Tag: Planetary Science Division

Have We Been to Uranus? We Asked a NASA Expert: Episode 56

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2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Have we ever been to Uranus? The answer is simple, yes, but only once. The Voyager II spacecraft flew by the planet Uranus back in 1986, during a golden era when the Voyager spacecraft explored all four giant planets of our solar system. It revealed an extreme world, a planet that had been bowled over onto its side by some extreme cataclysm early in the formation of the solar system. That means that its seasons and its magnetic field…

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How Can I See the Northern Lights? We Asked a NASA Expert: Episode 54

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2 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) How can I see the northern lights? To see the northern lights, you need to be in the right place at the right time. Auroras are the result of charged particles and magnetism from the Sun called space weather dancing with the Earth’s magnetic field. And they happen far above the clouds. So you need clear skies, good space weather at your latitude and the higher, more polar you can be, the better. You need a lot of patience…

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NASA’s Curiosity Rover Detects Largest Organic Molecules Found on Mars

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Researchers analyzing pulverized rock onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover have found the largest organic compounds on the Red Planet to date. The finding, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests prebiotic chemistry may have advanced further on Mars than previously observed. Scientists probed an existing rock sample inside Curiosity’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) mini-lab and found the molecules decane, undecane, and dodecane. These compounds, which are made up of 10, 11, and 12 carbons, respectively, are thought to be the fragments of fatty acids that…

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NASA Awards Launch Service for Mission to Study Storm Formation

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Credit: NASA NASA has selected Firefly Aerospace Inc. of Cedar Park, Texas, to provide the launch service for the agency’s Investigation of Convective Updrafts (INCUS) mission, which aims to understand why, when, and where tropical convective storms form, and why some storms produce extreme weather. The mission will launch on the company’s Alpha rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The selection is part of NASA’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract. This contract allows the agency to make fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity awards during VADR’s five-year ordering period,…

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NASA Awards Planetary Defense Space Telescope Launch Services Contract

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Credit: NASA NASA has selected SpaceX of Starbase, Texas, to provide launch services for the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission, which will detect and observe asteroids and comets that could potentially pose an impact threat to Earth. The firm fixed price launch service task order is being awarded under the indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity NASA Launch Services II contract. The total cost to NASA for the launch service is approximately $100 million, which includes the launch service and other mission related costs. The NEO Surveyor mission is targeted to launch no…

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NASA to Brief Media on Asteroid Sample Mission Findings

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Jason Dworkin, project scientist for OSIRIS-REx at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, views a portion of the asteroid Bennu sample in the center’s astrobiology lab under microscope in November 2023, shortly after it arrived from the curation team at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Credit: NASA/Molly Wasser NASA will brief media at 11 a.m. EST Wednesday, Jan. 29, to provide an update on science results from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security – Regolith Explorer) mission, which delivered a sample of asteroid…

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NASA’s Planetary Defenders Head to the Sundance Film Festival

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Trailer for NASA’s upcoming documentary, “Planetary Defenders,” which will take audiences inside the high-stakes world of asteroid hunting and planetary defense. NASA is bringing the high-stakes world of planetary defense to the Sundance Film Festival, highlighting its upcoming documentary, “Planetary Defenders,” during a panel ahead of its spring 2025 premiere on the agency’s streaming service. “We’re thrilled that NASA is attending Sundance Film Festival for the first time – a festival renowned for its innovative spirit,” said Brittany Brown, director, NASA Office of Communications Digital and Technology Division, at the…

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Science Done by Volunteers Highlighted at December’s American Geophysical Union Meeting

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More than 30,000 scientists gathered in Washington, D.C. during the second week of December – many to show off the work of NASA’s science volunteers! The American Geophysical Union held its annual meeting of professionals this month – the world’s largest gathering of Earth and Space Scientists. Here’s what they were talking about. Eighteen NASA-sponsored project team members presented discoveries made with volunteers on topics from solar eclipses to global freshwater lake monitoring and  exoplanet research. Overall, 175 posters and presentations featured the work of volunteers (up from 137 in…

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Jovian Vortex Hunters Spun Up Over New Paper

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2 min read Jovian Vortex Hunters Spun Up Over New Paper Jumping Jupiter! The results are in, storm chasers! Thanks to your help over the last two years the Jovian Vortex Hunter project has published a catalog of 7222 vortices, which you can download here. Each vortex is an enormous swirling windstorm in Jupiter’s atmosphere–terrifying yet beautiful to behold. The vortices are labeled by color (“white” is most common, then “dark”, then “red”). The catalog reveals distributions of vortex sizes, aspect ratios, and locations on the planet. For example, your…

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NASA DAVINCI Mission’s Many ‘Firsts’ to Unlock Venus’ Hidden Secrets

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5 Min Read NASA DAVINCI Mission’s Many ‘Firsts’ to Unlock Venus’ Hidden Secrets The surface of Venus is an inferno with temperatures hot enough to melt lead. This image is a composite of data from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft and Pioneer Venus Orbiter. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s DAVINCI — Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging — mission embodies the spirit of innovation and exploration that its namesake, Leonardo da Vinci, was famous for. Scheduled to launch in the early 2030s, DAVINCI will explore Venus with both a spacecraft…

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