Space Probes News

June 10, 2024

Top Headlines

In a Significant First, Researchers Detect Water Frost on Solar System's Tallest Volcanoes

June 10, 2024 — An international team of planetary scientists has detected patches of water frost sitting atop the Tharsis volcanoes on Mars, which are not only the tallest volcanic mountains on the Red Planet but ...

In New Experiment, Scientists Record Earth's Radio Waves from the Moon

June 7, 2024 — Odysseus, a tenacious lander built by the company Intuitive Machines, almost didn't make it to the moon. But an experiment aboard the spacecraft managed to capture an image of Earth as it might look to observers on a planet far from our ...

Lake Under Mars Ice Cap Unlikely

June 7, 2024 — Researchers have provided a simple and comprehensive -- if less dramatic -- explanation for bright radar reflections initially interpreted as liquid water beneath the ice cap on Mars' south ...

Researchers Call for Strengthening Sustainability Regulations in Laws Governing Space Exploration

June 3, 2024 — Researchers call for strengthening existing planetary protection policies beyond the space surrounding Earth to include requirements for preserving the Lunar and Martian ...

Latest Headlines

updated 6:55pm EDT

Moon Orbiting 'Dinky' Asteroid Is Actually Two Tiny Moons Stuck Together

May 29, 2024 — The moon orbiting the asteroid Dinkinesh is actually two tiny moons stuck together. Collectively called 'Selam,' the two moonlets bring new insight into the complex processes behind planetary ...

New Technique Offers More Precise Maps of the Moon's Surface

May 29, 2024 — A new study may help redefine how scientists map the surface of the Moon, making the process more streamlined and precise than ever ...

Mystery of 'Slow' Solar Wind Unveiled by Solar Orbiter Mission

May 28, 2024 — Scientists have come a step closer to identifying the mysterious origins of the 'slow' solar wind, using data collected during the Solar Orbiter spacecraft's first close journey to the ...

Venus Has Almost No Water: A New Study May Reveal Why

May 6, 2024 — Billions of years ago, Venus may have harbored as much water as Earth. Today, almost all of it has disappeared. A new study may help to explain ...

New Discoveries About Jupiter's Magnetosphere

May 6, 2024 — New discoveries about Jupiter could lead to a better understanding of Earth's own space environment and influence a long-running scientific debate about the solar system's largest ...

Probing the Effects of Interplanetary Space on Asteroid Ryugu

Apr. 29, 2024 — Samples reveal evidence of changes experienced by the surface of asteroid Ryugu, some probably due to micrometeoroid ...

Toward Unification of Turbulence Framework -- Weak-to-Strong Transition Discovered in Turbulence

Apr. 23, 2024 — Astrophysicists have made a significant step toward solving the last puzzle in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence theory by observing the weak to strong ...

'Tube Map' Around Planets and Moons Made Possible by Knot Theory

Apr. 17, 2024 — Scientists have developed a new method using knot theory to find the optimal routes for future space missions without the need to waste ...

Turbulence Within Solar Transients Imaged

Mar. 27, 2024 — Scientists captured images showing the development of turbulence as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) interacted with the ambient solar wind in the circumsolar ...

Signs of Life Would Be Detectable in Single Ice Grain Emitted from Extraterrestrial Moons

Mar. 22, 2024 — Could life be found in frozen sea spray from moons orbiting Saturn or Jupiter? New research finds that life can be detected in a single ice grain ...

Secrets of the Van Allen Belt Revealed in New Study

Mar. 21, 2024 — A challenge to space scientists to better understand our hazardous near-Earth space environment has been set in a new ...

Pioneering Muscle Monitoring in Space to Help Astronauts Stay Strong in Low-Gravity

Mar. 20, 2024 — Astronauts have been able to track their muscle health in spaceflight for the first time using a handheld device, revealing which muscles are most at risk of weakening in low gravity conditions. ...

Do Astronauts Experience 'Space Headaches'?

Mar. 13, 2024 — Space travel and zero gravity can take a toll on the body. A new study has found that astronauts with no prior history of headaches may experience migraine and tension-type headaches during long-haul ...

