Thermal IR · 10 µm
Planetary science from the missions doing the fieldwork: Mars surface operations, icy-moon flybys, Venus and Mercury campaigns, and the results that follow months later.
The Solar System
The barren lunar landscape has some important resources, such as water and minerals like iron and titanium, but extracting and processing them will require special equipment. Where those resources can be found will dictate where to land and how to mine them. To help with that…
PHILOSOPHY Swamp Works is a hands-on, lean development environment for innovation at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Swamp Works develops innovative exploration mission solutions through a highly collaborative approach, leveraging partnerships across NASA, industry, and…
Imagine stepping into a machine that can make you feel like you’re flying a spacecraft, piloting a next generation air taxi, or landing on the Moon, all without leaving the ground. NASA’s Vertical Motion Simulator, the largest of its kind in the world, does exactly that. And…
On Aug. 12, 2005, NASA launched its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission.
The surface of the moon is a bleak and forbidding place that could be hiding a lot of water ice within its dusty landscape. However, most possible ice deposits don't just stand out in an image. Scientists need specialized mapping to find those deposits, so they have devised…
Bruce Jakosky, Scott Hubbard and their colleagues have given us a masterclass in pragmatic systems engineering. Their recent SpaceNews editorial titled “Laying the groundwork for the first human mission to
A conjunction is when 2 objects share the same right ascension. The Jupiter-Mercury conjunction on August 15 is the next one. Look for them before sunrise. The post Will you see the Jupiter-Mercury conjunction on August 15? first appeared on EarthSky .
Lujendra Ojha, a planetary scientist, led a study suggesting that Europa’s icy shell may be a stronger barrier between the moon’s hidden ocean and its surface than previously thought.
The phenomenon of a Full Moon arises when our planet, Earth, is precisely sandwiched between the Sun and the Moon. This alignment ensures the entire side of the Moon that faces us gleams under sunlight. Thanks to the Moon’s orbit around Earth, the angle of sunlight hitting the…
NASA has declared “wrenches down” on the first completed payload designed for Artemis astronauts to deploy on the Moon’s surface. Engineers working on NASA’s Lunar Environment Monitoring Station, or LEMS, have completed hardware development and testing and the payload is ready…
Scientists found a Martian meteorite on Earth that is finally filling in a nearly 2-billion-year-old geology-history gap on the Red Planet.
Sure. It may not look like much. But sometimes, the 'wow' factor in an image lies in knowing just what you're seeing. While most of us are eagerly awaiting Wednesday’s total solar eclipse across the North Atlantic and Spain, robotic emissaries on the Martian surface have…
Without property rights in space, one of the most important economic incentives for the commercial development — and ultimately the settlement — of celestial bodies is missing.
Additional planetary signals may be hidden in TESS data, say astronomers
After spending the 1850s at Harvard Observatory calculating orbits, Asaph Hall became an assistant at the U.S. Naval Observatory at Washington, D.C., in 1862. He was quickly promoted, and by 1873 had not only held several scientific discussions with Abraham Lincoln during the…
Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full Sky This Week column. August 10: Open cluster NGC 7243 In the evening sky, Venus is reaching dichotomy, the moment when it is exactly half-lit. You’ll find magnitude –4.4 Venus some 20° high in the west as the Sun sets. It’s…
Written by Lucy Lim, Planetary Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Earth planning date: Friday, July 31, 2026 As mentioned in the previous blog, Curiosity has been exploring a large-scale feature in Gale’s sedimentary record suspected to be an “erosional…
NASA is assembling the foundations of a future Moon Base through a wave of robotic missions and powerful new commercial landers. More than 20 landings are planned through 2029, testing everything from precision landings and lunar communications to rovers, power systems, and…
Mars has plenty of water, and almost all of it is in the wrong place. The poles are rich in ice, the equator, where you would actually want to land, has none within reach. That leaves the mid-latitudes, and until now the honest answer about what lies beneath them has been a bit…
For decades, astronomers have assumed that the Martian surface froze solid around 3 billion years ago and has stayed that way ever since. If this were really the case, any liquid water would have long since either been locked away underground or lost to space.
Hundreds of Venus-like planets could soon help determine why some worlds become sweltering greenhouse hellscapes while others remain capable of supporting life. But before answering that question, scientists first need to know how fast those planets are spinning.
MDA Space will “repurpose” its microgravity robot-arm tech for lunar surface operations after the US space agency put the Gateway plans on hold.
As Pluto edges further away from the sun, the chilly temperatures are causing its atmosphere to condense onto its barren surface as frost.
Cassini data has revealed a surprising twist in Saturn’s magnetic shield: the planet’s rapid rotation appears to drag a key opening in its magnetosphere far toward the afternoon side instead of keeping it near noon, as happens on Earth. The finding confirms that giant planets…
NASA MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) mission scientists have uncovered a key puzzle piece in understanding certain types of auroras on Mars, finding that they form in a similar way to Earth-based auroras.
NASA has released a series of updates on the Artemis program, spanning commercial robotic lunar… The post Artemis progress building lunar return roadmap appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .
On Aug. 9, 1976, the Soviet space program launched its last moon mission. Luna 24 was a robotic sample return mission and the third of its kind.
With many fan-favorite Autobots and Decepticons bumped off in the opening act, this was not the big-screen romp '80s kids were expecting.
Early risers will catch a spectacular sight in the predawn hours of Aug. 9, as the slender crescent moon shines close to the red light of Mars among the stars of the constellation Taurus.
About 90 percent of the distance driven by Perseverance has been autonomous.
