Tag: Planetary Science
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NASA will proceed with final preps to launch Europa Clipper next month
For a while earlier this summer, it looked like NASA’s flagship mission to study Jupiter’s icy moon Europa might miss its launch window this year. In May, engineers raised concerns that transistors installed throughout the spacecraft might be susceptible to damage from radiation, an omnipresent threat for any probe whipping its way around Jupiter. The…
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With NASA’s plan faltering, China knows it can be first with Mars sample return
China plans to launch two heavy-lift Long March 5 rockets with elements of the Tianwen-3 Mars sample return mission in 2028, the mission’s chief designer said Thursday. In a presentation at a Chinese space exploration conference, the chief designer of China’s robotic Mars sample return project described the mission’s high-level design and outlined how the…
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Using data from DART’s impact, scientists investigate characteristics of Dimorphos and Didymos
In September 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission successfully slammed into the side of asteroid moonlet Dimorphos. Initial data from the event indicated that DART had successfully altered the orbit of Dimorphos and achieved its primary mission goal — to assess how much a spacecraft could deflect an asteroid through a transfer of…
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Curiosity discovers pure sulfur rocks, continues to explore Mount Sharp on Mars
On May 30, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, currently exploring Gale Crater on the red planet, drove over a small rock on the Martian surface. The rock cracked open while driving over the rock, revealing its interior composition. Scientists on Curiosity’s team were stunned to find yellow sulfur crystals within the rock — the first time…
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Armada to Apophis—scientists recycle old ideas for rare asteroid encounter
For nearly 20 years, scientists have known an asteroid named Apophis will pass unusually close to Earth on Friday, April 13, 2029. But most officials at the world’s space agencies stopped paying much attention when updated measurements ruled out the chance Apophis will impact Earth any time soon. Now, Apophis is again on the agenda,…
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Webb identifies surprising carbon-rich ingredients around young star
Using the joint NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) James Webb Space Telescope, a team of international scientists studied a disk of cosmic material surrounding an extremely low-mass star. The results from the investigation show the richest hydrocarbon chemistry ever observed within a protoplanetary disk, which is a disk of gas,…
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Juno observes lava lake on Io, provides insight into Jupiter’s water abundance
In December 2023 and February 2024, NASA’s Juno spacecraft, currently in orbit around and investigating Jupiter and the Jovian system, made several close flybys of the innermost of the Galilean moons, Io. During the flybys, Juno came as close as 1,500 kilometers from the surface of Io, during which extensive data and imagery of the…
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NASA’s Psyche captures its “first light,” continues testing other instruments
On Dec. 4, the cameras of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft took their first images 26 million kilometers away from Earth. This milestone, called “first light,” was one of many the agency needed to complete on its way to its destination, a metallic asteroid called 16 Psyche. The spacecraft is set to reach this asteroid in the…
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Data from Kepler reveals reason behind shrinking exoplanets
Located throughout the universe, there are billions — possibly even trillions — of exoplanets orbiting around stars of varying shapes, sizes, colors, and more. Like the stars they orbit, exoplanets also come in many different shapes, sizes, and colors, with scientists classifying exoplanets into one of four groups: gas giants, super-Earths, sub-Neptunes, and terrestrial. Interestingly,…
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NASA, SpaceX launch Psyche mission to metallic asteroid
NASA and SpaceX teams launched the agency’s Psyche mission to metallic asteroid 16 Psyche from Florida on Friday, Oct. 13. Psyche launched atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Launch occurred at 10:19 AM EDT (14:19 UTC). Psyche is the first mission…