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Space Missions

Psyche Asteroid Mission Set for Launch October 5th

NASA’s newest mission is bound for the metallic asteroid of the same name. The metal-rich rock offers us a view of asteroid interiors.

Bennu sample return capsule on the ground in the desert, red-white parachute behind

Solar System

Osiris-REX Capsule Returns Samples of Asteroid Bennu to Earth

Samples taken from the asteroid Bennu are now safely on Earth.

Explore the Night with Bob King

Action-packed Sky: Saturn, Comet Nishimura, and More

September is Saturn's time to shine. We also check on Comet Nishimura — now at 5th magnitude and still brightening — and look forward to a dramatic asteroid occultation. Not to mention that Jupiter just took another hit.

A diamond-shaped grey asteroid with ridges, holes, and craters in it, against a black background

Solar System

Rubble-Pile Asteroid Bennu Has Layers

The asteroid Bennu is a so-called rubble pile, but new results from NASA's OSIRIS-Rex mission indicate this heap of rubble has layers.

series of images of blue Neptune with bright clouds appearing and disappearing over nearly 30 years

Solar System

Solar Cycle May Trigger Clouds on Neptune

Nearly 30 years of observations indicate that Neptune’s clouds and brightness vary with the Sun’s activity.

Comet Nishimura C/2023 P1

Comets

New Comet Nishimura May Become Naked-Eye Bright

Comet Nishimura is quickly brightening in the morning sky and may be faintly visible with the naked eye next month. And on August 24th observers in North America will be treated to an occultation of Antares.

Chandrayaan 3

Astronomy and Society

India’s Chandrayaan 3 Lands on the Moon; Russia's Luna 25 Crashes

In a first, India’s Chandrayaan 3 soft-lands in the lunar south pole region of the Moon.

Tracing mud cracks on Mars

Solar System

What Mud Cracks Mean for Life on Mars

Mud cracks are evidence for sustained wet-dry cycles on ancient Mars, which might have provided conditions amenable to life (with caveats).

2016 Perseids

Meteors

Get Ready for a Great Perseid Meteor Shower

The Perseids are here! With no Moon to spoil the show it's time to break out the lawn chairs, sit back, and watch the comet dust fly.

Blue-toned comet image

Solar System

Comet 46P/Wirtanen: All Dust, No Ice

Where is all of the water around hyperactive comets coming from? A recent article asked if it could be “Ice, Ice, Maybe?” and concluded that it likely isn’t.

Maaz

Space Missions

Perseverance Finds Complex Organics (Not Life) on Mars

NASA's Perseverance has sniffed 10 rock samples and found signatures of organic molecules, a sign of a complex geochemical past.

Solar System

Astronomy in Pictures: Saturn and the Milky Way

The James Webb Space Telescope offers a new view of Saturn, while the IceCube Observatory creates a neutrino-painted picture of the Milky Way.

Geminids parent

Solar System

Did an Asteroid's Collision Make the Geminid Meteor Shower?

Parker Solar Probe data offers new insight on the puzzle of how debris from an asteroid produces one of the brightest annual meteor showers.

C-shape section of E ring with ghostly moon in the middle

Solar System

Phosphates Swim in the Ocean of Saturn's Moon Enceladus

Scientists detected phosphorous in an extraterrestrial ocean for the first time when they analyzed data from Saturn's moon Enceladus.

Magnetic field lines on the Sun

Solar System

Parker Solar Probe Detects Source of Solar Wind

The Sun flings charged particles and accompanying magnetic fields into the solar system, but how? NASA's Parker Solar Probe dives in to find out.

Solar System

The Sun Gets Its Close-up: Images from New Solar Telescope

The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope shows some stunning detail on the Sun, including sunspots, fibrils, granules, and other solar textures.

bands of red rocks on a red planet

Solar System

New Photos from NASA's Perseverance and Juno

NASA spacecraft are constantly sending back images from across the solar system. Here are two that caught our eye.

End of journey for NJ meteorite

Explore the Night with Bob King

Scientists Confirm: Meteorite Crashed Into New Jersey Home

A rock that crashed through the roof of a house in New Jersey proved to be the real thing — a chunk spalled from a 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid.

Orbits of newly discovered moons

Solar System

New Discoveries Double Number of "Irregular" Saturn Moons

The Minor Planet Center is announcing a bevy of new moons for Saturn that will bring its total to 145 (and break Jupiter's record).

Deimos, with Mars in the background

Solar System

The Moon Deimos Might Be a Piece of Mars

Surprising new results from the United Arab Emirates' Hope probe call the origin of Mars's smaller moon into question.