Space Exploration News

New Horizons Arrives at Ultima Thule

Just over 24 hours before its closest approach to Ultima Thule, New Horizons has sent back the first images that begin to reveal Ultima Thule’s shape. Image-sharpening techniques combining multiple images show that Ultima Thule is elongated, perhaps twice as long as it is wide. The spacecraft was approximately 1.2 million miles (1.9 million km) from Ultima Thule when this image was taken on December 30, 2018. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.
Jan 1, 2019 by News Staff

After a journey of 13 years and 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km), NASA’s New Horizons probe had a close encounter with a Kuiper Belt object known as Ultima Thule at 12:33 a.m. EST (5:33 a.m. GMT) January 1, 2019, closing to a distance of about 2,200 miles (3,500 km) from the object. Just over 24 hours before its closest approach to Ultima Thule, New Horizons has sent back the first images that begin to reveal Ultima Thule’s shape. Image-sharpening...

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Artist’s impression of New Horizons encountering a Pluto-like object in the distant Kuiper Belt. Image credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI / Alex Parker.

New Horizons to Reach Ultima Thule on New Year’s Day: Watch Live

Dec 31, 2018 by News Staff

On January 1st, 2019, at 12:33 a.m. EST (5:33 a.m. GMT), NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will fly past a Kuiper Belt object known as 2014 MU69 (nicknamed...

An artist’s impression of the infant bow shock detected by ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Image credit: ESA.

Rosetta Detects Signs of Infant ‘Bow Shock’ at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Dec 26, 2018 by News Staff

The ‘bow shock’ is the first boundary the solar wind encounters as it approaches planets or comets. From 2014 to 2016, ESA’s Rosetta orbiter studied...

An artist’s impression of New Horizons encountering Ultima Thule. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute / Alex Parker.

New Horizons Team Puzzled by Lack of Light Curve from Ultima Thule

Dec 25, 2018 by News Staff

Over the past three months, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has been taking images to measure the brightness of its next flyby target — a Kuiper...

Perspective view of Korolev crater. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter Spots Water Ice-Filled Crater

Dec 21, 2018 by News Staff

New images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft show an impact crater in the northern lowlands of Mars. Known...

NASA’s InSight lander placed its seismometer on Mars on December 19, 2018. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

InSight Deploys First Instrument onto Martian Surface

Dec 20, 2018 by News Staff

On Wednesday, December 19, 2018, NASA’s InSight lander deployed its first instrument — the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) —...

An artist’s impression of New Horizons encountering Ultima Thule. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute / Alex Parker.

New Horizons Sees No Moons or Rings around Ultima Thule, Opts for Primary Flyby Path

Dec 19, 2018 by News Staff

After several weeks of sensitive searches for rings, small moons and other potential hazards around 2014 MU69, a Kuiper belt object nicknamed Ultima Thule,...

With Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering NASA’ Cassini spacecraft from the Sun’s blinding glare, the probe viewed Saturn’s rings as never before, revealing previously unknown faint rings and even glimpsing its home world. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.

Saturn’s Rings are Disappearing at Rapid Pace

Dec 18, 2018 by News Staff

A team of planetary researchers from the United States and the United Kingdom has discovered that Saturn’s rings are younger than previously thought...

An artist’s rendering of the Europa ‘tunnelbot.’ Image credit: Alexander Pawlusik, LERCIP Internship Program, NASA’s Glenn Research Center.

Nuclear-Powered Tunneling Probe to Search for Extraterrestrial Life on Europa

Dec 17, 2018 by News Staff

A liquid ocean in contact with a silicate interior makes Jupiter’s icy moon Europa a prime location for life. This possibility is compounded if geologic...

