Category: Solar System
Asteroid Sunrise – Rovers Take Pics from a Rock in Space
Japan landed a couple rovers on an asteroid… and that’s pretty cool. The Hayabusa 2 probe dropped off the two Minerva rovers on the asteroid named Ryugu, and they are sending back some great images. […]
Clusters of Earth-Sized Ice Cyclones – Jupiter Shows its Stuff
With great fanfare, the Juno probe arrived at Jupiter last year. Now, the first science from the little probe is getting shared, and it’s pretty cool. In a NASA press release, Juno principle investigator Scott Bolton […]
Uh-oh: Another Mars Mission Goes Missing
Today, the European Space Agency (ESA) put a spacecraft into orbit around Mars. Piggybacked onto the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) was the ExoMars 2016 lander which detached for its journey to the surface. The lander, […]
Water is Shooting Off of Europa
Scientists have always theorized that liquid water exists under Europa’s icy crust, and with that theory the possibility that life exists. Now there is apparently proof of water – in the form of geysers shooting it […]
Jupiter Has Some Really Cool Auroras – in Infrared
We knew we’d get some really cool pics from the Juno spacecraft’s first close pass to Jupiter, but it is one that fell outside the visible spectrum that delivered one of the most dramatic ever […]
“Juno is firing on all cylinders”
On Saturday, August 27th, the Juno spacecraft performed its first of its 36 flybys of the planet Jupiter, coming within 2,600 miles of the atmosphere. It didn’t have much time – it was zipping by […]
Lakes, Rivers and Canyons on Titan
As different as each of the planets and moons are from Earth, NASA is finding many similarities as well. A recent study found that Venus may have at one time harbored life, and now the […]
Venus May Have Supported Life
Venus is one nasty place. Its atmosphere is made up of nitrogen and carbon dioxide and is so dense that on its surface, it’s the same as being at a depth of about 3000 feet […]
Saturn Bends its Rings
In this picture recently snapped by the Cassini spacecraft seems to show the rings of Saturn being bent as they approach the shadow of the planet. Gravitational warp? Space-time distortion? It’s nothing so grand, unfortunately. […]
What Do a Fly, Juno, Jupiter, and a Basketball Have in Common?
With all the hype around Juno’s rendezvous with Jupiter, many lose sight of exactly how great a feat it was. I’m a fan of putting things into perspective, and if any story deserves perspective, it’s […]
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