Tag Archive for 'Solar System'

NASA Unveils New, Close-Up Image of Ceres’ Bright Spots

Sep 9, 2015 by News Staff

A stunning new image from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft shows a cluster of bright spots on Ceres’ surface in unprecedented detail. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft...

Comet Hitchhiker is a concept for orbiting and landing on comets and asteroids. The idea involves using a carbon nanotube tether to hitchhike on to a comet as it flies by. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornelius Dammrich.

Comet Hitchhiker: New Concept for Orbiting, Landing on Comets and Asteroids

Sep 3, 2015 by News Staff

Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have devised a new way to get into orbit and land on Solar System’s small bodies. Comet Hitchhiker...

This image of the dwarf planet Pluto is as New Horizons saw it in July 2015. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA Releases Animation of New Horizons’ Flight through Pluto System

Sep 3, 2015 by News Staff

This flyby animation was compiled by Dr Stuart Robbins, a member of the New Horizons team and a research scientist at the Southwest Research Institute...

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

NASA Selects Next Target for New Horizons Spacecraft: 2014 MU69

Aug 31, 2015 by News Staff

The next destination for NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is a Kuiper Belt object known as 2014 MU69. Hubble images of 2014 MU69 taken on June 24, 2014....

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

Dawn Beams Back New Image of Ceres’ Bright Spots

Aug 31, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft captured this image of Ceres and its mysterious bright spots on June 25, 2015, from a distance of 2,700 miles (4,400 km). This...

Earth as seen on July 6, 2015 from a distance of one million miles by NASA’s EPIC camera on the DSCOVR satellite. Image credit: NOAA / NASA / U.S. Air Force.

Earth’s Mineralogy is Unique in Cosmos, Scientists Say

Aug 26, 2015 by News Staff

The mineral diversity of Earth is unique and could not be duplicated anywhere in the cosmos. That’s according to a group of researchers, led by Dr Robert...

Dawn spotted this conical mountain on Ceres from a distance of 915 miles (1,470 km). The image was taken on August 19, 2015. The mountain, located in the southern hemisphere, stands 4 miles (6 km) high. Its perimeter is sharply defined, with almost no accumulated debris at the base of the brightly streaked slope. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Returns New Images of Dwarf Planet Ceres

Aug 25, 2015 by News Staff

New close-up pics of Ceres show the dwarf planet’s features in detail, including tall, conical mountain; narrow, braided fractures and a large crater...

This SDO image shows a subset of extreme UV light that highlights the extremely hot solar material, which is typically colorized in red. Image credit: NASA / SDO.

NASA’s SDO Captures Image of Mid-Level Solar Flare

Aug 24, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this stunning ultraviolet image of a powerful solar flare – as seen in the bright spot in the...

A graphic of one of the highest-energy neutrino events is superimposed on a view of the IceCube Neutrino Observatiory at NSF’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Image credit: IceCube Collaboration.

IceCube Confirms Observation of Astrophysical Muon Neutrinos

Aug 21, 2015 by News Staff

Physicists using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory – a cubic-kilometer-sized detector sunk into the ice sheet at the South Pole – have announced...

This artist’s concept of a young solar system shows gas giants forming first, while the gas nebula is present. Prof Martin Duncan and co-authors used computer simulations to nail down how Jupiter and Saturn evolved in our own Solar System. These calculations show that the cores of gas giants likely formed by gradually accumulating a population of ‘planetary pebbles’ - icy objects about a foot in diameter. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Researchers Shed New Light on How Gas Giants Formed in Early Solar System

Aug 20, 2015 by News Staff

In a paper published online today in Nature, an international team of scientists explains how the cores of gas giants formed through the accumulation of...

