News and Features - NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Copyright (c) 2009 NASA / JPL All rights reserved. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/ News and Technology JPL's RSS feed brings you the latest press releases, feature stories and slide shows from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. JPL has explored every planet in the solar system with robotic spacecraft. en-us Fri, 24 May 2013 03:07:50 GMT 5 News and Features - NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcast/planets-300.jpg <![CDATA[ Century-Old Science Helps Confirm Global Warming ]]> NASA / JPL science Drawing of the HMS Challenger survey vessel preparing to measure ocean temperatures

Data from a British high-seas scientific expedition in the 1870s have provided further confirmation of human-produced global warming over the past century.



]]> <![CDATA[ Galaxies Fed by Funnels of Fuel ]]> NASA / JPL science simulation shows the formation of a massive galaxy

Supercomputers have helped reveal that galaxies bulk up in mass by feeding off cosmic swirly straws of gas.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Administrator Visits JPL, Talks Asteroids ]]> NASA / JPL science NASA Administrator Visits JPL, Discusses Asteroid Initiative

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden met with members of the asteroid initiative team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Ships Sensors for Seafaring Satellite to France ]]> NASA / JPL science The three NASA-built instruments and associated ground support equipment for the U.S./European Jason-3 ocean altimetry satellite

NASA's instruments for the next in a series of missions to chart sea level and improve weather, climate and ocean forecasts have shipped overseas for spacecraft integration.



]]> <![CDATA[ Herschel Space Observatory Finds Galaxy Mega Merger ]]> NASA / JPL science The Making of a Giant Galaxy

A massive and rare merging of two galaxies has been spotted in images taken by the Herschel space observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA participation.



]]> <![CDATA[ Forecast for Titan: Wild Weather Could be Ahead ]]> NASA / JPL science Vast Ligeia Mare in False Color

Two new models with implications for NASA's Cassini mission suggest the onset of spring in Titan's northern hemisphere could bring waves and hurricanes.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Drills Second Rock Target ]]> NASA / JPL science 'Cumberland' Target Drilled by Curiosity

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has used the drill on its robotic arm to collect a powdered sample from the interior of a rock called "Cumberland."



]]> <![CDATA[ Mars Rover Opportunity Examines Clay Clues in Rock ]]> NASA / JPL science Rock Target 'Esperance' Altered by Wet History (False Color)

NASA's senior Mars rover, Opportunity, is driving to a new study area after a dramatic finish to 20 months on "Cape York" with examination of a rock intensely altered by water.



]]> <![CDATA[ Nine-Year-Old Mars Rover Passes 40-Year-Old Record ]]> NASA / JPL science View Back at Record-Setting Drive by Opportunity

NASA's Mars rover Opportunity now holds the record for farthest driving by a NASA vehicle on a world away from Earth, passing a mark set by an Apollo astronaut-driven rover.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Helps Pinpoint Glaciers' Role in Sea Level Rise ]]> NASA / JPL science

A new study of glaciers worldwide from two NASA satellites has helped resolve differences in estimates of how fast glaciers are disappearing and contributing to sea level rise.



]]> <![CDATA[ Galaxy's Ring of Fire ]]> NASA / JPL science Galactic Wheels within Wheels

This ring of fire "burns, burns, burns" with young stars.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Probe Counts Space Rock Impacts on Mars ]]> NASA / JPL science Fresh Cluster of Impact Craters on Mars

Scientists using images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have estimated that the planet is bombarded by more than 200 small asteroids or bits of comets per year.



]]> <![CDATA[ Cassini Shapes First Global Topographic Map of Titan ]]> NASA / JPL science Global Topographic Map of Titan

Scientists have used data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft to map the highs and lows of Titan, Saturn's largest moon.



]]> <![CDATA[ Asteroid 1998 QE2 to Sail Past Earth Nine Times Larger Than Cruise Ship ]]> NASA / JPL science The orbit of asteroid 1998 QE2.

Asteroid 1998 QE2 will get no closer than about 3.6 million miles at time of closest approach on May 31 at 1:59 p.m. Pacific (4:59 p.m. Eastern).



]]> <![CDATA[ Satellites See Double Jeopardy for SoCal Fire Season ]]> NASA / JPL science The quick dry-out of vegetation in Southern California this year is depicted in this pair of images

New insights into two factors that are creating a potentially volatile Southern California wildfire season come from an ongoing project using NASA and Indian satellite data.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Curiosity Rover Team Selects Second Drilling Target on Mars ]]> NASA / JPL science 'Cumberland' Selected as Curiosity's Second Drilling Target

The team operating NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has selected a second target rock for drilling and sampling.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Curiosity Rover Wins Prestigious Awards ]]> NASA / JPL science Team Behind Curiosity Receives Collier Trophy

Two prominent aerospace industry organizations are recognizing the contributions of NASA, especially the achievements of the team that landed NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars in August, with coveted awards.