Giant Volcano Discovered on Mars

Mar. 13, 2024 — A deeply eroded giant volcano, active from ancient through recent times and with possible remnants of glacier ice near its base, had been hiding near Mars' equator in plain sight. Its discovery ...

CSI in Space: Analyzing Bloodstain Patterns in Microgravity

Mar. 8, 2024 — As more people seek to go where no man has gone before, researchers are exploring how forensic science can be adapted to extraterrestrial environments. A new study highlights the behavior of blood in ...

Space Tourism? Cosmic Radiation Exposure

Mar. 5, 2024 — Space weather experts are urging regulators and space tourism innovators to work together to protect their passengers and crews from the risks of space weather radiation ...

Ice Shell Thickness Reveals Water Temperature on Ocean Worlds

Feb. 29, 2024 — Astrobiologists have devised a novel way to determine ocean temperatures of distant worlds based on the thickness of their ice shells, effectively conducting oceanography from ...

New Realistic Computer Model Will Help Robots Collect Moon Dust

Feb. 22, 2024 — A new computer model mimics Moon dust so well that it could lead to smoother and safer Lunar robot ...

Under Pressure -- Space Exploration in Our Time

Feb. 16, 2024 — A new paradigm is taking shape in the space industry as the countries and entities accessing space continue to grow and diversify. This dynamic landscape creates both competition and potential for ...

Mimas' Surprise: Tiny Moon of Saturn Holds Young Ocean Beneath Icy Shell

Feb. 7, 2024 — Saturn's moon Mimas harbors a global ocean beneath its icy shell, discovered through analysis of its orbit by Cassini spacecraft data. This ocean formed just 5-15 million years ago, making Mimas ...

Moon Rocks With Unique Dust Found

Jan. 18, 2024 — A research team has for the first time discovered anomalous meter-sized rocks on the lunar surface that are covered in dust and presumably exhibit unique properties -- such as magnetic anomalies. ...

Potential Solvents Identified for Building on Moon and Mars

Jan. 11, 2024 — Researchers have taken the first steps toward finding liquid solvents that may someday help extract critical building materials from lunar and Martian-rock dust, an important piece in making ...

Designing the 'Perfect' Meal to Feed Long-Term Space Travelers

Jan. 2, 2024 — Imagine blasting off on a multiyear voyage to Mars, fueled by a diet of bland, prepackaged meals. As space agencies plan for longer missions, they're grappling with the challenge of how to best ...

Organic Compounds in Asteroids Formed in Colder Regions of Space

Dec. 21, 2023 — Analysis of organic compounds -- called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) -- extracted from the Ryugu asteroid and Murchison meteorite has found that certain PAHs likely formed in the cold ...

NASA's Hubble Watches 'Spoke Season' on Saturn

Dec. 21, 2023 — A new photo of Saturn was taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on October 22, 2023, when the ringed planet was approximately 850 million miles from Earth. Hubble's ultra-sharp vision ...

14-Inch Spacecraft Delivers New Details About 'Hot Jupiters'

Dec. 12, 2023 — The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) spacecraft is about the size of a cereal box. It has also recorded incredibly detailed measurements of the atmospheres of planets hundreds of ...

Scholars Say It's Time to Declare a New Epoch on the Moon, the 'Lunar Anthropocene'

Dec. 8, 2023 — According to anthropologists and geologists, it's time to acknowledge humans have become the dominant force shaping the moon's environment by declaring a new geological epoch for the moon: ...

Can Signs of Life Be Detected from Saturn's Frigid Moon?

Dec. 5, 2023 — Researchers have shown unambiguous laboratory evidence that amino acids transported in the ice plumes of Saturn's moon, Eceladus, can survive impact speeds of up to 4.2 km/s, supporting their ...

Tracking Undetectable Space Junk

Dec. 4, 2023 — Satellite and spacecraft operators may finally be able to detect small pieces of debris orbiting Earth using a new approach. Colliding pieces of space debris emit electric signals that could help ...

Hydrogen Detected in Lunar Samples, Points to Resource Availability for Space Exploration

Nov. 21, 2023 — Researchers have discovered solar-wind hydrogen in lunar samples, which indicates that water on the surface of the Moon may provide a vital resource for future lunar bases and longer-range space ...