JPL – Science World

This time-lapse video, assembled from a set of Hubble Space Telescope photos, reveals two asteroids orbiting each other that have comet-like features. The asteroid pair, called 2006 VW139/288P, was observed in September 2016, just before the asteroid made its closest approach to the Sun. (NASA, ESA, and J. DePasquale and Z. Levay (STScI))

60 Days in Bed For Science; Asteroid Belt Mystery Solved & Ice on Mercury?

September 22, 2017

Mystery Asteroid Belt Object Really a Binary Asteroid Back in 2011 a Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System or PanSTARRS survey detected an object in the asteroid belt displaying comet-like activity. So along with being labeled an asteroid, when it was discovered five years earlier, scientists also gave it a comet designation. After analyzing […]

This artist’s concept depicts the early Martian environment (right) – believed to contain liquid water and a thicker atmosphere – versus the cold, dry environment seen at Mars today (left). (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center)

New Horizons Journey; Wrong Way Asteroid; Ring Around Mars?

April 4, 2017

New Horizons Halfway to Next Flyby Destination NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft provided scientists an amazing once in a lifetime look at the distant dwarf planet Pluto as it flew by it in July 2015. Along with spectacular images of Pluto the spacecraft also sent back those of Pluto’s five moons including high definition shots of […]

Engineer Volkmar Dohmen stands in front of a giant bank of xenon short-arc lamps at the DLR German national aeronautics and space research center in Germany. When switched on, what is being called the world’s largest artificial sun creates combined intensity that's 10,000x stronger than sun's light on Earth's surface and produces temperatures of around 2,982° Celsius. The photo was taken on 3/21/17 (AP)

March 2017 Science Images

March 31, 2017

Simulated image of the HD 106906 stellar debris disk, showing a ring of rocky planet-forming material. (Erika Nesvold/Carnegie Institution for Science)

Insight Into Planetary Evolution – Dark Matter Rare in Old Galaxies

March 17, 2017

Scientists Gain New Insight into Planetary Evolution Scientists recently gained new insight into the evolution of planet formation by creating and studying a model of a fairly young solar system 300 light years from Earth. The nearly 13 million year-old planetary system circles a star known as HD 106906. The system features a surrounding planet […]

Engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center on January 24 simulated the extreme vibrating conditions spacesuit-clad astronauts would experience as an Orion spacecraft is launched atop the powerful Space Launch System rocket on its way to deep space destinations. (NASA)

January 2017 Science Images

February 1, 2017

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Biggest Wave Spotted; Walking Heel-to-Toe; Newborn Exoplanets

December 15, 2016

New Record for Biggest Wave Measured by Buoy The UN’s World Meteorological Society says the biggest wave ever to be measured by a buoy was identified at 0600 universal time on February 4, 2013. The colossal 19-meter swell was spotted in the North Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and the UK. The previous highest wave recorded […]

This artistic rendering shows the distant view from Planet Nine back towards the sun. The planet is thought to be gaseous, similar to Uranus and Neptune. Hypothetical lightning lights up the night side. (Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC))

Is Planet 9 Causing Our Solar System to Wobble?

October 20, 2016

A new study from researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) suggests that Planet 9, the huge and so far unseen planet said to be lurking in the far reaches of the solar system, might be causing our group of planets to wobble a little and giving an impression that the sun is slightly tilted. […]

This four-panel graphic illustrates how the binary-star system V Hydrae is launching balls of plasma into space. (NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI))

Cosmic Cannon; Mars Dust Storm Forecast; Dione’s Subsurface Ocean

October 7, 2016

Astronomers Find a Cosmic Cannon Astronomers have spotted super-hot blobs of plasma blasting into space like cannonballs near a dying red giant star, some 1,200 light years away. Using the Hubble Space Telescope to make their discovery, the scientists found that the balls of hot gas are flying so fast a trip from the Earth […]

September 2016 Science Images

September 30, 2016

This image shows Saturn's northern hemisphere in 2016, as that part of the planet nears its northern hemisphere summer solstice in May 2017. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

NASA Will Have Cassini Working Hard Right Up to Fiery Finish

September 16, 2016

As the saying goes all good things must come to an end and the same will go for the Cassini mission to Saturn as it begins its final year of operation. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has big plans for the orbiter as it makes its year-long swan song. Dubbed the Grand Finale, the space agency […]

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