Space Exploration News

Cometary Carbon Painted Planet Mercury Black, Says Study

Color differences on Mercury are subtle, but they reveal important information about the nature of the planet’s surface material. Image credit: NASA / JPL.
Mar 31, 2015 by News Staff

Carbon from cometary material that bombards Mercury, the first planet from the Sun, may be the reason the planet’s surface is heavily dark, says new research published in the journal Nature Geoscience. Color differences on Mercury are subtle, but they reveal important information about the nature of the planet’s surface material. A number of bright spots with a bluish tinge are visible in this image; these are relatively recent impact craters....

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Rosetta NavCam image taken on 14 March 2015 at 85.7 km from the center of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; it has been cleaned to remove the more obvious bad pixels and cosmic ray artefacts, and intensities have been scaled. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / NAVCAM / CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.

Rosetta Detects Molecular Nitrogen at 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Mar 23, 2015 by News Staff

The Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument on ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has made the first measurement of molecular...

Martian aurora is similar to Earth’s Aurora borealis but has a different origin. Image credit: University of Colorado.

NASA’s MAVEN Orbiter Detects Ultraviolet Aurora on Mars

Mar 18, 2015 by News Staff

Scientists using the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) instrument on NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft have observed...

Map of magnesium/silicon abundance ratio across Mercury’s surface - red indicates high values, blue low. Image credit: NASA / JHUAPL / Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Scientists Create Global-Scale Maps of Mercury Chemistry

Mar 18, 2015 by News Staff

Researchers using data from NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission have created global-scale maps of...

Earhart Crater: Newly-Discovered Lunar Crater Named after Legendary American Pilot

Mar 18, 2015 by News Staff

Planetary scientists using data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission have discovered a 124-mile-wide crater on the nearside...

This close-up image of Saturn’s rings was taken in red light with the wide-angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft on January 8, 2015. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Saturn’s Rings Close Up

Mar 17, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini space probe has captured a close-up view of the beautiful and glamorous rings of Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun. This close-up...

Part of the Cydonia Mensae region on Mars. The image was acquired by the Mars Express orbiter on 19 November 2014. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / IGO / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Mars Express Captures Mysterious Cydonia Mensae

Mar 16, 2015 by News Staff

A new image from the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter shows the portion of the Cydonia Mensae, a region that is home to a...

This is an artist’s concept of the Jupiter’s moon Ganymede; two auroral ovals can be seen over northern and southern mid-latitudes. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Bacon, STScI / J. Saur, University of Cologne.

Hubble Provides New Evidence for Subsurface Saltwater Ocean on Ganymede

Mar 13, 2015 by News Staff

Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered new evidence for a massive subterranean ocean on Ganymede, the largest moon in the Solar...

The X2.2-class flare, March 11, 2015. Image credit: SDO / NASA.

NASA’s SDO Captures X-Class Solar Flare

Mar 12, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured an image of a mid-level solar flare on March 11, 2015, seen as a bright flash of light close to the...

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 Finds Evidence for Hydrothermal Activity on Enceladus

Mar 12, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has provided planetary researchers the first evidence that Enceladus – the sixth-largest of Saturn’s moons –...

Dawn will use its ion propulsion system to change orbits at Ceres, allowing it to observe the dwarf planet from different vantage points. Image credit: NASA / JPL.

NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Finally Arrives at Dwarf Planet Ceres

Mar 6, 2015 by News Staff

After a seven-year cruise, and a one-year successful mission at the giant asteroid 4 Vesta, NASA’s Dawn space probe today successfully entered the orbit...

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

Ancient Ocean on Mars was Larger than Earth’s Atlantic Ocean, Say Scientists

Mar 6, 2015 by News Staff

An ancient ocean on the Red Planet covered a greater portion of the surface than the Atlantic Ocean does on our planet and held more water than Arctic...

This close-up shows two mysterious bright spots in the same crater basin on Ceres. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Mosaic Photo Shows Highly Cratered Surface of Ceres

Mar 4, 2015 by News Staff

Scientists with NASA’s Dawn mission have pieced together a spectacular mosaic image of the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres. The surface of Ceres is...

Close view of a 228 x 228 m region on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken 6 km above the surface. Rosetta’s fuzzy shadow, measuring about 20 x 50 m, is seen on the right of the image. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / MPS for OSIRIS Team / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA.

Rosetta Sees Its Shadow on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Mar 4, 2015 by News Staff

New images from the OSIRIS camera on European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe taken during the close flyby on February 14, 2015, reveal the surface of the...

Azotosome vesicle, the size of a small virus particle. Image credit: James Stevenson et al.

Oxygen-Free, Methane-Based Life Forms Could Exist on Titan, Say Scientists

Feb 28, 2015 by News Staff

Titan – a planetary body awash with seas not of water, but of liquid methane – could harbor oxygen-free, methane-based life forms, says a team...

This image was taken by the Dawn space probe of dwarf planet Ceres on February 19 from a distance of nearly 46,000 km. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Two Bright Spots on Dwarf Planet Ceres Puzzle Scientists

Feb 26, 2015 by News Staff

New images from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, taken nearly 46,000 km from Ceres, show two mysterious bright spots on the surface of the dwarf planet. This...

A new comet was discovered sling-shotting around the Sun, as seen in this image from February 20, 2015, by the SOHO observatory; the Sun is blocked in this image, called a coronagraph, so that the dim light of its atmosphere, or corona, is visible. Image credit: ESA / NASA / SOHO / Hill.

SOHO Observatory Discovers Unusual Sungrazing Comet

Feb 25, 2015 by News Staff

An unusual sungrazer skimmed past the Sun in February, as captured by ESA/NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). A new comet was discovered...

This image was acquired by ESA’s Mars Express on October 8, 2014. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Mars Express Zeroes in on Phlegra Montes

Feb 20, 2015 by News Staff

ESA’s Mars Express orbiter has obtained a spectacular color image of the southernmost portion of Phlegra Montes, a mountain range in the Cebrenia quadrangle...

Nix (identified by a orange diamond) and Hydra (yellow diamond) are visible in the images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Captures Two Moons of Pluto: Nix and Hydra

Feb 19, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has provided its first views of Nix and Hydra – the small moons of Pluto. Nix (identified by a orange diamond) and...

This image of Ceres was acquired by the Dawn space probe on February 12, 2015. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

NASA’s Dawn Returns New Images of Ceres

Feb 17, 2015 by News Staff

Two new images from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft show mysterious bright spots and craters on the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres. This image of Ceres...

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