NASA's Wise finds mysterious centaurs may be comets

The true identity of centaurs, the small celestial bodies orbiting the sun between Jupiter and Neptune, is one of the enduring mysteries of astrophysics. Are they asteroids or comets? A new study of observations from NASA's ...

Detecting DNA in space

If there is life on Mars, it's not too farfetched to believe that such Martian species may share genetic roots with life on Earth.

Cassini shapes first global topographic map of Titan

(Phys.org) —Scientists have created the first global topographic map of Saturn's moon Titan, giving researchers a valuable tool for learning more about one of the most Earth-like and interesting worlds in the solar system. ...

Wind mission encounters 'SLAMS' waves

(Phys.org) —As Earth moves around the sun, it travels surrounded by a giant bubble created by its own magnetic fields, called the magnetosphere. As the magnetosphere plows through space, it sets up a standing bow wave or ...

Cassini Instrument Learns New Tricks

(Phys.org)—For seven years, a mini-fridge-sized instrument aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft reliably investigated weather patterns swirling around Saturn; the hydrocarbon composition of the surface of Saturn's moon Titan; ...

Dawn sends first low altitude images of Vesta

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Dawn spacecraft has sent back the first images of the giant asteroid Vesta from its low-altitude mapping orbit. The images, obtained by the framing camera, show the stippled and lumpy surface in detail ...

Landsat satellites track Yellowstone's underground heat

(PhysOrg.com) -- Yellowstone National Park sits on top of a vast, ancient, and still active volcano. Heat pours off its underground magma chamber, and is the fuel for Yellowstone's famous features -- more than 10,000 hot ...

Why solar wind is rhombic-shaped?

Why the temperatures in the solar wind are almost the same in certain directions, and why different energy densities are practically identical, was until now not clear.

The making of dust

(PhysOrg.com) -- On the Earth, dust particles are everywhere - under beds, on bookshelves, even floating in the air. We take dust for granted. Dust is also common in space, and it is found for example in the cold, dark molecular ...

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