Curiosity Rover Images Sun Rays and Feather-Shaped Clouds on Mars
‘Sun rays’ are also known as crepuscular rays, from the Latin word for twilight. It was the first time sun rays have been so clearly viewed on Mars. This feather-shaped…
Researchers Create Space Salad for Astronauts
The space salad contains ingredients — including soybean, poppy, barley, kale, peanuts, sweet potato and sunflower seeds — that could be grown on spacecraft and provide optimum nutrition for astronauts.…
DART Offers Insight into How Deflection Missions Can Protect Earth from Hazardous Asteroids
On September 26, 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) intentionally slammed into the 160-m-wide asteroid moonlet Dimorphos — which orbits the larger, 780-m-wide asteroid Didymos — for the first…
Venus’ Outer Shell is Shaping Planet’s Surface, Study Suggests
Earth has a hot core that heats the surrounding mantle, which carries that heat up to the planet’s lithosphere. The heat is then lost to space, cooling the uppermost region…
Ancient Impact Crater Discovered in France
The ancient crater, formally known as ‘le Clot,’ is about 220 m in diameter and 30 m in depth, and is located in the ground of the Domaine du Meteore-vineyard…
Planetary Scientists Create Two New Forms of Extraterrestrial Ice
University of Washington researcher Baptiste Journaux and colleagues believe the newly-created substances could form at the surface and bottom of deep oceans on Jupiter’s icy moons Europa and Ganymede. This…
Electricity in Martian Dust Storms Could Be Major Driving Force of Planet’s Chlorine Cycle
Frictional electrification is a common process in the Solar System, with Martian dust activities known to be a powerful source of electrical charge buildup. Furthermore, the thin atmosphere on the…
Charon’s Freezing Ocean Produced Huge Canyons on Its Surface, Modeling Study Suggests
When ocean-bearing moons begin to cool down, their oceans can freeze. As new ice accretes to the bottom of the existing ice shell, the added volume of the ice can…
Mimas Has an Expanding, Young Ocean, New Research Suggests
Mimas, a small moon of Saturn, is heavily cratered and lacks the typical characteristics of an ocean-bearing moon, such as the active surface of Enceladus. However, measurements of Mimas, made…
Humans Will Likely Not Have Ability to Visit Nearby Exoplanets Anytime Soon, Expert Says
Astronomers recently announced the discovery of TOI-700e, a habitable-zone, Earth-sized planet some 102 light-years away in the southern constellation of Dorado. Could this new discovery lead to humans one day…