Space Exploration News

Planetary Researchers Create New Global Topographic Map of Saturn’s Moon Titan

Top: stereographic polar projections of Titan’s topography with the South Pole left and the North Pole right; Ontario Lacus and the each of the large northern seas are found in local depressions. Bottom: equicylindrical projection of Titan’s topography. All maps have been corrected for the geoid. Image credit: Corlies et al, doi: 10.1002/2017GL075518.
Jan 19, 2018 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, a team of planetary researchers led by Cornell University has produced a new global topographic map of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Top: stereographic polar projections of Titan’s topography with the South Pole left and the North Pole right; Ontario Lacus and the each of the large northern seas are found in local depressions. Bottom: equicylindrical projection of Titan’s topography. All maps have...

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This illustration shows NASA’s NICER mission at work aboard the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA Engineers Demonstrate Pulsar-Based Navigation in Space

Jan 16, 2018 by News Staff

NASA engineers have successfully demonstrated X-ray navigation in space — a capability that could revolutionize NASA’s ability in the future to...

Gale Crater is 96 miles (154 km) in diameter and holds a layered mountain rising about 3 miles (5 km) above the crater floor. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / UA.

Mars’ Turbulent Winds Can Make Mountains in Impact Craters

Jan 15, 2018 by News Staff

In a paper published in the journal Physical Review E, a duo of fluid dynamics experts proposes a solution to one of long-standing Martian mysteries. The...

This high-resolution HiRISE image shows a detailed subsection of an icy scarp on Mars in enhanced color. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / USGS.

New HiRISE Images Show 3D Structure of Martian Ice Sheets

Jan 12, 2018 by News Staff

New images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal never-before-observed details...

A salt crystal recovered from the Zag meteorite. Image credit: Queenie Chan, Open University.

Scientists Find Primordial Organic Matter in Two Meteorites

Jan 11, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States, UK and Japan has found liquid water and a mix of complex organic compounds in 4.5-billion-year-old salt crystals...

Stahn et al observed for the first time a sustained increased astronauts’ core body temperature under resting conditions. Image credit: Jonny Lindner.

Weightlessness Increases Humans’ Body Temperature: Study

Jan 9, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists led by Professor Hanns-Christian Gunga of Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin has observed that astronauts run hot...

This illustration depicts Juno soaring over Jupiter’s swirling cloud tops. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill.

NASA’s Juno Orbiter Delivers Spectacular New Photos of Jupiter

Jan 8, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released beautiful new images of Jupiter’s turbulent atmosphere from the tenth close flyby of its Juno spacecraft. This illustration depicts...

This color composite image of the Earth and Moon is made from data captured by OSIRIS-REx’s MapCam instrument on October 2, 2017, when the spacecraft was approximately 3,180,000 miles (5,120,000 km) from Earth. Image credit: NASA/ OSIRIS-REx Team / University of Arizona.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Spies Earth and Moon

Jan 3, 2018 by News Staff

On October 2, 2017, just ten days after performing an Earth Gravity Assist maneuver, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft pointed its camera suite back toward...

This image shows how the solar wind transports ions of oxygen from the Earth’s atmosphere to the Moon. Image credit: Osaka University / NASA.

Moon Has Earth’s Oxygen, Planetary Researchers Say

Jan 2, 2018 by News Staff

A team of Japanese planetary researchers led by Osaka University’s Professor Kentaro Terada has discovered that the solar wind and Earth’s magnetic...

Saturn’s Great Northern Storm churning through the atmosphere in the planet’s northern hemisphere overtakes itself as it encircles the planet in this true-color view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This picture, captured on February 25, 2011, was taken about 12 weeks after the storm began, and the clouds by this time had formed a tail that wrapped around the gas giant. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Saturn’s Northern Storms Cause Disturbances in Its ‘Heartbeat’

Dec 31, 2017 by News Staff

Giant storms in Saturn’s northern hemisphere can disturb atmospheric patterns at the ringed giant’s equator, according to new research published in...

