form an ocean occupying almost half of Mars’s northern hemisphere, and in some regions reaching depths greater than 1.6 km. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO / N. Risinger, skysurvey.org.

Martian Climate Fluctuated between Drier and Wetter Periods Before It Went Dry

Apr 19, 2021 by News Staff

Mars had drier and wetter eras before drying up completely in the Hesperian period, about 3 billion years ago, according to an analysis of observational...