Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 10, 2022
NASA's InSight mission, which is expected to end in the near future, saw a recent drop in power generated by its solar panels as a continent-size dust storm swirls over Mars' southern hemisphere. First observed on Sept. 21, 2022, by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), the storm is roughly 2,175 miles (3,500 kilometers) from InSight and initially had little impact on the lander. The m

Washington DC (SPX) Oct 10, 2022
Over the past couple of weeks, the CAPSTONE mission team has been working to resolve an anomaly that occurred early last month and resulted in the spacecraft losing full 3-axis attitude control and entering into a spin stabilized state. Through extensive analysis and evaluation supported by a dedicated team of individuals on the mission team and key partners, the most likely cause of the anomaly

Beijing, China (SPX) Oct 10, 2022
This study is conducted by a joint team from Chinese Academy of Sciences. They use aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Electron-energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) to examine the microstructures and chemical compositions at nano/atomic scales of 25 soil grains (1-3 um in size) from Sample CE5C0400YJFM00507 (1.5 g). The soi

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Oct 10, 2022
In this 20-second exposure from Oct. 5, 2022, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA's SpaceX Crew-5 mission from our Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station (ISS). This is the fifth crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the ISS as part of the agency's Commercial Crew

Long Beach CA (SPX) Oct 10, 2022
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has broken its annual launch record with the launch of "It Argos Up From Here," a dedicated launch for General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS). The mission was Rocket Lab's 31st Electron launch overall and the eighth for the year to date, besting the company's previous record of seven launches in 2020. Rocket Lab has now successfully launched a missio

Huntsville AL (SPX) Oct 10, 2022
In the summer of 2022, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope released images from some of its earliest observations with the newly commissioned telescope. Almost instantaneously, these stunning images landed everywhere from the front pages of news outlets to larger-than-life displays in Times Square. Webb, however, will not pursue its exploration of the universe on its own. It is designed to w

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Oct 10, 2022
The first map of the 'galactic underworld' - a chart of the corpses of once massive suns that have since collapsed into black holes and neutron stars - has revealed a graveyard that stretches three times the height of the Milky Way, and that almost a third of the objects have been flung out from the galaxy altogether. "These compact remnants of dead stars show a fundamentally different dis

Tucson AZ (SPX) Oct 05, 2022
When the Chelyabinsk fireball exploded across Russian skies in 2013, it littered Earth with a relatively uncommon type of meteorite. What makes the Chelyabinsk meteorites and others like them special is their dark veins, created by a process called shock darkening. Yet, planetary scientists have been unable to pinpoint a nearby asteroid source of these kinds of meteorites - until now. In a

Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 06, 2022
Observations from the spacecraft's pass of the moon provided the first close-up in over two decades of this ocean world, resulting in remarkable imagery and unique science. The highest-resolution photo NASA's Juno mission has ever taken of a specific portion of Jupiter's moon Europa reveals a detailed view of a puzzling region of the moon's heavily fractured icy crust. The image cove

Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 07, 2022
A team at the Lab has invented new technologies that could be used by future missions to analyze liquid samples from watery worlds and look for signs of alien life. Are we alone in the universe? An answer to that age-old question has seemed tantalizingly within reach since the discovery of ice-encrusted moons in our solar system with potentially habitable subsurface oceans. But looking for