Space Exploration News

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Makes Second Close Approach to Sun

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. Image credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
Apr 8, 2019 by News Staff

On April 4, 2019, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe achieved its second perihelion (close approach) of the Sun and flew within 15 million miles (24 million km) of our star’s surface. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. Image credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. “Parker Solar Probe is performing as designed, and it was great to be able to track it during this entire perihelion,” said Dr. Nickalaus Pinkine, Parker...

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An artist’s impression of a terraformed Mars. Image credit: Daein Ballard / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Hungarian Researchers Claim to See Biosignatures in Martian Meteorite

Apr 4, 2019 by Natali Anderson

ALH-77005, a Martian rock found in Antarctica, contains numerous mineralized ‘biosignatures,’ including coccoidal, filamentous structures and organic...

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the surface of the planet. The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 1,240 miles (2,000 km) long and up to 5 miles (8 km) deep, extending form Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. Many huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain from north-central canyons and run north. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 15.5 miles (25 km) high, are visible to the west. South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Methane on Mars: New Discovery or Just Lot of Hot Air?

Apr 3, 2019 by The Conversation

The discovery of life on Mars would get pretty much everyone excited. But the scientists hunting for it would probably be happy no matter what the outcome...

A photo of a preserved river channel on Mars with color overlaid to show different elevations (blue is low, yellow is high). Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / University of Chicago.

Significant River Runoff Persisted on Mars for More Than One Billion Years

Apr 2, 2019 by News Staff

Mars is dry today, but numerous ancient rivers are found across the planet’s surface and their existence is a challenge to models of planetary climate...

During super-close flybys of Saturn’s rings, Cassini inspected the mini-moons Pan and Daphnis in the A ring; Atlas at the edge of the A ring; Pandora at the edge of the F ring; and Epimetheus, which is bathed in material that fans out from the moon Enceladus. Image credit: NASA-JPL / Caltech.

Saturn’s Rings Coat Its Small Inner Moons, Cassini Researchers Say

Mar 29, 2019 by News Staff

Saturn’s main ring system is associated with a set of moons (Pan, Daphnis, Atlas, Pandora, and Epimetheus) that are either embedded within it, or interact...

This image of the asteroid Ryugu was captured by the Optical Navigation Camera - Telescopic (ONC-T) on JAXA’s Hayabusa-2 spacecraft on June 26, 2018, from a distance of 13.7 miles (22 km). Image credit: JAXA / University of Tokyo / Kochi University / Rikkyo University / Nagoya University / Chiba Institute of Technology / Meiji University / Aizu University / AIST.

Asteroid Ryugu: First Science Results from JAXA’s Hayabusa-2 Mission

Mar 22, 2019 by News Staff

In June 2018, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) spacecraft and sample return mission Hayabsua-2 arrived at the near-Earth asteroid 162173...

Wang et al compared new protosolar elemental abundances with recent estimates of bulk Earth composition. Image credit: Orlando PIRO4D.

Earth is Devolatilized Version of Sun, Planetary Researchers Say

Mar 22, 2019 by News Staff

A team of planetary scientists at the Australian National University found that our planet is made of the same elements as the Sun but has less of the...

This view of asteroid Bennu ejecting particles from its surface on January 19 was created by combining two images taken on board NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / Goddard / University of Arizona / Lockheed Martin.

OSIRIS-REx Spots Particle Plumes Erupting on Asteroid Bennu

Mar 21, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission made the first-ever close-up observations...

This composite picture combines nine individual images taken with New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), each with an exposure time of 0.025 seconds, just 6 ½ minutes before the spacecraft’s closest approach to Ultima Thule. The image was taken at 12:26 a.m. EST (5:26 a.m. GMT) on January 1, 2019, when the spacecraft was 4,109 miles (6,628 km) from Ultima Thule and 4.1 billion miles (6.6 billion km) from Earth. The angle between the spacecraft, Ultima Thule and the Sun -- known as the ‘phase angle’ - was 33 degrees. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute / National Optical Astronomy Observatory.

Ultima Thule: Revealing First Primordial Planetesimal

Mar 20, 2019 by News Staff

Analyzing the data NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has been sending home since the flyby of the Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule, the mission team is learning...

The stress of spaceflight gives viruses a holiday from immune surveillance, putting future deep-space missions in jeopardy. Image credit: NASA.

Dormant Herpes Viruses Reactivate in Astronauts During Spaceflight, New Study Shows

Mar 19, 2019 by News Staff

Latent herpes viruses such as herpes-simplex-1 (HSV-1), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), varicella-zoster virus (VZV), and cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivate in...

