Tag Archive for 'Solar System'

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,...

This is an artist's impression of an exoplanet. Image credit: Ron Miller.

NASA’s NExSS Initiative to Look for Signs of Extraterrestrial Life

Apr 23, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Nexus for Exoplanet System Science (NExSS) initiative will bring together top research groups and will provide a synthesized approach in the search...

This image from the New Horizons shows Pluto and Charon. It was made from a distance of about 71 million miles (115 million kilometers) - roughly the distance from the Sun to Venus. At this distance, neither Pluto nor Charon is well resolved by the color imager, but their distinctly different appearances can be seen. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

New Horizons Captures its First Color Image of Pluto, Charon

Apr 15, 2015 by News Staff

The Ralph color imager on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has captured a low-resolution color image of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. This image...

This color map of Ceres was created from images taken by the Dawn spacecraft during its initial approach to the dwarf planet. Images taken using blue, green and infrared spectral filters were combined to create the map; the filters were assigned to color channels in reverse order, compared to natural color. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA /MPS / DLR / IDA.

NASA Releases Color Map of Ceres

Apr 13, 2015 by News Staff

NASA scientists using the framing camera aboard the Dawn spacecraft have created the first color map of the dwarf planet Ceres. This color map of Ceres...

We’ll Find Evidence of Alien Life within Next Two Decades, Top NASA Scientist Says

Apr 8, 2015 by News Staff

According to NASA chief scientist Dr Ellen Stofan, in the next twenty years, scientists may very well finally answer whether we are alone in the Solar...

Color differences on Mercury are subtle, but they reveal important information about the nature of the planet’s surface material. Image credit: NASA / JPL.

Cometary Carbon Painted Planet Mercury Black, Says Study

Mar 31, 2015 by News Staff

Carbon from cometary material that bombards Mercury, the first planet from the Sun, may be the reason the planet’s surface is heavily dark, says new...

This image was obtained on 10 September 2007 by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, at a distance of approximately 3.3 million km from Saturn. Rhea - Saturn's second largest moon - is visible against the bluish backdrop of the planet's northern hemisphere. Mimas - Saturn's seventh largest moon - appears as a speck against the ring shadows on planet's western limb. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.

New Method Precisely Measures Rotation Period of Saturn

Mar 28, 2015 by News Staff

A day on Saturn lasts 10 hours 32 minutes 45 seconds (+/- 46 seconds), says a group of astronomers led by Dr Ravit Helled of Tel Aviv University, Israel. This...

Terrestrial exoplanet and its moons. Image credit: Luciano Mendez / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Inner Solar System May Have Harbored Super-Earths 4.5 Billion Years Ago

Mar 24, 2015 by News Staff

A new study, published March 23 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that Jupiter’s inward-outward migration early in the...

This close-up image of Saturn’s rings was taken in red light with the wide-angle camera on the Cassini spacecraft on January 8, 2015. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Saturn’s Rings Close Up

Mar 17, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini space probe has captured a close-up view of the beautiful and glamorous rings of Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun. This close-up...

Dawn will use its ion propulsion system to change orbits at Ceres, allowing it to observe the dwarf planet from different vantage points. Image credit: NASA / JPL.

NASA’s Dawn Spacecraft Finally Arrives at Dwarf Planet Ceres

Mar 6, 2015 by News Staff

After a seven-year cruise, and a one-year successful mission at the giant asteroid 4 Vesta, NASA’s Dawn space probe today successfully entered the orbit...

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

Ancient Ocean on Mars was Larger than Earth’s Atlantic Ocean, Say Scientists

Mar 6, 2015 by News Staff

An ancient ocean on the Red Planet covered a greater portion of the surface than the Atlantic Ocean does on our planet and held more water than Arctic...

Earth. Image credit: Kelvin Song / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Planetary Scientists Shed New Light on Earth’s Core Formation

Mar 3, 2015 by News Staff

Violent collisions between the infant Earth and other objects in our Solar System generated significant amounts of iron vapor, says a group of researchers...

This artist's impression shows the structure of our Milky Way Galaxy, including the location of the spiral arms and other components such as the bulge. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESO / R. Hurt.

Dark Matter May Have Caused Earth’s Cataclysms, Mass Extinctions

Feb 20, 2015 by News Staff

The Solar System’s movement through a dark-matter halo enveloping our Milky Way Galaxy may perturb the orbits of comets and lead to additional heating...

This false-color composite image shows the Scholz’s binary star (center). Image credit: V. D. Ivanov et al., 10.1051/0004-6361/201424883.

Scholz’s Star: Binary System Passed through Outer Oort Cloud 70,000 Years Ago

Feb 18, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of scientists led by Dr Eric Mamajek of the University of Rochester has determined that 70,000 years ago the recently discovered,...

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