Tag: Planetary Science
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Cassini crashes into Saturn, ending 20-year mission
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Dutifully beaming back data to the very end, NASA’s long-lived Cassini probe slammed into Saturn’s atmosphere at some 77,000 mph Friday, blazing like a shooting star as it was ripped apart and incinerated in the final chapter of an enormously successful mission. Cassini program manager at JPL, Earl…
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Cassini races toward fiery mission-ending plunge into Saturn
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION NASA TV coverage of the end of Cassini’s mission begins at 6:30 a.m. EDT (1030 GMT) Friday, Sept. 15. Thirteen years after reaching Saturn, NASA’s nuclear-powered Cassini spacecraft raced through its 294th and final orbit Thursday, collecting priceless data while hurtling toward a kamikaze-like plunge into the ringed planet’s…
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NASA releases inside-out view of Saturn’s rings
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Continuing to make discoveries in the final weeks of a historic mission at Saturn, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has recorded a unique time lapse movie looking out toward the planet’s iconic icy rings. Cassini captured imagery to assemble the movie during an Aug. 20 swing through the gap between Saturn and its…
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NASA studies mission to return samples from Mars by end of 2020s
Artist’s concept of a Mars sample return concept, including the Mars Ascent Vehicle. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA is examining options to launch a robotic mission as soon as 2026 to pick up rock specimens from the surface of Mars and bring them back to Earth, moving forward the timeline for a sample return mission as the…
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SpaceX informed NASA of slowdown in its commercial Mars program
Artist’s concept of a Red Dragon spacecraft on the surface of Mars. Credit: SpaceX Confirming rumors and suspicions that SpaceX is adjusting its plans to begin dispatching robotic landers to Mars, NASA officials said the commercial space company has informed the agency that it has put its Red Dragon program on the back burner. Under…
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NASA counts down final month of Cassini’s tour of Saturn
Artist’s concept of the Cassini spacecraft during one the mission’s five dives into the uppermost layers of Saturn’s atmosphere before the mission ends Sept. 15. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s Cassini orbiter sailed through the tenuous outermost reaches of Saturn’s atmosphere without trouble Monday, performing the first of five close swings nearer to the planet than any…
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New Horizons’ next target might be a binary pair
One artist’s concept of Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, the next flyby target for NASA’s New Horizons mission. This binary concept is based on telescope observations made at Patagonia, Argentina, on July 17, 2017, when MU69 passed in front of a star. New Horizons theorize that it could be a single body with a large…
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Planetary protection is serious business at NASA
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Narrow jets of gas and icy particles erupt from the south polar region of Enceladus, contributing to the moon’s giant plume. A cycle of activity in these small-scale jets may be periodically lofting extra particles into space, causing the overall plume to brighten dramatically. Credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute…
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Opportunity rover peers into ‘Perseverance Valley’
Toward the right side of this scene is a broad notch in the crest of the western rim of Endeavour Crater. Wheel tracks in that area were left by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity as it observed “Perseverance Valley” from above in the spring of 2017. The valley is a major destination for the rover’s…
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First images of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot reach Earth
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION An enhanced color view of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot from the Juno spacecraft flyby Monday. Credit: NASA / SWRI / MSSS / Greg Smye-Rumsby / Astronomy Now Two days after NASA’s Juno spacecraft streaked over Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, pictures of the solar system’s largest, most powerful storm,…