Space Probes News

September 16, 2016

Some Ancient Mars Lakes Formed More Recently

X-Ray Detection Sheds New Light on Pluto

Auroras Move to Rhythm of Earth's Magnetic Field

Jupiter's North Pole Unlike Anything Else

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

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 ... 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 ... 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 ... 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 ... 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

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, ... 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. ... 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 ... read more

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

NASA Spacecraft Going to Asteroid

Rocket Carrying NASA Asteroid Probe Blasts Off from Florida

NASA: Progress Continues on Orion Spacecraft

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

The Genesis Project: New Life on Exoplanets

Aug. 31, 2016 — Can life be brought to celestial bodies outside our solar system which are not permanently inhabitable? This is the question with which experts are dealing in a recent ... read more

Cassini Finds Flooded Canyons on Saturn's Moon Titan

Aug. 10, 2016 — NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found deep, steep-sided canyons on Saturn's moon Titan that are flooded with liquid hydrocarbons. The finding represents the first direct evidence of the ... read more

Watch a Tiny Space Rocket Work

Aug. 8, 2016 — Moving a nanosatellite around in space takes only a tiny amount of thrust. Engineers teamed up, put a nanoscale rocket under a microscope, and watched what ... read more

'GPS in Space': Bringing Autonomous Interplanetary Travel Closer to Reality

Aug. 4, 2016 — An accurate method for spacecraft navigation takes a leap forward today as new research reveals that a spacecraft's position in space in the direction of a particular pulsar can be calculated ... read more

Apollo Astronauts Experiencing Higher Rates of Cardiovascular-Related Deaths

July 28, 2016 — Members of the successful Apollo space program are experiencing higher rates of cardiovascular problems that are thought to be caused by their exposure to deep space radiation, according to a new ... read more

Jupiter's Great Red Spot Heats Planet's Upper Atmosphere

July 27, 2016 — Researchers have discovered that Jupiter's Great Red Spot may provide the mysterious source of energy required to heat the planet's upper atmosphere to the unusually high values ... read more

NASA's Kepler Confirms 100+ Exoplanets During Its K2 Mission

July 18, 2016 — Scientists report the largest haul of confirmed planets - tallying more than a hundred -- since NASA's Kepler space telescope switched from staring into one patch of sky to detecting planets ... read more

NASA's Juno Spacecraft Sends First in-Orbit View

July 12, 2016 — The JunoCam camera aboard NASA's Juno mission is operational and sending down data after the spacecraft's July 4 arrival at Jupiter. Juno's visible-light camera was turned on six days ... read more

Novel Advancements in Radiation Tolerance of HEMTs

July 12, 2016 — When it comes to putting technology in space, size and mass are prime considerations. A better understanding of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs could mean huge advancements in solid state science, specifically space ... read more

NASA Camera Catches Moon 'Photobombing' Earth

July 11, 2016 — For only the second time in a year, a NASA camera aboard the DSCOVR satellite captured a view of the moon as it moved in front of the sunlit side of Earth. From its position between the sun and ... read more

NASA's Juno Spacecraft in Orbit Around Mighty Jupiter

July 5, 2016 — After an almost five-year journey to the solar system's largest planet, NASA's Juno spacecraft successfully entered Jupiter's orbit during a 35-minute engine burn. With its suite of ... read more

NASA’s Juno and JEDI: Ready to Unlock Mysteries of Jupiter

July 1, 2016 — The JEDI is one of several instruments aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft -- set to enter Jupiter orbit on July 4 -- that will help scientists answer fundamental questions about the solar ... read more

Jupiter on a Bench: Spacecraft Juno Nears Planet Orbit

June 30, 2016 — Earlier this year, in an experiment about five-feet long, researchers say they observed evidence of the abrupt transition of hydrogen from liquid insulator to liquid metal. It is one of the first ... read more

Hubble Captures Vivid Auroras in Jupiter’s Atmosphere

June 30, 2016 — Astronomers are using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study auroras -- stunning light shows in a planet's atmosphere -- on the poles of the largest planet in the Solar System, ... read more

‘Building Blocks for Life' May Originate in Space

June 28, 2016 — Amino acids are the building blocks for life on earth. They may originate in space and reach the earth via comets and ... read more

Glorious, Glowing Jupiter Awaits Juno’s Arrival

June 27, 2016 — Stunning new images and the highest-resolution maps to date of Jupiter at thermal infrared wavelengths give a glowing view of Juno's target, a week ahead of the NASA mission's arrival at ... read more

An Ocean Lies a Few Kilometers Beneath Saturn's Moon Enceladus's Icy Surface

June 21, 2016 — With eruptions of ice and water vapor, and an ocean covered by an ice shell, Saturn's moon Enceladus is one of the most fascinating in the Solar System, especially as interpretations of data ... read more

'Space Tsunami' Causes the Third Van Allen Belt

June 20, 2016 — Earth's magnetosphere, the region of space dominated by Earth's magnetic field, protects our planet from the harsh battering of the solar wind. Like a protective shield, the magnetosphere ... read more

Strong 'Electric Wind' Strips Planets of Oceans and Atmospheres

June 20, 2016 — Venus has an 'electric wind' strong enough to remove the components of water from its upper atmosphere, which may have played a significant role in stripping the planet of its ... read more

Tuesday, September 13, 2016