]]> <![CDATA[ Sifting Through the Atmospheres of Far-off Worlds ]]> NASA / JPL science Planetary Family Portrait

Researchers have begun taking infrared pictures of planets posing near their stars in family portraits.



]]> <![CDATA[ Milky Way Black Hole Snacks on Hot Gas ]]> NASA / JPL science This artist's concept illustrates the frenzied activity at the core of our Milky Way galaxy.

The supermassive black hole at the core of our Milky Way galaxy is gobbling up hot gas, according to a new study from the Herschel space observatory.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA's Spitzer Puts Planets in a Petri Dish ]]> NASA / JPL science An Astronomer's Fantasy: Planets in the Lab

Astronomers are using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to dissect the atmospheres of an exotic class of planets called hot Jupiters.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Opens New Era in Measuring Western U.S. Snowpack ]]> NASA / JPL science Mt. Dana and Dana Plateau in the Tuolumne River Basin within Yosemite National Park, Calif

A new NASA airborne mission is producing the most accurate measurements to date of how much water is in the snowpack of two mountain watersheds in California and Colorado.



]]> <![CDATA[ Mars Rover Social Media, NASA/JPL Website Win Awards ]]> NASA / JPL science NASA's Curiosity Mars rover social media campaign and its Solar System Exploration site

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover social media campaign and the agency's Solar System Exploration website win Webby Awards, the leading honor for the best of the Internet.



]]> <![CDATA[ 'Tis the Season -- for Plasma Changes at Saturn ]]> NASA / JPL science Artist Concept of Particle Population in Saturn's Magnetosphere

NASA's Cassini mission helps reveal seasonal changes in the bubble of charged particles around Saturn, providing a clue to some long-standing mysteries.



]]> <![CDATA[ Opportunity Exits Standby, Back at Work ]]> NASA / JPL science Artist concept of Mars Exploration Rover. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has exited a standby mode and is now executing a sequence of commands sent by the rover team.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Probe Gets Close-Up Views of Large Hurricane on Saturn ]]> NASA / JPL science The Rose

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling around Saturn's north pole.



]]> <![CDATA[ Curiosity Wins National Air and Space Museum Trophy ]]> NASA / JPL science Curiosity's Entry, Descent and Landing Team at National Air and Space Museum

The team in charge of landing NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, received the museum's highest group honor.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Probe Observes Meteors Colliding with Saturn's Rings ]]> NASA / JPL science Meteors Meet Saturn's Rings

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided the first direct evidence of small meteoroids breaking into streams of rubble and crashing into Saturn's rings.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Invites the Public to Fly Along with Voyager ]]> NASA / JPL science Fly Along with Voyager to Interstellar Space

NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft are on the verge of plunging into interstellar space -- the space between stars -- and two new Web tools let the public fly along.



]]> <![CDATA[ Herschel Links Water Around Jupiter to Comet Impact ]]> NASA / JPL science Distribution of Water in Jupiter's Stratosphere

Astronomers trace water in Jupiter's intermediate atmospheric layer back to the famous Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet impact of 19 years ago.



]]> <![CDATA[ Galaxy Goes Green in Burning Stellar Fuel ]]> NASA / JPL science Galaxy Packs Big Star-Making Punch

Astronomers have spotted the most efficient maker of stars yet, a galaxy undergoing a rare phase of evolution.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA's HyspIRI Sees the Forest for the Trees and More ]]> NASA / JPL science The HyspIRI airborne campaign overflew California's San Andreas Fault on March 29, 2013.

As the world celebrates Earth Day 2013, a NASA airborne campaign is busy studying California's ecosystems in a whole new light in preparation for a future satellite mission.



]]> <![CDATA[ Kepler Discovers its Smallest Habitable Zone Planets ]]> NASA / JPL science Kepler-62 and the Solar System

NASA's Kepler mission has discovered two new planetary systems that include three super-Earth-size planets in the "habitable zone."



