Jupiter's Moon Ganymede Generates Incredible Magnetic Waves
NASA’s Galileo spacecraft surprised scientists when it revealed that Jupiter’s moon Ganymede generated its own magnetic field. But new research shows Ganymede also creates incredibly powerful waves that rocket particles to enormous energies.
Report: NASA Needs to Get Moving on Its Plan to Snatch Some Mars Dust
NASA doesn’t just randomly decide what telescopes and satellites to shoot into space and what planet to study next. Instead, a committee of outside scientists drafts a set of goals and recommendations in what’s called a decadal survey. And though it notes some financial setbacks, a midterm review of the last decadal…
This Solar System Catalog Could Be Key to Finding an Earth-Like Exoplanet
By searching for the telltale, periodic dimming of light from distant stars, astronomers can spot orbiting exoplanets tens to hundreds of light-years away. But how do they know what these bodies look like? Perhaps they first try to imagine how the planets in our own Solar System might appear to a faraway alien world.
NASA's TESS Spacecraft Has Begun Its Search for Faraway Planets
NASA’s newest exoplanet-hunting spacecraft has started taking scientific data as of last week, according to a NASA release.
Scientists Believe They've Found a Liquid Body of Water on Mars
After decades of debate, scientists have spotted hints of liquid water trapped beneath the planet’s south polar ice cap.
Here's How NASA Is Dealing With the Massive Martian Dust Storm
These new views of Mars, taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, show that the entire planet is now engulfed in the dust storm that began in late May. And while orbiters are studying the storm to understand it better, it could spell trouble for the rovers on its surface.
New Images Show Saturn's Moon Titan in Incredible Detail
Our limited human eyesight can really constrain our understanding of the universe. We can see only a thin swath of light’s wavelengths, those waves with peaks 390 to 700 nanometers from crest to crest. This means we miss any light-emitting details coming from other wavelengths, such as from radio and microwave light,…
New Super-Crisp Images of Neptune Show How Far Our Telescopes Have Come
This is a new picture of Neptune taken from the Earth. It’s nothing short of amazing.
Astronomers Found 10 New Moons Circling Jupiter
Scientists announced that they have discovered 10 previously unknown moons orbiting Jupiter. This brings the gaseous behemoth’s total moon count up to 79.
Meteorite Hunters Find Remains of Last Month's Botswana Fireball
Last month, a fireball lit up the skies over Botswana just hours after scientists first spotted the space rock hurtling toward Earth. Researchers from Botswana, South Africa, Finland, and the United States have now found pieces of the meteorite.
Jupiter's Moons Leave Signature Spots in Its Aurorae
Despite being wildly different from Earth in almost every way, Jupiter does feature some familiar phenomena—including aurorae, what we call the Northern and Southern lights. But Jupiter’s aurorae have something Earth’s don’t: strange features caused by the Jovian moons.
Astronomers Have Captured First Direct Evidence of an Exoplanet Being Born
At this point, we’ve spotted several thousand exoplanets—there’s nothing super exciting anymore about finding a distant star with several worlds orbiting it. But today, scientists are announcing that they have seen an exoplanet in the middle of forming.
Asteroid Mining Might Just Work—If Only We Can Land on the Dang Things
The Rosetta mission’s Philae lander descended toward the two-and-a-half-mile-wide comet at a human’s walking pace. For seven tense hours, scientists in Darmstadt, Germany monitored its radio signal. They would have no idea whether they’d done everything correctly until after the moment of touchdown. If all went well,…
Two New Papers Offers Clues to Mars' Weird History
As far as humans are concerned, Mars has two stories. One is in the present: We’re trying to send our ships and our astronauts to the Red Planet in order to understand what it’s like today. But much of that work is meant to tell a second story—what the planet used to be like.
The Discovery of Complex Organic Molecules on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus Is a Huge Deal
Using data collected by NASA’s late-great Cassini space probe, scientists have detected traces of complex organic molecules seeping out from Enceladus’ ice-covered ocean. It’s yet another sign that this intriguing Saturnian moon has what it takes to sustain life.
Hell Yes, Japan’s Hayabusa2 Spacecraft Has Officially Entered Orbit Around the Ryugu Asteroid
After nearly four years of traveling through space, the Hayabusa2 spacecraft has successfully rendezvoused with the Ryugu asteroid, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency confirmed Wednesday. Let the next stage of this historic sampling-and-return mission begin!
North America Will Not Be Able to See the Longest Lunar Eclipse of the Century, Sorry
The Moon is incredible, and you should look at it. Our view of it is always in flux, but sometimes, the Moon’s visage changes in a particularly dramatic way—like when it sneaks behind the Earth’s shadow and turns red. An especially long lunar eclipse will occur at the end of next month (July 27), which is exciting…
The Rosetta Image Archive Is Now Complete and Freely Available, so You Can See a Comet Like Never Before
The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was one for the ages, providing an unprecedented look at this oddly shaped celestial object. The Rosetta probe captured nearly 100,000 images over the course of its mission, all of which are now freely available to the public in a…
The Dust Storm on Mars Is So Huge It Now Encircles the Entire Planet
For the past two weeks, a massive dust storm has churned on Mars, forcing NASA to put its Opportunity rover into hibernation mode. But Curiosity, a rover on the other side of the planet, is now feeling the effects of the storm as well, revealing the dramatic, planet-size scale of this dusty weather system.
