Tag Archive for 'Solar System'

This is the first high-resolution, color image to be sent back by the Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) on the underside of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover after its landing on February 18, 2021. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Perseverance Sends Back Its First Color Photos, Status Reports from Mars

Feb 22, 2021 by News Staff

Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have received new images from the Perseverance rover as well as health reports from both the...

Perseverance’s first image (colorized) from Jezero Crater, Mars. Image credit: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Successfully Lands on Mars

Feb 19, 2021 by News Staff

After a 203-day journey, NASA’s car-sized Perseverance rover successfully landed in Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021. Confirmation of the successful...

This illustration shows NASA’s Mars 2020 spacecraft carrying the Perseverance rover as it approaches Mars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s Perseverance Rover to Land on Mars Today: Watch Live

Feb 18, 2021 by News Staff

NASA’s Perseverance rover, with the Ingenuity helicopter attached to its belly, is on target to touch down gently in Jezero Crater on Mars around 3:55...

Artist’s impression depicting the separation of the Schiaparelli module from the Trace Gas Orbiter, and heading for Mars. Image credit: D. Ducros / ESA.

Trace Gas Orbiter Detects Hydrogen Chloride Gas in Atmosphere of Mars

Feb 17, 2021 by News Staff

The source of hydrogen chloride (HCl) in the atmosphere of Mars is recent surface volcanism, subsurface magmatic activity, or aerosol chemistry occurring...

The Chicxulub asteroid hit Earth at an angle of about 60 degrees, which is among the worst-case scenarios for the lethality of the impact by the production of climate-changing gases. Image credit: Chase Stone.

Novel Theory Explains Possible Origin of Dinosaur-Killing Chicxulub Impactor

Feb 16, 2021 by News Staff

At the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago, a 10-km impactor crashed into Earth near the site of the small town of Chicxulub in what...

Solar system distances to scale, showing 2018 AG37 compared to other known solar system objects, including the previous record holder 2018 VG18. Image credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa / Scott S. Sheppard, Carnegie Institution for Science / Brooks Bays, University of Hawai’i.

Solar System’s Most Distant Object Confirmed

Feb 11, 2021 by News Staff

Nicknamed ‘Farfarout’ and officially designated 2018 AG37, the newly-confirmed planetoid has a very elongated orbit that takes it out to 175 AU (astronomical...

HiRISE camera view of Krupac crater on Mars featuring gullies along the rim and recurring slope lineae lower down the crater wall. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona.

New Research Reveals What Causes Landslides on Mars

Feb 4, 2021 by News Staff

On Mars, seasonal features known as recurring slope lineae (RSL) are prevalent on Sun-facing slopes. Previous studies have suggested RSL are related to...

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of the larger of Mars’ two moons, Phobos, on March 23, 2008. The image was taken from a distance of about 6,800 km (about 4,200 miles). It is presented in color by combining data from the camera’s blue-green, red, and near-infrared channels. The illuminated part of Phobos seen in the image is about 21 km (13 miles) across. The most prominent feature is the large crater Stickney in the lower right. With a diameter of 9 km (5.6 miles), it is the largest feature on Phobos. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona.

Phobos May Contain Atmospheric Atoms from Ancient Mars

Feb 3, 2021 by News Staff

Martian atmospheric oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and argon ions have been escaping Mars for billions of years and could be preserved inside the uppermost hundreds...

This image was captured on November 18, 2020, by the SoloHI camera on board Solar Orbiter. Venus (left), Earth (middle), and Mars (right) are visible in the foreground. Stars are visible in the background, appearing to move in Solar Orbiter’s recording while the spacecraft travels around the Sun. The Sun is located on the right, outside the video frame. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Solar Orbiter / SoloHI Team / U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

Solar Orbiter Spots Venus, Earth and Mars

Jan 28, 2021 by News Staff

Solar Orbiter, a collaborative mission between ESA and NASA to study the Sun, has captured a series of images showing three solar system planets: Venus,...

An artistic rendering of Kraken Mare, a large liquid methane sea on Titan. Image credit: NASA’s John Glenn Research Center.

