Solar System News
Courtesy of Science Daily

Surface of Mars an unlikely place for life after 600-million-year drought, say scientists Mars may have been arid for more than 600 million years, making it too hostile for any life to survive on the planet’s surface, according to researchers who have been carrying out the painstaking task of analyzing individual particles of Martian soil. Publ.Date : Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:20:20 EST NASA mission returns first video from moon's far side A camera aboard one of NASA's twin Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) lunar spacecraft has returned its first unique view of the far side of the moon. MoonKAM, or Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students, will be used by students nationwide to select lunar images for study. Publ.Date : Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:21:21 EST Sun delivered curveball of powerful radiation at Earth A potent follow-up solar flare, which occurred Jan. 17, 2012, just days after the Sun launched the biggest coronal mass ejection seen in nearly a decade, delivered a powerful radiation punch to Earth's magnetic field despite the fact that it was aimed away from our planet. Publ.Date : Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:24:24 EST IBEX probe glimpses interstellar neighborhood Space scientists have described the first detailed analyses of captured interstellar neutral atoms -- raw material for the formation of new stars, planets and even human beings. Publ.Date : Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:08:08 EST Glimpses of the interstellar material beyond our solar system A great magnetic bubble surrounds the solar system as it cruises through the galaxy. The sun pumps the inside of the bubble full of solar particles that stream out to the edge until they collide with the material that fills the rest of the galaxy, at a complex boundary called the heliosheath. On the other side of the boundary, electrically charged particles from the galactic wind blow by, but rebound off the heliosheath, never to enter the solar system. Neutral particles, on the other hand, are a different story. They saunter across the boundary as if it weren't there, continuing on another 7.5 billion miles for 30 years until they get caught by the sun's gravity, and sling shot around the star. Publ.Date : Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:01:01 EST Mars-bound instrument detects solar burst's effects: RAD measures radiation from solar storm The largest solar particle event since 2005 hit Earth, Mars and the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft traveling in-between, allowing the onboard Radiation Assessment Detector to measure the radiation a human astronaut could be exposed to en route to the Red Planet. Publ.Date : Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:27:27 EST NASA's Kepler announces 11 new planetary systems hosting 26 planets NASA's Kepler mission has discovered 11 new planetary systems hosting 26 confirmed planets. These discoveries nearly double the number of verified Kepler planets and triple the number of stars known to have more than one planet that transits, or passes in front of, the star. Such systems will help astronomers better understand how planets form. Publ.Date : Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:59:59 EST Photo from NASA Mars orbiter shows wind's handiwork Some images of stark Martian landscapes provide visual appeal beyond their science value, including a recent scene of wind-sculpted features from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Publ.Date : Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:06:06 EST Giant asteroid Vesta likely cold and dark enough for ice Though generally thought to be quite dry, roughly half of the giant asteroid Vesta is expected to be so cold and to receive so little sunlight that water ice could have survived there for billions of years, according to the first published models of Vesta's average global temperatures and illumination by the sun. Publ.Date : Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:05:05 EST Durable NASA rover beginning ninth year of Mars work Eight years after landing on Mars for what was planned as a three-month mission, NASA's enduring Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is working on what essentially became a new mission five months ago. Publ.Date : Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:36:36 EST Cassini sees the two faces of Titan's dunes A new analysis of radar data from NASA's Cassini mission, in partnership with the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, has revealed regional variations among sand dunes on Saturn's moon Titan. The result gives new clues about the moon's climatic and geological history. Publ.Date : Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:35:35 EST Jupiter’s 'Trojans' on an atomic scale The planet Jupiter keeps asteroids on stable orbits -- and in a similar way, electrons can be stabilized in their orbit around the atomic nucleus. Calculations have now been verified in a new experiment. Publ.Date : Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:10:10 EST Helix Nebula in new colors Astronomers have captured a striking new image of the Helix Nebula. A new picture, taken in infrared light, reveals strands of cold nebular gas that are invisible in images taken in visible light, as well as bringing to light a rich background of stars and galaxies. The Helix Nebula is one of the closest and most remarkable examples of a planetary nebula. Publ.Date : Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:15:15 EST Dark side of the moon revealed: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's LAMP reveals lunar surface features New maps produced by the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal features at the moon's northern and southern poles in regions that lie in perpetual darkness. LAMP uses a novel method to peer into these so-called permanently shadowed regions, making visible the invisible. Publ.Date : Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:06:06 EST Discovery of the smallest exoplanets: The Barnard's star connection The smallest exoplanets yet discovered orbit a dwarf star almost identical to Barnard's star, one of the sun's nearest neighbors. The similarity helped the astronomers calculate the size of the distant planets. Publ.Date : Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:40:40 EST Astronomers find three smallest planets outside solar system Astronomers have discovered the three smallest confirmed planets ever detected outside our solar system. The three planets, which all orbit a single star, are smaller than Earth and appear to be rocky. Their existence suggests that the galaxy could be teeming with similarly rocky planets—and that there's a good chance that many are in the so-called habitable zone, where liquid water and possibly life could exist. Publ.Date : Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:40:40 EST A wealth of habitable planets in the Milky Way Six years of observations of millions of stars now show how common it is for stars to have planets in orbits around them. Using a method that is sensitive to planets that lie in a habitable zone around the host stars, astronomers have discovered that most of the Milky Way's 100 billion stars have planets that are very similar to the Earth-like planets in our own solar system. Publ.Date : Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:39:39 EST Planet population is plentiful: Planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception Astronomers have used the technique of gravitational microlensing to measure how common planets are in the Milky Way. After a six-year search that surveyed millions of stars, the team concludes that planets around stars are the rule rather than the exception. Publ.Date : Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:35:35 EST Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft completes biggest maneuver NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft successfully refined its flight path Wednesday with the biggest maneuver planned for the mission's journey between Earth and Mars. Publ.Date : Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:11:11 EST 'Greeley Haven' is winter workplace for Mars rover NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity will spend the next several months at a site informally named "Greeley Haven." The name is a tribute to planetary geologist Ronald Greeley (1939-2011), who was a member of the science team for the Mars rovers and many other interplanetary missions. Publ.Date : Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:25:25 EST Saturn-like ring system eclipses Sun-like star A team of astrophysicists has discovered a ring system in the constellation Centaurus that invites comparisons to Saturn. This is the first system of discrete, thin, dust rings detected around a very low-mass object outside of our solar system. Publ.Date : Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:58:58 EST Mars rover to spend winter at 'Greeley Haven' NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity will spend the next few months during the coldest part of Martian winter at Greeley Haven, an outcrop of rock on Mars recently named informally to honor Ronald Greeley, a professor of planetary geology, who died Oct. 27, 2011. Publ.Date : Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:03:03 EST NASA's twin GRAIL spacecraft reunite in lunar orbit The second of NASA's two Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft has successfully completed its planned main engine burn and is now in lunar orbit. Working together, GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B will study the moon as never before. Publ.Date : Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:49:49 EST First of NASA's GRAIL spacecraft enters moon orbit The first of two NASA spacecraft to study the moon in unprecedented detail has entered lunar orbit. Publ.Date : Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:01:01 EST