Tag: Planetary Science

  • Cassini’s farewell to Saturn

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    Cassini’s wide-angle camera recorded 80 images in just over two hours on Sept. 13 for a final full mosaic of Saturn. This view includes 42 of those images taken in red, green and blue spectral filters to create a natural color mosaic. Six of Saturn’s moons — Enceladus, Epimetheus, Janus, Mimas, Pandora and Prometheus —…

  • Scientists suggest streaks on Martian hillsides are dry flows

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    This inner slope of a Martian crater has several of the seasonal dark streaks called “recurrent slope lineae,” or RSL, that a November 2017 report interprets as granular flows, rather than darkening due to flowing water. The image is from the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA/USGS Intermittent flows that appear on…

  • NASA confirms contribution to Japanese-led Mars mission

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    Artist’s concept of the MMX spacecraft at Phobos. Credit: JAXA/NASA NASA announced Thursday it will fund development of a scientific instrument that will fly on Japan’s Martian Moons Exploration mission, a robotic probe set for launch in 2024 to bring back the first samples from Mars’ largest moon Phobos. A neutron and gamma-ray spectrograph developed…

  • Engineers hopeful Mars rover’s drill can return to service

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    File photo of the Curiosity rover’s turret of tools at the end of its robotic arm, as seen shortly after its landing on Mars in August 2012. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Engineers have started testing a new way to use the Curiosity rover’s drill to bore into Martian rocks after a motor in the device stalled late…

  • NASA’s Dawn mission gears up for close look at Ceres

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    This artist concept shows NASA’s Dawn spacecraft above dwarf planet Ceres, as seen in images from the mission. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA NASA’s Dawn spacecraft will remain at Ceres for the rest of its mission, heading closer to the asteroid belt’s largest resident than ever before to obtain new measurements of ice, salts and a tenuous intermittent…

  • Cassini results still keeping scientists busy

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    Cassini took this image of Saturn in April 2016 from a distance of approximately 1.9 million miles (3 million kilometers). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Scientists examining data from the Cassini mission’s final months reported this week unexpected measurements of Saturn’s gravity field and outer atmosphere, suggesting they may have to revisit theories about the planet’s…

  • Asteroid-bound probe returns Earth-moon family portrait

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    The MapCam camera on the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft took this picture of the Earth and the moon Oct. 2 at a distance of around 3.2 million miles (5.1 million kilometers) from Earth. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona Ten days after a swingby to receive a gravitational boost toward its asteroid target, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft turned one of…

  • Scientists celebrate 10th anniversary of Dawn mission’s launch

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    Artist’s concept of the Dawn spacecraft with imagery of Ceres (left) and Vesta (right) captured during the mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech In the ten years since its launch from Cape Canaveral, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has orbited the two largest worlds in the asteroid belt and overcome defective components that threatened to derail the mission on its…

  • OSIRIS-REx asteroid mission receives gravitational boost from planet Earth

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    EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) after flyby. Artist’s concept of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft flying by Earth. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/University of Arizona NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, en route to asteroid Bennu to retrieve samples and return them to scientists, slingshot past Earth on Friday, using gravity to change its trajectory for a…

  • Scientists firm up flyby plan for New Horizons’s next destination

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    Artist’s illustration of the New Horizons spacecraft communicating with Earth. Credit: NASA Now more than two years outbound from its historic encounter with Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is on target for a fleeting flyby less than 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) from 2014 MU69, an icy, city-sized world set to become the most distant object…