Why is this moon shaped like a smooth egg? The robotic Cassini spacecraft completed the first flyby ever of Saturn’s small moon Methone in May and discovered that the moon has no obvious craters. Craters, usually caused by impacts, have Continue reading
If the atmosphere of Mars contains methane, various possibilities have been proposed for where the methane could come from and how it could disappear. Potential non-biological sources for methane on Mars include comets, degradation of interplanetary dust particles by ultraviolet Continue reading
On Sol 84 (Oct. 31, 2012), NASA’s Curiosity rover used the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) to capture this set of 55 high-resolution images, which were stitched together to create this full-color self-portrait. The mosaic shows the rover at “Rocknest,” Continue reading
Saturn’s moon Titan turns out to be flatter than it should be. Two Cassini scientists have a new and unusual theory about what causes Titan to have the shape it has: weather. The moon hits your eye like a big Continue reading
The International Space Station (ISS) has completed an emergency maneuver to avoid possible collision with space debris, the Russian Mission Control Center said Thursday. The orbit of the ISS, corrected with the engines of the Progress M-16M cargo spacecraft docked Continue reading
A literal shot in the dark by imaging cameras on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has yielded an image of a visible glow from Titan, emanating not just from the top of Titan’s atmosphere, but also – surprisingly – from deep in Continue reading
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has completed initial experiments showing the mineralogy of Martian soil is similar to weathered basaltic soils of volcanic origin in Hawaii. The minerals were identified in the first sample of Martian soil ingested recently by the Continue reading
Russia could start building a space rocket capable of destroying asteroids threatening the Earth, chief of rocket and space corporation Energia said Friday. “There are three large asteroids, including Apophis, whose orbits cross the Earth’s orbit and which could hit Continue reading
Studying planets around other stars will be the focus of the new small Science Programme mission, Cheops, ESA announced today. Its launch is expected in 2017. Cheops – for CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite – will target nearby, bright stars already known Continue reading
Canada celebrated a milestone in CSA‘s robotics work on rovers. These terrestrial rovers are bringing the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) one step closer to developing the next generation of rovers for space exploration. The rovers performed robotic demonstrations at the CSA’s analogue testing terrain, Continue reading