Space Exploration

A stunning new image from NASA’s Juno robotic orbiter shows the famed Great Red Spot and a smaller storm called Oval BA. This image was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it performed its most recent close flyby of Jupiter on December 21, 2018. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / …

In the final phase of NASA’s Cassini mission, the spacecraft dived between Saturn and its innermost ring, at altitudes 1,616-2,423 miles (2,600-3,900 km) above the cloud tops. During six of these crossings, a radio link with Earth was monitored to make the first accurate estimate of the amount of material …

  Scientists watching Saturn’s moon Titan have finally gotten evidence that the planet experiences seasons like Earth. It’s subtle, but a shimmering region in the higher latitudes indicates that summer has started in Titan’s northern hemisphere. This discovery has been years in the making because of Titan’s exceedingly long orbit, …

  You might want to clear some time in your schedule this weekend to look up at the night sky. Those in the western hemisphere will be treated to a rare celestial alignment known colloquially as the “super blood moon.” It sounds pretty cool, but it’s just science — cool …

  One of the common features of star systems is that both stars and their planets tend to orbit in the same plane. That means the equator of the star tends to align with the plane of the planets in orbit around it. In our own solar system, for example, …

Observations from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft provide evidence of rainfall on the north pole of Saturn’s moon Titan. The rainfall would be the first indication of the start of a summer season in the northern hemisphere of the hazy moon. It’s raining on Titan. Image credit: David A. Hardy, AstroArt / …

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft took a series of images between 3 p.m. EST (8 p.m. GMT) on December 31, 2018, and 12:01 a.m. EST (5:01 a.m. GMT) on January 1, 2019, that were later linked together to make a movie showing the propeller-like rotation of the Kuiper Belt object Ultima …

  The steam engine powered the industrial revolution, but humanity has long since moved beyond this archaic method of generating locomotion. However, we might not be done with steam power just yet. A team from the University of Central Florida (UCF) has constructed a prototype for a steam-powered space probe …

  China’s Chang’e 4 mission already made history when it completed the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon. Now, it’s accomplished another first: An experimental module on the lander filled with seeds has succeeded in growing the first Earth plants on another world. Eventually, the lander …

The Earth’s magnetic field is steadily getting weaker, and researchers are warning that it might quickly flip. If that happens, it will be a cataclysmic occasion beyond anything that we have ever experienced prior to. Obviously many people never even provide much thought to the huge magnetic field that surrounds …