Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 3, 2023

Massive Martian 'dust devil' filmed by NASA's Perseverance rover is 5 times taller than the Empire State Building

NASA's Perseverance rover has captured rare footage of a towering twister, or dust devil, dancing across the surface of Mars. The dusty vortex is taller than the average-size U.S. tornado and five times taller than the Empire State Building, according to NASA. The rover spotted the swirling storm on Aug....

Oct 18, 2023

Soar through the 'Labyrinth of Night' — a Martian canyon the size of Italy — in thrilling new satellite video

A thrilling new video lets viewers fly through Mars' enormous Labyrinth of Night, a system of extremely steep valleys about the length of Italy. The criss-crossing valleys in Noctis Labyrinthus, which is Latin for Labyrinth of Night, are up to 19 miles (30 kilometers) wide — a bit longer than...

Oct 19, 2023

Scientists finally solve mystery of strongest Marsquake ever detected

The strongest-ever quake to violently shake Mars arose not because of a crashing asteroid but rather the tectonic forces within the planet itself, scientists reported on Tuesday (Oct. 17). The new findings show the Red Planet is more seismically active than previously thought. On May 4, 2022, NASA's now-retired InSight...

Nov 17, 2023

Astronauts on Mars may see a green sky, eerie new study suggests

Mars might be the Red Planet, but its atmosphere glows green. Using the European Space Agency's (ESA) ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), scientists have observed Mars' atmosphere glowing green for the first time ever — in the visible light spectrum, that is. The effect is called airglow (or dayglow or...

Nov 20, 2023

NASA is pausing all Mars missions, effective immediately. Here's why.

Mars disappeared from the sky over Earth on Saturday (Nov. 18) when the Red Planet was apparently swallowed by the sun. Don't panic, this disappearance may look dramatic but it is actually the result of Mars passing to the opposite side of the sun to Earth during an event that...

Dec 1, 2023

Eerie photo of Mars' horizon took NASA 3 months to capture

NASA's longest-serving Mars robot has captured a unique photo of the Red Planet's crater-covered horizon that mimics what future Martian astronauts could one day see with their own eyes. And it took mission scientists more than three months to plan and capture. The new image, which was released by NASA...

Sep 27, 2012

Ocean on Jupiter's Moon Europa Likely Deep Underground

Missions hoping to explore the huge subsurface ocean thought to exist on Jupiter's moon Europa may have to dig deep — really deep. Water stays in a liquid state near Europa's surface for just a few tens of thousands of years or so, new research suggests. That's a blink of...

Sep 30, 2012

Jupiter's Big Moon Ganymede Mapped by Amateur Astronomer

An amateur astronomer has created the first-ever homemade brightness map of Jupiter's huge moon Ganymede in a magnificent display of how non-professional skywatchers can contribute to the field of observational astronomy. Greek skywatcher Emmanuel Kardasis of the Hellenic Amateur Astronomy Association created the new Ganymede map using a common hobby...

Oct 4, 2012

Moon, Jupiter and Bright Star Show Off in Night Sky This Week

Check out the east-northeast sky after about 11 p.m. local time late Thursday and Friday evening (Oct. 4 and 5) for a changing celestial array involving the moon, a bright planet and a bright star, weather permitting. The planet in question is Jupiter, usually the second brightest planet next to...

Oct 18, 2012

Jupiter Photos Reveal Big Changes on Giant Planet

Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, has made some dramatic transformations in recent years, a new study reveals. Huge belts in the giant planet's atmosphere have changed color, radiation hotspots have faded and flared up again, and cloud levels have thickened and dissolved, all while space rocks have...

Oct 29, 2012

Volcanic Eruptions on Jupiter's 'Pizza Moon' Io Spotted from Earth

A team of SETI astronomers have proved it's possible to see volcanic eruptions on Io — a moon of Jupiter — from our perch on Earth hundreds of millions of miles away. Based on 44 nights of telescope observations, the group from the SETI Institute's Carl Sagan Center showed it...

Nov 19, 2012

'Super-Jupiter' Discovery Dwarfs Solar System's Largest Planet

In a rare direct photo of a world beyond Earth, astronomers have spotted a planet 13 times more massive than Jupiter, the largest planet in our own solar system. The planet orbits a star called Kappa Andromedae that is 2.5 times the mass of the sun and is located 170...

Dec 11, 2012

Sharpening up Jupiter

Amazing image of Jupiter taken in infrared light on the night of Aug. 17, 2008 with the Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics Demonstrator (MAD) prototype instrument mounted on ESO's Very Large Telescope. The great red spot is not visible in this image as it was on the other side of the planet...

Dec 14, 2012

Astronauts Explore Jupiter Moon Europa in Sci-Fi Film

A team of astronauts heads to Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa in search of alien life. If that sounds too good to be true, space geeks, that's because it is. The mission described above will take place onscreen, when the independent sci-fi film Europa Report hits theaters (likely sometime next year,...

Dec 14, 2012

NASA Eyes Mission to Jupiter Moon Europa

SAN FRANCISCO — Though NASA is devoting many of its exploration resources to Mars these days, the agency still has its eye on an icy moon of Jupiter that may be capable of supporting life as we know it. Last week, NASA officials announced that they plan to launch a...