Tag Archive for 'Solar System'

NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft Makes Final Visit to Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

Dec 22, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini robotic orbiter made a close flyby of Enceladus on December 19, the last targeted Enceladus encounter of the mission. This unprocessed...

This panchromatic image of Pluto’s small moon Nix was taken on July 14, from a distance of 14,000 miles. The illuminated surface is about 12 x 29 miles (19 x 47 km). Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Sends Back Best Images Yet of Pluto’s Small Moon Nix

Dec 20, 2015 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has beamed back the highest definition images of Nix yet. This panchromatic image of Pluto’s small moon Nix was taken...

Mountainous shoreline of Sputnik Planum: in this enhanced color image, great blocks of Pluto’s water-ice crust appear jammed together in al-Idrisi mountains. Some mountain sides appear coated in dark material, while other sides are bright. Several sheer faces appear to show crustal layering, perhaps related to the layers seen in some of Pluto’s crater walls. The mountains end abruptly at the shoreline of Sputnik Planum, where exotic ices of the plain form a nearly level surface, broken only by the fine trace work of striking, cellular boundaries and the textured surface of the plain’s ices. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA Reveals Enhanced Color Mosaic of Pluto’s Surface

Dec 11, 2015 by News Staff

The newly-released enhanced color mosaic combines sharp pictures of Pluto from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) taken 15 minutes...

Occator crater (center) appears to be among the youngest features on Ceres. Dawn mission scientists estimate its age to be about 78 million years old. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Two Studies Offer Fascinating Insights about Ceres, Its Bright Spots

Dec 10, 2015 by Enrico de Lazaro

In two new studies, published today in the journal Nature, the dwarf planet Ceres reveals some of its most eye-catching secrets. In the first study, researchers...

This composite image shows an infrared view of Titan. In this image blue represents wavelengths centered at 1.3 microns, green represents 2.0 microns, and red represents 5.0 microns. A view at visible wavelengths would show only Titan’s hazy atmosphere; the near-infrared wavelengths in this image allow Cassini’s vision to penetrate the haze and reveal the moon’s surface. The view looks toward terrain that is mostly on the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Titan. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

NASA Scientists Release Stunning New Image of Saturn’s Largest Moon Titan

Dec 10, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini robotic orbiter captured this view of Titan during a moderately close flyby on November 13, 2015. This composite image shows an infrared...

This image of Venus was taken by the UVI instrument on JAXA’s Akatsuki orbiter from a distance of about 44,700 miles (72,000 km) on December 7, 2015. Image credit: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Japan’s Akatsuki Spacecraft Reaches Venus Orbit, Sends Back New Images

Dec 9, 2015 by Natali Anderson

JAXA’s Akatsuki spacecraft successfully entered Venus’ orbit on Monday, December 7, where it now will prepare to study the planet’s atmosphere. This...

This Pluto mosaic was made from New Horizons LORRI images taken on July 14, 2015, from a distance of 49,700 miles (80,000 km). This view is projected from a point 1,118 miles (1,800 km) above Pluto’s equator, looking northeast over the dark, cratered Cthulhu Regio toward the bright, smooth expanse of icy plains called Sputnik Planum. Pluto’s North Pole is off the image to the left. This mosaic was produced with panchromatic images from the New Horizons LORRI camera, with color overlaid from the Ralph color mapper onboard New Horizons. Image credit: S.A. Stern et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aad1815.

New Horizons Sends Back High Resolution Views of Dwarf Planet Pluto

Dec 7, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons team has released a series of breathtaking new images of Pluto’s surface, giving planetary researchers a high resolution window...

This mosaic from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft showcases Ceres’ north pole. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

NASA Releases Detailed Maps of Ceres’ Polar Regions

Nov 26, 2015 by Sergio Prostak

NASA scientists, using cameras aboard the agency’s Dawn spacecraft, have created the first detailed mosaics of Ceres’ north and south polar regions. This...

