Space Exploration News

Space environment data collected by New Horizons over a billion miles of its journey to Pluto will play a key role in testing and improving models of the space environment throughout the Solar System. This visualization is one example of such a model: it shows the simulated space environment out to Pluto a few months before New Horizons’ closest approach. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio / Space Weather Research Center / Community-Coordinated Modeling Center / Enlil and Dusan Odstrcil, GMU.

New Horizons Observes Solar Wind Changes in Outer Solar System

Apr 6, 2016 by News Staff

The Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has recorded significant changes in how the solar wind behaves far from...

$In this stunning Saturnian vista, icy geysers erupt along narrow fractures on Enceladus. The majestic plumes were actually discovered by instruments on the Cassini Spacecraft during close encounters with bright and shiny Enceladus in 2005. Image credit: Michael Carroll / NASA.$

Planetary Researchers Explain Sustained Eruptions on Enceladus

Mar 29, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Planetary researchers on NASA’s Cassini mission have published a new study describing the process that drives and sustains long-lived geysers on Enceladus,...

Artist's concept of a cryobot in the ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa. Image credit: NASA.

Scientists Produce First Roadmap for European Astrobiology

Mar 28, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers on the AstRoMap project, a coordination action supported by the European Commission, have surveyed the state of the art of astrobiology in...

NASA Scientists Identify Titan’s Tallest Peak

Mar 25, 2016 by News Staff

Planetary researchers with NASA’s Cassini mission have identified the highest point on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Titan’s Mithrim Montes is...

Study: Moon Moved from Its Original Axis 3 Billion Years Ago

Mar 24, 2016 by News Staff

Earth’s moon wandered off its original axis about 3 billion years ago, a new study led by Southern Methodist University planetary researcher Matt Siegler...

The bright spots near the center of Occator crater are shown in enhanced color in this view from NASA’s Dawn robotic spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA / PSI / LPI.

New Images of Ceres Show Its Mysterious Bright Spots in Unprecedented Detail

Mar 22, 2016 by News Staff

Planetary researchers from NASA’s Dawn mission have released new images of the dwarf planet Ceres, including anticipated views of its intriguing ‘bright...

This view of the Martian gravity map shows the Tharsis volcanoes and surrounding flexure: the white areas in the center are higher-gravity regions produced by the massive Tharsis volcanoes, and the surrounding blue areas are lower-gravity regions that may be cracks in the crust. Image credit: MIT / UMBC-CRESST / GSFC.

NASA Scientists Release Map of Mars’ Gravity

Mar 22, 2016 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Dr. Antonio Genova of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has released a detailed new map of Mars’ gravity. This view of...

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.

Science Papers Provide New Data from Pluto System Flyby

Mar 18, 2016 by News Staff

Researchers on the New Horizons team have released a set of five scientific papers describing results from the July 2015 flyby of the Pluto system. This...

‘Bite mark’ on Pluto. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Team Finds ‘Bite Mark’ on Pluto

Mar 14, 2016 by News Staff

Members of the New Horizons mission team have discovered a huge ‘bite mark’ on the surface of the dwarf planet Pluto. ‘Bite mark’ on Pluto. The...

Artist’s impression visualizing the ExoMars 2016 TGO, with its thrusters firing, beginning its entry into Mars orbit. Image credit: ESA / ATG medialab.

ExoMars 2016 Blasts Off from Baikonur

Mar 14, 2016 by News Staff

The ExoMars 2016 mission blasted off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Proton-M rocket at 02:31 a.m. PDT (05:31 a.m. EDT, 09:31 a.m. GMT,...

An artist’s rendering of a classical nova. Image credit: David Hardy, www.astroart.org.

‘Pre-Solar Grains’ Could Be Remnants of Ancient Novae

Mar 11, 2016 by News Staff

Tiny particles of stardust have been found in meteorites. Whether some of these particles, known as ‘pre-solar grains,’ came from classical novae is...

Ahuna Mons is seen in this mosaic of images from Dawn. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Dawn Beams Back New Images of Ceres’ Mysterious ‘Pyramid-Shaped’ Mountain

Mar 10, 2016 by News Staff

This incredible mosaic of images from NASA’s Dawn orbiter shows one of Ceres’ most intriguing features — a mysterious mountain called Ahuna Mons. Ahuna...

Mercury. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Planetary Researchers Explain Why Mercury’s Surface is So Dark

Mar 8, 2016 by News Staff

According to a team of planetary scientists led by Dr. Patrick Peplowski of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, planet Mercury’s...

Methane snow-capped mountains in Cthulhu Regio, Pluto. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Spots Methane Snow-Capped Mountains on Pluto

Mar 7, 2016 by News Staff

This newly released image from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shows a chain of snowcapped mountains in Pluto’s Cthulhu Regio. Methane snow-capped mountains...

Mars’ moon Phobos as observed by NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / CU /LASP.

Phobos in Ultraviolet: Latest Photo from NASA’s MAVEN Spacecraft

Mar 1, 2016 by News Staff

This false-color image of Phobos, the larger and inner of the two natural satellites of Mars, was taken by the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph instrument...

Solar System and the interstellar medium. Image credit: NASA / IBEX / Adler Planetarium.

Scientists Determine Strength, Direction of Local Interstellar Magnetic Field

Feb 29, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using data from NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), researchers have accurately determined the strength and direction of the magnetic field...

Vast canyons on Pluto’s north pole: the widest of the canyons is marked in yellow; smaller canyons are green; the valleys are blue and pink; irregularly-shaped pits are red. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Sees Canyons on North Pole of Pluto

Feb 26, 2016 by News Staff

This enhanced color image of Pluto’s north polar area was taken by New Horizons’ Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera on July 14, 2015, from...

A close-up of the canyons on Charon, taken by New Horizons’ LORRI instrument during the spacecraft’s close approach to the Pluto system on July 14, 2015. When New Horizons took this image, a distance of 48,900 miles (78,700 km) separated the spacecraft and Charon. The image measures 240 miles (386 km) long and 110 miles (175 km) wide. Multiple views taken by the spacecraft as it passed by the Pluto’s largest moon allow stereo measurements of topography, shown in the color-coded version of the image. The scale bar indicates relative elevation. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Charon May Have Had Subsurface Water Ocean

Feb 19, 2016 by News Staff

Images taken by the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) instrument on board NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft suggest that Charon once had an underground...

Geologic map of Pluto’s famous heart-shaped region, Sputnik Planum. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA Scientists Create Geologic Map of Pluto’s Big Heart

Feb 16, 2016 by News Staff

NASA scientists have produced this geologic map of one of Pluto’s most dominant features from images taken by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance...