NASA News -- ScienceDaily

NASA News

September 16, 2016

Echoes of Black Holes Eating Stars

Some Ancient Mars Lakes Formed More Recently

Starving Black Hole Returns Galaxy to the Shadows

X-Ray Detection Sheds New Light on Pluto

Latest Headlines

updated 12:42am EDT

Cassini Begins Epic Final Year at Saturn

Sep. 15, 2016 — After more than 12 years studying Saturn, its rings and moons, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has entered the final year of its epic voyage. The conclusion of the historic ... read more

Exploration Team Shoots for the Moon With Water-Propelled Satellite

Sep. 15, 2016 — Cislunar Explorers, a team of Cornell University students guided by Mason Peck, a former senior official at NASA and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace ... read more

Astronomers Shed Light on Different Galaxy Types

Sep. 14, 2016 — Scientists have taken a critical step towards understanding why different types of galaxies exist throughout the Universe. The research, made possible by cutting-edge ... read more

Astronomers Observe Star Reborn in a Flash

Sep. 13, 2016 — Astronomers using Hubble have been able to study stellar evolution in real time. Over a period of 30 years dramatic increases in the temperature of the star SAO 244567 have ... read more

Explaining Why the Universe Can Be 'Transparent': Universe's Reionization Is Based on a Galaxy's Dust Content

Sep. 12, 2016 — Scientists can explain why the universe has enough energy to become transparent. The study marks the first quantitative ... read more

Mars Rover Views Spectacular Layered Rock Formations

Sep. 12, 2016 — The layered geologic past of Mars is revealed in stunning detail in new color images returned by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, which is currently exploring the "Murray Buttes" ... read more

NASA's THEMIS Sees Auroras Move to the Rhythm of Earth's Magnetic Field

Sep. 12, 2016 — For the first time, scientists have directly mapped Earth's fluctuating magnetic field and resulting electrical currents to aurora, thanks to northern lights observations ... read more

Moon Is Proto-Earth's Mantle, Relocated, Chemistry Suggests

Sep. 12, 2016 — The leading theory for the moon's formation got in trouble recently when it was revealed that the moon and Earth are isotopic twins. Now highly precise measurements of the ... read more

The Supernova That Wasn't: A Tale of Three Cosmic Eruptions

Sep. 2, 2016 — Long-term observations with the Hubble Space Telescope revealed that Eta Carinae, a very massive star system that has puzzled astronomers since it erupted in a supernova-like ... read more

NASA's SDO Witnesses a Double Eclipse

Sep. 2, 2016 — Early in the morning of Sept. 1, 2016, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, caught both Earth and the moon crossing in front of the sun. SDO keeps a constant eye on the ... read more

The Moon Could Be Making Some Earthquakes Bigger

Rosetta Orbiter Will End Its Space Journey By Smashing Into A Comet

NASA Spacecraft Going to Asteroid

Asteroid Probe May Find Clues to Origins of Life on Earth

Asteroid Named After Professor

Sep. 13, 2016 — A professor has had his name written among the stars, after an asteroid was named after ... read more

First Stars Formed Even Later Than Previously Thought

Sep. 2, 2016 — ESA's Planck satellite has revealed that the first stars in the Universe started forming later than previous observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background indicated. This new analysis also ... read more

Jupiter's North Pole Unlike Anything Encountered in Solar System

Sep. 2, 2016 — NASA's Juno spacecraft has sent back the first-ever images of Jupiter's north pole, taken during the spacecraft's first flyby of the planet with its instruments switched on. The images ... read more

New Light on the Complex Nature of 'Hot Jupiter' Atmospheres

Sep. 2, 2016 — A team of international researchers used state-of-the-art modelling techniques to extensively study the atmosphere of a 'hot Jupiter' found 150 light-years from Earth. The scientists ... read more

Ceres' Geological Activity, Ice Revealed in New Research

Sep. 1, 2016 — A lonely 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain on Ceres is likely volcanic in origin, and the dwarf planet may have a weak, temporary atmosphere. These are just two of many new insights about Ceres ... read more

