An old photo of an irregularly shaped Moon pit has been shared repeatedly in Chinese social media posts that falsely claimed it was taken by China’s Chang’e-6 lunar probe after it sent samples back to Earth in June 2024. In fact, the photo was taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and published by the […]
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has taken its first look at China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft on the moon’s far side. The Chang’e 6 lander is flanked by two craters similar in size to it and is on the edge of a much more subtle crater about 165 feet (50 meters) wide, reports Mark Robinson, the […]
The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter has, for the first time, traced the solar wind in space to a specific location on our sun’s surface, opening a new way to study the origins of solar winds, scientists reported on Tuesday (May 28). “This was a key objective of the mission and opens the way for […]
A massive Mars impact crater dominates a new view from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). The result of an ancient asteroid impact, the crater is located in Mars‘ Utopia Planitia. That’s the largest known impact basin in the entire solar system, with a diameter of roughly 2,050 miles (3,300 kilometers), or  twice the size […]
Martian Creepy Crawlers The European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter has spotted “spiders” on the Red Planet’s southern polar region. But they’re not the arachnids we fear or adore back on Earth — they’re the result of a complex geological process that causes carbon dioxide to sublimate, digging up darker material from below the surface […]
A NASA orbiter caught sight of Japan’s SLIM moon lander on the lunar surface after its historic touchdown. SLIM, or the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, is operated by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It touched down on the moon in a precision landing on Jan. 19, making Japan the fifth country to make […]
Reflect on this! NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently bounced a laser off India’s Vikram moon lander, marking a space-communications first. Vikram touched down near the lunar south pole on Aug. 23, 2023 on India’s pioneering Chandrayaan-3 mission, which also included a rover named Pragyan. Vikram carried on its body the tiny NASA Laser Retroreflector […]
A red planet, mars, is seen on the left. a white box surrounds an image of mars’ surface, with an arrow from the box to the planet. another box, with an arrow pointing to the first box, shows a closer view of the surface of mars. A team from the University of Arizona’s Lunar and […]