Astronomy, features and articles | Educational Science

Mar 5, 2014

NASA Eyes Ambitious Mission to Jupiter's Icy Moon Europa by 2025

NASA hopes to launch a mission to the Jupiter moon Europa, perhaps the solar system's best bet to host alien life, a decade or so from now, officials announced Tuesday (March 4). The White House's 2015 federal budget request, which was released Tuesday, allocates $15 million to help develop a...

May 16, 2014

Jupiter's Great Red Spot Shrinks to Smallest Size Ever Seen (Video, Photos)

Jupiter's Great Red Spot — the most powerful storm in the solar system — is at its smallest observed size yet, and scientists aren't sure why. Recent Hubble Space Telescope images of the storm show that it is now 10,250 miles (16,496 kilometers) across, which is less than half the...

Sep 8, 2014

Jupiter's Moon Europa May Have Plate Tectonics Just Like Earth

Jupiter's icy moon Europa, regarded as perhaps the solar system's best bet to host alien life, keeps getting more and more interesting. Big slabs of ice are sliding over and under each other within Europa's ice shell, a new study suggests. The Jovian satellite may thus be the only solar...

Oct 14, 2015

Amazing Jupiter Video Shows Slowing Shrinkage of the Great Red Spot

Jupiter's trademark Great Red Spot may be shrinking, but it's not going down without a fight. Amazing new maps of the Jupiter by the Hubble Space Telescope reveal that the Great Red Spot, a massive storm about twice the diameter of Earth, is slowing the speed at which it shrinks....

Mar 30, 2016

Jupiter Just Got Hit by a Comet or Asteroid ... Again (Video)

Take that, Jupiter! The largest planet in the solar system just got whacked by an asteroid or a comet, and some intrepid stargazers have captured the planet's latest collision on camera. Amateur astronomer John McKeon was observing the king of planets by telescope from Swords, Ireland, on March 17 when...

Jun 3, 2016

Ammonia Swirls Found Beneath Jupiter’s Clouds

Just one month before the Juno spacecraft arrives at the gas giant Jupiter, the most detailed radio-wave maps ever of the planet's atmosphere dig beneath surface-level clouds to reveal the whirling ammonia flows that help form its distinctive features. Researchers used the upgraded Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in...

Jul 1, 2016

By Jove! 7 Weirdest Facts About Jupiter

Gas giant Jupiter is probably the best place in the solar system to study how the magnetic fields of planets are generated. The Juno spacecraft will make the five-year, 400-million-mile voyage to Jupiter and orbit the planet, collecting data for more than one Earth year. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)Jupiter, the largest...

Jul 1, 2016

Spectacular Aurora Seen Over Jupiter

Bright blue auroras at Jupiter's north and south poles are putting on a veritable fireworks show just before the July 4 arrival of the Juno probe. Jupiter's colorful auroras have been imaged before, but a month of daily observations of Jupiter by the Hubble Space Telescope has allowed scientists to...

Jul 4, 2016

Fastest-Ever Spacecraft to Arrive at Jupiter Tonight

NASA's Juno probe will attempt to slip into orbit around Jupiter tonight (July 4), shortly after becoming the fastest object ever made by human hands. As Juno nears Jupiter tonight, the giant planet's powerful gravity will accelerate the spacecraft to an estimated top speed of about 165,000 mph (265,000 km/h)...

Jul 5, 2016

By Jove! NASA Probe Arrives at Jupiter After 5-Year Trek

PASADENA, California — For the second time ever, a spacecraft has slipped into orbit around huge and mysterious Jupiter. NASA's robotic Juno probe began circling the solar system's largest planet tonight (July 4), ending a nearly five-year journey through deep space and becoming the first spacecraft to enter Jupiter orbit...

Jul 13, 2016

Juno Spacecraft Captures 1st Photo from Jupiter Orbit

NASA's Juno probe has snapped its first image of Jupiter since going into orbit around the giant planet last week. Juno captured the photo — which show Jupiter's famous Great Red Spot, some of its cloud belts and the three big Jovian moons Europa, Ganymede and Io — with its...

Sep 26, 2016

On Jupiter's Moon Europa, More Tantalizing Signs of Giant Water Plumes

Good news on the alien-life-hunting front: The towering plumes emanating from Jupiter's ocean-harboring moon Europa appear to be real. In late 2012, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope spotted what seemed to be 125-mile-high (200 kilometers) geysers of water vapor erupting from Europa's south polar region. This news was exciting for astrobiologists...

Mar 3, 2017

New Jupiter Images: Do You See Cotton Candy or Van Gogh's 'Starry Night'?

Jupiter's swirling cloud tops, photographed by NASA's Juno probe, look like something straight out of a dream, or even a famous painting. Citizen scientist Amelia Carolina Sparavigna saw the similarities between the real-world snapshot and the whirling patterns that Vincent Van Gogh used to represent the night sky in his...

Apr 7, 2017

Close-Approaching Jupiter Dazzles in New Hubble Photo

Jupiter's gorgeous bands and raging storms are on full display in a jaw-dropping new photo by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble snapped the photo on Monday (April 3), just four days before Jupiter comes into opposition — that is, forms a straight line with Earth and the sun, with Earth...

Apr 12, 2017

Surprise! Jupiter Has a Great 'Cold' Spot, Too

Jupiter is famous for its Great Red Spot, a storm twice the diameter of Earth that rages on the gas giant's surface. Now, researchers have found that it has a second great spot, almost as large — this one, a Great Cold Spot caused by the planet's vibrant auroras. Researchers...