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NASA's Dawn's Spacecraft Views Dark Side of Vesta
Dawn took this image over Vesta's northern hemisphere after the spacecraft completed its first passage over the dark side of the giant asteroid. It is northern hemisphere winter on Vesta now, so its north pole is in deep shadow.The Dawn science team is working to determine the significance of the distinct...
NASA's Jupiter-Bound Juno Spacecraft Mated to its Rocket
NASA's Juno spacecraft completed its last significant terrestrial journey today, July 27, with a 15-mile (25-kilometer) trip from Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., to its launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The solar-powered, Jupiter-bound spacecraft was secured into place...
NASA's Hubble Makes One Millionth Science Observation
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope crossed another milestone in its space odyssey of exploration and discovery. On Monday, July 4, the Earth-orbiting observatory logged its one millionth science observation during a search for water in an exoplanet's atmosphere 1,000 light-years away."For 21 years Hubble...
Dawn Nears Start of Year-Long Stay at Giant Asteroid
NASA's Dawn spacecraft is on track to begin the first extended visit to a large asteroid. The mission expects to go into orbit around Vesta on July 16 and begin gathering science data in early August. Vesta resides in the main asteroid belt and is thought to be the source of a large number of meteorites...
MESSENGER Provides New Data about Mercury
After nearly three months in orbit about Mercury, MESSENGER's payload is providing a wealth of new information about the planet closest to the Sun, as well as a few surprises.img alt="Targeted color imaging – Degas crater" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5620289520460975202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD1TLLOQHmHAqPNRc2pMRgDsT4plafq_r25LjFAkDLGdB42sKgm8HHx7Ts35EnQoALSmyBtImsjOCznTJ_ocmIEHHjA1YWHPGxUzww3rUEymxeQrspwVhdz06ldtam2CqEIid-pLUGfec3/s400/Targeted-color-imaging-Degas-crater.jpg"...
STEREO Sees Complete Far Side
The far side unveiled! This is the first complete image of the solar far side, the half of the sun invisible from Earth. Captured on June 1, 2011, the composite image was assembled from NASA's two Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft. STEREO-Ahead's data is shown on the left half...
Landsat 5 Satellite Sees Tornado Track near Sturbridge, Massachusetts
On June 1, 2011, a supercell thunderstorm developed over western Massachusetts. The storm produced an EF3 tornado that cut a 39-mile (63-kilometer) track of destruction across southwest and south-central Massachusetts. Not only did the long-lived tornado remain on the ground for many miles, but it also...
NASA's Hubble Finds Rare 'Blue Straggler' Stars in Milky Way's Hub
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has found a rare class of oddball stars called blue stragglers in the hub of our Milky Way, the first detected within our galaxy's bulge.Blue stragglers are so named because they seemingly lag behind in the aging process, appearing younger than the population from which...
NASA Concludes Attempts to Contact Mars Rover Spirit
NASA is ending attempts to regain contact with the long-lived Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, which last communicated on March 22, 2010.A transmission that will end on Wednesday, May 25, will be the last in a series of attempts. Extensive communications activities during the past 10 months also have...
Cassini and Telescope See Violent Saturn Storm
NASA's Cassini spacecraft and a European Southern Observatory ground-based telescope tracked the growth of a giant early-spring storm in Saturn's northern hemisphere that is so powerful it stretches around the entire planet. The rare storm has been wreaking havoc for months and shooting plumes of gas...
NASA Shows Topography of Tsunami-Damaged Japan City
The topography surrounding Sendai, Japan is clearly visible in this combined radar image and topographic view generated with data from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) acquired in 2000. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck offshore about 130 kilometers (80 miles) east of...
Prolific NASA Orbiter Reaches Five-Year Mark
NASA's versatile Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which began orbiting Mars five years ago on March 10, has radically expanded our knowledge of the Red Planet and is now working overtime.The mission has provided copious information about ancient environments, ice-age-scale climate cycles and present-day...
'Elephant Trunks' in Space
NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, captured this image of a star-forming cloud of dust and gas, called Sh2-284, located in the constellation of Monoceros. Lining up along the edges of a cosmic hole are several "elephant trunks" -- or monstrous pillars of dense gas and dust.The most...
Geomagnetic Storm In Progress
The storm is subsiding now, but it could start up again in response to ongoing high-speed solar wind.A solar wind stream hit Earth's magnetic field during the early hours of March 1st. The impact sparked a polar geomagnetic storm that was, at first, minor, but the storm has been intensifying throughout...
Monster Prominence Erupts from the Sun
When a rather large M 3.6 class flare occurred near the edge of the Sun on Feb. 24, 2011, it blew out a gorgeous, waving mass of erupting plasma that swirled and twisted for 90 minutes. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the event in extreme ultraviolet light. Because SDO images are high definition,...
Launching Balloons in Antarctica
They nicknamed it the "Little Balloon That Could." Launched in December of 2010 from McMurdo Station in Antarctica, the research balloon was a test run and it bobbed lower every day like it had some kind of leak. But every day for five days it rose back up in the sky to some 112,000 feet in the air.Down...
Comet Hunter's First Images on the Ground
Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., have begun receiving the first of 72 anticipated images of comet Tempel 1 taken by NASA's Stardust spacecraft.The first six, most distant approach images are available at http://www.nasa.gov/stardust and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov....
New View of Family Life in the North American Nebula
Stars at all stages of development, from dusty little tots to young adults, are on display in a new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.This cosmic community is called the North American nebula. In visible light, the region resembles the North American continent, with the most striking resemblance...
Stardust Celebrates Twelve Years With Rocket Burn
NASA's Stardust spacecraft marked its 12th anniversary in space on Monday, Feb. 7, with a rocket burn to further refine its path toward a Feb. 14 date with a comet.The half-minute trajectory correction maneuver, which adjusts the spacecraft's flight path, began at about 1 p.m. PST (4 p.m. EST) on Monday,...
First Ever STEREO Images of the Entire Sun
On Feb. 6th, NASA's twin STEREO probes moved into position on opposite sides of the sun, and they are now beaming back uninterrupted images of the entire star—front and back."For the first time ever, we can watch solar activity in its full 3-dimensional glory," says Angelos Vourlidas, a member of the...
Proposed Mission to Jupiter System Achieves Milestone
With input from scientists around the world, American and European scientists working on the potential next new mission to the Jupiter system have articulated their joint vision for the Europa Jupiter System Mission. The mission is a proposed partnership between NASA and the European Space Agency. The...
Northern Mars Landscape Actively Changing
Sand dunes in a vast area of northern Mars long thought to be frozen in time are changing with both sudden and gradual motions, according to research using images from a NASA orbiter.These dune fields cover an area the size of Texas in a band around the planet at the edge of Mars' north polar cap. The...
NASA's Kepler Spacecraft Discovers Extraordinary New Planetary System
Scientists using NASA's Kepler, a space telescope, recently discovered six planets made of a mix of rock and gases orbiting a single sun-like star, known as Kepler-11, which is located approximately 2,000 light years from Earth."The Kepler-11 planetary system is amazing," said Jack Lissauer, a planetary...
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