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An illustration showing the trajectory of ESA’s Juice spacecraft during its lunar-Earth gravity assist, featuring a high-resolution ENA image of the million-degree hot plasma halo encircling Earth captured by NASA’s JENI instrument

NASA’s Instruments Capture Sharpest Image of Earth’s Radiation Belt

4 min read

From Aug. 19-20, ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) mission made history with a daring lunar-Earth flyby and double gravity assist maneuver, a spaceflight first. As the spacecraft zipped past our Moon and home planet, Juice’s instruments…

Article7 days ago

New Video Series Spotlights Engineers on NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission

4 min read

With NASA’s Europa Clipper just weeks away from launch, five short videos give a behind-the-scenes peek at some of the engineers dedicated to making the mission a success. What does it take to build a massive spacecraft that will seek…

Article2 weeks ago

8 Things to Know About NASA’s Mission to an Ocean Moon of Jupiter

6 min read

The first NASA spacecraft dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth, Europa Clipper aims to find out if the ice-encased moon Europa could be habitable. NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, the largest the agency has ever built for a planetary…

Article3 weeks ago

NASA’s Europa Clipper Gets Set of Super-Size Solar Arrays

5 min read

The largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for planetary exploration just got its ‘wings’ — massive solar arrays to power it on the journey to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft recently got outfitted with a set of…

Article1 month ago
On the deck of a ship, a large A-frame style crane is lifting a submersible research vehicle into the air, as crew members hold taglines connecting to the vehicle, preparing to deploy it into the ocean.

The Making of Our Alien Earth: The Undersea Volcanoes of Santorini, Greece

14 min read

The following expedition marks the third installment of NASA Astrobiology’s fieldwork series, the newly rebranded Our Alien Earth, streaming on NASA+. Check out all three episodes following teams of astrobiologists from the lava fields of Holuhraun, Iceland, to the Isua…

Article1 month ago

Danish Instrument Helps NASA’s Juno Spacecraft See Radiation

5 min read

Using cameras designed for navigation, scientists count ‘fireflies’ to determine the amount of radiation the spacecraft receives during each orbit of Jupiter. Scientists with NASA’s Juno mission have developed the first complete 3D radiation map of the Jupiter system. Along…

Article2 months ago
Fountains of ice erupt from the surface of Enceladus. The small moon is mostly in shadow, which makes the geysers illuminated by sunlight stand out.

NASA: Life Signs Could Survive Near Surfaces of Enceladus and Europa

5 min read

Europa, a moon of Jupiter, and Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, have evidence of oceans beneath their ice crusts. A NASA experiment suggests that if these oceans support life, signatures of that life in the form of organic molecules (e.g.…

Article3 months ago

NASA’s Juno Gets a Close-Up Look at Lava Lakes on Jupiter’s Moon Io

6 min read

Infrared imagery from the solar-powered spacecraft heats up the discussion on the inner workings of Jupiter’s hottest moon. New findings from NASA’s Juno probe provide a fuller picture of how widespread the lava lakes are on Jupiter’s moon Io and…

Article3 months ago

Ed Stone, Former Director of JPL, Voyager Project Scientist, Dies

5 min read

Known for his steady leadership, consensus building, and enthusiasm for engaging the public in science, Stone left a deep impact on the space community. Edward C. Stone, former director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, and longtime project…

Article4 months ago

NASA’s Juno Provides High-Definition Views of Europa’s Icy Shell

5 min read

Imagery from the solar-powered spacecraft shows some intriguing features on the ice-encased Jovian moon. Images from the JunoCam visible-light camera aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft supports the theory that the icy crust at the north and south poles of Jupiter’s moon…

Article5 months ago