OUTERPLANETS

845 articles

Planetary-scale 'heat wave' discovered in Jupiter's atmosphere
Sep 25, 2022 (SPX)
Jupiter's atmosphere, famous for its characteristic multicoloured vortices, is also unexpectedly hot: in fact, it is hundreds of degrees hotter than models pred...
First 3D renders from JunoCam data reveal frosted cupcake clouds on Jupiter
Sep 22, 2022 (SPX)
The animation uses data from JunoCam, the visible-light camera onboard NASA's Juno spacecraft, which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016. Put on board initiall...
Jupiter to reach opposition, closest approach to Earth in 70 years
Sep 18, 2022 (SPX)
Jupiter's opposition occurs every 13 months, making the planet appear larger and brighter than any other time of the year. But that's not all. Jupiter will also...
NASA's Juno Mission Reveals Jupiter's Complex Colors
Sep 02, 2022 (SPX)
Citizen scientist Bjorn Jonsson created these two images using raw data from the JunoCam instrument aboard the spacecraft. At the time the raw image was taken, ...
The PI's Perspective: Extending Exploration and Making Distant Discoveries
Aug 26, 2022 (SPX)
As planned, the spacecraft was put into hibernation mode on June 1, and will remain so until March 1, 2023. Hibernation saves fuel, wear and tear on spacecraft ...
Underwater snow gives clues about Europa's icy shell
Aug 18, 2022 (SPX)
The underwater snow is much purer than other kinds of ice, which means Europa's ice shell could be much less salty than previously thought. That's important for...
Why Jupiter doesn't have rings like Saturn
Jul 22, 2022 (SPX)
"It's long bothered me why Jupiter doesn't have even more amazing rings that would put Saturn's to shame," said UCR astrophysicist Stephen Kane, who led the res...
You can help scientists study the atmosphere on Jupiter
Jun 23, 2022 (SPX)
The planet Jupiter is located more than 467 million miles from Earth and has a starkly different atmosphere made of hydrogen and helium. Even so, Jupiter's atmo...
SwRI scientists identify a possible source for Charon's red cap
Jun 22, 2022 (SPX)
"Prior to New Horizons, the best Hubble images of Pluto revealed only a fuzzy blob of reflected light," said SwRI's Randy Gladstone, a member of the New Horizon...
NASA's Europa Clipper Mission Completes Main Body of the Spacecraft
Jun 08, 2022 (JPL)
The main body of NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft has been delivered to the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Over the next two years t...
Gemini North Telescope Helps Explain Why Uranus and Neptune Are Different Colors
Jun 01, 2022 (SPX)
Neptune and Uranus have much in common - they have similar masses, sizes, and atmospheric compositions - yet their appearances are notably different. At visible...
Bern flies to Jupiter
May 31, 2022 (SPX)
After an almost eight-year journey, JUICE will arrive at Jupiter to explore the largest planet in our solar system and three of its 79 moons. The icy moons are ...
Traveling to the centre of planet Uranus
May 12, 2022 (SPX)
For the first time, they have succeeded in generating and simultaneously analyzing materials under compression pressures of more than one terapascal (1,000 giga...
Juno captures moon shadow on Jupiter
May 01, 2022 (SPX)
Citizen scientist Thomas Thomopoulos created this enhanced-color image using raw data from the JunoCam instrument (Figure A). At the time the raw image was take...
Greenland Ice, Jupiter Moon Share Similar Feature
Apr 26, 2022 (SPX)
Parallel ice ridges in Greenland bear a striking resemblance to ridges on Jupiter's ice-encased moon Europa, suggesting the moon's icy shell could be riddled wi...
Abundant features on Europa bodes well for search for extraterrestrial life
Apr 20, 2022 (SPX)
Ice-penetrating radar observations that captured the formation of a "double ridge" feature in Greenland suggest the ice shell of Europa may have an abundance of...
Jupiter's moon has splendid dunes
Apr 20, 2022 (SPX)
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, is based on a study of the physical processes controlling grain motion coupled with an analysis of im...
Water on Jupiter's moon closer to surface than thought: study
Apr 19, 2022 (AFP)
Europa has long been a candidate for finding life in our solar system due to its vast ocean, which is widely thought to contain liquid water -- a key ingredient...
ESO telescope captures surprising changes in Neptune's temperatures
Apr 13, 2022 (SPX)
"This change was unexpected," says Michael Roman, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Leicester, UK, and lead author of the study published i...
Four billion-year-old relic from early solar system heading our way
Apr 13, 2022 (SPX)
Comets, among the oldest objects in the solar system, are icy bodies that were unceremoniously tossed out of the solar system in a gravitational pinball game am...
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