Images from Sun's Edge Reveal Origins of Solar Wind

Sep. 1, 2016 — Ever since the 1950s discovery of the solar wind -- the constant flow of charged particles from the Sun -- there's been a stark disconnect between this outpouring and the sun itself. The details ... read more

Anomalous Grooves on Martian Moon Phobos Explained by Impacts

Aug. 30, 2016 — Some of the mysterious grooves on the surface of Mars' moon Phobos are the result of debris ejected by impacts eventually falling back onto the surface to form linear chains of craters, ... read more

NASA Team Probes Peculiar Age-Defying Star

Aug. 29, 2016 — For years, astronomers have puzzled over a massive star lodged deep in the Milky Way that shows conflicting signs of being extremely old and extremely young. Researchers initially classified the star ... read more

35 Years On, Voyager's Legacy Continues at Saturn

Aug. 24, 2016 — Saturn, with its alluring rings and numerous moons, has long fascinated stargazers and scientists. After an initial flyby of Pioneer 11 in 1979, humanity got a second, much closer look at this ... read more

NASA's WISE, Fermi Missions Reveal a Surprising Blazar Connection

Aug. 24, 2016 — Astronomers using observations from NASA's WISE and Fermi missions have confirmed a connection between the infrared and gamma-ray light emitted by blazars, a class of distant galaxies powered by ... read more

Test for Damp Ground at Mars' Seasonal Streaks Finds None

Aug. 23, 2016 — Seasonal dark streaks on Mars that have become one of the hottest topics in interplanetary research don't hold much water, according to the latest findings from a NASA spacecraft orbiting ... read more

NASA Establishes Contact With STEREO Mission

Aug. 23, 2016 — NASA has reestablished contact with its STEREO-B spacecraft, after communications were lost on Oct. 1, 2014. Over 22 months, the STEREO team has worked to attempt contact with the spacecraft. Most ... read more

Fossilized Rivers Suggest Warm, Wet Ancient Mars

Aug. 23, 2016 — Extensive systems of fossilized riverbeds have been discovered on an ancient region of the Martian surface, supporting the idea that the now cold and dry Red Planet had a warm and wet climate about 4 ... read more

The Comet That Disappeared: What Happened to Ison?

Aug. 19, 2016 — Comet ISON, a bright ball of frozen matter from the earliest days of the universe, was inbound from the Oort Cloud at the edge of the solar system and expected to pierce the Sun's corona on ... read more

A New Goldilocks for Habitable Planets

Aug. 19, 2016 — The search for habitable, alien worlds needs to make room for a second 'Goldilocks,' according to a researcher. A new study suggests that simply being in the habitable zone isn't ... read more

Venus-Like Exoplanet Might Have Oxygen Atmosphere, but Not Life

Aug. 18, 2016 — The distant planet GJ 1132b intrigued astronomers when it was discovered last year. Located just 39 light-years from Earth, it might have an atmosphere despite being baked to a temperature of around ... read more

NASA Prepares to Launch First U.S. Asteroid Sample Return Mission

Aug. 17, 2016 — NASA is preparing to launch its first mission to return a sample of an asteroid to Earth. The mission will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began, as well as improve our ... read more

NASA Asteroid Redirect Mission Completes Design Milestone

Aug. 17, 2016 — Following a key program review, NASA approved the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) to proceed to the next phase of design and development for the mission's robotic segment. ARM is a two-part ... read more

Van Allen Probes Catch Rare Glimpse of Supercharged Radiation Belt

Aug. 15, 2016 — An interplanetary shock struck the outermost of Earth's Van Allen radiation belts on March 17, 2015, resulting in the greatest geomagnetic storm of the past 10 ... read more

New Worlds New Horizons: A Midterm Assessment

Aug. 15, 2016 — While scientists have made remarkable advancements in astronomy and astrophysics since the beginning of this decade -- notably the first detection of gravitational waves and the discovery of distant ... read more

Tuesday, September 13, 2016