Space Exploration News

Jupiter’s Violent Storms May Form Ammonia-Water Hailstones

This image captured by NASA’s Juno orbiter shows a multitude of magnificent, swirling clouds in Jupiter’s North North Temperate Belt. The image was taken at 4:58 p.m. EDT on October 29, 2018 (1:58 p.m. PDT) as the spacecraft performed its 16th close flyby of Jupiter. At the time, Juno was about 4,400 miles (7,000 km) from the planet’s cloud tops, at a latitude of approximately 40 degrees north. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstaedt / Sean Doran.
Aug 7, 2020 by News Staff

A new study suggests that during Jupiter’s violent storms, hailstones form from a cooled mixture of water and ammonia gas, similar to the process in Earth’s storms where hail forms in the presence of supercooled liquid water; growth of these Jovian hailstones, dubbed ‘mushballs,’ creates a slush-like substance surrounded by a layer of ice, and mushballs fall, evaporate, and continue sinking further in the gas giant’s deep atmosphere. This...

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This illustration uses data obtained by NASA’s Juno mission to depict high-altitude electrical storms on Jupiter. Juno’s Stellar Reference Unit camera detected unusual lightning flashes on Jupiter’s dark side during the spacecraft’s close flybys of the planet. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt.

Juno Discovers ‘Shallow Lightning’ on Jupiter

Aug 6, 2020 by News Staff

An unexpected form of electrical discharge, ‘shallow lightning’ originates from Jovian clouds containing an ammonia-water solution, according to a...

New model suggests the shape of the Sun’s bubble of influence, the heliosphere (seen in yellow), may be a deflated croissant shape, rather than the long-tailed comet shape suggested by other research. Image credit: Opher et al, doi: 10.1038/s41550-020-1036-0.

Solar System’s Heliosphere May Be Smaller and Rounder than Previously Thought

Aug 6, 2020 by News Staff

The heliosphere is a giant magnetic bubble that contains our Solar System, the solar wind and the solar magnetic field. Outside the heliosphere is the...

Curiosity rover took this selfie on October 11, 2019. The rover drilled twice in this location, nicknamed Glen Etive. Just left of the rover are the two drill holes, called Glen Etive 1 (right) and Glen Etive 2 (left). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Marks Eight Years of Mars Exploration

Aug 5, 2020 by News Staff

NASA’s Curiosity rover has seen a lot since August 5, 2012, when it first set its wheels inside the huge basin of Gale Crater. Curiosity rover took this...

A view of Mars showing the planet’s northern polar ice cap. Image credit: ISRO / ISSDC / Emily Lakdawalla.

Ice Sheets Covered Southern Highlands of Early Mars

Aug 3, 2020 by News Staff

The southern highlands of Mars are dissected by hundreds of ancient valley networks (3.9-3.5 billion years old), which are evidence that water once sculpted...

These images, taken on July 17 and 19, 2020 by the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, show a huge cloud over Arsia Mons volcano. Image credit: ESA.

Giant Cloud Reappears above Martian Volcano

Jul 31, 2020 by News Staff

The Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft has captured new images of a giant cloud over the 20-km (12.4-mile) high Arsia Mons...

The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover and Ingenuity helicopter are on the way to Mars after the July 30 7:50 a.m. launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Image credit: NASA.

Perseverance Launches to Hunt for Signs of Ancient Martian Life

Jul 30, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at...

ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter at Mars. Image credit: D. Ducros / ESA.

ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter Detects Ozone and Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of Mars

Jul 29, 2020 by News Staff

The Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS) aboard ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has spotted never-before-seen spectral signatures of ozone and carbon...

These five infrared images from the JIRAM instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft provide the first infrared mapping of Ganymede’s northern frontier. The images were taken every 20 minutes, beginning at time of closest approach (far left) on December 26, 2019, when the orbiter was about 62,000 miles (100,000 km) from Ganymede. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / ASI / INAF / JIRAM.

Juno Sees North Pole of Ganymede in Infrared Light

Jul 25, 2020 by News Staff

The Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument onboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft has captured the first infrared images of the north pole of Ganymede,...

This high-resolution scanning electron microscope image shows an unusual tube-like structural form that is less than 1/100th the width of a human hair in size found in the Martian meteorite ALH84001. Image credit: NASA.

Immune System of Humans, Other Mammals Could Struggle to Fight Extraterrestrial Microorganisms

Jul 23, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study published in the journal Microorganisms, a team of researchers from the UK, the Netherlands and Germany tested how mammalian immune cells...

