Space Exploration News

Cassini passed Hyperion on 31 May 2015 at a distance of about 21,000 miles (34,000 km). Mission scientists expect images from the encounter to arrive on Earth within 1-2 days. This view of the moon was obtained during Cassini’s flyby on 26 September 2005. It reveals crisp details across the strange, tumbling moon’s surface. Differences in color could represent differences in the composition of surface materials. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft Makes Close Flyby of Hyperion

Jun 1, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini space probe performed a close flyby of Saturn’s irregularly shaped moon Hyperion on 31 May 2015. Cassini passed Hyperion on 31 May 2015...

This artist’s rendition shows the InSight Mars lander spacecraft on the Red Planet. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

InSight: NASA Engineers Begin Testing Next Mars Lander

May 28, 2015 by News Staff

NASA engineers have begun testing a car-sized Mars lander, dubbed InSight, scheduled to launch in 2016. This artist’s rendition shows the InSight Mars...

This image of the dwarf planet Pluto was taken May 12. Image credit: NASA / JHU-APL / SwRI.

New Horizons Captures New Images of Pluto and Charon

May 28, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has beamed back its best-yet images of the dwarf planet Pluto and Charon, Pluto’s largest moon. This image, taken May...

Based on new evidence from Jupiter's moon Europa, astronomers hypothesize that chloride salts bubble up from the icy moon's global liquid ocean and reach the frozen surface where they are bombarded with sulfur from volcanoes on Jupiter's innermost large moon, Io (NASA / JPL-Caltech)

NASA Selects Science Instruments for Europa Clipper Mission

May 27, 2015 by News Staff

NASA has announced the selection of science instruments for the Europa Clipper, a future mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. Based on new evidence from...

The Siloe Patera structure lies close to the center of this image within the Arabia Terra region of Mars. The image was acquired by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express on November 26, 2014. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Mars Express May Have Discovered Ancient Supervolcano on Red Planet

May 25, 2015 by News Staff

ESA’s Mars Express orbiter has captured an image of what appears to be the remains of an ancient supervolcano. The image was taken on 26 November 2014,...

A close-up of the mysterious bright spots on Ceres. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Dawn Captures Sharpest Image Yet of Mysterious Bright Spots on Ceres

May 22, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has beamed back a stunning new picture of the mysterious bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres. A close-up of the mysterious...

Mimas, to the upper-right of Saturn, has been brightened by a factor of 2 for visibility. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Cassini Captures New Images of Saturn, Its Two Moons

May 19, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has returned stunning new images of Saturn and its two moons, Janus and Mimas. This image shows Saturn’s moon Janus. Image...

Image of the boulders taken by the Rosetta spacecraft on September 19, 2014 from a distance of about 18 miles (29 km). Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / MPS / OSIRIS Team / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA.

Strange Balancing Boulders Discovered on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

May 19, 2015 by News Staff

Rosetta mission scientists have discovered an unusual geological formation in the Aker region on the large lobe of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Image of...

Hydra (red), Nix (yellow), Kerberos (orange), Styx (green) and their orbits. Image credit: NASA / JHU-APL / SwRI.

New Horizons Captures Pluto’s Small Moons

May 13, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has captured images of four small moons of Pluto – Hydra, Nix, Kerberos and Styx. Hydra (red), Nix (yellow), Kerberos...

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.

Europa: Dark Material on Jupiter’s Moon Could Be Oceanic Salt Discolored by Radiation

May 13, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published in the Geophysical Research Letters suggests the dark material on the surface of Europa – the sixth-closest moon of the planet...

In this new image of Ceres from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, the brightest spots within a crater in the planet’s northern hemisphere are revealed to be composed of many smaller spots. However, their exact nature remains unknown. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Dawn Captures Best-Ever View of Ceres’ Mysterious Bright Spots

May 11, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Dawn probe has returned the sharpest images ever seen of the mysterious bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres. The images were taken 8,400 miles...

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this beautiful view of nightfall on the Red Planet on April 15, 2015. The red surface coloring of Mars is due to oxidized iron. At certain times of the Martian year, great dust storms occur; the large amounts of dust in the atmosphere during these storms absorb much of the incoming radiation from the Sun; this causes large temperature inversions in the Martian atmosphere. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity Spies Sunset on Mars

May 11, 2015 by News Staff

This awesome-looking time-lapse sequence of the Martian sunset was created by piecing together images taken by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity. NASA’s...

Color differences on Mercury are subtle, but they reveal important information about the nature of the planet’s surface material. Image credit: NASA / JPL.

Magnetic Field of Planet Mercury about 4 Billion Years Old

May 8, 2015 by News Staff

New data from NASA’s MESSENGER orbiter suggest that Mercury’s magnetic field is 3.7 – 3.9 billion years old. This image was taken on January...

This color view of Enceladus was taken by Cassini spacecraft on 31 January 2011, from a distance of 50,330 miles (NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / G. Ugarković).

Cassini Revealing More Details about Enceladus

May 7, 2015 by News Staff

Two new studies using data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft reveal the pH of water spewing from a geyser-like plume on Enceladus, and suggest that much...

A long solar filament erupted on the Sun on April 28-29, 2015. Image credit: ESA / NASA / SOHO.

NASA’s SOHO Sees Huge Filament Erupt on Sun

May 5, 2015 by News Staff

On April 28-29, 2015 a massive filament of solar material that had been hovering in the Sun’s atmosphere erupted into space in a large burst of bright...

Artist’s conception of a human mission to Mars. Image credit: Les Bossinas / NASA Lewis Research Center.

What Happens to Astronaut’s Brain on Way to Mars

May 3, 2015 by News Staff

According to new research from the University of California, Irvine, and the University of Nevada, exposure to galactic cosmic rays may have long-term...

This image from MESSENGER is located within the floor of the 93-km-diameter crater Jokai. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington.

NASA’s MESSENGER Beams Back Its Final Image of Mercury

May 1, 2015 by News Staff

This image is the last one captured and beamed back to Earth by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft. This image from MESSENGER is located within the floor of...

This colorful view of Mercury was produced by using images from the color base map imaging campaign during MESSENGER’s primary mission. These colors are not what Mercury would look like to the human eye, but rather the colors enhance the chemical, mineralogical, and physical differences between the rocks that make up the planet’s surface. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington.

NASA’s MESSENGER Spacecraft Collides with Mercury

May 1, 2015 by News Staff

MESSENGER mission scientists have confirmed that the probe impacted the surface of Mercury on April 30th, as predicted, at 3:26 p.m. EDT (12:26 p.m. PDT,...

An artist’s concept of Pluto. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Spacecraft Sees Possible Polar Cap on Pluto

Apr 30, 2015 by News Staff

The Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has captured some spectacular new images of Pluto, revealing bright and...