Space Exploration

Strange fields of polygons seen during New Horizons’ visit to Pluto could be explained by million year variations in the dwarf planet’s orbit caused by its ice giant neighbors, says a team from Taiwan’s Institute of Earth Sciences. Their conclusion, which challenges existing explanations of bottom-up heating of the glacier …

While combing through data gathered by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft during flybys of Enceladus, the sixth-largest of Saturn’s moons, researchers have found the first evidence that the frozen moon’s axis has reoriented, possibly due to a collision with a smaller body. This enhanced-color view of Enceladus is largely of the southern …

Curiosity has been exploring Mars since 2012, and has already traveled further than any other rover in history. Curiosity isn’t done providing fascinating insights into the red planet, either. A new analysis of data from the rover indicates that its landing site in Gale Crater was once a lake that …

Researchers analyzing data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) have found evidence of surface frost near the Moon’s south pole. A view of the Moon’s south pole showing where reflectance and temperature data indicate the possible presence of surface water ice. Image credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio. “We found that …

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s massive new aircraft, the Stratolaunch, is complete and has rolled out of its hanger for first time. The Stratolaunch has been six years in the making; Allen developed it to launch rockets inexpensively into low earth orbit for commercial, governmental, and philanthropic organizations to gather data and …

Fracture-associated ‘halos’ of lighter-toned bedrock have been found on the lower north slope of Aeolis Mons (Mount Sharp) in Gale crater, Mars, indicating that the Red Planet had liquid water much longer than previously believed. Pale zones called ‘halos’ border bedrock fractures visible in this 2015 image (colorized) from the …

The first ExoMars spacecraft arrived in orbit of Mars last October as part of a join European-Russian mission to search for evidence of life on the red planet. However, the Schiaparelli lander encountered issues during its descent and was lost. Now, an analysis from the European Space Agency (ESA) details …

Saturn’s solstice — the longest day of summer in the northern hemisphere and the shortest day of winter in the southern hemisphere — arrived this month for the giant planet and its moons. The huge storm churning through the atmosphere in Saturn’s northern hemisphere overtakes itself as it encircles the …

NASA’s Juno spacecraft arrived in orbit of Jupiter last summer, and it began its death-defying dives into Jupiter’s magnetic field earlier this year. It’s on a longer 53-day orbit than originally planned due to engine trouble, but NASA is still gathering lots of information. NASA has just published the first …

NASA’s Juno mission is rewriting what planetary researchers thought they knew about Jupiter, the largest and most massive planet in our Solar System: the latest science results from the mission portray the gas giant as a complex, turbulent world, with massive polar cyclones, plunging storm systems, and an extremely strong …