Tag Archive for 'Planet'

This artist’s concept of lightning distribution in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere incorporates a JunoCam image with artistic embellishments. Data from NASA’s Juno mission indicates that most of the lightning activity on Jupiter is near its poles. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / JunoCam.

Juno Scientists Solve Mysteries of Jupiter’s Lightning

Jun 7, 2018 by News Staff

Ever since NASA’s Voyager 1 flew past Jupiter in 1979, planetary researchers have wondered about the origin of Jovian lightning. That encounter confirmed...

This artist’s concept depicts the dry environment seen at Mars today versus the early Martian environment. Image credit: Simon Fraser University.

Iron-Rich Rocks are Best Place to Seek Fossil Evidence of Martian Life, Scientists Say

May 29, 2018 by News Staff

Iron-rich rocks near ancient lake sites on Mars are the most promising and best understood astropaleontological targets, according to new research led...

NASA’s InSight spacecraft is on its way to Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s InSight Spacecraft Makes Its First Course Correction toward Mars

May 25, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft is currently cruising to Mars. On May 22, 2018,...

Artist’s illustration of Jupiter and Europa with NASA’s Galileo spacecraft after its pass through a plume erupting from Europa’s surface. A new computer simulation gives us an idea of how the magnetic field interacted with a plume. The magnetic field lines (depicted in blue) show how the plume interacts with the ambient flow of Jovian plasma. The red colors on the lines show more dense areas of plasma. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Michigan.

Archival Data from NASA’s Galileo Mission Yield New Evidence of Water Plumes on Europa

May 15, 2018 by News Staff

A new analysis of data collected by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in 1997 has found strong evidence that the underground ocean of Jupiter’s moon Europa...

Artistic impression of a Multiverse. Image credit: Jaime Salcido / EAGLE Collaboration.

Multiverse Might Not Be as Inhospitable to Life as Previously Thought

May 15, 2018 by News Staff

Questions about whether other universes might exist as part of a larger Multiverse, and if they could harbor life, are burning issues in modern cosmology....

NASA’s Mars Helicopter. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA to Send Autonomous Helicopter to Mars

May 14, 2018 by News Staff

The Mars Helicopter, a technology demonstration that will travel to the Red Planet with NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, will attempt controlled flight in the...

An artist’s impression of a ‘Snowball Earth.’ Image credit: NASA.

‘Snowball Earth’ Resulted from Plate Tectonics, Geologists Say

May 8, 2018 by News Staff

A team of geologists at the University of Texas at Dallas and Austin has put forward an intriguing new hypothesis that links the dawn of plate tectonics...

Gravity of Venus and Jupiter Elongates Earth’s Orbit Every 405,000 Years

May 8, 2018 by News Staff

A research team led by Rutgers University’s Professor Dennis Kent has documented a gradual shift in Earth’s orbit that repeats regularly every 405,000...

WASP-96b periodically transits WASP-96 (also known as 2MASS J00041112-4721382), a Sun-like star 980 light years away in the southern constellation Phoenix. Image credit: © Sci-News.com.

Hot Gas Giant WASP-96b Has Cloud-Free Atmosphere, Astronomers Say

May 7, 2018 by News Staff

A group of astronomers from Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States has found that the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-96b...

The United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off with NASA’s InSight spacecraft, seen through a thick fog blanketing Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Image credit: NASA.

NASA’s InSight Mission Launches to Study Mars’ Interior

May 5, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Mars InSight mission successfully launched today at 7:05 a.m. EDT (4:05 a.m. PDT) from Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California,...

Earth’s magnetic field connects the North Pole (orange lines) with the South Pole (blue lines) in this NASA-created image. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Earth’s Magnetic Field is Not in Early Stage of Reversal, Says Study

May 1, 2018 by News Staff

The intensity of Earth’s magnetic field has been dropping for the last two centuries, at a rate that some researchers suspect may cause the field to...

This image of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and surrounding turbulent zones was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The color-enhanced image is a combination of three separate images taken on April 1 between 6:09 a.m. EDT (3:09 a.m. PDT) and 6:24 a.m. EDT (3:24 a.m. PDT). At the time the images were taken, the spacecraft was 15,379 miles (24,749 km) to 30,633 miles (49,299 km) from the tops of the clouds of the planet at a southern latitude spanning 43.2 to 62.1 degrees. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstaedt / Sean Doran.

Juno Sends Back Breathtaking New Images of Jupiter

Apr 25, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA’s Juno mission took its twelfth trip around Jupiter on April 1, 2018, and the orbiter has sent back extraordinary images of the gas giant. This...

Astronomers Detect Hydrogen Sulfide in Uranus’ Upper Atmosphere

Apr 24, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Gemini North Telescope on Hawaii’s Maunakea have detected hydrogen sulfide, the gas that gives rotten eggs their distinctive odor,...

Mars is kept company by two cratered moons -- an inner moon named Phobos and an outer moon named Deimos. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Malin Space Science Systems / Texas A&M University.

Violent Collision May Have Created Martian Moons Phobos and Deimos

Apr 24, 2018 by News Staff

A colossal impact between proto-Mars and a Vesta-to-Ceres-sized object likely produced the two Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, according to new research. Mars...

The Almahata Sitta meteorite. Image credit: Peter Jenniskens.

Diamond-Bearing ‘Almahata Sitta’ Meteorites Came from Long-Lost Protoplanet

Apr 19, 2018 by News Staff

The Almahata Sitta meteorites — diamond-bearing space rock fragments that rained down on the Nubian Desert in Sudan in 2008 — are remnants...

If an industrial civilization had existed on Earth many millions of years prior to human era, what traces would it have left and would they be detectable today? Image credit: Michael Osadciw, University of Rochester.

Silurian Hypothesis: Were There Industrial Civilizations on Earth before Humans?

Apr 17, 2018 by News Staff

How do we really know there weren’t previous civilizations on our planet that rose and fell long before humans appeared? That’s the question posed...

This artist’s concept shows a hypothetical exoplanet around the binary star system of Kepler-35A and B. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Short-Period Double Stars Can Eject Their Planets, Study Suggests

Apr 13, 2018 by News Staff

So-called circumbinary planets — those planets that orbit around a binary star, like the fictional Tatooine from the Star Wars — can be ejected...

This composite image, derived from data collected by the JIRAM instrument aboard NASA’s Juno orbiter, shows the central cyclone at Jupiter’s north pole and the eight cyclones that encircle it. JIRAM collects data in infrared, and the colors in this composite represent radiant heat: the yellow (thinner) clouds are about 9 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 13 degrees Celsius) in brightness temperature and the dark red (thickest) are around minus 181 degrees Fahrenheit (83 degrees Celsius). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / ASI / INAF / JIRAM.

New Flyover Video Takes You on Tour of Jupiter’s North Pole

Apr 12, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers on NASA’s Juno mission shared a 3D infrared movie depicting densely packed cyclones and anticyclones that permeate the north polar region...

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

Venus’ Atmosphere Could Host Acid-Resistant Microorganisms

Apr 2, 2018 by News Staff

In the search for alien life, astrobiologists have turned over all sorts of rocks. For example, Mars has geological features that suggest it once had subsurface...

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 Water was Present before Moon-Forming Impact, Research Shows

Mar 30, 2018 by News Staff

The high-energy impact about 100 million years after our Solar System formed, resulted in the two colliding planetary objects completely merging to create...

«‹29 303132 33 ›»