Tag Archive for Solar System

The largest crustal block Byrne et al. identified in the Venus lowlands: (A) Magellan radar image mosaic of the block; named landforms are shown; the black and white arrows mark impact craters and prominent lava flows, respectively; the approximate outline of the campus is marked by a dashed yellow line; (B) radar image (left) and structural sketch (right) of extensional faults curving into the main groove belt that delineates the southwestern margin of this campus, here with a right-lateral sense of slip; (C) sigmoidal, positive-relief landforms we interpret as right-lateral transpressive structures; (D) another example of sigmoidal, positive-relief ridges we regard as denoting right-lateral transpression, with a different strike from those structures in (C); in these and subsequent structural sketches, prominent extensional structures are in purple (with ball-and-bar symbols shown on example down-thrown blocks), and prominent shortening structures are in teal (with sawtooth symbols on example upper blocks); minor and/or poorly expressed fractures of various types are shown as thin, black lines; wrinkle ridges are generally not recorded; exemplar extensional and shortening landforms are marked with gold and red arrows, respectively; the radar look direction is from the left in (A), and from the right in (B-D). All images are in azimuthal equidistant projection, centered at 24.5°S, 146.5°E (A); 20.0°S, 138.3°E (B); 27.2°S, 141.1°E (C); and 18.0°S, 145.0°E (D). Image credit: Byrne et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2025919118.

Planetary Scientists Find Evidence for Crustal Block Tectonics on Venus

Jun 22, 2021 by News Staff

Using data collected by the synthetic aperture radar on NASA’s Magellan spacecraft, a team of planetary researchers has identified a pattern of tectonic...

Geologic Activity on Earth Follows 27.5-Million-Year Cycle, New Study Says

Jun 18, 2021 by News Staff

In a new study published in the journal Geoscience Frontiers, a team of U.S. researchers analyzed the ages of 89 well-dated geological events of the last...

Solar System and the interstellar medium. Image credit: NASA / IBEX / Adler Planetarium.

IBEX Produces 3D Map of Heliosphere

Jun 15, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) satellite have mapped the boundary of the heliosphere, the vast region of space surrounding...

This image of Ganymede was obtained by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during its June 7, 2021, flyby of the icy moon. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS.

NASA’s Juno Orbiter Completes Close Flyby of Ganymede

Jun 9, 2021 by News Staff

Juno’s June 7, 2021 flyby of Ganymede is the closest a spacecraft has come to Jupiter’s largest moon since NASA’s Galileo spacecraft made its close...

This artist’s concept shows NASA’s VERITAS spacecraft using its radar to produce high-resolution maps of Venus’ topographic and geologic features. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA Selects Two New Missions to Venus

Jun 3, 2021 by News Staff

NASA has selected two new Discovery Program missions — the Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging (DAVINCI+)...

Curiosity captured these clouds just after sunset on March 19, 2021, the 3,063rd Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s mission. The image is made up of 21 individual images stitched together and color corrected so that the scene appears as it would to the human eye. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity Spots Carbon Dioxide-Ice Clouds in Martian Skies

May 28, 2021 by News Staff

In March 2021, NASA’s Curiosity rover observed clouds made of carbon dioxide (CO2) ice at high altitudes in the atmosphere of Mars. Curiosity captured...

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 Has Volcanoes on the Floor of Its Subsurface Ocean, Study Suggests

May 26, 2021 by News Staff

Jupiter’s moon Europa harbors underneath a tectonically modified ice shell a salty ocean in direct contact with its rocky interior. Such an oceanic environment...

The meteoroid stream of long-period comet Thatcher from CAMS data; outer blue ellipse is the orbit of Neptune. Image credit: P. Jenniskens / SETI Institute.

Long-Period Comets Can Cause Meteor Showers on Earth, Astronomers Say

May 21, 2021 by News Staff

Dr. Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute and NASA’s Ames Research Center and his colleagues say they can detect meteor showers from the debris in the...

This picture of Neptune was produced from the last whole planet images taken through the green and orange filters on the narrow angle camera of NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft. The images were taken at a range of 7.1 million km (4.4 million miles) from the planet, 4 days and 20 hours before closest approach. The picture shows the Great Dark Spot and its companion bright smudge; on the west limb the fast moving bright feature called Scooter and the little dark spot are visible. These clouds were seen to persist for as long as Voyager’s cameras could resolve them. North of these, a bright cloud band similar to the south polar streak may be seen. Image credit: NASA / JPL.

ALMA Detects Hydrogen Cyanide Belt in Stratosphere of Neptune

May 21, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have produced a detailed map of intensity and abundance of gaseous hydrogen cyanide...

