Tag Archive for 'Solar System'

This image was obtained in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on January 16, 2017, at a distance of about 17,000 miles (28,000 km) from Daphnis. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Cassini Provides New View of Saturn’s Wave-Making Moon Daphnis

Jan 20, 2017 by News Staff

A new image from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows Saturn’s small moon Daphnis and the waves it raises in the surrounding ring material. This image was...

This view of a Martian rock slab called ‘Old Soaker,’ which has a network of cracks that may have originated in drying mud, comes from the Mast Camera on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover. The location is within an exposure of Murray formation mudstone on lower Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater. Mud cracks would be evidence of a time more than 3 billion years ago when dry intervals interrupted wetter periods that supported lakes in the area. Several images from Mast Camera’s left-eye camera are combined into this mosaic view. They were taken on Dec. 20, 2016, during the 1,555th sol of Curiosity’s work on Mars. The Old Soaker slab is about 4 feet (1.2 m) long. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity Finds Possible Signs of Ancient Drying on Mars

Jan 18, 2017 by News Staff

A grid of small polygons spotted by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover may have originated as cracks in drying mud more than 3 billion years ago, according...

A map of the whole disc of the Sun was also made with a single ALMA antenna, using a technique called fast-scanning, at a wavelength of 1.25 mm. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO.

ALMA Captures Its First Images of Sun

Jan 17, 2017 by News Staff

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope has been used to study the Sun for the first time. The new ALMA images reveal otherwise...

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft obtained this image of Mimas on Oct. 22, 2016. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Cassini Captures Breathtaking View of Saturn’s Moon Mimas

Jan 16, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

This image of Saturn’s seventh largest moon, Mimas, was photographed when NASA’s Cassini spacecraft was approximately 115,000 miles (185,000 km) away. NASA’s...

A vast alluvial fan in the XinJiang province of China. The right side is the active part of the fan, and appears blue from water currently flowing in the many small streams. The image was acquired on May 2, 2002. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / METI / ERSDAC / JAROS / US-Japan ASTER Science Team.

Have We Seen Evidence of Titan’s Catastrophic Methane Downpours?

Jan 9, 2017 by James Romero

Attempts to investigate the origin of giant wedge-shaped sedimentary structures on Saturn’s moon Titan using analogues in Death Valley, California has...

Earth-Moon System as Seen from Mars Orbit

Jan 9, 2017 by News Staff

This image composite combines the best Earth image with the best Moon image from four sets of images acquired on November 20, 2016, by the High Resolution...

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

Dawn Finds New Evidence for Water Ice on Ceres

Dec 28, 2016 by News Staff

Images from NASA’s Dawn probe have revealed a dark, cratered world whose brightest area is made of reflective salts — not water ice. But several...

This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about 4 billion years ago. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

More Evidence for Warm, Wet Early Mars

Dec 27, 2016 by News Staff

A study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets provides new evidence for a warm early Mars that hosted water across a geologically long...

This is one of Cassini’s closest views to date of Pandora, a small, inner moon of Saturn. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Cassini Closes in on Saturn’s Moon Pandora

Dec 26, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

This image from NASA’s Cassini robotic orbiter is one of the highest-resolution views ever taken of Pandora, Saturn’s F ring shepherd moon. This is...

With a diameter of 57 miles (92 km), Occator crater is larger than Tycho crater on the Moon. Its steep walls stand tall at over 1.4 miles (2 km), higher than the North face of the Eiger in the Bernese Alps. The origin and nature of the bright spots in its interior is still not clear. Image credit: DLR.

Fly over Ceres’ Colossal Crater and Bright Spots in Incredible Video

Dec 24, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers from the Institute of Planetary Research at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, or DLR) have produced...

Hubble’s view of Jupiter. Image credit: NASA.

Teasing Out the Secrets beneath Jupiter’s Cloud Tops

Dec 17, 2016 by James Romero

As NASA’s Juno probe makes its closest flyby of the gas giant, new research from France’s space agency could help make more sense of the data it sends...

Jupiter’s ‘pearl.’ Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS.

Juno Completes Its Third Jupiter Flyby

Dec 14, 2016 by News Staff

On Dec. 11, 2016, NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully completed its third flyby over Jupiter’s mysterious cloud tops. Jupiter’s ‘pearl.’ Image...

Color composite of Phobos taken with TGO’s CaSSIS camera on November 26, 2016. The observation was made at a distance of 4,785 miles (7,700 km). To create the final color image, two images were taken through each of the four color filters of the camera -- panchromatic, blue-green, red and infrared -- and then stitched together and combined to produce the high-resolution composite. Two of the color filters used by CaSSIS lie outside the wavelength response of the human eye, so this is not a ‘true’ color image. However, showing the data as a color representation can reveal details of the surface mineralogy. Different colors are clearly seen, with the bluest part in the direction of the large crater Stickney, which is out of view over the limb to the left. Although the exact composition of the material is unknown, the color differences are thought to be caused by compositional variations on scales of hundreds of feet to several miles. Image credit: ESA.

ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter Snaps Color Image of Phobos

Dec 11, 2016 by News Staff

ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has sent back its first color image of Phobos, the larger and inner of the two natural satellites of Mars. Color...

A giant of a moon appears before a giant of a planet undergoing seasonal changes in this natural color view of Titan and Saturn from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI.

Saturn’s Moons May Be Younger than Previously Thought

Dec 7, 2016 by News Staff

New data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft reveal that Saturn’s moons may be younger than previously thought. A giant of a moon appears before a giant...

This graphic shows the closest approaches of Cassini’s final two orbital phases. Ring-grazing orbits are shown in gray (at left); Grand Finale orbits are shown in blue. The orange line shows the spacecraft’s Sept. 2017 final plunge into Saturn. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s Cassini Orbiter Makes Its First ‘Ring-Grazing’ Dive

Dec 6, 2016 by News Staff

On Dec. 4, 2016 at 8:09 a.m. EST (5:09 a.m. PST), NASA’s Cassini spacecraft made its first close dive past the outer edges of Saturn’s rings. This...

Star of Bethlehem May Not Have Been Star After All, Says Astrophysicist

Dec 2, 2016 by News Staff

Grant Mathews, professor of theoretical astrophysics and cosmology in the University of Notre Dame’s College of Science, believes the event that led...

An artist’s impression of a near-Earth asteroid. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

2015 TC25: Astronomers Find Smallest Known Near-Earth Asteroid

Dec 1, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers led by University of Arizona scientist Dr. Vishnu Reddy has obtained observations of the smallest near-Earth asteroid...

Planets form around a young star in this artist’s concept. Image credit: David A. Hardy, www.astroart.org / NASA.

Solar System’s Birth was Triggered by Nearby Low-Mass Supernova, Researchers Say

Nov 29, 2016 by News Staff

A low-mass core-collapse supernova catalyzed the birth of our Solar System, according to a team of scientists led by University of Minnesota researcher. Planets...

Artist’s concept of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft at Saturn. Image credit: NASA.

NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft Prepares for Ring-Grazing Phase

Nov 25, 2016 by News Staff

In the final year of its epic voyage, on Nov. 30, NASA’s Cassini orbiter will begin a daring set of ‘ring-grazing orbits,’ skimming past the outside...

Artist's impression of the Schiaparelli lander after the parachute has been deployed. Image credit: ESA / ATG Medialab.

Schiaparelli Crash Caused by Sensor Malfunction, ESA Experts Say

Nov 24, 2016 by News Staff

The crash of the ExoMars Schiaparelli test lander, also known as Entry, descent, and landing Demonstrator Module (EDM), last month was caused by a sensor...

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