News From Space
NASA’s Curiosity rover used an instrument called SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) to detect seasonal changes in atmospheric methane in Gale Crater. The methane signal has been observed for nearly three martian years (nearly six Earth years), peaking each summer. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. NASA’s Curiosity rover has found new evidence preserved in rocks on Mars that […]
The structural model of the ExoMars rover, provided by ESA as part of the ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars mission, in which two out of the three wheel bogies can be seen facing the viewer. The black box toward the left is the drill box. The drill will be capable of accessing down to 2 meters (6 feet) […]
This series of images shows simulated views of a darkening martian sky blotting out the Sun from NASA’s Opportunity rover’s point of view, with the right side simulating Opportunity’s current view in the global dust storm (June 2018). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/TAMU. Science operations for NASA’s Opportunity rover have been temporarily suspended as it waits out a […]
Analysis of asteroids like Lutetia was used in the Josef Hanuš-led paper on asteroid thermophysical modeling. Lutetia is a large main-belt asteroid about 100 kilometers (62 miles) in diameter. Lutetia was visited by ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft in 2010. Credit: ESA 2010 MPS. Nearly all asteroids are so far away and so small that the astronomical […]
These are the discovery observations of asteroid 2018 LA from the Catalina Sky Survey, taken June 2, 2018. About eight hours after these images were taken, the asteroid entered Earth’s atmosphere (about 9:44 a.m. PDT, 12:44 p.m. EDT, 16:44 UTC, 6:44 p.m. local Botswana time), and disintegrated in the upper atmosphere near Botswana, Africa. A […]
Ryugu photographed using the ONC-T. This photograph was taken on June 6, 2018, at around 04:15 JST. The field of view is 6.3° × 6.3°, and the exposure time is 178 seconds. From the spacecraft, Ryugu can be seen in the direction of the constellation, Gemini (Gem). Ground observation team: JAXA, Kyoto University, Japan Spaceguard Association, […]
This artist’s concept of lightning distribution in Jupiter’s northern hemisphere incorporates a JunoCam image with artistic embellishments. Data from NASA’s Juno mission indicates that most of the lightning activity on Jupiter is near its poles. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Ever since NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft flew past Jupiter in March 1979, scientists have wondered about the origin of […]
The sharper, more detailed all-sky map produced by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope using nine years of data collected from 2008 to 2017. Brighter colors indicated a larger number of gamma rays. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration. On June 11, 2018, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope celebrated a decade of using gamma rays, the highest-energy form […]
The Ant Nebula, as imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, resembles the head and body of a garden ant. In reality, it is the result of a dying Sun-like star and complex interactions of material at its heart. Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). A rare phenomenon connected to the death of a star has […]