By Paul Scott Anderson, on February 13th, 2017
Artist’s conception of the proposed Europa lander, with sampling arm extended. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
For decades now, Europa has beckoned – this moon of Jupiter which is frozen on the outside but hides a global ocean on the inside – has so far only been visited by spacecraft during brief flybys. Scientists and […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Paul Scott Anderson, on November 30th, 2016
Cassini conducted its next-to-last flyby of Saturn’s moon Titan yesterday, in preparation of the Ring-Grazing Orbits has of its mission. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
As reported earlier this week, the Cassini spacecraft is now preparing to make a series of very close passes by the edges of Saturn’s rings, known as Ring-Grazing Orbits. Yesterday, […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Paul Scott Anderson, on October 28th, 2016
Artist’s depiction of data being sent by New Horizons back to Earth. Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
To say that the New Horizons mission has been a success would be a massive understatement; this first-ever spacecraft to visit Pluto has revolutionized our understanding of this distant, small world. Pluto and its moons are complex and […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Paul Scott Anderson, on September 26th, 2016
Composite image showing the possible water vapor plumes near the south pole of Europa, at about the 7 o’clock position. The image of Europa, from the Galileo and Voyager missions, is superimposed on the Hubble data. Image Credit: NASA/ESA/W. Sparks (STScI)/USGS Astrogeology Science Center
Intriguing new findings about Jupiter’s moon Europa were announced […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Paul Scott Anderson, on September 16th, 2016
For the first time, x-rays have been detected around Pluto, as seen by Chandra (inset image). Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Chandra X-Ray Center
It has been 14 months since the New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto and its moons, but data still continues to come in, and new […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Paul Scott Anderson, on August 23rd, 2016
Artist’s conception of the Europa Clipper spacecraft near Europa. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
For a long time now, there has been growing interest in sending a mission back to Jupiter to better study one moon in particular: Europa. Previous missions such as Voyager and Galileo showed us this world up close for the first […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Paul Scott Anderson, on June 25th, 2016
The discovery of huge faults on Pluto provides evidence for a possible liquid water ocean beneath the ice crust. Photo Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
So-called “waterworlds” have been found to be surprisingly common in the Solar System—small icy moons which have ice crusts but oceans of liquid water below the surface. These include Jupiter’s moons […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Paul Scott Anderson, on April 18th, 2016
If approved by NASA, the KEM proposal will allow New Horizons to continue its study of the outer fringes of the Solar System until 2021, including a flyby of 2014 MU69. Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
The New Horizons mission has revolutionized our understanding of Pluto and its moons, after conducting the first-ever flyby last […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Paul Scott Anderson, on March 23rd, 2016
Artist’s conception of Pluto’s surface, with the distant Sun and largest moon Charon in the sky. The surface is frozen now, but evidence suggests that rivers and lakes of liquid nitrogen once flowed here. Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker
As has been discussed extensively now on AmericaSpace, […]
Like this:Like Loading...
By Paul Scott Anderson, on March 21st, 2016
High-resolution view of Pluto from New Horizons. The large smoother area of ice in Sputnik Planum is the western lobe of the “heart” feature. Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI
Pluto is a tiny world in the outer fringes of the Solar System; for many decades it was only a mere speck of light in even […]
Like this:Like Loading...
|
|