The Solar System

The Solar System
Uncategorized
Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion The story of how we understand planetary motion could not be told if it were not for the work of a German mathematician named Johannes Kepler.  Kepler’s three laws describe how planets orbit the Sun. They describe how (1) planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun as a focus, […]
Posted May 2, 2024
Mars
Curiosity (Rover)
Goddard Space Flight Center
Heliophysics
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN)
The Solar System
The Sun
The Sun will be at peak activity this year, providing a rare opportunity to study how solar storms and radiation could affect future astronauts on the Red Planet. In the months ahead, two of NASA’s Mars spacecraft will have an unprecedented opportunity to study how solar flares — giant explosions on the Sun’s surface — […]
Posted April 29, 2024
Citizen Science
Mars
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN)
Planetary Science
The Solar System
There’s good news from NASA’s Cloudspotting on Mars project! That’s the project that invites you to help identify exotic clouds high in the Martian atmosphere. Congratulations to the Cloudspotting on Mars team and all the volunteers who have helped spot Martian clouds!
Posted April 29, 2024
Curiosity (Rover)
Goddard Space Flight Center
Mars
Mars Exploration Program
Mars Science Laboratory (MSL)
Missions
NASA Directorates
Planetary Science Division
Science Mission Directorate
The Solar System
The most surprising revelation from NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover — that methane is seeping from the surface of Gale Crater — has scientists scratching their heads. Living creatures produce most of the methane on Earth. But scientists haven’t found convincing signs of current or ancient life on Mars, and thus didn’t expect to find methane […]
Posted April 22, 2024
Juno
Io
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Jupiter
Jupiter Moons
The Solar System
Imagery from the solar-powered spacecraft provides close-ups of intriguing features on the hellish Jovian moon.
Posted April 18, 2024
Asteroids
Astrophysics
Astrophysics Division
Citizen Science
Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Space Telescope
Missions
Science Mission Directorate
The Solar System
Like boulders, rocks, and pebbles scattered across a landscape, asteroids come in a wide range of sizes. Cataloging asteroids in space is tricky because they are faint and they don’t stop to be photographed as they zip along their orbits around the Sun. Astronomers recently used a trove of archived images taken by NASA’s Hubble […]
Posted April 18, 2024
Ingenuity (Helicopter)
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Mars
Mars 2020
Mars Sample Return (MSR)
Perseverance (Rover)
The Solar System
The final downlink shift by the Ingenuity team was a time to reflect on a highly successful mission — and to prepare the first aircraft on another world for its new role. Engineers working on NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter assembled for one last time in a control room at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in […]
Posted April 17, 2024
Dragonfly
Goddard Space Flight Center
Planetary Science
Planetary Science Division
Saturn
Science & Research
Science Mission Directorate
The Solar System
NASA has confirmed its Dragonfly rotorcraft mission to Saturn’s organic-rich moon Titan. The decision allows the mission to progress to completion of final design, followed by the construction and testing of the entire spacecraft and science instruments.
Posted April 17, 2024
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO)
2024 Solar Eclipse
Earth's Moon
Goddard Space Flight Center
The Solar System
Editor’s Note, April 16, 2024: This story has been updated to remove an unclear secondary image and caption. As the Moon blotted out the Sun to viewers across the United States during the April 8 solar eclipse, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured an image from some 223,000 miles away of the highly anticipated celestial […]
Posted April 15, 2024
Europa Clipper
Europa
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Solar System
Excitement is mounting as the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission gets readied for an October launch.
Posted April 11, 2024
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