NASA is sending a new laser-toting robot to Mars. But unlike the lasers of science fiction, this one is used for studying mineralogy and chemistry from up to about 20 feet (7 meters) away. It might help scientists find signs ...
Space Exploration
Feb 8, 2020
3
704
For most of human history our understanding of how planets form and evolve was based on the eight (or nine) planets in our solar system. But over the last 25 years, the discovery of more than 4,000 exoplanets, or planets ...
Astronomy
Jun 22, 2020
2
240
Sue Smrekar really wants to go back to Venus. In her office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the planetary scientist displays a 30-year-old image of Venus' surface taken by the Magellan spacecraft, ...
Space Exploration
Dec 12, 2019
9
495
The James Webb Space Telescope team continues to make progress in aligning the observatory's mirrors. Engineers have completed the first stage in this process, called "Segment Image Identification." The resulting image shows ...
Space Exploration
Feb 19, 2022
0
325
Astronomers have discovered what appears to be a tiny star with a giant, cloudy storm, using data from NASA's Spitzer and Kepler space telescopes. The dark storm is akin to Jupiter's Great Red Spot: a persistent, raging storm ...
Astronomy
Dec 10, 2015
5
1057
Astronomers have discovered evidence for thousands of black holes located near the center of our Milky Way galaxy using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Space Exploration
May 31, 2018
0
49
Solar Cycle 25 has begun. During a media event on Tuesday, experts from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) discussed their analysis and predictions about the new solar cycle—and how the ...
Space Exploration
Sep 15, 2020
26
1718
Some 30 years ago, a young engineer named Christopher Walker was home in the evening making chocolate pudding when he got what turned out to be a very serendipitous call from his mother.
Space Exploration
Oct 27, 2023
0
98
Data collected by NASA's Juno spacecraft using its Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument point to a new heat source close to the south pole of Io that could indicate a previously undiscovered volcano on the small ...
Space Exploration
Jul 14, 2018
15
361
At the start of March, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover began approaching an impressive rock formation that scientists dubbed "Mont Mercou," a nickname taken from a mountain in France. Standing about 20 feet (6 meters) tall, the ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 30, 2021
1
5806
