The University of Arizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission will utilize the data collected during its two-year long mission to the Bennu asteroid in an attempt to search for elusive Earth-Trojan asteroids. Trojan asteroids accompany the planets during their journey around the…
Scientists using data obtained by ESA's Swarm constellation of satellites have discovered a jet stream in the liquid iron part of Earth’s core 3 000 km (1 864 miles) beneath the surface. In addition, Swarm satellite data show that this jet stream is…
The Cassini spacecraft has sent the first images of Saturn's atmosphere since the start of its new mission phase. The images reveal the planet's northern hemisphere as well as its unique hexagon jet stream. The newest phase of the NASA's Cassini…
ESA has announced the ExoMars 2016 mission is expected to enter the orbit of Mars on October 19, 2016, and has invited media representatives to attend the event at ESA's ESOC control center in Darmstadt, Germany. The ExoMars program was established to…
Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL), the compact, atom-chip based scientific instrument, is expected to be installed on the International Space Station (ISS) during late 2017. The instrument will provide the scientific community with new, interesting, insights into quantum…
Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute in Germany have discovered a spectacular system consisting of two stars with three rotating planet-forming accretion discs around them. This is a binary star system where each star has its own planet-forming disc and in…
Astronomers have again imaged what may be water vapor plumes erupting off the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa, bolstering other observations suggesting the icy moon erupts with high altitude water plumes. The observation increases the possibility that missions…
After about six years in space, China's first prototype space station — Tiangong-1 — is expected to fall into the Earth's atmosphere in the latter half of 2017, Chinese officials said at a press conference last week. Tiangong-1 (Chinese for "Heavenly…
Chandra X-ray Observatory was aimed several times at Pluto from February 2014 through August 2015 and made a surprising detection of X-rays being emitted from this largest and best-known object in the Solar System's outermost regions. The observations offer new…
NASA's first-ever asteroid sample return mission, OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer), was launched September 8, 2016 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft thus started its two-year 193…
