Space Exploration News

Gale crater is 155 km in diameter and now holds a layered mountain rising about 5 km above the crater floor. This illustration depicts a lake of water partially filling the crater. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / UA / Sci-News.com.

Curiosity Finds Evidence of Mars’ Ancient Ice-Covered Lakes

May 21, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on NASA’s rover Curiosity, researchers have found that certain minerals in rocks at Gale...

This image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows a hill with a central crater. Such features have been interpreted as both mud volcanoes (really a sedimentary structure) and as actual volcanoes (the erupting lava kind). They occur on the floor of Valles Marineris below a closed topographic contour that could have held a lake, and the compaction of wet sediments may have created mud volcanoes. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona.

Martian Mud Volcanoes May Look Similar to Lava Flows Found on Earth

May 19, 2020 by News Staff

Mud flows exposed to the low atmospheric pressures found on Mars will behave similar to lava flows in Hawaii or Iceland, also known as pahoehoe flows,...

Water vapor plumes on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. Image credit: David Ladd, USRA & NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Study Provides Additional Evidence for Water Vapor Plumes on Europa

May 19, 2020 by News Staff

NASA’s Galileo spacecraft encountered an active water plume during a flyby of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa in 2000, according to a new study published...

This image of Jupiter was taken on February 17, 2020 as Juno performed its 25th close flyby of the gas giant. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was 25,120 km (15,610 miles) from the planet’s cloud tops at a latitude of about 71 degrees North. Image credit: NASA / JPL / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstaedt.

Juno Sees Jupiter’s Northern High-Altitude Hazes

May 18, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA’s Juno orbiter captured a beautiful image during its 25th close flyby of Jupiter in February 2020. This image of Jupiter was taken on February 17,...

This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows a beautiful slice of the Red Planet from the northern polar cap downwards, and highlights cratered, pockmarked swathes of the Terra Sabaea and Arabia Terra regions. It comprises data gathered on June 17, 2019. This image was created using data from the nadir and color channels of Mars Express’ High Resolution Stereo Camera. The nadir channel is aligned perpendicular to the surface of Mars, as if looking straight down at the surface. North is up. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin.

Pockets of Salty Water May Exist on Present-Day Mars

May 14, 2020 by News Staff

A new study shows that pockets of brine can form and persist from the equator to high latitudes on the Martian surface for a few percent of the year for...

A fragment of the Tagish Lake meteorite. Image credit: Mike Zolensky, NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Researchers Find Evidence of Ancient Molecular Fluids in Meteorite

May 12, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States and Canada has found evidence for 4.55-billion-year-old sodium-rich alkaline fluids in the Tagish Lake meteorite,...

Hayabusa-2 image of the asteroid Ryugu as seen from a distance of 3.7 miles. A particularly large crater is visible near the center of the image. Image credit: JAXA / University of Tokyo / Kochi University / Rikkyo University / Nagoya University / Chiba Institute of Technology / Meiji University / University of Aizu / AIST.

Hayabusa-2 Reveals Surface of Near-Earth Asteroid Ryugu in Stunning Detail

May 11, 2020 by News Staff

JAXA’s Hayabusa-2 spacecraft recently traveled to the near-Earth asteroid (162173) Ryugu to collect samples and return them to Earth for lab analysis....

Channel-forms preserved in sedimentary layers in Hellas Planitia on Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona / Matt Balme.

Deep, Perennial or Semi-Perennial Rivers Flowed on Early Mars

May 7, 2020 by News Staff

While the present-day Martian surface is generally dry and cold, its sedimentary rocks contain compelling evidence for the former presence of liquid water....

This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about 4 billion years ago. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Martian Dynamo was Active between 4.5 and 3.7 Billion Years Ago, Study Says

May 5, 2020 by News Staff

A planet’s global magnetic field arises from a so-called dynamo — a flow of molten metal within the planet’s core that produces an electrical...

NASA Releases Reprocessed Photos of Jupiter’s Moon Europa

May 5, 2020 by News Staff

The newly-remastered images show the icy surface of Europa, the sixth of Jupiter’s moons and the fourth largest, in enhanced color. This map shows locations...

