August 25th, 2016
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The European Space Agency’s Rosetta comet orbiter has caught on camera an outburst from the celestial wanderer. According to an ESA press statement today, Rosetta unexpectedly captured a dramatic comet outburst that may have been triggered by a landslide. Nine of Rosetta’s instruments, including its cameras, dust collectors, and gas and plasma analyzers, were monitoring […]
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For you interstellar travelers out there – it’s a doable target! Proxima b is the closest possible home for life outside the solar system – a mere jump away at four-light-years. An international team of scientists led by astronomers at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) announced today clear evidence of a planet orbiting Proxima […]
Thanks to a suite of scientific instruments and fly-by opportunities, NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn has transformed our understanding of that far-off planet and its retinue of icy moons. Active jets For one, Saturn’s Enceladus is a mini-world of active jets – geyser-like phenomenon that shoots out water vapor and ice particles from an underground […]
A press event was held in Beijing, China that signaled the launching of a public competitive campaign to get a name and logo for the country’s first robotic Mars probe – due to launch in 2020. During the press event, the external appearance of the Mars craft was revealed. According to Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer […]
The Curiosity rover on Mars carried out a drive over the weekend, but halted a bit early, “but everything is looking good and we will continue to drive in today’s plan,” reported Ryan Anderson, a planetary scientist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona on Monday. Now in Sol 1439, the plan for […]
Now deep into Sol 1437 in its exploration of Mars, the Curiosity rover has succeeded in recent drives to various spots on the Red Planet. “We are making good progress with our drives…we’re already approaching our next drill site…and the road in front of us is looking pretty smooth,” notes Ryan Anderson, a planetary […]
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now in Sol 1436 – returning detailed imagery of eroded mesas and buttes, even churning out a new 360-degree color panorama of the scenery. As noted in a Jet Propulsion Laboratory release: “The buttes and mesas are capped with rock that is relatively resistant to wind erosion. This helps preserve […]
SpaceX founder, CEO, and Lead Designer Elon Musk is unveiling his humans to Mars plan at next month’s 67th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), to be held in Guadalajara, Mexico. The world space meeting runs from September 26-30. Multiplanetary species On the second day of the IAC, during a special keynote entitled “Making Humans a Multiplanetary […]
Following over a year of exploration at Marathon Valley on the rim of Endeavour crater, scientists and engineers operating the long-lived Opportunity Mars rover are wrapping up their final work at that site. “We are finishing up in Marathon Valley…investigating some interesting grooves with red zone fractures,” notes Ray Arvidson, Mars Exploration Rover deputy […]
The NASA Curiosity Mars rover is studying the stratigraphy of the Murray Buttes – and it’s quite the scenery. New imagery from the robot visitor from Earth: Images taken by the rover’s Mastcam Left on Sol 1432, August 16, 2016, include: Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS Also, check out […]
