Space Exploration News

Cassini caught the sunlight glinting off Titan's seas and lakes filled with liquid methane or ethane. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona / University of Idaho.

NASA’s Cassini Orbiter Explores Titan’s Ligeia Mare

Apr 28, 2016 by News Staff

Ligeia Mare, one of the largest seas on Saturn’s moon Titan, consists of pure methane and likely has a seabed covered by a sludge of organic-rich material,...

Beagle-2 landing site: original image (upper panel) and SRR from 5 input images (lower). The bright object in the upper centre portion is shown in the next figure. Map co-ordinates come from NASA’s HiRISE camera and are not in a global reference system. Image credit: Yu Tao & Jan-Peter Muller, University College London.

Novel Super-Resolution Restoration Technique Shows Mars in Incredible Detail

Apr 26, 2016 by News Staff

The Martian surface — including the location of ESA’s Beagle-2 lander, and the ancient lakebeds discovered by NASA’s Curiosity rover —...

Venus in real colors, processed from Mariner 10 images. Image credit: Mattias Malmer / NASA.

ESA’s Venus Express Finds Atmospheric Gravity Waves in Venusian Polar Atmosphere

Apr 23, 2016 by News Staff

Strong atmospheric gravity waves dominate the polar regions of Venus’ atmosphere, according to measurements made by ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft...

This image of Haulani Crater was acquired by Dawn from a distance of 915 miles (1,470 km). The bluish material visible here indicates relatively fresh material on the surface. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA / PSI.

Latest Images from NASA’s Dawn Orbiter Show Ceres’ Bright Craters

Apr 20, 2016 by News Staff

New images captured by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft from a distance of 240 miles (385 km) show two prominent craters on the surface of Ceres: Oxo and Haulani. This...

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’s Creeping Ice Might Make Far More Heat than Planetary Researchers Thought

Apr 18, 2016 by News Staff

As Europa — the sixth-closest moon of Jupiter and the smallest of its four Galilean satellites — orbits, its icy surface heaves and falls with...

Cassini Samples, Analyzes Interstellar Dust at Saturn

Apr 15, 2016 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Cassini spacecraft has detected the faint but distinct signature of dust coming from outside our Solar System, from the Local Interstellar...

This wide-field view of the sky around Alpha Centauri was created from photographic images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. Image credit: ESO / Digitized Sky Survey 2 / Davide De Martin.

Breakthrough Starshot: Stephen Hawking, Yuri Milner Announce Plan to Reach Alpha Centauri

Apr 14, 2016 by Natali Anderson

Theoretical physicist Prof. Stephen Hawking and science philanthropist Yuri Milner unveiled this week a new initiative, called Breakthrough Starshot, to...

This image of an impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars was taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on March 30, 2015. The crater is approximately 3,300 feet (1-km) wide and appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta. The steep inner slopes are carved by gullies and include possible recurring slope lineae on the equator-facing slopes. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / Alfred McEwen.

Comet, Asteroid Impacts 4 Billion Years Ago Likely Enhanced Life-Supporting Habitat on Mars

Apr 6, 2016 by News Staff

The bombardment of the Red Planet about 4 billion years ago (Noachian period) by giant comets and asteroids likely enhanced climate conditions enough to...

Space environment data collected by New Horizons over a billion miles of its journey to Pluto will play a key role in testing and improving models of the space environment throughout the Solar System. This visualization is one example of such a model: it shows the simulated space environment out to Pluto a few months before New Horizons’ closest approach. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio / Space Weather Research Center / Community-Coordinated Modeling Center / Enlil and Dusan Odstrcil, GMU.

New Horizons Observes Solar Wind Changes in Outer Solar System

Apr 6, 2016 by News Staff

The Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has recorded significant changes in how the solar wind behaves far from...

$In this stunning Saturnian vista, icy geysers erupt along narrow fractures on Enceladus. The majestic plumes were actually discovered by instruments on the Cassini Spacecraft during close encounters with bright and shiny Enceladus in 2005. Image credit: Michael Carroll / NASA.$

Planetary Researchers Explain Sustained Eruptions on Enceladus

Mar 29, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Planetary researchers on NASA’s Cassini mission have published a new study describing the process that drives and sustains long-lived geysers on Enceladus,...

Artist's concept of a cryobot in the ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa. Image credit: NASA.

Scientists Produce First Roadmap for European Astrobiology

Mar 28, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers on the AstRoMap project, a coordination action supported by the European Commission, have surveyed the state of the art of astrobiology in...

NASA Scientists Identify Titan’s Tallest Peak

Mar 25, 2016 by News Staff

Planetary researchers with NASA’s Cassini mission have identified the highest point on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Titan’s Mithrim Montes is...

Study: Moon Moved from Its Original Axis 3 Billion Years Ago

Mar 24, 2016 by News Staff

Earth’s moon wandered off its original axis about 3 billion years ago, a new study led by Southern Methodist University planetary researcher Matt Siegler...

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.

New Images of Ceres Show Its Mysterious Bright Spots in Unprecedented Detail

Mar 22, 2016 by News Staff

Planetary researchers from NASA’s Dawn mission have released new images of the dwarf planet Ceres, including anticipated views of its intriguing ‘bright...

This view of the Martian gravity map shows the Tharsis volcanoes and surrounding flexure: the white areas in the center are higher-gravity regions produced by the massive Tharsis volcanoes, and the surrounding blue areas are lower-gravity regions that may be cracks in the crust. Image credit: MIT / UMBC-CRESST / GSFC.

NASA Scientists Release Map of Mars’ Gravity

Mar 22, 2016 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Dr. Antonio Genova of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has released a detailed new map of Mars’ gravity. This view of...

This high-resolution image of Pluto was taken by New Horizons on July 14. Pluto’s surface sports a remarkable range of subtle colors, enhanced in this view to a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds. Many landforms have their own distinct colors, telling a complex geological and climatological story that scientists have only just begun to decode. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Science Papers Provide New Data from Pluto System Flyby

Mar 18, 2016 by News Staff

Researchers on the New Horizons team have released a set of five scientific papers describing results from the July 2015 flyby of the Pluto system. This...

‘Bite mark’ on Pluto. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Team Finds ‘Bite Mark’ on Pluto

Mar 14, 2016 by News Staff

Members of the New Horizons mission team have discovered a huge ‘bite mark’ on the surface of the dwarf planet Pluto. ‘Bite mark’ on Pluto. The...

Artist’s impression visualizing the ExoMars 2016 TGO, with its thrusters firing, beginning its entry into Mars orbit. Image credit: ESA / ATG medialab.

ExoMars 2016 Blasts Off from Baikonur

Mar 14, 2016 by News Staff

The ExoMars 2016 mission blasted off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Proton-M rocket at 02:31 a.m. PDT (05:31 a.m. EDT, 09:31 a.m. GMT,...

An artist’s rendering of a classical nova. Image credit: David Hardy, www.astroart.org.

‘Pre-Solar Grains’ Could Be Remnants of Ancient Novae

Mar 11, 2016 by News Staff

Tiny particles of stardust have been found in meteorites. Whether some of these particles, known as ‘pre-solar grains,’ came from classical novae is...