News From Space
Astronomers at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) using the HINODE spacecraft observed the strongest magnetic field ever directly measured on the surface of the Sun. Analyzing data for 5 days around the appearance of this record-breaking magnetic field, the astronomers determined that it was generated as a result of gas outflow from one sunspot […]
Europe’s first mission to Mercury will soon be ready for shipping to the spaceport to begin final preparations for launch. The mission passed a major review on March 8, meaning that the three BepiColombo spacecraft, along with ground equipment and mission experts, are confirmed to start the move from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) center in […]
NASA is focused on an ambitious plan to advance the nation’s space program by increasing science activities near and on the Moon and ultimately returning humans to the surface. As part of the President’s fiscal year 2019 budget proposal, NASA is planning a new Moon-focused exploration campaign that starts with a series of progressive commercial […]
Starting next year, scientists will get their first look deep below the surface of Mars. That’s when NASA will send the first robotic lander dedicated to exploring the planet’s subsurface. InSight, which stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, will study marsquakes to learn about the martian crust, mantle, and core. Doing so could help […]
NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover just hit a new milestone: its 2000th martian day (sol) on the Red Planet. An image mosaic taken by the rover in January offers a preview of what comes next. Looming over the image is Mount Sharp, the mound Curiosity has been climbing since September 2014. In the center of the image […]
Star-shaped and swallowtail-shaped tiny, dark bumps in fine-layered bright bedrock of a martian ridge are drawing close inspection by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover. This set of shapes looks familiar to geologists who have studied gypsum crystals formed in drying lakes on Earth, but Curiosity’s science team is considering multiple possibilities for the origin of these […]
The Sun rose on NASA’s solar-powered Mars rover Opportunity for the 5000th time on February 17, sending rays of energy to a golf-cart-sized robotic field geologist that continues to provide revelations about the Red Planet. “Five thousand sols after the start of our 90-sol mission, this amazing rover is still showing us surprises on Mars,” […]
Observations of Ceres have detected recent variations in its surface, revealing that the only dwarf planet in the inner solar system is a dynamic body that continues to evolve and change. NASA’s Dawn mission has found recently exposed deposits that give us new information on the materials in the crust and how they are […]
Data collected by NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter indicate that the atmospheric winds of the gas-giant planet run deep into its atmosphere and last longer than similar atmospheric processes found here on Earth. The findings will improve understanding of Jupiter’s interior structure, core mass, and, eventually, its origin. Other Juno science results include that the […]
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is currently undergoing final integration and test phases that will require more time to ensure a successful mission. After an independent assessment of remaining tasks for the highly complex space observatory, Webb’s previously revised 2019 launch window now is targeted for approximately May 2020. “Webb is the highest priority project […]
Much like detectives who study fingerprints to identify the culprit, scientists used NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to find the “fingerprints” of water in the atmosphere of a hot, bloated, Saturn-mass exoplanet some 700 light-years away. And, they found a lot of water. In fact, the planet, known as WASP-39b, has three times as much […]
The nature of planets orbiting stars in other systems will be the focus for ESA’s fourth medium-class science mission, to be launched in mid 2028. Ariel, the Atmospheric Remote‐sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large‐survey mission, was selected by ESA today as part of its Cosmic Vision plan. The mission addresses one of the key themes of Cosmic […]
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (Integral) space observatory has witnessed a rare event: the moment that winds emitted by a swollen red giant star revived its slow-spinning companion, the core of a dead star, bringing it back to life in a flash of X-rays. The X-ray flare was first detected by […]