Global map of the albedo from the 750 nm filter of the UV-VIS camera onboard NASA’s Clementine spacecraft. The image shows the near side and far side of the Moon in Lambert, equal-area projection. Image credit: NASA.

Active Tectonic System Spotted on Moon’s Nearside

May 4, 2020 by News Staff

A system of wrinkle ridges on the nearside maria of the Moon is evidence of seismic activity set in motion 4.3 billion years ago that could be ongoing...

Orange-colored carbonate grains in the ALH 84001 meteorite. Image credit: Koike et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-15931-4.

Researchers Find Nitrogen-Bearing Organics in Ancient Martian Meteorite

May 1, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Four-billion-year-old carbonates in a Martian meteorite called Allan Hills (ALH) 84001 contain nitrogen-bearing organic molecules, according to a new study...

The Unified Geologic Map of the Moon. Image credit: U.S. Geological Survey / Lunar and Planetary Institute / South Dakota School of Mines and Technology / NASA / JAXA.

Researchers Create Comprehensive Geologic Map of Moon

Apr 23, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey, the Lunar and Planetary Institute and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology has released...

A composite image of Venus as seen by JAXA’s Akatsuki spacecraft. Image credit: Institute of Space and Astronautical Science / Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

MESSENGER Finds Chemically Distinct Regions in Atmosphere of Venus

Apr 22, 2020 by News Staff

A new analysis of archival data from NASA’s Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft reveals a sudden rise...

Reconstructed sagittal 5-mm orthogonal midline images in the brain using the sagittal 3D T1-weighted data set: (left) preflight baseline image and (right) matching postflight image (postflight day 1) in the same astronaut; the black arrowheads show upward expansion of the anterior, middle, and posterior superior margins of the lateral ventricle with associated narrowing of the marginal sulcus of the cingulate sulcus (white arrowhead); there is subtle expansion of the third ventricle (indicated by a 3), which has displaced the thalamus (T) from midline, making it less visible; there is thickening of the intermediate signal scalp soft tissues (arrows). Image credit: Kramer et al, doi: 10.1148/radiol.2020191413.

Study: Long-Duration Spaceflight Affects Brain Volume

Apr 16, 2020 by News Staff

A new study led by Professor Larry Kramer from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston suggests that the impact of microgravity is far-reaching,...

DLR researchers spotted an unusual ozone mini-hole over the Arctic. Image credit: DLR / BIRA / ESA.

Researchers Spot Ozone Mini-Hole over Arctic

Apr 10, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from the Tropomi instrument on ESA’s Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite (also known as Sentinel-5P), a team of scientists from the...

Composite of a true color image of Saturn, observed by Cassini in 2016, overlaid with a false color representation of the ultraviolet aurora in the northern hemisphere as observed on August 20, 2017. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute / A. Bader, Lancaster University.

Pole-to-Pole Map of Saturn’s Thermosphere Reveals Likely Reason Why It’s So Hot

Apr 8, 2020 by News Staff

A team of planetary researchers from the United States and the United Kingdom has created a 2D map of densities and temperatures in Saturn’s thermosphere...

$Illustration showing the present-day hydrogen reservoirs in and on Mars. The mass fractions (pie chart) of Martian water are based on the mass of water in the bulk crust (C), the mantle (M) and the combined inventory (A) of the atmosphere and polar ice deposits (PID). The mantle mass fraction is the combination of depleted shergottites (DS) and enriched shergottites (ES). Image credit: Barnes et al, doi: 10.1038/s41561-020-0552-y.$

Early Mars Had Multiple Water Sources, New Study Shows

Mar 31, 2020 by News Staff

An analysis of two Martian meteorites — Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034 and Allan Hills (ALH) 84001 — shows that Mars likely received water from...

Space Physicists Find Plasmoid in Magnetosphere of Uranus

Mar 27, 2020 by News Staff

Uranus possesses an intrinsic magnetic field that encircles the ice giant and influences the local space environment. The solar wind plasma, made up of...

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