Image Credit: NASA/JPL Last week, NASA released this enhanced video of images Voyager 2 shot of Neptune’s moon Triton as it sailed past in 1989. Today, the New Horizons spacecraft crossed Neptune’s orbit on the way to its own flyby of now minor planet Pluto. The full NASA story is below. NASA New Story August […]
It is sometimes difficult to attach an adequate number of superlatives to the Cassini probe, which is about to enter its second decade of operations in the Saturn system. From launching the Huygens lander, to revealing Titan’s hydrocarbon seas and the ice geysers of Enceladus, Cassini has been much more than a probe. In many […]
Image Credit: ESO The European Southern Observatory at La Silla released this image of a glowing hydrogen cloud, or nebula, Gum 41. The glow is caused by the searing radiation emitted by young, very hot stars which excites the hydrogen gas left over from star formation. This nebula is in the constellation Centaurus in the […]
Image credit: JPL A fascinating news release out of JPL suggests once more just how weird and wonderful our own solar system is turning out to be. Today’s story offers speculation that Jupiter’s moon Ganymede may have “layered” oceans in which water alternates with different tiers of ice, depending on the relative salt content. Furthermore, […]
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech The treasure trove which is the Cassini spacecraft orbiting the Saturn system continues to produce fascinating discoveries. Now it appears that Saturn’s moon Enceladus has a subsurface ocean, one which is likely responsible for the geysers which Enceladus is jetting into space. It is important to note that after the end of […]
Time lapse photo showing movement On the third episode of the re-tooled COSMOS, Neil deGrasse Tyson took his ship of the imagination to the Oort cloud to discover the origin of comets. He may have to go back. Astronomers have discovered a second dwarf planet orbiting in the far reaches of the solar system, well […]
With at least 53 confirmed Moons, it’s a little difficult to keep track of everything going on in Saturn’s system, but the amazing Cassini probe which has been on duty there since 2004 is still doing a remarkable job. Overshadowed by methane rich and surprisingly Earth-like Titan, and showy Enceladus, which is jetting ice crystals […]
Forget about the Bellagio, the best dancing water fountain in this solar system isn’t in Vegas, its in orbit around Saturn’s moon Enceladus. In the latest series of a series of images released by JPL from the remarkable Cassini spacecraft still on duty in the Saturn system, NASA has captured the simply stunning spectacle of […]
A team of scientists working at NASA’s JPL and Cal-Tech studying Jupiter’s moon Europa, have found evidence of a chemical exchange between the frozen, radiation swept surface and a liquid ocean which is believed to exist beneath an ice pack nearly 60 miles thick. Using spectrographic analysis of surface ice taken from the Keck II telescope […]
Source: JPL One of the most promising potential locations for eventual human settlement in the outer solar system is Saturn’s fascinating moon, Titan. Bigger than innermost planet Mercury, half again as large as our own Moon, and second only to Ganymede in total size, Titan possesses a thick nitrogen atmosphere, which blankets a bizarre frigid landscape dominated by the hydrocarbons methane and ethane. […]
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