This composite image of Ultima Thule was taken just 33 hours before the December 2 course-correction maneuver that fine-tuned New Horizons’ trajectory for its New Year’s flyby. At left is the full LORRI image with a yellow circle centered on the location of Ultima Thule. Unlike the LORRI images taken in August through October 2018, the object is now evident among the many background stars even without further processing. Nevertheless, Ultima Thule really stands out after subtracting the background stars; the region within the yellow box has been expanded in the star-subtracted version of the image on the right. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft Captures New Images of Ultima Thule

Dec 14, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has returned new images captured on approach to its next flyby target, the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, also known as...

This false-color image shows the dwarf planet Ceres. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Dwarf Planet Ceres Has Carbon-Rich Surface, Study Suggests

Dec 13, 2018 by News Staff

The surface of the dwarf planet Ceres may contain several times the concentration of carbon than is present in the most carbon-rich, primitive meteorites...

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7302

NASA’s InSight Lander Snaps Gorgeous Selfie on Mars

Dec 12, 2018 by News Staff

On December 6, 2018, NASA’s InSight lander used a camera on its robotic arm to snap a view of itself and the surroundings. Visible in the selfie are...

An artist concept of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / Goddard.

OSIRIS-REx Finds Water-Bearing Minerals on Asteroid Bennu

Dec 11, 2018 by News Staff

New data from two instruments on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft — the OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (OVIRS) and the OSIRIS-REx Thermal...

This illustration shows the position of NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes, outside of the heliosphere, a protective bubble created by the Sun that extends well past the orbit of Pluto. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Voyager 2 Reaches Interstellar Space

Dec 11, 2018 by News Staff

Forty-one years after it launched into space, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft has crossed the outer edge of the heliosphere. Called the heliopause, this...

This image from InSight’s robotic-arm mounted Instrument Deployment Camera shows the instruments on the spacecraft’s deck, with the Martian surface of Elysium Planitia in the background. The color-calibrated picture was acquired on December 4, 2018 (Sol 8); in the foreground, a copper-colored hexagonal cover protects the SEIS seismometer; the gray dome behind SEIS is the wind and thermal shield, which will be placed over SEIS; to the left is a black cylindrical instrument, the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe (HP3); HP3 will drill up to 16 feet (5 m) below the Martian surface, measuring heat released from the interior of the planet; above the deck is InSight’s robotic arm, with the stowed grapple directly facing the camera; to the right can be seen a small portion of one of the two solar panels that help power InSight and part of the UHF communication antenna. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

InSight Records Sound of Wind on Mars

Dec 10, 2018 by News Staff

On December 1, 2018, NASA’s InSight lander captured a haunting low rumble caused by vibrations from the Martian wind, estimated to be blowing between...

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is on a mission to explore the asteroid Bennu and return a sample to Earth. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Arrives at Asteroid Bennu

Dec 4, 2018 by News Staff

After traveling through space for more than two years and 1.2 billion miles (2 billion km), NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource...

InSight flipped open the lens cover on its Instrument Context Camera (ICC) on November 30, 2018, and captured this view of Mars. Located below the deck of the InSight lander, the ICC has a fisheye view, creating a curved horizon. Some clumps of dust are still visible on the camera’s lens. One of the spacecraft’s footpads can be seen in the lower right corner. The seismometer’s tether box is in the upper left corner. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

InSight Landed inside Sand-Filled Crater, NASA Researchers Say

Dec 3, 2018 by News Staff

On November 26, 2018, NASA’s InSight probe touched down on the western side of a flat, smooth expanse of lava called Elysium Planitia. Now the mission...

InSight Successfully Lands on Mars, Sends First Images

Nov 27, 2018 by News Staff

After an almost seven-month, 300-million-mile (458 million km) journey from Earth, NASA’s InSight lander successfully touched down Monday, November 26,...

This is an illustration showing a simulated view of NASA’s InSight lander about to land on the surface of Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

InSight Landing on Mars: Watch Live

Nov 26, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet...

Martian moon Phobos. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona.

Martian Moon Phobos Got Its Strange Grooves from Rolling Boulders

Nov 22, 2018 by News Staff

New research from Brown University reinforces the idea that grooves crisscrossing the surface of Phobos, the larger of the two Martian moons, were made...

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