Tag: Planetary Science

  • Rosetta mission ends with comet touchdown

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    Sequence of images captured by Rosetta during its descent to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The Deir el-Medina pit is just right of center. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA Europe’s Rosetta mission ended its 12-year mission Friday with a low-speed belly-flop on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, concluding an interplanetary odyssey that gave humanity a first close-up…

  • Live coverage: Rosetta’s final hours

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    Live coverage of the final descent of Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

  • China developing mission to return samples from far side of the moon

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    Illustration of the far side of the moon, with Earth in the background. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio If China’s lunar exploration program goes according to plan, scientists could send a robotic lander to pick up samples from the far side of the moon and return them to Earth by the early 2020s, a top…

  • Rosetta spacecraft heads for comet crash landing

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    STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Artist’s concept of the Rosetta spacecraft just before impact with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab The European Space Agency’s $1.6 billion Rosetta spacecraft closed in Thursday for a deliberate crash landing on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko early Friday, a slow-motion kamikaze plunge to bring the enormously successful…

  • Video: Rosetta scientist Matt Taylor on the end of mission

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    Astronomy Now speaks with Matt Taylor, Rosetta project scientist, at the European Space Agency’s mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, about the plan to crash land the spacecraft on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

  • Possible water plumes spotted above Europa

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    This composite image shows suspected plumes of water vapor erupting at the 7 o’clock position off the limb of Jupiter’s moon Europa. The plumes, photographed by NASA’s Hubble’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, were seen in silhouette as the moon passed in front of Jupiter. Credits: NASA/ESA/W. Sparks (STScI)/USGS Astrogeology Science Center The Hubble Space Telescope…

  • NASA to have limited role in SpaceX’s planned Mars campaign

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    Artist’s concept of a Dragon spacecraft at Mars. Credit: SpaceX Expertise, input and advice from seasoned NASA engineers will improve SpaceX’s chances of nailing the first commercial landing on Mars as soon as late 2018, a senior space agency official said Wednesday, but Elon Musk’s space transport company will likely seek more independence from U.S.…

  • NASA to have limited role in SpaceX’s planned Mars campaign

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    Artist’s concept of a Dragon spacecraft at Mars. Credit: SpaceX Expertise, input and advice from seasoned NASA engineers will improve SpaceX’s chances of nailing the first commercial landing on Mars as soon as late 2018, a senior space agency official said Wednesday, but Elon Musk’s space transport company will likely seek more independence from U.S.…

  • OSIRIS-REx reaches launch pad with money to spare

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    Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky The scientist in charge of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission hopes to apply more than $30 million in leftover funding toward reducing the risk of the probe’s touch-and-go maneuver to snag a piece of asteroid Bennu, then eventually hire more experts to analyze the…

  • Lost Philae lander found on comet

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    Rosetta’s lander Philae has been identified in OSIRIS narrow-angle camera images taken on Sept. 2, 2016 from a distance of 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers). The image scale is about 2 inches (5 centimeters) per pixel. Philae’s 3-foot-wide (1-meter) body and two of its three legs can be seen extended from the body. The images also…