2014 MU69, the next flyby target of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, might have a moon. Image credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI.

Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69 Might Have a Small Moon

Dec 29, 2017 by News Staff

The upcoming encounter of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft with 2014 MU69 will be an important and rare opportunity for close-up study of a Kuiper Belt...

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

Study: Martian Surface Water Was Absorbed by Planet’s Crust

Dec 24, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Nature, the Sun may not have evaporated away all of the Martian surface water after all; instead, Mars’...

Dragonfly is a dual-quadcopter lander that would take advantage of the environment on Saturn’s hazy moon Titan to fly to multiple locations, some hundreds of miles apart, to sample materials and determine surface composition to investigate Titan’s organic chemistry and habitability, monitor atmospheric and surface conditions, image landforms to investigate geological processes, and perform seismic studies. Image credit: NASA.

NASA Announces Finalists for Future Solar System Mission

Dec 21, 2017 by News Staff

NASA has selected two finalist concepts for a robotic mission planned to launch in the mid-2020s: a comet sample return mission and a drone-like rotorcraft...

A stunning view of Mars from the north pole to the equator. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA Releases Stunning New Image of Mars

Dec 20, 2017 by News Staff

In this stunning image taken by ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, Mars is seen with north at the bottom, and the equator at the top. A stunning view of...

A 1.5-mm-long impact track of a meteoroid captured in aerogel exposed to space by the European Retrievable Carrier (EURECA) spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / ESA.

Simulations Reveal Why Meteoroids Explode Before They Reach Earth

Dec 13, 2017 by News Staff

According to a paper published in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science, Earth’s atmosphere is a better shield from meteoroids than scientists...

This full-disc image of Jupiter was taken on 21 April 2014 with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Simon, Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA’s Juno Orbiter Explores Depths of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

Dec 12, 2017 by News Staff

Data collected by Juno during its first pass over Jupiter’s mysterious, roiling storm called the Great Red Spot in July 2017 indicate that this famous...

Mars may have been enveloped in a steamy atmosphere as the planet’s crust cooled and solidified. That ‘steam bath’ could have created many of the clay mineral deposits that have long been attributed to water flow on or just beneath the Martian surface. Image credit: Kevin Cannon.

Research Suggests Martian Clays Formed in Ancient ‘Steam Bath’

Dec 7, 2017 by News Staff

On Mars, phyllosilicate (clay) minerals are widespread in terrains that date back to the Noachian period, 4.1 to 3.7 billion years ago. Phyllosilicates...

Marchi et al modeled the protracted period of bombardment after the Moon formed, determining that impactor metals may have descended into Earth’s core. This artistic rendering illustrates a large impactor crashing into the young Earth. Light brown and gray particles indicate the projectile’s mantle (silicate) and core (metal) material, respectively. Image credit: Southwest Research Institute.

Large Planetesimals Delivered More Mass to Proto-Earth than Previously Thought

Dec 5, 2017 by News Staff

After the Moon’s formation, Earth experienced a protracted bombardment by large (over 1,500 km in diameter) planetesimals. Dr. Simone Marchi, a researcher...

The surface of Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view; image scale is 1.6 km per pixel; north on Europa is at right. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SETI Institute.

Research Provides New Evidence of Plate Tectonics in Europa’s Ice Shell

Dec 5, 2017 by News Staff

A process called subduction — when a tectonic plate slides underneath another and sinks deep into a planetary body’s interior — is physically...

Voyager 1 launched from Florida’s NASA Kennedy Space Center on September 5, 1977, 16 days after its twin, Voyager 2. This artist concept depicts one of NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s Voyager 1 Spacecraft Switches to Backup Thruster Set

Dec 4, 2017 by News Staff

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is the only human-made object in interstellar space. The spacecraft, which has been flying for 40 years, relies on small...

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