This mosaic image of asteroid Bennu is composed of 12 images collected on December 2, 2018 by OSIRIS-REx’s PolyCam instrument from a range of 15 miles (24 km). Image credit: NASA / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / University of Arizona.

Asteroid Bennu is Spinning Faster over Time, New Study Shows

Mar 14, 2019 by News Staff

Bennu — the target of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft...

These two thumbnail images are the final images Opportunity took on Mars as a dust storm darkened the sky. The left Pancam image has more wavy gradations. In the right Pancam image, the Sun appears as the larger whitish feature in the middle of the frame. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / ASU.

NASA Releases Opportunity Rover’s Final Photos of Mars

Mar 14, 2019 by News Staff

After eight months of effort and sending more than a thousand commands in an attempt to restore contact with the Mars rover Opportunity, NASA declared...

A view of the Moon’s south pole showing where reflectance and temperature data indicate the possible presence of surface water ice. Image credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Detects Migrating Water on Moon

Mar 13, 2019 by News Staff

Using data from the LAMP (Lyman Alpha Mapping Project) instrument aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, planetary researchers have observed water...

An artist’s illustration of events on the Sun changing the conditions in near-Earth space. Image credit: NASA.

Solar Super-Storm Hit Earth 2,610 Years Ago

Mar 12, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Evidence of an enormous solar storm that struck the Earth around 2,610 years ago has been found in ice cores from Greenland. An artist’s illustration...

Planetary Researchers Map Potential Sources of Martian Water

Mar 7, 2019 by News Staff

Future manned trips to Mars will require on-site resources, including water, and planetary scientists from a project called ‘Subsurface Water Ice Mapping...

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the surface of the planet. The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 1,240 miles (2,000 km) long and up to 5 miles (8 km) deep, extending form Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. Many huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain from north-central canyons and run north. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 15.5 miles (25 km) high, are visible to the west. South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Ancient Mars Had Planet-Wide Groundwater System

Mar 5, 2019 by News Staff

Observations by ESA’s Mars Express orbiter show evidence of an ancient planet-wide groundwater system on the Red Planet. Mosaic of the Valles Marineris...

This Pluto mosaic was made from New Horizons LORRI images taken on July 14, 2015, from a distance of 49,700 miles (80,000 km). This view is projected from a point 1,118 miles (1,800 km) above Pluto’s equator, looking northeast over the dark, cratered Cthulhu Regio toward the bright, smooth expanse of icy plains called Sputnik Planum. Pluto’s North Pole is off the image to the left. This mosaic was produced with panchromatic images from the New Horizons LORRI camera, with color overlaid from the Ralph color mapper onboard New Horizons. Image credit: S.A. Stern et al.

Pluto and Charon’s Ancient Craters Indicate Deficit of Very Small Kuiper Belt Objects

Mar 1, 2019 by News Staff

Collisions between bodies in our Solar System produce impact craters on large objects at a rate that depends on the population of impacting small bodies....

This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows a valley network on Mars. This oblique perspective view was generated using a digital terrain model and Mars Express data gathered on November 19, 2018. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter Spots Ancient River Valley Network

Feb 27, 2019 by News Staff

Mars today is a cold, dry world, but it may not always have been so. Recent studies increasingly indicate that the planet once had a thicker, denser atmosphere...

This image of Jupiter was taken on February 12, 2019, as Juno performed its 18th close flyby of the planet. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill.

Juno Gets Close Look at Jupiter’s Turbulent Clouds

Feb 27, 2019 by News Staff

NASA has released new images taken by the Juno probe of Jupiter, featuring giant storms and swirling clouds in the gas giant’s atmosphere. This image...

This composite picture combines nine individual images taken with New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), each with an exposure time of 0.025 seconds, just 6 ½ minutes before the spacecraft’s closest approach to Ultima Thule. The image was taken at 12:26 a.m. EST (5:26 a.m. GMT) on January 1, 2019, when the spacecraft was 4,109 miles (6,628 km) from Ultima Thule and 4.1 billion miles (6.6 billion km) from Earth. The angle between the spacecraft, Ultima Thule and the Sun -- known as the ‘phase angle’ - was 33 degrees. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute / National Optical Astronomy Observatory.

New Horizons Beams Back Sharpest-Ever Images of Ultima Thule

Feb 25, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons probe has returned the sharpest images of Ultima Thule to date, taken during the spacecraft’s historic flyby of the Kuiper Belt...

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