Category Astronomy/Space

A global false-color topographic view of Mars from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) experiment. The spatial resolution is about 15 kilometers at the equator and less at higher latitudes, with a vertical accuracy of less than 5 meters. The figure illustrates topographic features associated with resurfacing of the northern hemisphere lowlands in the vicinity of the Utopia impact basin (at the near-center of the image in blue). Credit: MOLA Science Team

A colossal impact with a large asteroid early in Mars’ history may have ripped off a chunk of the northern hemisphere and left behind a legacy of metallic elements in the planet’s interior. The crash also created a ring of rocky debris around Mars that may have later clumped together to form its moons, Phobos and Deimos.

The origin and ...

This time-lapse animation shows NICER being extracted from the SpaceX Dragon trunk on June 11, 2017. Credit: NASA

NASA’s new Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mission to study the densest observable objects in the universe has begun science operations. Launched June 3 on an 18-month baseline mission, NICER will help scientists understand the nature of the densest stable form of matter located deep in the cores of neutron stars using X-ray measurements.

NICER operates around the clock on the International Space Station (ISS). In the two weeks following launch, NICER underwent extraction from the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, robotic installation on ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 2 on board ISS and initial deployment...

WASP167bKELT13b. Credit: Image courtesy of Keele University

Researchers led by a team at Keele University have discovered a new ‘Hot Jupiter’ exoplanet. The new giant planet was jointly discovered by a WASP/KELT survey collaboration, marking the first time an exoplanet has been discovered between two planet search groups. The exoplanet, WASP-167b/ KELT-13b, is several times more massive than Jupiter and orbits its parent star every two days. Its host star, WASP-176/KELT-13, is one of the hottest and most rapidly rotating stars known to host such a planet.

The Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) and the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) exoplanet surveys observed the host star between 2006 and 2013 using the WASP-South telescope and the KELT-South telescope at the South African ...

Different types of plasma waves triggered by various mechanisms, occupy different regions of space around Earth.
Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith

NASA’s Van Allen Probes have observed a new population of space sound waves, called plasmaspheric hiss, which are important in removing high-energy particles from around Earth that can damage satellites. Disturbances in space, can cause waves which occur as fluctuating electric and magnetic fields plow through clumps of ions and electrons that compose the plasma, pushing some to accelerated speeds. This interaction controls the balance of highly energetic particles injected and lost from in the near-Earth environment.

One type of plasma wave fundamental to shaping our near-Earth environment are whistler-mode waves...