Category: Solar System

NASA’s SOFIA Discovers Water on the Moon

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 27, 2020
No Comments on NASA’s SOFIA Discovers Water on the Moon

NASA SOFIA Discovers Water on Moon — NASA's SOFIA Discovers Water on Moon

For a long time, the Moon was considered bone dry. And that’s not a surprise since our satellite has no atmosphere that could prevent liquid water from immediately evaporating into space. But what remained hidden from even the eyes of the Moon travelers, discovered by the probes, orbiters, and observers: there are enormous amounts of water on the Moon, frozen to ice. And, in time, more and more water on the moon is being discovered. Now, two new studies show that there is probably even more water on the Moon than expected.

Space Exploration Solar System

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Collects a Significant Amount of Material from Asteroid Bennu

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 24, 2020
No Comments on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Collects a Significant Amount of Material from Asteroid Bennu

NASA's OSIRIS-REx collects asteroid material — Captured by the spacecraft's SamCam camera on October 22, 2020, this image shows that the sampler head on NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is full of rocks and dust collected from the surface of the asteroid Bennu. This is a static image I produced from a series of three images published by NASA which show also that some of these particles are slowly escaping the sampler head. Analysis by the OSIRIS-REx team suggests that bits of material are passing through small gaps where the head's mylar flap is slightly wedged open. The mylar flap (the black bulge on the left inside the ring) is designed to keep the collected material locked inside, and these unsealed areas appear to be caused by larger rocks that didn't fully pass through the flap. Based on available imagery, the team suspects there is a plentiful sample inside the head and is on a path to stow the sample as quickly as possible. Credits: NASA

NASA’s OSIRIS REx spacecraft was supposed to grab a sample of the asteroid Bennu so that it could be returned to Earth for analysis. The spacecraft grabbed the sample on Tuesday, October 20, 2020, but, it’s taken a few days to actually get photos of the tool. Now the mission scientists at NASA realized that they have a problem with too much material. OSIRIS-REx collects a significant amount of asteroid material that larger pieces of regolith have kept the sample head from closing properly, so the material is slowly being lost. As a result, the mission operators are skipping past a number of important tests and going straight to storing the sample for return to avoid losing more.

Solar System Space Exploration

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Successfully Touches Asteroid Bennu

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 21, 2020
No Comments on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Successfully Touches Asteroid Bennu

This illustration shows NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft descending towards asteroid Bennu to collect a sample of the asteroid's surface. Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

Exciting news: NASA’s OSIRIS-REx, the first United States spacecraft to return samples from an asteroid has successfully touched down the Asteroid Bennu. The touchdown and sample collection occurred on October 20, 2020, at about 22:12 UTC.

Solar System

Oceans of the Solar System

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date October 18, 2020
No Comments on Oceans of the Solar System

Created by the Universidad de Puerto Rico en Arecibo (the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo) scientists, this amazing infographic shows the volumes of the oceans of the Solar System. The unit used is the volume of the liquid water on Earth, so the ocean volumes of the other planetary objects are given by the multiples of the volume of the oceans on our planet.

Solar System Astronomy

Moon passing in front of Mars in this spectacular video

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date September 28, 2020
No Comments on Moon passing in front of Mars in this spectacular video

On September 6, 2020, French astrophotographer Thierry Legault (@ThierryLegault) went to the South of Lisbon to capture the event of the Moon passing in front of Mars. The result is this spectacular video, titled “Occultation of Mars by the Moon” by Legault himself.

Astrobiology Solar System

Life on Venus? Astronomers detected phosphine which is a strong signature of life

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date September 14, 2020
No Comments on Life on Venus? Astronomers detected phosphine which is a strong signature of life

Life on Venus? Astronomers have detected the first sign of life in the deadly clouds of Venus. They found phosphine which displays a strong signature of life. If we can detect life itself soon, this might be the most exciting news in history.

Solar System Astronomy

Backyard Worlds: NASA is asking for volunteers to help find the hypothetical Planet 9

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date August 23, 2020
No Comments on Backyard Worlds: NASA is asking for volunteers to help find the hypothetical Planet 9

Ninth Planet, artist's concept — An illustration of what Planet Nine might look like from an artist's eye. Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)

Some astronomers think in our outer solar system there’s a giant, undiscovered world hiding and they call it (for obvious reasons) Planet Nine. Whether it exists, it could be 5-10 times the size of the Earth and orbit Sun hundreds of times farther away than Earth orbiting Sun. Now, a NASA citizen science project called Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 enlists volunteers to help find this hypothetical giant planet.

Solar System

Ancient Mars: how Mars looked like when there was liquid water on its surface

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date August 12, 2020
No Comments on Ancient Mars: how Mars looked like when there was liquid water on its surface

The Planetary Society published an amazing animation showing the ancient Mars – how the red planet looked like when there was liquid water on its surface.

Solar System Astronomy

Saturn and its rings: Hubble’s spectacular new photo (July 4, 2020)

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date July 29, 2020
No Comments on Saturn and its rings: Hubble’s spectacular new photo (July 4, 2020)

Saturn by Hubble Space Telescope. July 4, 2020 — NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of Saturn on July 4, 2020. Two of Saturn's icy moons are clearly visible in this exposure: Mimas at right, and Enceladus at bottom. This image is taken as part of the Outer Planets Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) project. OPAL is helping scientists understand the atmospheric dynamics and evolution of our solar system's gas giant planets. In Saturn's case, astronomers continue tracking shifting weather patterns and storms. Credits: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley), and the OPAL Team

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope took this spectacular photo of Saturn and its rings on July 4, 2020, when the ringed gas giant was 839 million miles (1,35 billion kilometers) from Earth.

Earth from Space Astronomy Solar System Space Exploration

Comet NEOWISE and noctilucent clouds – something we’ve never seen before

Post author By M. Özgür Nevres
Post date July 7, 2020
No Comments on Comet NEOWISE and noctilucent clouds – something we’ve never seen before

Russian space agency Roscosmos published spectacular photos of Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) and noctilucent clouds or polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) above our beautiful planet Earth. This is something we’ve never seen before (a comet and ).