Space Probes News

January 29, 2025

Top Headlines

Jan. 29, 2025 — Scientists found that asteroid Bennu contained a set of salty mineral deposits that formed in an exact sequence when a brine evaporated, leaving clues about the type of water that flowed billions of years ...

Follow the Water: Searching for a Lunar Oasis

Jan. 28, 2025 — As humankind imagines living off-planet -- on the moon, Mars and beyond -- the question of how to sustain life revolves around the physical necessities of oxygen, food and water. We know there is water on the moon, but how do we find it? Researchers ...

Dwarf Planet Ceres: Building Blocks of Life Delivered from Space

Jan. 27, 2025 — The dwarf planet is a bizarre, cryovolcanic world. However, the organic deposits discovered on its surface so far are unlikely to originate from its interior. The organic material found in a few areas on the surface of dwarf planet Ceres is probably ...

How Titan Maintains Its Atmosphere

Jan. 27, 2025 — Scientists have performed laboratory experiments to better understand how Saturn's moon Titan can maintain its unique nitrogen-rich atmosphere. Titan is the second largest moon in our solar system and the only one that has a significant ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:05pm EST

NASA's Pandora Mission One Step Closer to Probing Alien Atmospheres

Jan. 16, 2025 — Pandora, a small satellite mission poised to provide in-depth study of at least 20 known planets orbiting distant stars to determine the composition of their atmospheres cleared an important ...

Citizen Science Reveals That Jupiter's Colorful Clouds Are Not Made of Ammonia Ice

Jan. 6, 2025 — Collaborative work by amateur and professional astronomers has helped to resolve a long-standing misunderstanding about the composition of Jupiter's ...

Research May Boost Next-Generation Space Rockets

Jan. 3, 2025 — Hidden patterns in electric propulsion plasma beams could help ensure the success of long-term space ...

Mysteries of Icy Ocean Worlds

Dec. 20, 2024 — A study introduces a novel thermodynamic concept called the 'centotectic' and investigates the stability of liquids in extreme conditions -- critical information for determining the habitability of ...

Origins of Lunar Water and Its Connection to Earth's Early History

Dec. 19, 2024 — Scientists have unveiled groundbreaking research on the origins of lunar water, offering insights that could reshape our understanding of the Earth-Moon system and the broader solar system. The ...

Anthropologists Call for Tracking and Preservation of Human Artifacts on Mars

Dec. 16, 2024 — Anthropologists argue physical artifacts of human exploration on Mars deserve cataloging, preservation and care in order to chronicle humanity's ...

Heart of Jovian Moon's Volcanic Rage

Dec. 13, 2024 — A new study points to why, and how, Io became the most volcanic body in the solar ...

NASA's Hubble Celebrates Decade of Tracking Outer Planets

Dec. 9, 2024 — A NASA Hubble Space Telescope observation program called OPAL (Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy) obtains long-term baseline observations of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in order to understand ...

Mars' Infamous Dust Storms Can Engulf the Entire Planet: A New Study Examines How

Dec. 9, 2024 — Dust storms on Mars could one day pose dangers to human astronauts, damaging equipment and burying solar panels. New research gets closer to ...

Magnetic Tornado Is Stirring Up the Haze at Jupiter's Poles

Nov. 26, 2024 — Dark ovals in Jupiter's polar haze, visible only at UV wavelengths, were first noticed 25 years ago, then ignored. A new study shows that these dark UV ovals are common, appearing at the south pole ...

Uranus's Swaying Moons Will Help Spacecraft Seek out Hidden Oceans

Nov. 25, 2024 — A new computer model can be used to detect and measure interior oceans on the ice covered moons of Uranus. The model works by analyzing orbital wobbles that would be visible from a passing ...

Swirling Polar Vortices Likely Exist on the Sun

Nov. 11, 2024 — Like the Earth, the Sun likely has swirling polar vortices, according to new research. But unlike on Earth, the formation and evolution of these vortices are driven by magnetic ...

Faster Space Communication With Record-Sensitive Receiver

Oct. 30, 2024 — In space exploration, long-distance optical links can now be used to transmit images, films and data from space probes to Earth using light. But in order for the signals to reach all the way and not ...

