Planetary Science

  1. Planetary Science

    Extreme weather: Massive hurricanes meet on Jupiter

    Both professional and amateur sky watchers are pointing their telescopes at Jupiter as two titanic storms in the giant planet's upper atmosphere meet each other.

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  2. Planetary Science

    Exploring the Red Planet

    Searching for signs of subsurface water on the Red Planet and analyzing the elemental and mineral composition of surface rock, NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft begins its main mapping mission next month and may shed light on several enduring puzzles about the planet.

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  3. Planetary Science

    Galileo finds spires on Callisto

    The sharpest images ever taken of Jupiter's icy moon Callisto show a group of features never seen before on the remote body—icy, knoblike spires that show signs of slow but steady erosion.

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  4. Planetary Science

    Craft tracks giant dust storm on Mars

    The largest dust storm observed on Mars in 25 years is now engulfing the Red Planet.

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  5. Planetary Science

    Space Flight Basics

    For armchair space explorers, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory offers a tutorial on how to operate an interplanetary space mission. Originally created a decade ago, the newly updated guide includes information on spacecraft engineering, mission design, trajectories, launch, navigation, telecommunications, and much more. Go to: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/

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  6. Planetary Science

    Nearby star may have its own asteroid belt

    Observations of warm dust swaddling a young, nearby star suggest that astronomers may have found evidence of a massive asteroid belt outside the solar system.

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  7. Planetary Science

    Asteroid Eros poses a magnetic puzzle

    Measurements with a magnetometer aboard the NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft a few days after it landed on the asteroid 433 Eros confirmed a major puzzle: The rock has no detectable magnetic field.

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  8. Planetary Science

    Debate over life in Mars rock rekindles

    Two recent studies could inject new life into the argument that a 4-billion-year-old Martian meteorite contains fossils of bacteria from the Red Planet but several scientists say the reports fall short of resurrecting that notion.

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  9. Planetary Science

    Images suggest icy eruptions on Ganymede

    New stereo images of Ganymede, the solar system's largest satellite, suggest that eruptions of water or slushy ice a billion or more years ago gave parts of the moon a facelift, creating long, flat bands of nearly pure water-ice.

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  10. Planetary Science

    Happy landing: Craft descends onto Eros

    On Feb. 12, NEAR Shoemaker became the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid, the space rock 433 Eros.

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  11. Planetary Science

    Stormy Weather

    The 11-year cycle of solar storms has begun to peak, already affecting several Earth satellites and disturbing electric power systems on the ground, and scientists expect 2 more years of this solar maximum turmoil.

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  12. Planetary Science

    Voyager 1 Affects Voyager 2 Mission

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