Iron and Nickel Detected in Atmospheres of Solar System Comets

May 20, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have detected neutral atoms of two heavy metals — iron (Fe I) and nickel (Ni I) — in the atmospheres...

This image shows the spectrum of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov on the bottom right superimposed to a real photo of the comet taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope in 2019; the lines of nickel are indicated by orange dashes. Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada / O. Hainaut / P. Guzik & M. Drahus.

Astronomers Detect Nickel in Coma of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

May 19, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Using spectroscopic observations from ESO’s Very Large Telescope, a duo of astronomers from Poland has detected atomic nickel vapor in the cold coma...

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.

Phobos and Deimos are Fragments of Larger Martian Moon, Study Suggests

May 19, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Phobos and Deimos, two satellites of Mars, originated from disintegration of a much larger moon between 1 and 2.7 billion years ago, according to new computer...

Sketch of the relative positions of NASA’s and ESA’s spacecraft that observed the February 12, 2021 coronal mass ejections; ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft was ‘behind’ the Sun from the perspective of Earth; the Earth was about 12 degrees west of Sun-center as seen from Solar Orbiter; ESA’s Proba-2, which orbits the Earth, and the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), which is located in orbit around the Lagrange point 1, 1.5 million km in front of the Earth towards the Sun, also viewed the coronal mass ejection; NASA’s STEREO-A (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) also caught a glimpse of the event from its viewpoint away from the direct Sun-Earth line; together the spacecraft provide valuable, different perspectives on the same event. Image credit: ESA.

Solar Orbiter Observes Two Huge Eruptions on Sun

May 18, 2021 by News Staff

The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), the Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) and the Metis coronagraph onboard the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter captured different...

Perseverance used its dual-camera Mastcam-Z imager to capture this (enhanced) image of Santa Cruz, a hill within Jezero Crater, on April 29, 2021, the 68th Martian day of the mission. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS.

Perseverance Begins to Study Floor of Jezero Crater

May 13, 2021 by News Staff

NASA’s Perseverance rover is focusing its science instruments on rocks that lay on the floor of Jezero Crater, which is located on the western edge of...

Illustration of NASA’s Voyager spacecraft showing the antennas used by the Plasma Wave Subsystem and other instruments. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Voyager 1 Detects Plasma Waves in Interstellar Medium

May 12, 2021 by News Staff

Launched in September 1977, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft flew by Jupiter in 1979 and then Saturn in late 1980. In August 2012, it crossed the heliopause...

This visible-light image of Jupiter was created from data captured on January 11, 2017 using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. Near the top, a long brown feature called a ‘brown barge’ extends 72,000 km (nearly 45,000 miles) in the east-west direction. The Great Red Spot stands out prominently in the lower left, while the smaller feature nicknamed Red Spot Jr. (known to Jovian scientists as Oval BA) appears to its lower right. Image credit: NASA / ESA / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / Wong et al. / de Pater et al. / M. Zamani.

Astronomers Capture Stunning New Images of Jupiter

May 12, 2021 by News Staff

Three images of Jupiter from the 8-m Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North telescope at the Gemini Observatory and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope show...

This image of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu was captured on April 9, 2021, by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / University of Arizona.

OSIRIS-REx Is On Its Way Back to Earth with Sample of Asteroid Bennu’s Regolith

May 12, 2021 by News Staff

On May 10, 2021, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft fired its main engines full throttle for seven minutes; this burn thrust the spacecraft away from the asteroid...

Horvath et al. found strong evidence for geologically recent volcanic activity in Elysium Planitia, Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL / MSSS / Murray Lab.

Mars Could Still Be Volcanically Active, Planetary Scientists Say

May 11, 2021 by News Staff

Volcanic activity on Mars peaked during the Noachian and Hesperian periods, between 3 and 4 billion years ago, with smaller eruptions in isolated locations...

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter was captured after landing on May 7, 2021, by the Mastcam-Z imager aboard the Perseverance rover. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS.

Ingenuity Completes Its Fifth Flight on Mars

May 10, 2021 by News Staff

On May 7, 2021, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter successfully completed its fifth flight with one-way journey from the ‘Wright Brothers Field’ to a new...

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter (above center to the right) is viewed by one of the hazard cameras aboard the Perseverance rover during the helicopter’s fourth flight on April 30, 2021. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Listen to NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter in Flight

May 7, 2021 by News Staff

NASA’s Perseverance rover used a microphone on its SuperCam laser instrument to listen as the Ingenuity helicopter flew for the fourth time on April...

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