Planetary Science

New Patterns in Mars’s Clouds Revealed by Volunteers

The first journal article about clouds identified by participants of the Cloudspotting on Mars project has been accepted for publication and is now available online! The article, “The Cloudspotting on Mars citizen science project: Seasonal and spatial cloud distributions observed by the Mars Climate Sounder” will appear in a special issue of Icarus

Posted November 1, 2023

Citizen Science

Planetary Science

Daily Minor Planet Volunteers Spot an Asteroid Passing Close to Earth

Volunteers working with The Daily Minor Planet have made the project’s first big discovery: an asteroid passing very near planet Earth. On the night of October 3rd, a telescope for the Catalina Sky Survey snapped four pictures of a far northern section of the sky. The next day, volunteers H. N. DiRuscio, X. Liao, V. Gonano and […]

Posted October 30, 2023

Dragonfly

Langley Research Center

Missions

Planetary Science

Planetary Science Division

Saturn

Saturn Moons

Science Mission Directorate

NASA’s Dragonfly Tunnel Visions

Dragonfly Team Utilizes Unique NASA Facilities to Shape Its Innovative Titan-bound Rotorcraft With its dense atmosphere and low gravity, Saturn’s moon Titan is a great place to fly. But well before NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft lander soars through Titan’s skies, researchers on Earth – led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in La

Posted October 23, 2023

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Goddard Space Flight Center

Jupiter

Planetary Science

Planets

The Solar System

NASA’s Webb Discovers New Feature in Jupiter’s Atmosphere

Narrow jet stream near equator has winds traveling 320 miles per hour NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has discovered a new, never-before-seen feature in Jupiter’s atmosphere. The high-speed jet stream, which spans more than 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) wide, sits over Jupiter’s equator above the main cloud decks.

Posted October 19, 2023

Science Mission Directorate

Asteroids

Planetary Defense

Planetary Defense Coordination Office

Planetary Science

Planetary Science Division

Near-Earth Asteroids as of August 31, 2023

Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are asteroids and comets that orbit the Sun like the planets with orbits that come within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit.

Posted October 17, 2023

DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test)

Asteroids

Didymos & Dimorphos

Planetary Defense

Planetary Defense Coordination Office

Planetary Science

Planetary Science Division

Double Asteroid Redirection Test Post-Impact Image Gallery

After 10 months flying in space, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) – the world’s first planetary defense technology demonstration – successfully impacted its asteroid target on Monday, September 26 at 7:14 p.m. EDT. as the world’s first attempt to move an asteroid in space.

Posted October 16, 2023

General

Planetary Defense

Planetary Defense Coordination Office

Planetary Science

Planetary Science Division

Science & Research

Science Mission Directorate

Near-Earth Asteroids as of September 2023

September 2023 Each month, NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office releases a monthly update featuring the most recent figures on NASA’s planetary defense efforts, near-Earth object close approaches, and other timely facts about comets and asteroids that could pose an impact hazard with Earth. Here is the what we’ve found for September.

Posted September 29, 2023