$This image from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows a part of Dione’s surface that is covered by linear, curving features, called chasmata. The Voyager spacecrafts observed Dione in 1980 showing a complex surface structure, with wispy features on its trailing hemisphere. The nature of these features was unclear until 2004, when the Cassini spacecraft showed that they weren’t surface deposits of frost, as some had suspected, but rather a pattern of bright icy cliffs among myriad fractures. One possibility is that this stress pattern may be related to Dione’s orbital evolution and the effect of tidal stresses over time. This view looks toward the trailing hemisphere of Dione. Cassini obtained the image with its narrow-angle camera on April 11, 2015. The view was acquired at a distance of 68,000 miles (110,000 km) from Dione. North on Dione is up. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.$

NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft to Make Final Close Flyby of Saturn’s Moon Dione

Aug 17, 2015 by News Staff

Cassini’s closest approach, within 295 miles (474 km) of Dione’s surface, will occur today, August 17. This flyby will be the fifth targeted encounter...

This mosaic provides the best view ever obtained of the dwarf planet Pluto. The lower right edge of the planet in this view currently lacks high-resolution color coverage. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Pluto’s Atmospheric Nitrogen Likely Has Internal Origin, Scientists Say

Aug 12, 2015 by News Staff

Researchers at Southwest Research Institute are studying the data collected by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft to discover what is pumping up the nitrogen...

The mysterious bright spots on Ceres lie in the Occator crater, which is about 60 miles (90 km) across and two miles (4 km) deep. This image comes from the animation, generated using data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft; vertical relief has been exaggerated by a factor of five; exaggerating the relief helps scientists understand and visualize the topography much more easily, and highlights features that are sometimes subtle. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA / LPI.

NASA Dawn’s Flight over Dwarf Planet Ceres

Aug 7, 2015 by News Staff

Explore the craters, bright spots, mountains and other features of Ceres, a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The data for this...

In this simulated image of Saturn’s rings, color is used to present information about ring particle sizes in different regions based on the measured attenuations of three radio signals. Image credit: NASA.

Planetary Rings Have Universal Particle Distribution

Aug 5, 2015 by News Staff

In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists have discovered that planetary rings, such as those orbiting Saturn,...

Global map of Charon as of July 30, 2015. The map is in simple cylindrical projection, with zero longitude (the Pluto-facing direction) in the center. It includes all available resolved images of the moon’s surface captured between July 7-14, 2015 on the anti-Pluto facing hemisphere. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA Releases Global Map of Pluto’s Moon Charon

Aug 3, 2015 by News Staff

NASA scientists have created the best-ever global map of Charon, using images taken by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager in July 2015. Global...

NASA Scientists Produce New Topographic Maps of Ceres

Jul 29, 2015 by News Staff

Researchers at NASA have just released colorful new topographic maps of the dwarf planet Ceres, based on data gathered by the agency’s Dawn spacecraft. This...

Global map of Pluto as of July 28, 2015. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA Releases Updated Global Map of Pluto

Jul 28, 2015 by News Staff

This map-projected view of the dwarf planet Pluto was created from images taken by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) between July...

Several images taken using green, UV and IR spectral filters were combined to create this color view of Tethys. The moon’s dark side is faintly illuminated by reflected light from Saturn. North on Tethys is up in this view. The impact crater Odysseus is seen at the left. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Cassini Snaps New Image of Saturn’s Moon Tethys

Jul 28, 2015 by News Staff

The 280-mile-wide (450 km) impact crater Odysseus on Tethys stands out brightly from the rest of the illuminated crescent as seen by the NASA/ESA Cassini...

The hazes in Pluto’s atmosphere provide a crucial link between the sunlight-driven chemistry in the upper atmosphere and the reddish-brown hydrocarbons called tholins that rain down and darken the surface. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Sheds More Light on Pluto’s Atmosphere

Jul 27, 2015 by News Staff

Just seven hours after closest approach, the spacecraft looked back and captured an incredible image of the dwarf planet’s atmosphere, backlit by the...

This artist’s concept shows a windbot bobbing through the skies of Jupiter, drawing energy from turbulent winds there; the windbot is portrayed as a polyhedron with sections that spin to absorb wind energy and create lift, although other potential configurations are being investigated. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Windbots Could Explore Solar System’s Gas Giants

Jul 27, 2015 by News Staff

Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are investigating the feasibility of creating a ‘windbot,’ a new kind of probe designed to...

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