Dawn’s mission director and chief engineer describes his ‘dream come true’ job – and how the new data coming back from Ceres could unlock some of the secrets of the earliest days of our solar system.
Artist’s depiction of the newly discovered Jupiter-like planet orbiting the star HD 32963.
Stefano Meschiari
Jupiter had a big influence on how our solar system’s planets formed. New research – led by a high school student – tried to nail down how rare Jupiter analogs really are in other planetary systems.
Scientists are perplexed by the detection of molecular oxygen in comet 67P’s tail – a completely unexpected discovery.
ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM
The early solar system was a busy place with plenty of meteorite impacts on the new planets and moons. But finding evidence of such impacts on Earth can be tricky.
A rare super blood moon visible from parts of the Earth this month will delight those people lucky enough to see it. But why has this marvel of the solar system got some people so worried?
A frozen lake of water-ice on the floor of a 35 km wide impact crater on Mars.
Copyright ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)
Ice is everywhere in the solar system and there may even be liquid water beneath the surface of a number of planets. But could we ever get to it?
We know exactly what it looks like but have been unable to explain how it came into being - until now.
NASA, ESA, and A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center)
In the long lead-up to our ultimate flyby of Pluto, space science has reconfigured our notions of what it means to be a solar system, a planet, a world.
Now the flypast of Pluto is over the space probe New Horizons will begin sending the data back to Earth. It will take many months but what will it reveal about the dwarf planet?
Preparation of Mariner 4 before its fly-by of Mars, exactly 50 years ago.
NASA/JPL
Exactly half a century ago the US Mariner 4 made the first flyby of Mars. But why are we still doing flybys today?
What would New Horizons be able to achieve if it had been built today rather than 20 years ago?
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/NASA
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is nearly two decades old. Is that a problem?
New Horizons’ look at Pluto’s Charon-facing hemisphere reveals intriguing geologic details that are of keen interest to mission scientists. This image was taken on July 11, 2015, when the spacecraft was 4 million km from Pluto.
NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI
The New Horizons spacecraft is only hours away from its closest approach to Pluto. It’s hoped the brief encounter will help answer many questions about the oddball member of our solar system.
Some atomic ratio detective work on our solar system neighbors tells us a lot about their watery pasts. That Venus and Mars are mostly dry now could be a cautionary tale for us on the Blue Planet.
An artist’s impression: MESSENGER flying over a colourful Mercury.
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
It was the first probe to find water on Mercury, the planet closest to the sun. Its mission nearly over, MESSENGER is about to crash into the planet it’s been observing.
Artist’s impression of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft encountering Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.
NASA/Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute