Space Exploration News

Zodiacal light scattered from dust grains in our Solar System is seen rising diagonally up to the left in this image, as the plane of the Milky Way rises up to the right (Tunc Tezel / TWAN / APOD).

Astronomers Study Solar System’s Interplanetary Nanodust

Sep 10, 2013 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has used the Low Frequency Receiver onboard the twin Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) to learn more...

Two digital single-lens reflex cameras captured these two all-sky images of Northern Lights in Alaska. The subtle differences between the left and right pictures allow the team to measure the altitude where electrons in the atmosphere emit the light that produces aurora (Kataoka et al).

Scientists Use SLR Cameras to Capture Aurora Borealis in 3D

Sep 9, 2013 by News Staff

Researchers from Japan and the United States have used two digital single-lens reflex cameras set 5 miles apart to capture 3D images of Aurora Borealis...

The Solar System moves through a local galactic cloud at a speed of 50,000 miles per hour, creating an interstellar wind of particles, some of which can travel all the way toward Earth to provide information about our neighborhood (NASA / Adler / U. Chicago / Wesleyan).

Astrophysicists: Interstellar Winds Changed Direction over Forty Years

Sep 6, 2013 by News Staff

The particles streaming into the Solar System from interstellar space have changed direction over the last forty years, says a group of astrophysicists...

This image is a composite of several images taken during two separate Titan flybys on October 9 and October 25, 2004. Credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona.

Cassini Sees Rigid, Weathered Ice Shell on Titan

Aug 29, 2013 by News Staff

New gravity and topography data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft reveal unexpected features of the Titan’s outer ice shell. This image is a composite...

This is a fragment of the Chelyabinsk (Laboratory of Meteoritics, Vernadsky Institute, Russia).

Chelyabinsk Meteorite May Have Collided with Another Body in Solar System

Aug 27, 2013 by News Staff

According to a team of Russian scientists reporting today at the Goldschmidt conference in Italy, the Chelyabinsk meteorite either collided with another...

New observations by NASA’s twin Van Allen Probes show that particles in the radiation belts surrounding Earth are accelerated by a local kick of energy, helping to explain how these particles reach speeds of 99 percent the speed of light (G. Reeves / M. Henderson)

Scientists Find Electron Acceleration within Van Allen Belts

Jul 26, 2013 by Natali Anderson

U.S. researchers believe they have answered a long-standing question about how electrons in the Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts can suddenly become...

Water-carved valley on Mars. The researchers have found that some of these valleys appear to have been formed by orographic precipitation - rain or snow that falls when moist air is pushed upward by mountain ridges or raised crater rims. The findings suggest that at least some of the water on ancient Mars fell from the atmosphere, rather than bubbling up from the subsurface (NASA)

Water-Carved Valleys Point to Ancient Snowfalls on Mars

Jul 24, 2013 by News Staff

According to a new study published online in the Geophysical Research Letters, some water-carved Martian valleys appear to have been caused by runoff from...

This is an artist’s impression of habitable Mars (Daein Ballard / CC BY-SA 3.0)

Curiosity Provides New Evidence for Warm, Wet Ancient Mars

Jul 19, 2013 by News Staff

A large international team of researchers used Curiosity’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite of instruments to measure the abundances of different...

This shaded relief map shows elevated, branching, lobate features in Aeolis Dorsa, Mars, interpreted as resistant channel deposits that make up an ancient delta. These layered, cross-cutting features are typical of channelized sedimentary deposits on Earth and here are indicative of a coastal delta environment (Roman A. DiBiase et al)

Scientists Find New Evidence for Ancient Ocean on Mars

Jul 17, 2013 by News Staff

A study published in the June issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets (full paper in .pdf) provides new evidence that an ocean covered as...

This image shows the location of the newly discovered Neptune’s moon S/2004 N 1 (NASA / ESA / M. Showalter / SETI Institute)

SETI Scientist Discovers New Moon of Neptune: S/2004 N 1

Jul 15, 2013 by Natali Anderson

Dr Mark Showalter from the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, has discovered a new moon circling Neptune, the eighth and farthest planet from...

An artist's concept of the Solar system’s heliotail (Michael Lentz / Walt Feimer / Tom Bridgman / Genna Duberstein / Erin McKinley / Eric Christian / Karen Fox / NASA / USRA / ASI / OSU / GST / HTSI)

IBEX Observes Heliotail of Solar System

Jul 11, 2013 by News Staff

Scientists using NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft have revealed a unique and unexpected structure of the downwind region of...

Chondrules are visible as round objects in this electron image of a polished thin section made from the Bishunpur meteorite from India; the dark grains are iron-poor olivine crystals (Steven Simon)

Scientists Solve Mystery of Glassy Spherules in Chondrite Meteorites

Jul 9, 2013 by News Staff

Researchers have proposed a radical solution to a cosmochemical mystery that has baffled scientists for over a century: how numerous small, glassy chondrules...

Plasma outflow from plasmasphere to magnetosphere (ESA / ATG medialab)

Researcher Reports First Detection of Elusive Space Wind

Jul 3, 2013 by News Staff

Dr Iannis Dandouras from the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology in Toulouse, France, has found the first conclusive proof of the existence...

This Hubble image shows five moons orbiting Pluto (NASA / ESA / M. Showalter, SETI Institute)

Kerberos and Styx: Pluto’s Two Recently Discovered Moons Get Official Names

Jul 3, 2013 by News Staff

The International Astronomical Union announced yesterday that the names Kerberos and Styx have officially been recognized for the fourth and fifth moons...

An artist's impression of ancient Mars (Ittiz / CC BY-SA 3.0)

Mars Had Oxygen-Rich Atmosphere 4 Billion Years Ago, Shows New Study

Jun 21, 2013 by News Staff

According to a new study reported in the journal Nature, the atmosphere of Mars could have been rich in oxygen almost 4 billion years ago. An artist’s...

Australian Scientists Identify 280 New Lunar Craters

Jun 19, 2013 by News Staff

A team of researchers at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Australia, has discovered 280 new craters on the Moon. Spatial distribution of the 66...

This image shows a rock outcrop called Hottah. Broken surfaces of the outcrop have rounded, gravel clasts, such as the one circled in white, which is about 1.2 inches across. Erosion of the outcrop results in gravel clasts that protrude from the outcrop and ultimately fall onto the ground, creating the gravel pile at left (NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS)

Study Confirms Curiosity Rover Found Evidence of Flowing Water on Mars

May 31, 2013 by News Staff

According to a study published in the journal Science, rounded pebbles found in September 2012 by NASA’s Curiosity rover indicate that a stream once...

Planococcus halocryophilus OR1 (Nadia C S Mykytczuk et al, 2012)

Bacterium Planococcus halocryophilus Offers Clues about Microbial Life on Enceladus, Mars

May 27, 2013 by News Staff

A novel aerobic, gram-positive bacterium that is able to thrive at minus 15 degrees Celsius – the coldest temperature ever reported for bacterial...

Meteorite Found in Antarctica May Help Reveal Secrets of Life on Mars

May 3, 2013 by Natali Anderson

Geologists led by Dr Lydia Hallis from the University of Hawaii have examined a meteorite that formed on Mars more than 1 billion years ago to determine...