Tag Archive for 'Solar System'

An artist’s concept of Pluto. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

NASA Probe Beams Back New Color Images of Pluto, Charon

Jun 22, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons has beamed back color pictures of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. An artist’s concept of Pluto. Image credit: NASA / Johns...

Artist’s concept shows a simulated view from the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission Enters Development Stage

Jun 18, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Europa Clipper – a future mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa – has completed its first major review by the agency and now is entering...

By combining radio-wave data exchanged between Rosetta and Philae as part of the CONSERT experiment with trajectory data and the current model of the shape of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the location of the lander has been determined to lie within an ellipse measuring approximately 16 x 160 m. The CONSERT ellipse corresponds to the outer limits of the various solutions identified for the likely landing site of Philae, although this depends to some extent on the shape model assumed. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / Philae / CONSERT / MPS for OSIRIS Team / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA.

Rosetta’s Philae Lander Wake-Up Kicks Off Intense Activity

Jun 16, 2015 by News Staff

The European Space Agency (ESA) and its Rosetta mission partners are working to juggle the spacecraft’s flight plan to help with renewed Philae lander...

Cassini spacecraft has recently provided scientists the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling around Saturn's north pole. The hurricane's eye is about 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide, 20 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth (NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI)

Saturn’s Polar Cyclones Feed on Small Thunderstorms, New Study Says

Jun 16, 2015 by News Staff

Huge polar hurricanes on Saturn are a puzzling phenomenon, since the gaseous planet lacks an essential ingredient for brewing up such hurricanes –...

The Philae lander at work on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Image credit: ESA / AOES Medialab.

ESA’s Philae Lander Phones Home after 7-Month Silence

Jun 14, 2015 by News Staff

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Philae lander has woken up after seven months in hibernation on the surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The Philae...

These images show four different ‘faces’ of the dwarf planet Pluto as it rotates about its axis with a period of 6.4 days. From left to right, the images were taken when Pluto’s central longitude was 17, 63, 130, and 243 degrees, respectively. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Views of Pluto Captured by New Horizons

Jun 12, 2015 by News Staff

NASA has just released a set of images of the dwarf planet Pluto taken by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager during May 29 – June 2,...

The X2.2-class flare, March 11, 2015. Image credit: SDO / NASA.

New Tool Could Predict Earth-Directed Coronal Mass Ejections Day in Advance

Jun 11, 2015 by News Staff

A new measurement and modeling tool could give more than 24 hours’ notice of coronal mass ejections that could be harmful to systems on Earth. New tool...

The bright spots on dwarf planet Ceres are seen in this image taken by Dawn on June 6, 2015. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Dawn Shoots New Close-Up of Ceres’ Bright Spots

Jun 11, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Dawn mission scientists have just released a new close-up image of mysterious bright spots on the crater-pocked surface of Ceres. This is among...

This view of Tethys was taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on April 11, 2015. The crater Odysseus is seen at the right of the image. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Cassini Captures Stunning View of Saturn’s Moon Tethys

Jun 10, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has returned a spectacular new image of Tethys, a small, icy moon of Saturn. This view of Tethys was taken by NASA’s Cassini...

This image is part of a sequence taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft on May 23, from a distance of 3,200 miles (5,100 km). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Dawn Spacecraft Gets Close-Up View of Ceres’ Surface

Jun 2, 2015 by News Staff

This picture of the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres was taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft from a range of about 3,200 miles (5,100 km) on 23 May 2015. This...

Cassini passed Hyperion on 31 May 2015 at a distance of about 21,000 miles (34,000 km). Mission scientists expect images from the encounter to arrive on Earth within 1-2 days. This view of the moon was obtained during Cassini’s flyby on 26 September 2005. It reveals crisp details across the strange, tumbling moon’s surface. Differences in color could represent differences in the composition of surface materials. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft Makes Close Flyby of Hyperion

Jun 1, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini space probe performed a close flyby of Saturn’s irregularly shaped moon Hyperion on 31 May 2015. Cassini passed Hyperion on 31 May 2015...

This image of the dwarf planet Pluto was taken May 12. Image credit: NASA / JHU-APL / SwRI.

New Horizons Captures New Images of Pluto and Charon

May 28, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has beamed back its best-yet images of the dwarf planet Pluto and Charon, Pluto’s largest moon. This image, taken May...

Based on new evidence from Jupiter's moon Europa, astronomers hypothesize that chloride salts bubble up from the icy moon's global liquid ocean and reach the frozen surface where they are bombarded with sulfur from volcanoes on Jupiter's innermost large moon, Io (NASA / JPL-Caltech)

NASA Selects Science Instruments for Europa Clipper Mission

May 27, 2015 by News Staff

NASA has announced the selection of science instruments for the Europa Clipper, a future mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. Based on new evidence from...

A close-up of the mysterious bright spots on Ceres. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Dawn Captures Sharpest Image Yet of Mysterious Bright Spots on Ceres

May 22, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has beamed back a stunning new picture of the mysterious bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres. A close-up of the mysterious...

In this new image of Ceres from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, the brightest spots within a crater in the planet’s northern hemisphere are revealed to be composed of many smaller spots. However, their exact nature remains unknown. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Dawn Captures Best-Ever View of Ceres’ Mysterious Bright Spots

May 11, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Dawn probe has returned the sharpest images ever seen of the mysterious bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres. The images were taken 8,400 miles...

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this beautiful view of nightfall on the Red Planet on April 15, 2015. The red surface coloring of Mars is due to oxidized iron. At certain times of the Martian year, great dust storms occur; the large amounts of dust in the atmosphere during these storms absorb much of the incoming radiation from the Sun; this causes large temperature inversions in the Martian atmosphere. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity Spies Sunset on Mars

May 11, 2015 by News Staff

This awesome-looking time-lapse sequence of the Martian sunset was created by piecing together images taken by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity. NASA’s...

This color view of Enceladus was taken by Cassini spacecraft on 31 January 2011, from a distance of 50,330 miles (NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI / G. Ugarković).

Cassini Revealing More Details about Enceladus

May 7, 2015 by News Staff

Two new studies using data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft reveal the pH of water spewing from a geyser-like plume on Enceladus, and suggest that much...

A long solar filament erupted on the Sun on April 28-29, 2015. Image credit: ESA / NASA / SOHO.

NASA’s SOHO Sees Huge Filament Erupt on Sun

May 5, 2015 by News Staff

On April 28-29, 2015 a massive filament of solar material that had been hovering in the Sun’s atmosphere erupted into space in a large burst of bright...

This image from MESSENGER is located within the floor of the 93-km-diameter crater Jokai. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington.

NASA’s MESSENGER Beams Back Its Final Image of Mercury

May 1, 2015 by News Staff

This image is the last one captured and beamed back to Earth by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft. This image from MESSENGER is located within the floor of...

This colorful view of Mercury was produced by using images from the color base map imaging campaign during MESSENGER’s primary mission. These colors are not what Mercury would look like to the human eye, but rather the colors enhance the chemical, mineralogical, and physical differences between the rocks that make up the planet’s surface. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington.

NASA’s MESSENGER Spacecraft Collides with Mercury

May 1, 2015 by News Staff

MESSENGER mission scientists have confirmed that the probe impacted the surface of Mercury on April 30th, as predicted, at 3:26 p.m. EDT (12:26 p.m. PDT,...

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