This illustration shows Earth surrounded by dark matter hairs. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Earth Might Be Surrounded by Dark Matter ‘Hairs’

Nov 24, 2015 by Enrico de Lazaro

Our planet, Jupiter and other compact bodies are surrounded by ultra-dense filaments of dark matter called ‘hairs,’ suggests Dr Gary Prézeau of NASA’s...

Mars May Get Ring System in 20 – 40 Million Years

Nov 24, 2015 by Natali Anderson

In 20 to 40 million years, Phobos – the larger of the two Martian moons – will break apart and form a ring system around Mars, according to...

A day on the dwarf planet Pluto. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Images Show Full Day on Pluto, Charon

Nov 23, 2015 by News Staff

On approach to the Pluto system in July 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft captured images of the dwarf planet and its biggest moon, Charon, rotating...

This false-color image of Pluto was presented this week at the 47th Annual Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Team Releases False Color Psychedelic Image of Pluto

Nov 13, 2015 by Enrico de Lazaro

Dr William Grundy of the New Horizons’ surface composition team and his colleagues made this ‘psychedelic’ image of Pluto using a technique called...

Locations of 1,070 craters mapped on Pluto by the New Horizons team indicate a wide range of surface ages, which likely means the dwarf planet has been geologically active throughout its history. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Map of Pluto’s Craters Reveals Dwarf Planet’s Turbulent Past

Nov 10, 2015 by News Staff

According to NASA’s New Horizons team, the surface of the dwarf planet Pluto varies in age. Locations of 1,070 craters mapped on Pluto by the New Horizons...

This high-resolution image of Pluto was taken by New Horizons on July 14, 2015: yellow circle shows location of Wright Mons and Piccard Mons mountains on the dwarf planet. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Geologists Spot Possible Cryovolcanoes on Pluto

Nov 10, 2015 by Natali Anderson

Using images of Pluto’s surface, geologists with the New Horizons mission have discovered that two of dwarf planet’s mountains could be cryovolcanoes...

This composite image is based on observations from New Horizons’ Ralph/LEISA instrument made on July 14, when the spacecraft was 50,000 miles (81,000 km) from Charon. The data were downlinked October 1 - 4 and processed into a map of Charon’s 2.2 micron ammonia-ice absorption band (green color). Panchromatic images from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager used as the background in this composite were taken on July 14 and downlinked October 5 – 6. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA Researchers Spot Young Ammonia Crater on Pluto’s Moon Charon

Nov 5, 2015 by News Staff

A fresh crater caught attention of New Horizons team members as they were studying high-resolution infrared image of Pluto’s largest moon. This composite...

This wide-angle image was made just 15 minutes after New Horizons’ closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015. It was taken with New Horizons’ Multi-spectral Visible Imaging Camera from a distance of 11,000 miles. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Team Releases New Images of Pluto

Oct 30, 2015 by News Staff

Scientists on NASA’s New Horizons mission have released a remastered image of Pluto’s crescent, a new, low-resolution image of the dwarf planet and...

An artist’s conception of a gas giant planet and its moons. Image credit: Greg Bacon, STScI / NASA.

Jupiter May Have Ejected Solar System’s Fifth Giant Planet, Astronomers Say

Oct 30, 2015 by News Staff

A close encounter with Jupiter approximately 4 billion years ago may have resulted in another giant planet’s ejection from the Solar System, according...

This close-up image shows Occator crater and a cluster of bright spots. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

NASA Releases New Image of Ceres’ Enigmatic Bright Spots

Oct 27, 2015 by News Staff

NASA scientists, using a camera aboard the agency’s Dawn spacecraft, have created a stunning mosaic image of a small part of Ceres’ surface. The mosaic...

New Horizons Captures Images of Pluto’s Small Moon Kerberos

Oct 23, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has sent back four low-resolution images of Kerberos, Pluto’s tiny moon. This image of Kerberos completes the family...

This image of Pluto’s surface was taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft shortly before closest approach to the dwarf planet on July 14, 2015. The scene is about 130 miles (210 km) across. The Sun illuminates the scene from the left, and north is to the upper left. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Delivers New Close-Ups of Pluto and Charon

Oct 19, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons team has released new close-up images of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. The images were taken by New Horizons’ Long Range...

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