Meteoroids bombarded the Earth-Moon system 800 million years ago. Image credit: Murayama, Osaka University.

Asteroid Shower Bombarded Earth-Moon System 800 Million Years Ago

Jul 22, 2020 by News Staff

A team of planetary researchers from Japan has demonstrated that a 100-km asteroid was disrupted 800 million years ago (Tonian period of the Neoproterozoic...

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

Venus is Still Geologically Active, New Research Suggests

Jul 21, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the University of Maryland and the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zurich has identified 37 active circular volcano-tectonic...

A high-resolution image from the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) on Solar Orbiter, taken with the HRIEUV telescope on May 30, 2020. The circle in the lower left corner indicates the size of Earth for scale. The arrow points to one of the ubiquitous features of the solar surface, called ‘campfires’ and revealed for the first time by these images. On May 30, Solar Orbiter was roughly halfway between the Earth and the Sun, meaning that it was closer to the Sun than any other solar telescope has ever been before. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Solar Orbiter / EUI Team / CSL / IAS / MPS / PMOD / WRC / ROB / UCL / MSSL.

Solar Orbiter Beams Back Its First Images of the Sun

Jul 17, 2020 by News Staff

Solar Orbiter, a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA, made its first close approach to the Sun in mid-June and captured unique...

When the Moon formed into a sphere approximately 1,700 km in radius 4.425 billion years ago, its interior heated up considerably due to the energy released when it accreted. The rock melted and an ocean of magma, possibly more than 1,000 km deep, formed. Later, light rocks crystallized, which rose to the surface and formed a first crust on the Moon. This crust insulated the Moon from space, and the magma ocean beneath it cooled down slowly. Around 200 million years would pass before the Moon completely solidified. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Moon May Be 85 Million Years Younger than Thought

Jul 15, 2020 by News Staff

Earth’s only natural satellite formed 4.425 billion years ago — around 85 million years later than previous estimates, according to a new modeling...

This composite image of Jupiter combines five JunoCam images taken on June 2, 2020, between 6:56 a.m. EDT (3:56 a.m. PDT) and 7:25 a.m. EDT (4:25 a.m. PDT). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill / CC BY.

New Oval-Shaped Feature Spotted on Jupiter: Clyde’s Spot

Jul 6, 2020 by News Staff

An astronomer from South Africa has discovered a new ‘white oval’ in the southern hemisphere of the gas giant Jupiter. Jupiter as captured...

This photograph was taken looking south across Mare Imbrium. The crater Copernicus, 93 km (58 miles) in diameter, is seen in the distance. Several chains of small craters are visible. These are oriented toward Copernicus and are secondary craters produced by material ejected when Copernicus formed. In the foreground, the crater Pytheas is 20 km (12.4 miles) in diameter. This photo was taken by the Apollo 17 crew in 1972. Image credit: Lunar and Planetary Institute.

Lunar Subsurface May Be Richer in Metals than Previously Thought

Jul 2, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from the Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) instrument onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a team of U.S. researchers has...

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.

Cometary Debris May Have Destroyed Paleolithic Settlement 12,800 Years Ago

Jul 2, 2020 by News Staff

Fragments of an exploding short-period comet may have caused destruction of the Paleolithic settlement at Abu Hureyra in northern Syria about 12,800 years...

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

Planetary Researchers Explore Habitability of Europa’s Ocean

Jun 25, 2020 by News Staff

A duo of U.S. planetary scientists has calculated that water in the subsurface ocean of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa could have been formed by breakdown...

This high-resolution image of Pluto was taken by New Horizons on July 14. Pluto’s surface sports a remarkable range of subtle colors, enhanced in this view to a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds. Many landforms have their own distinct colors, telling a complex geological and climatological story that scientists have only just begun to decode. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Newborn Pluto Was Hot and Had Subsurface Ocean: Study

Jun 23, 2020 by News Staff

Pluto is thought to possess a subsurface ocean beneath its thick ice shell. It has generally been assumed that the dwarf planet formed out of cold material...

An artist’s impression of ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter detecting the green glow of oxygen in the Martian atmosphere. This emission, spotted on the dayside of Mars, is similar to the night glow seen around Earth’s atmosphere from space. Image credit: ESA.

ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter Detects Glowing Oxygen in Martian Atmosphere

Jun 18, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from the NOMAD (Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery) ultraviolet and visible spectrometer instrument on board ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas...

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