Space Exploration

Giant Cloud Reappears above Martian Volcano The Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft has captured new images of a giant cloud over the 20-km (12.4-mile) high Arsia Mons volcano, the southernmost in a trio of giant Martian shield volcanoes known collectively as Tharsis Montes. These images, taken …

Perseverance Rover Will Take a Tiny Piece of Mars Home to the Red Planet NASA’s Perseverance rover is set to lift off this week to begin its journey toward the red planet. The robot carries a plethora of instruments, a helicopter, and sample containers that might one day conduct pieces …

NASA Clears Perseverance Mars Rover for Thursday Launch NASA has confirmed that the Perseverance rover will launch on Thursday (July 30th) this week after years of development and testing. The robotic explorer, which is already bundled up in the nose section of an Atlas V rocket, will study the history …

Juno Sees North Pole of Ganymede in Infrared Light The Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument onboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft has captured the first infrared images of the north pole of Ganymede, the largest moon in the Solar System and one of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter. The north …

US, UK Accuse Russia of Testing Space-Based Both the US and the UK claim to have evidence that Russia has tested an anti-satellite weapon on July 15. The weapon test has been classified as “non-destructive,” meaning it didn’t target any other satellites. That doesn’t mean it can’t, just that the …

First Multi-Planet System Around a Sun-Like Star Imaged The universe is teeming with exoplanets, but we’ve only been able to detect a small fraction of them. We’ve directly imaged just a handful, but you can add two more to the tally today. The European Southern Observatory has captured a pair …

Other Mammals Could Struggle to Fight Extraterrestrial Microorganisms In a new study published in the journal Microorganisms, a team of researchers from the UK, the Netherlands and Germany tested how mammalian immune cells responded to peptides containing two amino acids that are commonly found in carbonaceous meteorites. The immune response …

Venus May Be Geologically Active After All Venus is sometimes called Earth’s “sister planet,” a distinction that came about before we knew how profoundly unpleasant it was. The crushing atmospheric pressure and clouds of acid make it an unappealing vacation spot, but scientists may have made a discovery that makes …

Venus is Still Geologically Active, New Research Suggests A team of researchers from the University of Maryland and the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zurich has identified 37 active circular volcano-tectonic features called coronae on Venus. Venus in real colors, processed from Mariner 10 images. Image credit: Mattias Malmer / …

NASA Will Bring SpaceX Dragon Crew Back to Earth August 2 NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley made history in May when they rode the SpaceX Falcon 9 into space and docked the Dragon capsule at the International Space Station (ISS). The pair have been on the station all …