Section » JPL/NASA

NASA Spacecraft Detects Changes in Martian Sand Dunes

By • on May 9, 2012

–> PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed that movement in sand dune fields on the Red Planet occurs on a surprisingly large scale, about the same as in dune fields on Earth. This is unexpected because Mars has a much thinner atmosphere than Earth, is only about one percent as dense, and its high-speed

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Opportunity Rolling Again After Fifth Mars Winter

By • on May 9, 2012

–> PASADENA, Calif. — With its daily supply of solar energy increasing, NASA’s durable Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has driven off the sunward-tilted outcrop, called Greeley Haven, where it worked during its fifth Martian winter. Opportunity’s first drive since Dec.

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Overfed Black Holes Shut Down Galactic Star-Making

By • on May 9, 2012

–> PASADENA, Calif. — The Herschel Space Observatory has shown galaxies with the most powerful, active black holes at their cores produce fewer stars than galaxies with less active black holes. The results are the first to demonstrate black holes suppressed galactic star formation when

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NASA to Hold News Conference on Dawn Mission Results

By • on May 8, 2012

–> PASADENA, Calif. — NASA will host a news conference on Thursday, May 10, at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) to present a new analysis of the giant asteroid Vesta using data from the agency’s Dawn spacecraft. The event will be held at NASA Headquarters in Washington, broadcast live

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NASA’s Spitzer Sees the Light of Alien ‘Super Earth’

By • on May 8, 2012

–> PASADENA, Calif. – NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has detected light emanating from a “super-Earth” planet beyond our solar system for the first time. While the planet is not habitable, the detection is a historic step toward the eventual search for signs of life on

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A NASA Weather ‘Eye in the Sky’ Marks 10 Years

By • on May 3, 2012

–>For 10 years, it has silently swooped through space in its orbital perch 438 miles (705 kilometers) above Earth, its nearly 2,400 spectral “eyes” peering into Earth’s atmosphere, watching. But there’s nothing alien about NASA’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, or

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Paydirt at 8-Year-Old Mars Rover’s ‘New Landing Site’

By • on May 3, 2012

–> A report in the May 4 edition of the journal Science details discoveries Opportunity made in its first four months at the rim of Endeavour Crater, including key findings reported at a geophysics conference in late 2011. Opportunity completed its original three-month mission on Mars eight

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Cassini, Saturn Moon Photographer

By • on May 2, 2012

–> NASA’s Cassini spacecraft successfully flew by Saturn’s moons Enceladus and Dione during close flybys on May 2, 2012, capturing these raw images. The flybys were the last close encounters of these icy moons that Cassini will make for three years. Cassini flew by Enceladus at an

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Black Hole Caught Red-Handed in a Stellar Homicide

By • on May 2, 2012

–> PASADENA, Calif. – Astronomers have gathered the most direct evidence yet of a supermassive black hole shredding a star that wandered too close. NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer, a space-based observatory, and the Pan-STARRS1 telescope on the summit of Haleakala in Hawaii were among

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Cassini to Probe Enceladus Gravity, Take Pictures

By • on May 1, 2012

–> NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will be flying within about 46 miles (74 kilometers) of Saturn’s moon Enceladus on Wednesday, May 2, aiming primarily to learn more about the moon’s internal structure. The flyby is the third part of a trilogy of flybys — the other two took

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