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Enceladus’ Surface May Contain Relatively High Abundances of Pristine Organic Material

By News Staff December 21, 2023

Enceladus, the sixth-biggest moon of Saturn, presents a remarkable opportunity in our Solar System for searching for evidence of extraterrestrial life, given its habitable ocean and plume that deposits organic-bearing…

ESA Astronaut Captures Stunning Images of Rare Thunder Phenomenon

By News Staff December 1, 2023

As part of the Thor-Davis experiment on the International Space Station (ISS), ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen has captured images of a phenomenon called red sprite. Equipped with a specialized event-based…

Scientists Recreate Extraterrestrial Atmospheric Hazes in the Lab

By News Staff November 27, 2023

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has begun its scientific mission, which includes the atmospheric characterization of transiting exoplanets. Some of the first exoplanets to be observed by Webb have…

ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter Observes Green Atmospheric Nightglow on Mars

By News Staff November 13, 2023

The atmospheric nightglow is observed on Earth. On Mars, it was something expected, yet never observed in visible light until now. This image shows an artist’s impression of what nightglow…

InSight’s Largest Marsquake Was Likely Caused by Geological Processes, Study Says

By News Staff October 18, 2023

During its time on Mars, NASA’s InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander recorded over 1,300 seismic events, known as marsquakes. Of these, a number were…

Europa’s Carbon Dioxide Originates from Source within Its Subsurface Ocean, Planetary Scientists Say

By News Staff September 22, 2023

Jupiter’s icy moon Europa has an ocean beneath a crust of water ice. Solid carbon dioxide has previously been observed on the surface, but the source was unknown. Two teams…

ESA’s Mars Express Focuses on Surroundings of Olympus Mons Volcano

By News Staff August 24, 2023

Lava flows on Olympus Mons probably melted ice in the ground, making the volcano flank unstable; rockfalls and landslides moved hundreds of km into the surrounding landscape, forming a characteristic…

Webb Detects Hydrogen Peroxide on Ganymede

By News Staff July 30, 2023

Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is the only satellite in the Solar System known to have an intrinsic magnetic field. Interactions between this field and the magnetosphere of Jupiter are expected to…

Auroral Mechanisms May Be Universal throughout Our Solar System

By News Staff July 18, 2023

An analysis of data obtained during the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft’s first Mercury flyby reveals that Mercury’s southern magnetosphere aurorae are similar to those seen on Earth and Mars. An artist’s…

ESA’s Euclid Mission Launches to Explore Dark Matter and Energy

By News Staff July 3, 2023

The Euclid spacecraft, built and operated by ESA, with contributions from NASA, lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 11:12 a.m. EDT (17:12 CEST) on July…