Planetary Science Division

The Solar System

Uncategorized

Into The Field With NASA: Valley Of Ten Thousand Smokes

To better understand Mars, NASA’s Goddard Instrument Field Team headed deep into the backcountry of Katmai National Park.

Posted August 22, 2024

NEOWISE

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Headquarters

NEO Surveyor (Near-Earth Object Surveyor Space Telescope)

WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer)

NASA Mission Concludes After Years of Successful Asteroid Detections

Engineers on NASA’s NEOWISE (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer) mission commanded the spacecraft to turn its transmitter off for the last time Thursday. This concludes more than 10 years of its planetary defense mission to search for asteroids and comets, including those that could pose a threat to Earth.

Posted August 9, 2024

Asteroids

DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test)

Missions

Planetary Defense

The Solar System

NASA’s DART Mission Sheds New Light on Target Binary Asteroid System

In studying data collected from NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission, which in 2022 sent a spacecraft to intentionally collide with the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, the mission’s science team has discovered new information on the origins of the target binary asteroid system and why the DART spacecraft was so effective in shifting D

Posted July 30, 2024

Artemis

Earth's Moon

Goddard Space Flight Center

Lunar Discovery & Exploration Program

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

The Solar System

NASA, JAXA Bounce Laser Beam Between Moon’s Surface and Lunar Orbit

NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) has twice transmitted a laser pulse to a cookie-sized retroreflector aboard JAXA’s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) SLIM lander on the Moon and received a return signal.

Posted July 29, 2024

Earth's Moon

Goddard Space Flight Center

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)

Missions

NASA Centers & Facilities

NASA Directorates

Planetary Geosciences & Geophysics

New Evidence Adds to Findings Hinting at Network of Caves on Moon

An international team of scientists using data from NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) has discovered evidence of caves beneath the Moon’s surface.

Posted July 18, 2024

Asteroids

DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test)

Missions

The Solar System

NASA Selects Participating Scientists to Join ESA’s Hera Mission

NASA has selected 12 participating scientists to join ESA’s (European Space Agency) Hera mission, which is scheduled to launch in October 2024. Hera will study the binary asteroid system Didymos, including the moonlet Dimorphos, which was impacted by NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft on Sept. 26, 2022.

Posted June 25, 2024

DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test)

NEO Surveyor (Near-Earth Object Surveyor Space Telescope)

NASA, Partners Conduct Fifth Asteroid Impact Exercise, Release Summary

For the benefit of all, NASA released a summary Thursday of the fifth biennial Planetary Defense Interagency Tabletop Exercise. NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, in partnership with FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and with the assistance of the U.S.

Posted June 20, 2024

Planetary Defense