Titan’s Largest Methane Sea is Over 100 Meters Deep

Jan 21, 2021 by News Staff

Kraken Mare, a sea of liquid methane on Saturn’s moon Titan, is at least 100-m (330 feet) deep near its center, according to an analysis of data collected...

This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar asteroid -- 1I/2017 U1 (’Oumuamua). Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Alien Debris Passed through Solar System in 2017, Astronomer Says

Jan 18, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Professor Abraham (Avi) Loeb of Harvard University believes that 1I/2017 U1 ‘Oumuamua, a fast moving, cigar-shaped object of extrasolar origin discovered...

This visualization represents a 3D map of brown dwarfs (red dots) that have been discovered within 65 light-years of the Sun. The Sun, which is not shown, is located at the center of the view. The disk of the Milky Way appears in the background. Other stars close to the Sun appear as variously colored points in the field. Image credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. da Silva.

Astronomers Discover 38 New Cool Brown Dwarfs in Solar Neighborhood

Jan 15, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers and citizen scientists from the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project have announced an unprecedented census of 525 L, T, and Y-type dwarfs within...

Hayabusa-2 image of the asteroid Ryugu as seen from a distance of 3.7 miles. A particularly large crater is visible near the center of the image. Image credit: JAXA / University of Tokyo / Kochi University / Rikkyo University / Nagoya University / Chiba Institute of Technology / Meiji University / University of Aizu / AIST.

Hayabusa-2 Reveals New Details about Asteroid Ryugu

Jan 6, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The ancient parent body of the near-Earth ‘rubble pile’ asteroid Ryugu had likely dried out in some kind of heating event before the asteroid came...

Flaring, active regions of the Sun are highlighted in this image combining observations from several telescopes. High-energy X-rays from NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) are shown in blue; low-energy X-rays from Japan’s Hinode spacecraft are green; and extreme ultraviolet light from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is yellow and red. All three telescopes captured their solar images around the same time on April 29, 2015. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSFC / JAXA.

Source of Sunquakes is Submerged beneath Solar Surface, Study Shows

Jan 5, 2021 by News Staff

Ultra-impulsive acoustic emission from a solar flare recently detected by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) indicated submersion of its source...

Perspective view of chaotic terrain in Pyrrhae Regio, Mars. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Mars Express Spots Chaotic Terrain near Valles Marineris

Dec 31, 2020 by News Staff

The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) onboard ESA’s Mars Express orbiter has imaged a fascinating landscape near the major canyon system of Valles...

Hamilton et al. studied the composition of Almahata Sitta 202 to determine that it likely originated from a previously unknown parent asteroid. Image credit: Hamilton et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-020-01274-z.

Almahata Sitta Meteorites Came from Ceres-Sized Asteroid, Study Shows

Dec 28, 2020 by News Staff

The parent body of the Almahata Sitta meteorites — space rocks that rained down on the Nubian Desert in Sudan in 2008 — is a 640 to 1,800 km-wide...

This image shows a suite of fluvial ridges on Mars (at –67.64 °E, 43.37 °S). Image credit: J. Dickson.

Planetary Researchers Create Map of Early Mars’ River Systems

Dec 24, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from the Context Camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, planetary researchers have generated an 8-trillion-pixel global map of...

This image, taken by the LASCO C2 camera on SOHO, shows comet C/2020 X3 in the bottom left-hand corner. Image credit: NASA / ESA / SOHO.

SOHO Observatory Spots Newly-Discovered Sungrazer Comet

Dec 22, 2020 by News Staff

C/2020 X3, spotted by the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), is part of the Kreutz family, a group of comets with related orbits that...

This image comprises data gathered by ESA’s Mars Express on November 8, 2020, during orbit 21,305. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Mars Express Spots Festive Silhouettes near Martian South Pole

Dec 18, 2020 by News Staff

The wings of an angelic figure, complete with halo, can be seen sweeping up and off the top of the frame in a new image from ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft,...

This image, taken with the Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope, shows the near-Earth asteroid 1998 KY26. Image credit: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

Subaru Telescope Captures Images of Near-Earth Asteroid 1998 KY26

Dec 18, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the Subaru Telescope have produced spectacular images of 1998 KY26, a future asteroid target of JAXA’s Hayabusa-2 spacecraft. This...

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