A NASA spacecraft that has been studying Mercury, the innermost planet in our solar system, is about eight months away from achieving its main objective of entering the planet's orbit. But, after a series of flybys, the steadfast probe has already unlocked valuable information about the planet closest to our sun.
After six-and-a-half years roaming the surface of Mars, a NASA rover has spotted its first dust devil on the red planet.
Gusty winds that blow in reverse of prevailing weather on Saturn's largest moon Titan appear to shape some of the moon's odd equatorial sand dunes, a new study finds.A very young failed star, known as a brown dwarf, was discovered in a close orbit around a nearby, young sun-like star - in closer proximity to each other than most young brown dwarf and planetary companions that have been previously found by direct imaging, according to a new study.
Update on the NASA Authorization Bill (from Planetary News)
I've been standing in line next to a green monster for more than an hour. This might sound like a bad situation, but the monster is actually a rather nice human in body paint and stunning, neon-green contact lenses.On the Planetary Society web site: Planetary Society Urges Debate on NASA Authorization Bill
It's hard to believe that we've just crossed the six-month mark on WISE -- seems like just yesterday when we were all up at Vandenberg Air Force Base, near Santa Barbara, shivering in the cold at night while watching the countdown clock.
Kepler Discovers Hundreds of New Planets (from Planetary News)On the Planetary Society web site: Japanese Spacecraft Deploys First Ever Solar Sail
Clearly carrying heavy shielding to protect astronauts from radiation in space is expensive. If you havent' been reading my space radiation series as I've been posting, then you can look over the last several of my postings about space radiation to see some of the problems. So, some other strategy ...