Space Exploration News

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

This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about 4 billion years ago. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.
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 Ocean, says a group of scientists writing in the journal Science. This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about 4 billion years ago. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO. About 4.5 billion years ago, the young Mars would have had enough water to cover its entire surface in a liquid layer...

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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...

Four-image mosaic of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comprising images taken on 14 February 2015 during the first dedicated close flyby; this image set was taken from a distance of 8.9 km. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / NavCam / CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.

Rosetta Captures New Close-Ups of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Feb 17, 2015 by News Staff

The Navigation Camera (NavCam) instrument on ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has captured close-up high-resolution images of the comet surface, revealing details...

This color image of the Earth, dubbed Pale Blue Dot, is a part of the first ever ‘family portrait’ of our Solar System taken by Voyager 1. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Pale Blue Dot: 25th Anniversary of Amazing Images from NASA’s Voyager 1

Feb 16, 2015 by News Staff

The cameras of Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990, pointed back toward the Sun and took a series of pictures of the Sun, Earth and other planets, making the...

This false-color four-image mosaic comprises images taken from a distance of 28.7 km from the center of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 3 February 2015. The mosaic measures 4.2 x 4.6 km. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / NAVCAM / CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.

Comets are Like Deep Fried Ice Cream, NASA Researchers Say

Feb 11, 2015 by News Staff

Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have discovered why comets are encased in a hard, outer crust. This false-color...

Far side of the Moon. Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.

Stunning New Video from NASA Shows Far Side of Moon

Feb 9, 2015 by News Staff

Using data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA scientists have created a detailed visual simulation of the dark side of the Moon, the side that...

Curiosity rover can be seen at the Pahrump Hills area of Gale Crater in this view from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Captures Curiosity Rover

Feb 9, 2015 by News Staff

A new image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Curiosity on the rover’s...

The image of Pluto and its moon Charon, taken by New Horizons spacecraft on January 27, was magnified few times to make the objects more visible. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Captures New Images of Pluto, Charon

Feb 5, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has acquired new images of the Pluto system. The images, taken with spacecraft’s Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI)...

Northwest Africa 7034. Image credit: NASA.

NWA 7034: Unique Meteorite Likely Came from Martian Dark Plains

Feb 2, 2015 by News Staff

Spectroscopic measurements of a Martian meteorite called Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034 are a spot-on match with orbital measurements of the Red Planet’s...

OSIRIS instrument on the Rosetta spacecraft captured this image of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on November 12, 2014; marked is what Rosetta scientists believe to be the Philae lander above the rim of the large depression – named Hatmehit – on the comet’s small lobe. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / MPS for OSIRIS team / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA.

Rosetta Analyzes Dusty Surface of 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

Feb 2, 2015 by News Staff

Rosetta mission scientists have announced the first results from the COmetary Secondary Ion Mass Analyser (COSIMA), one of Rosetta’s three dust analysis...

This image shows conditions observed by Cassini during a flyby on December 1, 2013, when the magnetosphere of Saturn was highly compressed, exposing Titan to the full force of the solar wind. In analyzing data from the encounter, the researchers observed that the moon interacted with the solar wind much like the planets Mars and Venus, or a comet. Specifically, they saw that the solar wind draped itself around Titan, creating a shockwave that formed around Titan where the full-force solar wind rammed into the atmosphere of the moon. Previously, scientists had thought Titan would have a different sort of interaction with the solar wind because of the complex atmospheric chemistry of the moon. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s Cassini Observes Interaction of Titan with Supersonic Solar Wind

Jan 30, 2015 by News Staff

Scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have found that Titan – the largest moon of Saturn and the only moon in the Solar System with...

This panorama is presented in approximate true color by combing exposures taken through three of the Opportunity’s Pancam color filters, centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near-infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). The left edge is toward west-northwest and the right edge is southward. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell University /Arizona State University.

NASA’s Opportunity Celebrates 11 Years on Mars

Jan 28, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity celebrates its 11th anniversary on the planet, marking the milestone with an incredible view of 22-km-wide Endeavour Crater. This...

This image shows the asteroid 2004 BL86 and its small companion. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Sci-News.com.

Asteroid 2004 BL86 and its Moon Fly Safely Past Earth

Jan 27, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Deep Space Network antenna have captured the first radar images of asteroid 2004 BL86, which made its closest approach January...

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