New Climate Models of Small Star TRAPPIST 1’s Seven Worlds
Not all stars are like the sun, so not all planetary systems can be studied with the same expectations. New research from a University of…
Planetary Science News
NASA InSight Mission on Course for Mars Landing
NASA’s Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft is on track for a soft touchdown on the surface of the…
NASA Selects Jezero Crater Landing Site for Mars 2020 Rover
NASA has chosen Jezero Crater as the landing site for its upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission after a five-year search, during which every available detail…
Astronomers Discover Super-Earth Orbiting Barnard’s Star
The nearest single star to the Sun hosts an exoplanet at least 3.2 times as massive as Earth — a so-called super-Earth. One of the…
Scientists Create a Soundtrack of the Mars Sunrise
Scientists have created the soundtrack of the 5,000th Mars sunrise captured by the robotic exploration rover, Opportunity, using data sonification techniques to create a two-minute…
NASA’s Curiosity Rover is on the Move Again
NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover drove about 197 feet (60 meters) over the weekend to a site called Lake Orcadie, pushing its total odometry to over…
International Space Station View of Earth Enveloped in Airglow
On October 7, 2018, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) shot this photograph while orbiting at an altitude of more than 250 miles…
Existing Laser Technology Could Be Used To Attract Aliens
If extraterrestrial intelligence exists somewhere in our galaxy, a new MIT study proposes that laser technology on Earth could, in principle, be fashioned into something…
Five Things to Know About InSight’s Upcoming Mars Landing
Every Mars landing is a knuckle-whitening feat of engineering. But each attempt has its own quirks based on where a spacecraft is going and what…
Astronomers Reveal Small Planetary Systems Around Metal-Poor Hosts
Small planetary systems with multiple planets are not fans of heavy metal — think iron, not Iron Maiden — according to a new Yale University…
Mars 2020 Parachute a Go, Third ASPIRE Test Sets Record
In the early hours of September 7, NASA broke a world record. Less than 2 minutes after the launch of a 58-foot-tall (17.7-meter) Black Brant…
Mars Express Observes the Evolution of a Cloud Formation Hovering Over Arsia Mons
Since September 13, ESA’s Mars Express has been observing the evolution of an elongated cloud formation hovering in the vicinity of the 20 km-high (12…
New Telescopes Are Beginning To Zero In On Habitable Planets
The planets so far discovered across the Milky Way are a motley, teeming multitude: hot Jupiters, gas giants, small, rocky worlds, and mysterious planets larger…
NASA’s JunoCam Detects Atmospheric Wave Trains on Jupiter
Massive structures of moving air that appear like waves in Jupiter’s atmosphere were first detected by NASA’s Voyager missions during their flybys of the gas-giant…
Astronomers Discover Ultra-Close Stars Inside Planetary Nebula M3-1
An international team of astronomers have discovered two stars in a binary pair that complete an orbit around each other in a little over three…
NASA CubeSat Captures Its First Image of Mars
NASA’s MarCO mission was designed to find out if briefcase-sized spacecraft called CubeSats could survive the journey to deep space. Now, MarCO – which stands…
Counting Down to the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) Launch
In October 2018, we’re launching the Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, to study Earth’s dynamic interface to space. Its combination of remote and in situ measurements…
Scientists to Debate Mars 2020 Landing Site for Next Rover
Hundreds of scientists and Mars-exploration enthusiasts will convene in a hotel ballroom just north of Los Angeles later this week to present, discuss and deliberate…