Metal-rich asteroids could one day become hardware stores for Mars, supplying the materials needed to build and repair a growing colony. A new analysis shows that carefully selected asteroids may be reachable with current spacecraft technology. Some could even provide the…
Eritas Yang et al 2026 ApJL 1004 L29 The presence of a 34-solar-mass brown dwarf companion to an ultra-hot Jupiter suggests that the hot Jupiter must have formed within 1.5 au of its host star to remain dynamically stable.
Today’s impact of a spent Falcon 9 rocket stage on the Moon may sound dramatic, but it is neither the first human-made object to strike our natural satellite nor the largest.
Hidden moon ice may reveal itself through the way it bends and reflects vibrations from moonquakes. The technique could help astronauts locate vital water supplies and uncover clues about the origins of Earth’s oceans.
The solar wind may be stripping away Mars’ atmosphere by creating giant rolling waves along its outer edge. Data from MAVEN and Tianwen-1 show that these waves form plasma clouds that carry atmospheric particles into space. The process is concentrated on one side of Mars and may…
NASA’s Curiosity rover has entered a Martian valley covered by an astonishing “sea” of tiny polygon-shaped fractures. The honeycomb patterns, each only a few inches wide, stretch across the landscape and even wrap around a nearby 20-foot-tall butte.
NASA may send an engineering copy of a Mars rover to the Moon, but at what price?
Mars has two small, rocky, irregular moons. Exploring them could solve long-standing mysteries about the Solar System's history.
Europa’s hidden ocean has made the icy moon one of the solar system’s most promising places to search for habitable conditions. Scientists have hoped that water from this deep ocean might rise through cracks and form shallow reservoirs that future spacecraft could more easily…
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NASA’s Psyche spacecraft aced its Mars flyby, using the planet’s gravity to speed toward its 2029 encounter with a metal-rich asteroid. The spacecraft tested its cameras, magnetometer, and particle-detecting instruments, capturing unusual views of Mars and measuring its magnetic…
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Young Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field may have created a safe zone where several large moons could survive. Saturn lacked this protection, possibly explaining why Titan stands almost alone among its largest moons.
How did neon end up inside Earth's mantle, and what does that tell us about how our planet formed?
See Mars from Viking 1 and Psyche, or with your own two eyes.
Scientists have uncovered new evidence that Venus may still be tearing itself apart from within. Advanced 3D simulations indicate that some of the planet's giant rift valleys formed relatively recently and could still be expanding. The results suggest Venus has a far more active…
China’s Tianwen-1 orbiter captured a faint but remarkable view of 3I/ATLAS as the interstellar comet raced past Mars. The images reveal its tail and glowing coma, offering scientists a glimpse of material born beyond our solar system.
NASA is preparing for future astronaut landings on the Moon with an unusually ambitious orbital rehearsal. During Artemis III in 2027, Orion astronauts will rendezvous and dock separately with prototype lunar landers from Blue Origin and SpaceX, allowing crews and ground teams…
Chali Idosa Uga et al 2026 Planet. Sci. J. 7 126 Researchers show that the global martian dust storm in Mars year 34 warmed the lower atmosphere and led to greater electrical charging and stronger electric fields compared to a dust-free atmosphere.
In a novel three-tiered hierarchical system, the star CD-35 2722 is orbited by a brown dwarf that, in turn, is orbited by a newly discovered exosatellite candidate
Astrobites reports on whether we'd even know what we were looking at if our familiar red neighbor were a stranger light-years away.
Image: Mars Express image
Scientists say new technologies have reopened the debate over whether Mars could someday be terraformed, turning a once impossible idea into a serious research topic. Before anyone tries to reshape the Red Planet, though, researchers say we must understand the risks, including…
Nearly 500,000 comments were submitted in response to a rule change proposed by the White House Office of Management and Budget that would fundamentally change how science is funded in the United States. Here's what comes next.
NASA has chosen 41 commercial technology projects that could solve critical challenges for future missions to the Moon and Mars. From powering lunar outposts to protecting spacecraft from Moon dust, the innovations are designed to push both space exploration and the commercial…
NASA's Perseverance rover has reached an impressive new milestone on Mars, completing the equivalent of a full marathon by driving 26.2 miles (42.195 kilometers) across the Red Planet. It accomplished the feat in just five years and four months, reaching the distance on its…
NASA is ramping up its lunar ambitions by awarding nearly $600 million for four commercial Moon landings planned for late 2028. Each mission will carry the same trio of science instruments to improve lunar navigation, study dangerous dust kicked up during landings, and map the…
A new study suggests spacecraft exhaust could quickly contaminate the moon's most scientifically valuable regions, potentially masking ancient clues about how life began on Earth. Researchers say future lunar missions should consider new ways to reduce and monitor this pollution…
How do you pick a landing site before you know how you're going to land? The scientists behind NASA's latest Moon missions are working on just that.
On Sunday, July 5, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)'s Hayabusa2 probe performed a close flyby of the asteroid Torifune.
NASA ·
NOIRLab/NSF/AURA ·
APOD · Marcin Rosadziński ·
The vocabulary below is the actual list this subject is matched on — nothing is hidden and nothing is inferred. Terms on the top line settle it on their own; the second line counts, but needs company.
perseverance rovercuriosity rovermartian surfaceeuropa clipperenceladustitan atmosphereganymedeio volcanjuice missiondragonfly missionbepicolombopsyche missionlunar landerregolithplanetary scienceice giant
marsvenusmercuryjupitersaturnuranusneptuneplutoeuropatitancallistotritonroverlanderorbiterflybyjunocassininew horizonsperseverancecuriosityingenuitylunar surfacemoon landingsouth pole-aitkenchang'echandrayaan
