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Charon takes center stage in new batch of New Horizons images
With meandering canyons four times as long, and twice as deep, as the Grand Canyon in the American Southwest, the crust of Pluto's moon Charon may have been shaped by violent eruptions and geology once thought improbable for a small body in the far depths of the solar system, scientists said Thursday.
Secrets behind Pluto’s pastels far from being answered
Geologists said Thursday they are bewildered by images from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft baring unseen landscapes on Pluto with unexpected "snakeskin" textures, colorful chasms routing through ancient landforms, and vivid new views of apparent glacial flows.
Dawn gets better look at bright spots on Ceres
NASA's Dawn spacecraft, nearly halfway through its exploration of the dwarf planet Ceres, has returned its best images yet of a mysterious grouping of bright spots inside a crater on the Texas-sized world, bolstering evidence that Ceres is geologically alive.
Uranus, Neptune in NASA’s sights for new robotic mission
NASA has asked scientists to assess how to design and fly robotic space probes to Uranus and Neptune, the last of the solar system's classical planets yet to be orbited, likely ensuring the huge icy worlds are near the top of the space agency's to-do list in the coming decades.
VideoWatch the moon transit the Earth
Spectacular views from a NOAA space weather observatory show the sunlit far side of the moon crossing the face of the Earth from a distant vantage point a million miles away.
NOAA satellite sends back view of planet Earth
Fulfilling an idea dreamed up by former Vice President Al Gore more than 17 years ago, NASA has released the first in a daily series of Earth snapshots from a newly-launched spacecraft stationed a million miles away.
Satellite owners among bystanders in Falcon 9 accident
The long queue of satellites waiting on launches aboard SpaceX's Falcon rockets -- a backlog the company says is worth $7 billion -- will stay grounded while investigators determine what caused a Falcon 9 booster to disintegrate after liftoff Sunday.
Jason 3 satellite shipped to Vandenberg for SpaceX launch
An international oceanography satellite arrived at its California launch base from a factory in France on Thursday for fueling, testing and other final preps before its scheduled Aug. 8 blastoff on a Falcon 9 rocket.
DSCOVR space weather sentinel reaches finish line
A new space weather observatory launched in February has completed a four-month journey to an operating post a million miles from Earth, NOAA announced Monday.
Dawn enters new orbit closer to Ceres
NASA's Dawn asteroid explorer has arrived at its new perch 2,700 miles from the dwarf planet Ceres, a vantage point scientists say will yield better views as the probe continues to step closer to the surface.