Tag Archive for Solar System

Ultima Thule. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Returns First Clear Photo of Ultima Thule

Jan 2, 2019 by News Staff

NASA has released the first image from the historic Ultima Thule flyby taken with New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) camera. Ultima...

Just over 24 hours before its closest approach to Ultima Thule, New Horizons has sent back the first images that begin to reveal Ultima Thule’s shape. Image-sharpening techniques combining multiple images show that Ultima Thule is elongated, perhaps twice as long as it is wide. The spacecraft was approximately 1.2 million miles (1.9 million km) from Ultima Thule when this image was taken on December 30, 2018. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Arrives at Ultima Thule

Jan 1, 2019 by News Staff

After a journey of 13 years and 4 billion miles (6.4 billion km), NASA’s New Horizons probe had a close encounter with a Kuiper Belt object known as...

Artist’s impression of New Horizons encountering a Pluto-like object in the distant Kuiper Belt. Image credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI / Alex Parker.

New Horizons to Reach Ultima Thule on New Year’s Day: Watch Live

Dec 31, 2018 by News Staff

On January 1st, 2019, at 12:33 a.m. EST (5:33 a.m. GMT), NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will fly past a Kuiper Belt object known as 2014 MU69 (nicknamed...

An artist’s impression of the infant bow shock detected by ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Image credit: ESA.

Rosetta Detects Signs of Infant ‘Bow Shock’ at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Dec 26, 2018 by News Staff

The ‘bow shock’ is the first boundary the solar wind encounters as it approaches planets or comets. From 2014 to 2016, ESA’s Rosetta orbiter studied...

An artist’s impression of New Horizons encountering Ultima Thule. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute / Alex Parker.

New Horizons Team Puzzled by Lack of Light Curve from Ultima Thule

Dec 25, 2018 by News Staff

Over the past three months, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has been taking images to measure the brightness of its next flyby target — a Kuiper...

These three radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2003 SD220 were obtained on December 15-17, 2018. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSSR / NSF / GBO.

Asteroid 2003 SD220 Makes Close Approach to Earth

Dec 24, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers working with NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Network, NSF’s Green Bank Telescope and Arecibo Observatory’s 1,000-foot (305-m) antenna have...

ALMA image of 46P/Wirtanen taken on December 2, 2018, as the comet approached Earth. The image shows the concentration and distribution of HCN molecules near the center of the comet’s coma. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / M. Cordiner / NASA / CUA.

ALMA Takes Close Look at Comet 46P/Wirtanen

Dec 24, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) captured the radio image of 46P/Wirtanen on December 2, 2018, when the comet...

Hubble captured this view of comet 46P/Wirtanen on December 13, 2018. Image credit: NASA / ESA / D. Bodewits, Auburn University / J.-Y. Li, Planetary Science Institute.

Hubble and SOFIA Capture New Images of Comet 46P/Wirtanen

Dec 21, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) snapped stunning images of a short-period comet...

Perspective view of Korolev crater. Image credit: ESA / DLR / FU Berlin / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter Spots Water Ice-Filled Crater

Dec 21, 2018 by News Staff

New images from the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft show an impact crater in the northern lowlands of Mars. Known...

NASA’s InSight lander placed its seismometer on Mars on December 19, 2018. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

InSight Deploys First Instrument onto Martian Surface

Dec 20, 2018 by News Staff

On Wednesday, December 19, 2018, NASA’s InSight lander deployed its first instrument — the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) —...

An artist’s impression of New Horizons encountering Ultima Thule. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute / Alex Parker.

New Horizons Sees No Moons or Rings around Ultima Thule, Opts for Primary Flyby Path

Dec 19, 2018 by News Staff

After several weeks of sensitive searches for rings, small moons and other potential hazards around 2014 MU69, a Kuiper belt object nicknamed Ultima Thule,...

An artist’s concept of 2018 VG18. Image credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa / Carnegie Institution for Science.

2018 VG18 Farout: Astronomers Discover Most Distant Solar System Object Ever

Dec 18, 2018 by News Staff

Carnegie Institution astronomer Dr. Scott S. Sheppard, University of Hawaii’s Dr. David Tholen and Northern Arizona University’s Dr. Chad Trujillo...

With Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering NASA’ Cassini spacecraft from the Sun’s blinding glare, the probe viewed Saturn’s rings as never before, revealing previously unknown faint rings and even glimpsing its home world. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.

Saturn’s Rings are Disappearing at Rapid Pace

Dec 18, 2018 by News Staff

A team of planetary researchers from the United States and the United Kingdom has discovered that Saturn’s rings are younger than previously thought...

An artist’s rendering of the Europa ‘tunnelbot.’ Image credit: Alexander Pawlusik, LERCIP Internship Program, NASA’s Glenn Research Center.

Nuclear-Powered Tunneling Probe to Search for Extraterrestrial Life on Europa

Dec 17, 2018 by News Staff

A liquid ocean in contact with a silicate interior makes Jupiter’s icy moon Europa a prime location for life. This possibility is compounded if geologic...

This 120 second image of comet 46P/Wirtanen was taken December 2, 2018 by an iTelescope 50 mm refractor located at an observatory near Mayhill, New Mexico. The streak below the comet was produced by a rocket body (upper stage) passing through the telescope’s field of view during the exposure. Specifically, the upper stage is the one that placed the Indonesian Garuda 1 communications satellite into geostationary orbit back in February of 2000. At the time of this image, the Garuda 1 upper stage was 15,880 miles (25,556 km) from the observatory; 46P/Wirtanen was 10.3 million miles (16.6 million km) distant. Image credit: NASA.

Comet 46P/Wirtanen to Make Closest Approach to Earth in Over Four Centuries

Dec 15, 2018 by News Staff

On Sunday, December 16, 2018, comet 46P/Wirtanen will make a close pass of Earth. The comet will be at its closest distance to our planet in over four...

This composite image of Ultima Thule was taken just 33 hours before the December 2 course-correction maneuver that fine-tuned New Horizons’ trajectory for its New Year’s flyby. At left is the full LORRI image with a yellow circle centered on the location of Ultima Thule. Unlike the LORRI images taken in August through October 2018, the object is now evident among the many background stars even without further processing. Nevertheless, Ultima Thule really stands out after subtracting the background stars; the region within the yellow box has been expanded in the star-subtracted version of the image on the right. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA’s New Horizons Spacecraft Captures New Images of Ultima Thule

Dec 14, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has returned new images captured on approach to its next flyby target, the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, also known as...

This false-color image shows the dwarf planet Ceres. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Dwarf Planet Ceres Has Carbon-Rich Surface, Study Suggests

Dec 13, 2018 by News Staff

The surface of the dwarf planet Ceres may contain several times the concentration of carbon than is present in the most carbon-rich, primitive meteorites...

An artist concept of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / Goddard.

OSIRIS-REx Finds Water-Bearing Minerals on Asteroid Bennu

Dec 11, 2018 by News Staff

New data from two instruments on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft — the OSIRIS-REx Visible and Infrared Spectrometer (OVIRS) and the OSIRIS-REx Thermal...

This illustration shows the position of NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes, outside of the heliosphere, a protective bubble created by the Sun that extends well past the orbit of Pluto. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Voyager 2 Reaches Interstellar Space

Dec 11, 2018 by News Staff

Forty-one years after it launched into space, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft has crossed the outer edge of the heliosphere. Called the heliopause, this...

This image from InSight’s robotic-arm mounted Instrument Deployment Camera shows the instruments on the spacecraft’s deck, with the Martian surface of Elysium Planitia in the background. The color-calibrated picture was acquired on December 4, 2018 (Sol 8); in the foreground, a copper-colored hexagonal cover protects the SEIS seismometer; the gray dome behind SEIS is the wind and thermal shield, which will be placed over SEIS; to the left is a black cylindrical instrument, the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe (HP3); HP3 will drill up to 16 feet (5 m) below the Martian surface, measuring heat released from the interior of the planet; above the deck is InSight’s robotic arm, with the stowed grapple directly facing the camera; to the right can be seen a small portion of one of the two solar panels that help power InSight and part of the UHF communication antenna. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

InSight Records Sound of Wind on Mars

Dec 10, 2018 by News Staff

On December 1, 2018, NASA’s InSight lander captured a haunting low rumble caused by vibrations from the Martian wind, estimated to be blowing between...

© 2011-2025. Sci.News. All Rights Reserved. | Back to top