Space Exploration News

This artist’s painting of the south polar region of Enceladus shows massive jets of water ice being blasted into space. Image credit: Karl Kofoed / NASA.

Cassini Scientists Find Complex Organic Molecules in Geyser-Like Plumes of Enceladus

Jun 28, 2018 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, a research team led by University of Heidelberg scientists Frank Postberg and Nozair Khawaja found that complex,...

The Medusae Fossae Formation is one of the largest sedimentary deposits on Mars. This is an infrared image mosaic generated using Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) images from NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter mission; the small colored globe based on the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). Image credit: NASA.

Volcanic Eruptions Spawned Mysterious Medusae Fossae Formation on Mars

Jun 19, 2018 by News Staff

Explosive volcanic eruptions are the likely source of the Medusae Fossae Formation, a massive, unusual deposit of soft rock near Mars’ equator, with...

Organic deposits in Ernutet crater on Ceres. Image credit: Kaplan et al / NASA.

Organic Matter on Dwarf Planet Ceres More Abundant than Thought

Jun 14, 2018 by News Staff

A new analysis of data collected by NASA’s Dawn orbiter suggests that organic molecules may exist in surprisingly high concentrations on the surface...

Cometary-type interplanetary dust particle collected by NASA aircraft. Image credit: Hope Ishii, University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Cometary-Type Interplanetary Particles Contain Presolar Dust, Researchers Find

Jun 13, 2018 by News Staff

Samples of interplanetary particles — collected from the upper atmosphere of Earth and believed to originate from comets — contain presolar...

Professors Meyers and Malinverno reconstructed the deep history of Earth’s relationship to the Moon. Image credit: Jonny Lindner.

Moon is Making Days on Earth Longer: Study

Jun 12, 2018 by News Staff

Around 1.4 billion years ago, a day on Earth lasted approximately 18.7 hours, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy...

An artist’s concept of the minor planet Sedna; the Sun appears as an extremely bright star instead of a large, warm disc observed from Earth; in the distance is a hypothetical small moon, which scientists believe may be orbiting this distant body. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Collective Gravity, Not Planet Nine, May Explain Orbits of Sedna and Other Detached Trans-Neptunian Objects

Jun 11, 2018 by News Staff

A team of planetary researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder has offered up a new theory for the existence of strange trans-Neptunian objects...

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.

Curiosity Finds Organic Molecules in Ancient Rocks, Seasonal Methane Releases on Mars

Jun 8, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has detected organic molecules in 3-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks at the base of the Murray formation at Pahrump Hills,...

This artist’s concept of lightning distribution in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere incorporates a JunoCam image with artistic embellishments. Data from NASA’s Juno mission indicates that most of the lightning activity on Jupiter is near its poles. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / JunoCam.

Juno Scientists Solve Mysteries of Jupiter’s Lightning

Jun 7, 2018 by News Staff

Ever since NASA’s Voyager 1 flew past Jupiter in 1979, planetary researchers have wondered about the origin of Jovian lightning. That encounter confirmed...

Artist’s concept of a near-Earth asteroid. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

2018 LA: Boulder-Sized Asteroid Disintegrates over Botswana

Jun 6, 2018 by News Staff

A 6-foot (2 m) wide asteroid called 2018 LA disintegrated harmlessly over Botswana, Africa, just hours after its discovery on Saturday morning (June 2,...

This artist’s concept shows NASA’s Dawn spacecraft arriving at Ceres. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft on the Way to Its Lowest-Ever Orbit around Ceres

Jun 4, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is maneuvering to its lowest-ever orbit for a close-up examination of the dwarf planet Ceres. This artist’s concept shows NASA’s...

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.

Researchers Find Methane Ice Dunes on Pluto

Jun 1, 2018 by News Staff

Wind-blown dunes are known on Earth, Mars, Venus, Saturn’s moon Titan, and Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko — and, now on Pluto, according to a...

This artist’s concept depicts the dry environment seen at Mars today versus the early Martian environment. Image credit: Simon Fraser University.

Iron-Rich Rocks are Best Place to Seek Fossil Evidence of Martian Life, Scientists Say

May 29, 2018 by News Staff

Iron-rich rocks near ancient lake sites on Mars are the most promising and best understood astropaleontological targets, according to new research led...

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.

Is Pluto ‘an Agglomeration of a Billion Comets’?

May 28, 2018 by News Staff

Planetary researchers working with data from NASA’s New Horizons and ESA’s Rosetta missions have developed a new theory for the formation of the dwarf...

NASA’s InSight spacecraft is on its way to Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s InSight Spacecraft Makes Its First Course Correction toward Mars

May 25, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft is currently cruising to Mars. On May 22, 2018,...

Novel drugs could one day protect astronauts on deep-space missions from dangerous cosmic radiation. Image credit: Jonny Lindner.

New Drug Prevents Memory Impairment in Mice Exposed to Simulated Deep Space Radiation

May 23, 2018 by News Staff

A team of neuroscientists from the University of California, San Francisco, and Loma Linda University has identified the first potential treatment for...

This image from NASA’s MarCO-B (known as ‘Wall-E’ to the MarCO team) CubeSat shows the spacecraft’s unfolded high-gain antenna at right and the Earth and the Moon in the center. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s MarCO-B CubeSat Captures Earth-Moon Image

May 16, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s MarCO-B spacecraft — one of two CubeSats accompanying the space agency’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and...

Artist’s illustration of Jupiter and Europa with NASA’s Galileo spacecraft after its pass through a plume erupting from Europa’s surface. A new computer simulation gives us an idea of how the magnetic field interacted with a plume. The magnetic field lines (depicted in blue) show how the plume interacts with the ambient flow of Jovian plasma. The red colors on the lines show more dense areas of plasma. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Michigan.

Archival Data from NASA’s Galileo Mission Yield New Evidence of Water Plumes on Europa

May 15, 2018 by News Staff

A new analysis of data collected by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in 1997 has found strong evidence that the underground ocean of Jupiter’s moon Europa...

NASA’s Mars Helicopter. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA to Send Autonomous Helicopter to Mars

May 14, 2018 by News Staff

The Mars Helicopter, a technology demonstration that will travel to the Red Planet with NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, will attempt controlled flight in the...

Our planet is surrounded by the magnetosphere, shown here in blue. As charged particles from the Sun flow around the Earth’s magnetosphere, it forms the magnetosheath, shown in yellow. Image credit: Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA’s MMS Mission Discovers New Magnetic Process in Earth’s Magnetosheath Region

May 10, 2018 by News Staff

Earth is surrounded by a protective magnetic environment, the magnetosphere, which deflects a supersonic stream of charged particles from the Sun, known...