KEY POINTS Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune each emit more energy than they receive from the Sun, meaning they have comparatively warm interiors. NASA’s Uranus flyby with Voyager 2 in 1986 found the planet colder than expected, which challenged ideas of how planets formed and evolved. However, with advanced computer modeling and a new look at … Read more
Mars shines in the evening, and is joined briefly by Mercury. Jupiter joins Venus as the month goes on. And all month, look for Aquila the eagle. All Month – Planet Visibility: Venus: Shines brightly in the east each morning during the couple of hours before sunrise, with the Pleiades and bright stars Aldebaran and … Read more
NASA is launching rockets from a remote Pacific island to study mysterious, high-altitude cloud-like structures that can disrupt critical communication systems. The mission, called Sporadic-E ElectroDynamics, or SEED, opens its three-week launch window from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands on Friday, June 13. The atmospheric features SEED is studying are known as Sporadic-E layers, … Read more
Venus and Saturn separate, while Mars hangs out in the evening. Plus the June solstice, and dark skies reveal our home galaxy in all of its glory. All Month – Planet Visibility: Venus: Rises about 2 hours before the Sun in June, and shines very brightly, low in the eastern sky, in the morning all … Read more
A new NASA study reveals a surprising way planetary cores may have formed—one that could reshape how scientists understand the early evolution of rocky planets like Mars. Conducted by a team of early-career scientists and long-time researchers across the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the study … Read more
When it descends through the thick golden haze on Saturn’s moon Titan, NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft will find eerily familiar terrain. Dunes wrap around Titan’s equator. Clouds drift across its skies. Rain drizzles. Rivers flow, forming canyons, lakes and seas. But not everything is as familiar as it seems. At minus 292 degrees Fahrenheit, the dune … Read more
Will the Sun ever burn out? Well, the Sun, just like the stars we see at night, is a star. It’s a giant ball of super hot hydrogen. Gravity squeezes it in and it creates energy, which is what makes the Sun shine. Eventually, it will use up all of that hydrogen. But in the … Read more
Analyzing gravity data collected by spacecraft orbiting other worlds reveals groundbreaking insights about planetary structures without having to land on the surface. Although the Moon and the asteroid Vesta are very different, two NASA studies use the same technique to reveal new details about the interiors of both. In the lunar study, published May 14 … Read more
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured new details of the auroras on our solar system’s largest planet. The dancing lights observed on Jupiter are hundreds of times brighter than those seen on Earth. With Webb’s advanced sensitivity, astronomers have studied the phenomena to better understand Jupiter’s magnetosphere. Auroras are created when high-energy particles enter … Read more
One year on, NASA scientists are still making huge discoveries about the largest geomagnetic storm to hit Earth in two decades, the Gannon storm. The findings are helping us better understand and prepare for the ways in which the Sun’s activity can affect us. On May 10, 2024, the first G5 or “severe” geomagnetic storm … Read more