NRL Coronagraph Captures Unique Images of a Dusty Comet

Oct. 23, 2024 — U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) imaging instruments on three sun-orbiting observatories have captured sequences of comet C/2023 A3, known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, as it passed between the Earth and ...

NASA Reveals Prototype Telescope for Gravitational Wave Observatory

Oct. 22, 2024 — NASA has revealed the first look at a full-scale prototype for six telescopes that will enable, in the next decade, the space-based detection of gravitational ...

Out-of-This-World Simulation Key to Collecting Moon Dust

Oct. 16, 2024 — Teleoperated robots for gathering moon dust are a step closer, according to new ...

NASA, NOAA: Sun Reaches Maximum Phase in 11-Year Solar Cycle

Oct. 15, 2024 — Experts have announced that the Sun has reached its solar maximum period, which could continue for the next year. Scientists will not be able to determine the exact peak of this solar maximum period ...

Simulated Mission to Mars: Survey of Lichen Species

Oct. 15, 2024 — A collection-based survey of lichen species at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, USA and Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station in Nunavut, Canada was conducted as part of the Mars-160 ...

Liftoff! NASA's Europa Clipper Sails Toward Ocean Moon of Jupiter

Oct. 14, 2024 — NASA's Europa Clipper has embarked on its long voyage to Jupiter, where it will investigate Europa, a moon with an enormous subsurface ocean that may have conditions to support life. The largest ...

NASA's Hubble, New Horizons Team Up for a Simultaneous Look at Uranus

Oct. 11, 2024 — NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and New Horizons spacecraft simultaneously set their sights on Uranus recently, allowing scientists to make a direct comparison of the planet from two very ...

Widespread Ice Deposits on the Moon

Oct. 3, 2024 — Deposits of ice in lunar dust and rock (regolith) are more extensive than previously thought, according to a new analysis of data from NASA's LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) mission. Ice ...

Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen Peroxide on Pluto's Moon Charon

Oct. 1, 2024 — Astronomers have detected carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide on the frozen surface of Pluto's largest moon, Charon, using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope. These discoveries ...

A New Birthplace for Asteroid Ryugu

Sep. 27, 2024 — Asteroid Ryugu possibly did not travel as far from its place of origin to its current near-Earth orbit as previously assumed. New research suggests that Ryugu was formed near Jupiter. Earlier studies ...

Asteroid Ceres Is a Former Ocean World That Slowly Formed Into a Giant, Murky Icy Orb

Sep. 27, 2024 — A crater-rich dwarf planet named Ceres located in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter was long thought to be composed of a materials mixture not dominated by water ice. ...

Volcanoes May Help Reveal Interior Heat on Jupiter Moon

Sep. 19, 2024 — By staring into the hellish landscape of Jupiter's moon Io -- the most volcanically active location in the solar system -- astronomers have been able to study a fundamental process in planetary ...

Keeping Mold out of Future Space Stations

Sep. 11, 2024 — Mold can survive the harshest of environments, so to stop harmful spores from growing on future space stations, a study suggests a way to prevent its ...

Gigantic Asteroid Impact Shifted the Axis of Solar System's Biggest Moon

Sep. 3, 2024 — Around 4 billion years ago, an asteroid hit the Jupiter moon Ganymede. Now, a researcher realized that the Solar System's biggest moon's axis has shifted as a result of the impact, which ...

How Bright Is the Universe's Glow? Study Offers Best Measurement Yet

Sep. 3, 2024 — Over billions of years, the universe's stars and galaxies shined their light into space, leaving behind an imperceptibly faint night light known as the cosmic optical background. NASA's New ...

Hidden Magmatism Discovered at the Chang'e-6 Lunar Landing Site

Aug. 27, 2024 — Lunar igneous activities including intrusive and extrusive magmatism, and their products contain significant information about the lunar interior and its thermal state. Their distribution is ...

NASA's DART Impact Permanently Changed the Shape and Orbit of Asteroid Moon

Aug. 23, 2024 — A new study provides insights on the geophysics behind asteroid formation and ...