Tag: Planetary Science
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Hunt for water at Ceres goes underground
The small, bright crater Oxo (6 miles, 10 kilometers wide) on Ceres is seen in this perspective view. The elevation has been exaggerated by a factor of two. The view was made using enhanced-color images from NASA’s Dawn mission. Dawn’s visible and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIR) has found evidence of water ice at this crater.…
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Mars rover’s drill out of action
The mast camera on the Curiosity rover captured this view of a butte standing about 16 feet (5 meters) above the vehicle Sept. 1, 2016, while the spacecraft was driving through the scenic “Murray Buttes” region on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS The rock-coring drill fixed to the end of the Curiosity rover’s robot arm has suspended…
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ESA says doomed Mars lander succumbed to bad altitude reading
Artist’s concept of the Schiaparelli lander inside its scorched heat shield. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab One second of faulty data led to the destruction of a European spacecraft on final descent to Mars last month, officials said Wednesday. An unexplained error in the Schiaparelli lander’s Inertial Measurement Unit, or IMU, fed incorrect data into the craft’s…
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Study shows Pluto should be counted among solar system’s ocean worlds
The expanse of Sputnik Planitia, the bright region visible in this image of Pluto, might cover an ocean of slushy water-ice. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI Scientists believe they can explain how an ocean of water is lurking beneath an ice sheet inside Pluto’s prominent heart-shaped region, an iconic frozen landscape discovered during the New Horizons spacecraft’s flyby…
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Juno recovers from reboot, but propulsion problem lingers
Artist’s concept of the Juno spacecraft at Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s Juno spacecraft will stay in its current long-period orbit around Jupiter until at least February, and perhaps longer, as engineers study balky valves inside the science probe’s propulsion system and an unexpected computer reboot that interrupted key functions of the orbiter earlier this month.…
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Final Pluto data transmission received from flyby probe
Artist’s concept of the New Horizons spacecraft transmitting data back to Earth through its 83-inch (2.1-meter) antenna. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI The last bits of data collected during NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft’s speedy flyby of Pluto last year are back on Earth, scientists said Thursday, marking the official end of the probe’s prime mission. It took more…
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New images resolve finer details of Mars lander’s crash site
This Oct. 25, 2016, image shows the area where the European Space Agency’s Schiaparelli test lander reached the surface of Mars, with magnified insets of three sites where components of the spacecraft hit the ground. At center-right is the main impact site of the Schiaparelli lander. The locations of the lander’s back shell and attached…
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Mars orbiter locates Schiaparelli lander’s crash site
Before-and-after images of the Schiaparelli landing site taken May 29, 2016, and on Thursday show two new features attributed to the lander. A dark fuzzy marking near the top of the frame is from the impact of the Schiaparelli lander, and a bright dot lower in the image is likely the lander’s parachute. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS…
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Last data from Schiaparelli Mars lander hold clues to what went wrong
Artist’s concept illustrating the moment the Schiaparelli lander was to jettison its back shell and parachute and ignite its descent engines. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab The first sign of trouble from Europe’s Schiaparelli lander came around the time the probe was supposed to jettison its parachute and fire thrusters to brake for touchdown on the vast…
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Live coverage: ExoMars orbiter steers into orbit around Mars, lander’s fate TBD
Live coverage of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and the Schiaparelli lander arriving at Mars. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.