Tag: The Solar System

Media Get Close-Up of NASA’s Jupiter-Bound Europa Clipper

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4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) Members of the media visited a clean room at JPL April 11 to get a close-up look at NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft and interview members of the mission team. The spacecraft is expected to launch in October 2024 on a six-year journey to the Jupiter system, where it will study the ice-encased moon Europa. NASA/JPL-Caltech Excitement is mounting as the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a planetary mission gets readied for an October launch. Engineers at NASA’s…

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NASA’s LRO Finds Photo Op as It Zips Past SKorea’s Danuri Moon Orbiter

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NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter), which has been circling and studying the Moon for 15 years, captured several images of Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Danuri lunar orbiter last month. The two spacecraft, traveling in nearly parallel orbits, zipped past each other in opposite directions between March 5 and 6, 2024. The dark spot centered in the bottom third of this image is the Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Danuri orbiter, smudged because it was traveling quickly in the opposite direction of NASA’s LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) when LRO snapped the photo.…

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March-April 2024: The Next Full Moon is the Crow, Crust, Sap, Sugar, or Worm Moon

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29 Min Read March-April 2024: The Next Full Moon is the Crow, Crust, Sap, Sugar, or Worm Moon A full moon rises over Utah. Credits: NASA/Bill Dunford The next full moon is the Crow, Crust, Sap, Sugar, or Worm Moon; the Paschal Moon; Purim; the Holi Festival Moon; Madin Poya; the Pothole Moon; a Micromoon, and a Partial Lunar Eclipse. The next full moon will be on Monday morning, March 25, 2024, appearing opposite the Sun in Earth-based longitude at 3 AM EDT. This will be on Sunday evening from…

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Planet Sizes and Locations in Our Solar System

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1 min read Planet Sizes and Locations in Our Solar System The eight planets and dwarf planet Pluto. NASA Our solar system has eight planets, and five officially recognized dwarf planets. Which planet is biggest? Which is smallest? What is the order of the planets as we move out from the Sun? This is a simple guide to the sizes of planets based on the equatorial diameter – or width – at the equator of each planet. Each planet’s width is compared to Earth’s equatorial diameter, which is about 7,926…

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NASA Unveils Design for Message Heading to Jupiter’s Moon Europa

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This side of a commemorative plate mounted on NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft features U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s handwritten “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa.” It will be affixed with a silicon microchip stenciled with names submitted by the public. NASA/JPL-Caltech When it launches in October, the agency’s Europa Clipper spacecraft will carry a richly layered dispatch that includes more than 2.6 million names submitted by the public. Following in NASA’s storied tradition of sending inspirational messages into space, the agency has special plans for Europa Clipper, which…

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NASA’s LRO Spots Japan’s Moon Lander 

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1 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) On Jan. 19, 2024, at 10:20 a.m. EST, the JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) landed on the lunar surface. Five days later, NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft passed over the landing site and photographed SLIM. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image of the JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) SLIM lander on the Moon’s surface on Jan. 24, 2024. SLIM landed at 13.3160 degrees south latitude, 25.2510 degrees east longitude, at an…

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NASA’s Curiosity Rover Captures a Martian Day, From Dawn to Dusk

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4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) While stationary for two weeks during Mars solar conjunction in November 2023, NASA’s Curiosity rover used its front and rear black-and-white Hazcams to capture 12 hours of a Martian day. The rover’s shadow is visible on the surface in these images taken by the front Hazcam. Videos from the rover show its shadow moving across the Martian surface during a 12-hour sequence while Curiosity remained parked. When NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover isn’t on the move, it works pretty well…

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NASA’s Juno to Get Close Look at Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io on Dec. 30

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This image revealing the north polar region of the Jovian moon Io was taken on October 15 by NASA’s Juno. Three of the mountain peaks visible in the upper part of image, near the day-night dividing line, were observed here for the first time by the spacecraft’s JunoCam. Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, Image processing by Ted Stryk The orbiter has performed 56 flybys of Jupiter and documented close encounters with three of the gas giant’s four largest moons. NASA’s Juno spacecraft will on Saturday, Dec. 30, make the closest flyby of…

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Ringing in the Holidays

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NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI The ice giant Uranus and its rings steal the show in this Dec. 18, 2023, image from the James Webb Space Telescope. The telescope captured new images of Uranus, revealing detailed features of the planet’s rings and seasonal north polar cap, as well as bright storms near and below the southern border of the cap. This Webb image also shows 14 of the planet’s 27 moons: Oberon, Titania, Umbriel, Juliet, Perdita, Rosalind, Puck, Belinda, Desdemona, Cressida, Ariel, Miranda, Bianca, and Portia. Webb’s extreme sensitivity also picks…

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