Space Exploration News

Two sizes of ripples are evident in this December 13, 2015, view of a top of a Martian sand dune, from Curiosity. Sand dunes and the smaller type of ripples also exist on Earth. The larger ripples -- roughly 10 feet (3 m) apart -- are a type not seen on our planet nor previously recognized as a distinct type on Mars. Scale bar - 2 m (79 inches). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Scientists Discover New Type of Sand Dune — on Mars

Jul 1, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of planetary scientists led by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has discovered a type of dune on Mars intermediate...

Occator crater (center) appears to be among the youngest features on Ceres. Dawn mission scientists estimate its age to be about 78 million years old. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Hydrothermal Activity May Explain Mysterious Bright Spots on Ceres

Jul 1, 2016 by News Staff

Anomalously bright areas on the dwarf planet Ceres have the highest concentration of sodium carbonate ever seen outside our planet, says a new study published...

A false-color image of the narrow opal rim surrounding a bright metallic mineral inclusion in the Antarctic meteorite EET 83309; the circular holes in this image are spots where laser analyses have been performed. Image credit: Hilary Downes et al.

Scientists Find Tiny Pieces of Opal in Meteorite

Jun 29, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Small pieces of the mineral opal have been found within a brecciated ureilite meteorite from Antarctica. According to a team of scientists led by Prof....

An illustration of the layer of dark hydrogen the team’s lab mimicry indicates would be found beneath the surface of gas giants like Jupiter. Image credit: Stewart McWilliams.

Gas Giant Planets May Contain Layers of ‘Dark Hydrogen,’ Say Physicists

Jun 24, 2016 by News Staff

On the surface of giant gaseous planets, hydrogen is a gas. But between this gaseous layer and the liquid metal hydrogen in the planet’s core lies a...

This New Horizons image shows Pluto’s small moon Nix. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Pluto’s Small Moon Nix is Covered in Relatively Pure Water Ice

Jun 23, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

The latest data from NASA’s New Horizons probe reveal a water-ice signature on the surface of Nix, one of Pluto’s five known moons. This New Horizons...

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, doi: 10.1126/science.aad1815.

Pluto Likely Has a Hidden Liquid Ocean

Jun 21, 2016 by News Staff

When NASA’s New Horizons robotic spacecraft flew by Pluto in July 2015, it revealed clues that the enigmatic dwarf planet might have – or had at...

Strong ‘Electric Wind’ Can Strip Terrestrial Planets of Atmospheres, Oceans

Jun 21, 2016 by News Staff

Solar System’s planet Venus has an ‘electric wind’ strong enough to remove the components of water from its upper atmosphere. This action may have...

ExoMars acquired its first image of Mars on June 13. The line-of-sight distance to the planet was 25.5 million miles (41 million km). The Tharsis region of Mars, home to the planet’s largest volcanoes, faces the spacecraft in this view. Image credit: ESA / Roscosmos / ExoMars / CaSSIS / UniBE.

ExoMars Orbiter Beams Back Its First Image of Mars

Jun 16, 2016 by Natali Anderson

ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has snapped its first photo of the Red Planet. ExoMars acquired its first image of Mars on June 13. The line-of-sight...

Researchers Discover New Type of Meteorite: Ost 65

Jun 16, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A ‘fossil’ meteorite discovered in a limestone quarry in Sweden is unique and distinct from other known meteorites, according to a team of researchers...

This view looks toward the sunlit side of Saturn’s rings from about 15 degrees above the ring plane. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Latest Cassini Image Shows Mini-Jet Trail in Saturn’s F Ring

Jun 14, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A mysterious disruption in Saturn’s outermost F ring suggests it may have been disturbed recently, according to Cassini imaging scientists. This view...

Pluto’s far side. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Image Shows Pluto’s Far Side

Jun 6, 2016 by News Staff

The Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera onboard NASA’s New Horizons robotic probe captured this image of Pluto only 19 minutes after closest approach...

Sputnik Planum basin: this scene, which is about 250 miles (400 km) across, uses data from New Horizons’ Ralph/MVIC instrument. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Irregular Polygons in Pluto’s Heart-Shaped Region Finally Explained

Jun 1, 2016 by News Staff

According to members of NASA’s New Horizons science team, the icy surface of Pluto’s Sputnik Planum basin is being constantly renewed by a process...

The Rosetta spacecraft has detected ingredients considered important for life as we know it on Earth, in the atmosphere of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Image credit: ESA / ATG Medialab / Rosetta / NavCam / CC BY-SA IGO 3.0 / Kathrin Altwegg et al.

Rosetta Detects Two Ingredients for Life on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

May 27, 2016 by News Staff

ESA’s Rosetta orbiter has detected volatile glycine and phosphorus in the fuzzy atmosphere of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The Rosetta spacecraft...

This image, produced with the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, shows spiral features that were used in interpreting the climate signal of ice age advancement and retreat. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU-Berlin / Ralf Jaumann.

Planetary Scientists Find Evidence for Recent Ice Age on Mars

May 26, 2016 by News Staff

Researchers using data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have found evidence of an ice age recorded in the Red Planet’s polar caps. This image,...

Dr. Mandt and co-authors discovered two geologically young craters - one (right) 16 million, the other (left) between 75 and 420 million, years old - in the Moon’s darkest regions. Image credit: NASA GSFC / SwRI / ASU.

Researchers Find Two ‘Fresh’ Impact Craters near Moon’s South Pole

May 25, 2016 by News Staff

A team of researchers using data from the Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) instrument on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has detected two geologically...

This image of 1994 JR1 was taken by New Horizons’ LORRI camera in April 2016. The feature in the top left is an internal camera reflection caused by illumination by a very bright star just outside of LORRI’s field of view. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA Spacecraft Beams Back Science Data on Kuiper Belt Object 1994 JR1

May 20, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released new images and data on the Kuiper belt object (KBO) 1994 JR1 from the New Horizons spacecraft. This image of 1994 JR1 was taken by New...

This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about 4 billion years ago. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Mega-Tsunamis Resurfaced Shorelines of Early Mars’ Ocean, Researchers Say

May 19, 2016 by News Staff

Massive meteorite impacts triggered two mega-tsunamis in the early Martian ocean 3.4 billion years ago, according to scientists writing in the journal...

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.

Subsurface Ocean on Jupiter’s Moon Europa May Have Earthlike Chemical Balance

May 18, 2016 by News Staff

A new study modeling conditions in Europa’s global liquid ocean suggests that the necessary balance of chemical energy for life could exist there. Europa....

The four MMS spacecraft -- shown here in an artist’s concept -- have made more than 4,000 trips through the boundaries of Earth’s magnetic field. Image credit: NASA / Goddard / Conceptual Image Lab.

NASA’s MMS Spacecraft Capture Magnetic Reconnection in Action

May 16, 2016 by News Staff

The four spacecraft of NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) have flown through the heart of a magnetic process that controls Earth’s space...