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Akatsuki probe relays its first images from Venus orbit
Japanese scientists released Wednesday the first views of Venus captured by the Akatsuki spacecraft after arriving in orbit this week, setting the stage for regular observations of the planet's blistering atmosphere over the next few years.
VideoJapanese probe fires rockets to steer into orbit at Venus
Five years after missing a shot to enter orbit at Venus, Japan's Akatsuki spacecraft completed a critical rocket burn late Sunday in a bid to salvage the research mission and become the only space probe operating around Earth's nearest planetary neighbor.
Tiny thrusters to do heavy lifting as Japanese probe approaches Venus
Inside a month until its next chance to swing into orbit around Venus, Japan's Akatsuki spacecraft has weathered unexpectedly "severe" conditions after missing an arrival opportunity in 2010, according to the mission's project scientist.
VideoSolar wind blasting away Martian atmosphere
The solar wind, the million-mile-per-hour stream of charged particles blasted away from the sun, is slowly but surely stripping away Mars' atmosphere and likely played a major role in turning the red planet from a habitable world in the distant past into the dry, frozen wasteland seen today, scientists said Thursday.
VideoRecord-breaking Hurricane Patricia viewed from orbit
Astronauts on the International Space Station and a fleet of Earth-watching satellites caught views of Hurricane Patricia, the most powerful cyclone on record in the Western Hemisphere, after the storm exploded in strength to become a monster Category 5 hurricane Friday.
VideoNASA to post new ‘blue marble’ pictures every day
Your daily dose of planet Earth is now just a click away, thanks to a new NASA website hosting photos looking back at the world from a small satellite stationed almost a million miles away, realizing a dream of former Vice President Al Gore nearly two decades ago.
NASA might pick two Discovery missions, but at a price
A senior NASA official said Monday the agency could select two new robotic planetary science missions next year for launch in the early 2020s, and the five finalists favor Venus and asteroid research.
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.