The Solar System

Ringing in the Holidays

The ice giant Uranus and its rings steal the show in this Dec. 18, 2023, image from the James Webb Space Telescope. The telescope captured new images of Uranus, revealing detailed features of the planet’s rings and seasonal north polar cap, as well as bright storms near and below the southern border of the cap. […]

Posted December 26, 2023

OSIRIS-APEX (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Apophis Explorer)

Asteroids

Goddard Space Flight Center

The Solar System

NASA Asteroid Sampling Mission Renamed OSIRIS-APEX for New Journey

The former OSIRIS-REx spacecraft sets off on a journey to study asteroid Apophis and take advantage of the asteroid’s 2029 flyby of Earth, the likes of which hasn’t happened since the dawn of recorded history.

Posted December 22, 2023

Goddard Space Flight Center

Hubble Space Telescope

Missions

Planets

Rings of Saturn

Saturn

The Solar System

NASA’s Hubble Watches ‘Spoke Season’ on Saturn

This photo of Saturn was taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on October 22, 2023, when the ringed planet was approximately 850 million miles from Earth. Hubble’s ultra-sharp vision reveals a phenomenon called ring spokes. Saturn’s spokes are transient features that rotate along with the rings.

Posted December 21, 2023

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)

Goddard Space Flight Center

Missions

Planets

The Solar System

Uranus

Uranus Moons

NASA’s Webb Rings in Holidays With Ringed Planet Uranus

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently trained its sights on unusual and enigmatic Uranus, an ice giant that spins on its side. Webb captured this dynamic world with rings, moons, storms, and other atmospheric features – including a seasonal polar cap.

Posted December 18, 2023

Cassini

Astrobiology

Enceladus

Planetary Science

Saturn

Saturn Moons

The Solar System

NASA Study Finds Life-Sparking Energy Source and Molecule at Enceladus

A study zooms in on data that NASA’s Cassini gathered at Saturn’s icy moon and finds evidence of a key ingredient for life and a supercharged source of energy to fuel it. Scientists have known that the giant plume of ice grains and water vapor spewing from Saturn’s moon Enceladus is rich with organic compounds, […]

Posted December 14, 2023

Perseverance (Rover)

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Mars

Mars 2020

The Solar System

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Deciphers Ancient History of Martian Lake

Now at 1,000 days on Mars, the mission has traversed an ancient river and lake system, collecting valuable samples along the way. Marking its 1,000th Martian day on the Red Planet, NASA’s Perseverance rover recently completed its exploration of the ancient river delta that holds evidence of a lake that filled Jezero Crater billions of […]

Posted December 12, 2023

MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN)

Goddard Space Flight Center

Heliophysics

Mars

Solar Wind

Space Weather

The Solar System

The Sun

NASA’s MAVEN Observes the Disappearing Solar Wind

In December 2022, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) mission observed the dramatic and unexpected “disappearance” of a stream of charged particles constantly emanating off the Sun, known as the solar wind. This was caused by a special type of solar event that was so powerful, it created a void in its wake as […]

Posted December 11, 2023

Psyche Mission

Asteroids

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Psyche Asteroid

The Solar System

NASA’s Psyche Delivers First Images and Other Data

The mission team has celebrated several successes since its launch from Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 13. The latest is the operation of the spacecraft’s cameras. NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is on a roll. In the eight weeks since it left Earth on Oct. 13, the orbiter has performed one successful operation after another, powering on […]

Posted December 5, 2023

Asteroids

Jupiter

Mars

Pioneer

Pioneer 10

Planets

The Solar System

Pioneer 10 Crosses the Asteroid Belt

This illustration made on Nov. 26, 1974, by Rick Giudice shows the Pioneer 10 spacecraft traveling through the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. At the time, it was uncertain whether it would traverse it safely since the density of particles large enough to damage the craft was […]

Posted December 4, 2023

Mariner 3

Mariner 4

Mars

Planets

The Solar System

A Miniature Mariner-C

A model of the Mariner-C spacecraft seems to float in the darkness of space in this photo from a June 1964 Conference on New Technology at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Mariner-C and Mariner-D were identical spacecraft designed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to fly by Mars and photograph the Martian surface. Mariner-C was […]

Posted November 28, 2023