Topic: Solar Systems
Closer Look: Mars is the Future

Closer Look: Mars is the Future

by | Sep 6, 2024 | ,

Since Mars Spirit and Opportunity first set down on Mars in 2004, there has been a continuous robotic presence on the Red Planet. The Phoenix and Insight Landers have answered specific questions about Mars composition and interior, while a small herd of rovers have explored terrains that appear to have once been awash in water.  While NASA’s current major focus is the Artemis program and the return of humans to the lunar surface, this work is all being done with a look ahead toward future human-missions to Mars and asteroids. The desire to go to Mars is complex and brings together all...

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When Orbits Go Weird

When Orbits Go Weird

by | Aug 14, 2024 |

orbital path of transiting exoplanet TIC 241249530 b As of the day of this recording, Aug 8, 2024, more than 5600 exoplanets have been discovered orbiting more than 4000 alien stars. Within these systems we are regularly finding things our experiences with our own...

JWST Catches Difference in Sunrise and Sunset

JWST Catches Difference in Sunrise and Sunset

by | Aug 14, 2024 |

an artist's concept of the exoplanet WASP-43b Anyone who likes to exercise outside can tell you the sunrise side of the day is far cooler than the evening twilight. Here on Earth, with our rotating world, this is easy to understand. Throughout the night, our planet...

Titan’s Lakes May Have Shoreline Erosion

Titan’s Lakes May Have Shoreline Erosion

by | Jul 23, 2024 |

Image Credit: Cassini Mission Here on Earth we often talk about planetary analogues. These are areas where the landscape here on our planet is geological similar to other worlds. There are regions in the Atacama desert, for instance, that are very similar to Mars. ...

Lava Lakes on Io Images in Infrared

Lava Lakes on Io Images in Infrared

by | Jul 23, 2024 |

I don’t think there is an astronomer who doesn’t love a pretty high resolution image of …well… pretty much anything in space. Give me a crisp clear galaxy, or a nebula, or even a quiet frost field on another planet and I will happily stare at the pretty picture. But...

Jupiter’s Not-enduring Red Spot

Jupiter’s Not-enduring Red Spot

by | Jul 23, 2024 |

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstadt/Justin Cowart It turns out, Jupiter likes to have giant red spots, but it doesn’t always have the same giant red spot. New research led by Agustin Sanchez-Lavega and appearing in Geophysical Research letters...

Vibrant Auroras shine on Mars

Vibrant Auroras shine on Mars

by | Jul 4, 2024 |

The purple color in this video shows auroras on Mars’ nightside as detected by the ultraviolet instrument aboard NASA’s MAVEN orbiter between May 14 and 20, 2024. The brighter the purple, the more auroras that were present. Credit: NASA/University of...

Mars Rover Finds Way To Ford Ancient River

Mars Rover Finds Way To Ford Ancient River

by | Jul 2, 2024 |

a map of Percy's path The Perseverance rover has been making its way along the coast line of a long dried up river that once allowed water to drain from Jezero Crater.  Today, the Neretva Vallis river channel isn’t just dry, it’s filled with sand dunes… And Sand Dunes...

Calculating Pluto’s Oceans

Calculating Pluto’s Oceans

by | Jun 20, 2024 |

While amazing data is the start of amazing research, it takes a lot of calculations and models to truly understand what the data mean.  Nine years after the New Horizons mission flew past Pluto and discovered it has mountains of ice, and a strangely cracked landscape,...

Lucy’s Discovered Dinkinesh Throws Rocks

Lucy’s Discovered Dinkinesh Throws Rocks

by | Jun 20, 2024 |

We often find ourselves saying that science moves at that rate of technology. With new telescopes and spacecraft we can get new views on the universe. And some of them are weirdly unexpected. Back in November 2023, the Lucy mission flew past the asteroid Dinkinesh on...