Space Exploration News

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from the surface of the planet. The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 1,240 miles (2,000 km) long and up to 5 miles (8 km) deep, extending form Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. Many huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain from north-central canyons and run north. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 15.5 miles (25 km) high, are visible to the west. South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Ancient Mars Had Planet-Wide Groundwater System

Mar 5, 2019 by News Staff

Observations by ESA’s Mars Express orbiter show evidence of an ancient planet-wide groundwater system on the Red Planet. Mosaic of the Valles Marineris...

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.

Pluto and Charon’s Ancient Craters Indicate Deficit of Very Small Kuiper Belt Objects

Mar 1, 2019 by News Staff

Collisions between bodies in our Solar System produce impact craters on large objects at a rate that depends on the population of impacting small bodies....

This image from ESA’s Mars Express shows a valley network on Mars. This oblique perspective view was generated using a digital terrain model and Mars Express data gathered on November 19, 2018. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter Spots Ancient River Valley Network

Feb 27, 2019 by News Staff

Mars today is a cold, dry world, but it may not always have been so. Recent studies increasingly indicate that the planet once had a thicker, denser atmosphere...

This image of Jupiter was taken on February 12, 2019, as Juno performed its 18th close flyby of the planet. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill.

Juno Gets Close Look at Jupiter’s Turbulent Clouds

Feb 27, 2019 by News Staff

NASA has released new images taken by the Juno probe of Jupiter, featuring giant storms and swirling clouds in the gas giant’s atmosphere. This image...

This composite picture combines nine individual images taken with New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), each with an exposure time of 0.025 seconds, just 6 ½ minutes before the spacecraft’s closest approach to Ultima Thule. The image was taken at 12:26 a.m. EST (5:26 a.m. GMT) on January 1, 2019, when the spacecraft was 4,109 miles (6,628 km) from Ultima Thule and 4.1 billion miles (6.6 billion km) from Earth. The angle between the spacecraft, Ultima Thule and the Sun -- known as the ‘phase angle’ - was 33 degrees. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute / National Optical Astronomy Observatory.

New Horizons Beams Back Sharpest-Ever Images of Ultima Thule

Feb 25, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons probe has returned the sharpest images of Ultima Thule to date, taken during the spacecraft’s historic flyby of the Kuiper Belt...

The extent of Earth’s geocorona. Image credit: ESA.

Earth’s Hydrogen Geocorona Extends Well Beyond Moon

Feb 22, 2019 by News Staff

Recent observations from the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) show that the Earth’s hydrogen envelope reaches up to 391,500 miles...

An artist’s impression of the InSight lander on Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Mars Weather: Daily Reports from NASA’s InSight Lander

Feb 20, 2019 by News Staff

Beginning Tuesday, February 19, 2019, NASA’s InSight lander will provide a daily report of atmospheric weather conditions on Mars. This tool, developed...

Ultima Thule’s ‘Lobes’ Are Not Spherical, New Horizons Images Show

Feb 14, 2019 by News Staff

A series of images from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft contains important scientific information about the true shape of the Kuiper Belt object Ultima...

The south pole of Mars. Image credit: NASA.

Underground Volcanism on Mars May Have Been Active Extremely Recently

Feb 14, 2019 by News Staff

Recent radar observations from ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft were interpreted as evidence for melting beneath the south polar ice cap of Mars. Now, a...

Illustration of a plasma jet impact (yellow) generating standing waves at the boundary (blue) of Earth’s magnetic shield (green). Image credit: E. Masongsong, UCLA / M. Archer, QMUL / H. Hietala, UTU.

Earth’s Magnetopause Vibrates Like Giant Drum When Hit by Strong Impulses

Feb 13, 2019 by News Staff

As strong impulses strike the Earth’s magnetopause, the abrupt boundary between the planet’s magnetosphere and the surrounding plasma, ripples travel...

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.

Ceres’ Crust Kept Cryomagma Liquid for Millions of Years, Researchers Say

Feb 13, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Dawn mission recently spotted mysterious bright spots in the center of Occator Crater on the dwarf planet Ceres. According to a new study published...

A January 30, 2019, image from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter orbiting the Moon shows Chang’e 4 lander; arrows indicate position of the lander on the floor of Von Karman crater; the sharp crater behind and to the left of the landing site is 12,800 feet (3,900 m) across and 1,970 feet (600 m) deep. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / Arizona State University.

NASA Orbiter Spies China’s Chang’e-4 Lander

Feb 7, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently caught a view of China National Space Administration’s Chang’e-4 lander on the lunar surface. A...

This image was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it performed its most recent close flyby of Jupiter on December 21, 2018. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstaedt / Sean Doran.

NASA Video Shows Massive Storm in Jupiter’s Southern Hemisphere

Feb 5, 2019 by News Staff

A giant Jovian storm called Oval BA is captured in an amazing new video from NASA’s Juno mission. Oval BA and the famed Great Red Spot. Image credit:...

A selfie taken by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 2291 (January 15, 2019) at the ‘Rock Hall’ drill site, located on Vera Rubin Ridge. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity Makes First Surface Gravity Measurements on Mars

Feb 1, 2019 by News Staff

Gravimetry — the measurement of tiny changes in gravitational fields — can be used to probe the internal structure of Earth and other planets....

Illustration of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Steve Gribben.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Completes Its First Orbit of Sun

Jan 31, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe successfully completed its first orbit of the Sun on January 19. Illustration of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe approaching the...

This image of asteroid Bennu was captured on January 17, 2019, from a distance of about one mile. Image credit: NASA / Goddard / University of Arizona / Lockheed Martin.

OSIRIS-REx Captures Sharper Images of Asteroid Bennu

Jan 29, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) spacecraft has obtained new images of Bennu,...

The two Moon-exploring crew men of the Apollo 14 lunar landing mission photographed and collected the large rock pictured just above the exact center of this picture. The rock, casting a shadow off to the left, is the lunar breccia 14321. It lies between the wheel tracks made by the modular equipment transporter (MET) or rickshaw-type portable workbench. A few prints of the lunar overshoes of the crew members are at the left. This photo was made near the boulder field near the rim of Cone Crater. Image credit: NASA.

Terrestrial Meteorite Found on the Moon

Jan 29, 2019 by News Staff

A lunar rock sample collected by Apollo 14 astronauts in 1971 contains traces of minerals with a chemical composition common to Earth and very unusual...

This image from NASA’s New Horizons probe shows a Kuiper Belt object called Ultima Thule. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Sends Detailed Image of Ultima Thule

Jan 25, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has beamed back the most detailed image yet of the Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule (2014 MU69). This image from NASA’s...

Greenwood et al discovered that water was present on Earth at an early stage in its evolution and survived the giant impact, which formed the Moon. This is an artist’s depiction of a catastrophic collision between two celestial bodies; such an impact between the proto-Earth and Theia likely formed the Moon. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Earth’s Essential Elements for Life Probably Came from Another Planet

Jan 24, 2019 by News Staff

Planetary researchers believe that our Moon was created more than 4.4 billion years ago in a catastrophic collision between proto-Earth and a hypothetical...