Space Exploration News

The Almahata Sitta meteorite. Image credit: Peter Jenniskens.

Diamond-Bearing ‘Almahata Sitta’ Meteorites Came from Long-Lost Protoplanet

Apr 19, 2018 by News Staff

The Almahata Sitta meteorites — diamond-bearing space rock fragments that rained down on the Nubian Desert in Sudan in 2008 — are remnants...

This composite image, derived from data collected by the JIRAM instrument aboard NASA’s Juno orbiter, shows the central cyclone at Jupiter’s north pole and the eight cyclones that encircle it. JIRAM collects data in infrared, and the colors in this composite represent radiant heat: the yellow (thinner) clouds are about 9 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 13 degrees Celsius) in brightness temperature and the dark red (thickest) are around minus 181 degrees Fahrenheit (83 degrees Celsius). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / ASI / INAF / JIRAM.

New Flyover Video Takes You on Tour of Jupiter’s North Pole

Apr 12, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers on NASA’s Juno mission shared a 3D infrared movie depicting densely packed cyclones and anticyclones that permeate the north polar region...

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

Venus’ Atmosphere Could Host Acid-Resistant Microorganisms

Apr 2, 2018 by News Staff

In the search for alien life, astrobiologists have turned over all sorts of rocks. For example, Mars has geological features that suggest it once had subsurface...

Greenwood et al discovered that water was present on Earth at an early stage in its evolution and survived the giant impact, which formed the Moon. This is an artist’s depiction of a catastrophic collision between two celestial bodies; such an impact between the proto-Earth and Theia likely formed the Moon. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Earth’s Water was Present before Moon-Forming Impact, Research Shows

Mar 30, 2018 by News Staff

The high-energy impact about 100 million years after our Solar System formed, resulted in the two colliding planetary objects completely merging to create...

The early ocean known as Arabia (left, blue) would have looked like this when it formed 4 billion years ago on Mars, while the Deuteronilus ocean, about 3.6 billion years old, had a smaller shoreline; both coexisted with the massive volcanic province Tharsis, located on the unseen side of the planet, which may have helped support the existence of liquid water; the water is now gone, perhaps frozen underground and partially lost to space, while the ancient seabed is known as the northern plains. Image credit: Robert Citron, University of California, Berkeley.

Martian Oceans Formed Earlier than Thought, Geophysicists Say

Mar 20, 2018 by News Staff

A team of geophysicists at the University of California, Berkeley, proposes that Martian oceans originated several hundred million years earlier than thought,...

This false-color image shows the dwarf planet Ceres. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Dwarf Planet Ceres Continues to Evolve and Change

Mar 16, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has detected recent changes in Ceres’ surface, revealing that the dwarf planet is a dynamic planetary body that continues to...

On October 19, 2014, Comet Siding Spring made a remarkably close encounter with Mars, buzzing the planet at just one third of the Earth-Moon distance. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Physicists Solve Mystery of Why Comets Emit X-Rays

Mar 15, 2018 by News Staff

The long-standing mystery of why comets give off X-ray emission has been solved by a group of experimental physicists led by the University of Oxford,...

This image of the Great Red Spot was taken on July 10, 2017, as Juno performed its seventh close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was 8,648 miles (13,917 km) from the tops of the clouds of the planet. Image credit: NASA / SwRI / MSSS.

Great Red Spot Getting Taller as It Shrinks, Planetary Scientists Say

Mar 15, 2018 by News Staff

Planetary scientists have noticed that Jupiter’s most distinctive feature — the Great Red Spot (GRS) — has been getting smaller in area over...

This image of Phobos was acquired using the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) during Mars Express orbit 17,342 on September 12, 2017. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Mars Express Spacecraft Observes Phobos and Deimos

Mar 13, 2018 by News Staff

New images and video captured by ESA’s Mars Express orbiter show two small Martian moons Phobos and Deimos drifting in front of the giant planet Saturn...

JunoCam took this image during its eleventh close flyby of Jupiter on February 7, 2018. Image credit: NASA / JPL / SwRI / MSSS / David Marriott.

Juno Mission Team Reports New Results from Jupiter

Mar 8, 2018 by News Staff

New data gathered by NASA’s Juno orbiter indicate that Jupiter’s winds run deep into its atmosphere and last longer than similar atmospheric processes...

Juno Finds Clusters of Cyclones on Jupiter’s Poles

Mar 8, 2018 by News Staff

Jupiter has no tilt as it moves, so its poles have never been visible from our planet. But in the past two years, with NASA’s Juno spacecraft, researchers...

Dr. Moriarty and Professor Pieters identified four distinct compositional regions within and around the South Pole-Aitken basin on the Moon. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

New Research Details Mineralogy of Enormous Impact Crater on the Far Side of the Moon

Mar 1, 2018 by News Staff

A team of planetary scientists from Brown University and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has mapped the mineralogy of the South Pole-Aitken basin,...

If the Moon has enough water, and if it’s reasonably convenient to access, future explorers might be able to use it as drinking water or to convert it into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel or oxygen to breathe. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Water is Widely Distributed across Lunar Surface, Study Suggests

Feb 26, 2018 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience indicates that water may be more prevalent on the lunar surface than previously thought. If the...

This color-enhanced image shows swirling cloud formations in the northern area of Jupiter’s north temperate belt. The image was taken on February 7 at 8:42 a.m. EST (5:42 a.m. PST), as Juno performed its eleventh close flyby of Jupiter. At the time the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 5,086 miles (8,186 km) from the tops of the clouds of the planet at a latitude of 39.9 degrees. Citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill processed this image using data from the JunoCam imager. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill.

NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Completes Eleventh Jupiter Flyby, Delivers New Photos

Feb 21, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Juno orbiter successfully made its eleventh flyby of Jupiter on February 7, 2018. This color-enhanced image shows swirling cloud formations in...

This image, taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft on December 5, 2017, shows the Kuiper Belt object 2012 HZ84. Image credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI.

NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft Captures Record-Breaking Images

Feb 14, 2018 by News Staff

With its Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), New Horizons has observed several objects in the Kuiper Belt, a distant region of icy debris that extends...

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.

Tiny Martian Moons Hint at Red Planet’s Adolescent Rejection

Feb 13, 2018 by James Romero

Like a teenage diary you can’t throw away, Mars might carry a reminder of its difficult formative years in its tiny moons. A paper published by the Royal...

(3122) Florence will pass safely by Earth on September 1, at a distance of about 4.4 million miles. Image credit: University of Colorado.

Two Asteroids Flew Safely Past Earth This Week

Feb 9, 2018 by News Staff

2018 CC and 2018 CB — two small asteroids recently discovered by NASA-funded astronomers — safely flew past our planet this week. This is an...

A view from from ridge in Mars’ Gale Crater. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

NASA’s Mars Rover Curiosity Sends Home Spectacular Panorama

Feb 1, 2018 by News Staff

A new panoramic image from Curiosity provides a sweeping vista of the interior and rim of Gale Crater, including much of the rover’s route during its...

Two 2001 images from the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor show a dramatic change in the planet’s appearance when haze raised by dust-storm activity in the south became globally distributed. The images were taken about a month apart. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Martian Dust Storms Linked to Atmospheric Gas Escape

Jan 25, 2018 by News Staff

Martian dust storms play a role in the ongoing process of gas escaping from the top of the planet’s atmosphere, according to a new study using observations...