This image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is of Saheki Crater, about 84 kilometers across, and located in the Southern highlands of Mars, to the north of Hellas Planitia. It’s filled with beautiful alluvial fans that formed when water (likely melting snow) carried fine material, such as sand, silt and… Read more“A Sneak Peek into Saheki’s Secret Layers”
When Jovian Light and Dark Collide
This image, taken by the JunoCam imager on NASA’s Juno spacecraft, highlights a feature on Jupiter where multiple atmospheric conditions appear to collide. This publicly selected target is called “STB Spectre.” The ghostly bluish streak across the right half of the image is a long-lived storm, one of the few… Read more“When Jovian Light and Dark Collide”
Asteroid to Fly Safely Past Earth on April 19
This computer-generated image depicts the flyby of asteroid 2014 JO25. The asteroid will safely fly past Earth on April 19 at a distance of about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers), or about 4.6 times the distance between Earth and the moon. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech A relatively large near-Earth asteroid discovered… Read more“Asteroid to Fly Safely Past Earth on April 19”
Keeping Liquids Off the Wall
Tank from an earlier Slosh experiment aboard the International Space Station. The tanks for this investigation are similar. Credits: NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman puts the “slosh” in an earlier Slosh investigation. Credits: NASA On Earth, liquid flows downhill thanks to gravity. Creating an effective liquid fuel tank involves little more… Read more“Keeping Liquids Off the Wall”
NASA Wants to Create the Coolest Spot in the Universe
Artist’s concept of an atom chip for use by NASA’s Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) aboard the International Space Station. CAL will use lasers to cool atoms to ultracold temperatures. Credits: NASA Full image and caption This summer, an ice chest-sized box will fly to the International Space Station, where it… Read more“NASA Wants to Create the Coolest Spot in the Universe”
Juno Captures Jupiter Cloudscape in High Resolution
This close-up view of Jupiter captures the turbulent region just west of the Great Red Spot in the South Equatorial Belt, with resolution better than any previous pictures from Earth or other spacecraft. NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this image with its JunoCam citizen science instrument when the spacecraft was a… Read more“Juno Captures Jupiter Cloudscape in High Resolution”
NuSTAR Spots Temperature Swings of Black Hole Winds
This artist’s concept illustrates a supermassive black hole with X-ray emission emanating from its inner region (pink) and ultrafast winds (light purple lines) streaming from the surrounding disk. Credits: ESA For the first time, scientists have measured rapidly varying temperatures in hot gas emanating from around a black hole. These… Read more“NuSTAR Spots Temperature Swings of Black Hole Winds”