]]> <![CDATA[ Three From JPL on Time Magazine 'Most Influential' List ]]> NASA / JPL science On a new list of the 100 most influential people on Earth, three work at JPL

On a new list of the 100 most influential people on Earth, three work at the same California address, where they've led projects to study things that are not on Earth.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Mars Orbiters Have New Project Managers ]]> NASA / JPL science New Project Managers for Mars Orbiters

Two NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars, both working long past their original prime missions, have new project managers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.



]]> <![CDATA[ Astronomers Discover Massive Star Factory in Early Universe ]]> NASA / JPL science Artist's Impression of Starburst Galaxy

Busy-bee galaxy seen churning out stars when our universe was just a baby.



]]> <![CDATA[ How to Target an Asteroid ]]> NASA / JPL science Tempel Alive with Light

The hunt is on for methods to aim a spacecraft at an asteroid.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Hosts Media Briefing on Kepler Planetary Discovery ]]> NASA / JPL science Artist's concept of NASA's Kepler space telescope. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA will host a news briefing at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT), Thursday, April 18, to announce new discoveries from the agency's Kepler mission.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA-Funded Asteroid Tracking Sensor Passes Key Test ]]> NASA / JPL science NEOCam Sensor

An infrared sensor that could improve NASA's future detecting and tracking of asteroids and comets has passed a critical design test.



]]> <![CDATA[ Where are the Best Windows Into Europa's Interior? ]]> NASA / JPL science Energy From Above Affecting Surface of Europa

A new look at data from NASA's Galileo mission yields pointers for where on Europa's surface the watery interior of this moon of Jupiter is best revealed.



]]> <![CDATA[ Titan's Methane: Going, Going, Soon to Be Gone? ]]> NASA / JPL science These images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show one of the large seas and a bounty of smaller lakes on Saturn's moon Titan.

NASA's Cassini mission tracks long-lived lakes in Titan's northern hemisphere and finds that the moon's methane may be disappearing.



]]> <![CDATA[ Ice Cloud Heralds Fall at Titan's South Pole ]]> NASA / JPL science Polar Vortex in Color

NASA's Cassini finds a kind of cloud only previously seen at the moon's north pole.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Mars Orbiter Images May Show 1971 Soviet Lander ]]> NASA / JPL science Could This Be the Mars Soviet 3 Lander?

Hardware from a spacecraft that the Soviet Union landed on Mars in 1971 might appear in images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Associate Administrator on Asteroid Initiative ]]> NASA / JPL science NASA's FY2014 budget proposal includes a plan to robotically capture a small near-Earth asteroid

The following are statements from the associate administrators of three NASA directorates.



]]> <![CDATA[ Blame it on the Rain (from Saturn's Rings) ]]> NASA / JPL science Saturn's Ring 'Rain'

A study partially funded by NASA finds that charged-water "rain" from Saturn's rings falls across large swaths of the planet.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA, Mars Curiosity Win Awards for Social Media ]]> NASA / JPL science NASA logo

NASA's official Twitter feed, @NASA, has won its second consecutive Shorty award for the best government use of social media.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Selects 2013 Carl Sagan Fellows ]]> NASA / JPL science The 2013 Carl Sagan Fellows

NASA has announced recipients of the 2013 Sagan Exoplanet Fellowships, a program designed to encourage new talent in exoplanet research.



]]> <![CDATA[ Remaining Martian Atmosphere Still Dynamic ]]> NASA / JPL science This image shows the first holes into rock drilled by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity

Mars has lost much of its original atmosphere, but what's left remains quite active, recent findings from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity indicate.



]]> <![CDATA[ Mapping the Chemistry Needed for Life at Europa ]]> NASA / JPL science Europa Global Views in Natural and Enhanced Colors

A new study led by a NASA researcher provides the first observations of the global distribution of hydrogen peroxide across the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa.



]]> <![CDATA[ Scientists to Io: Volcanoes are in the Wrong Spot ]]> NASA / JPL science Tvashtar in Motion

Unexpected locations of volcanoes provide a clue that we don't fully understand Jupiter's moon Io, a fiery world observed by NASA's Voyager and Galileo spacecraft.



]]> <![CDATA[ Gravity-Bending Find Leads to Kepler Meeting Einstein ]]> NASA / JPL science This artist's concept depicts a dense, dead star called a white dwarf

The light of a red star is warped and magnified by its dead-star companion, as detected by NASA's Kepler space telescope.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Flies Radar South on Wide-Ranging Expedition ]]> NASA / JPL science On March 17, 2013, NASA's Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR)

A versatile NASA airborne imaging radar system is showcasing its broad scientific prowess for studying our home planet during a month-long expedition over the Americas.



]]> <![CDATA[ A Confetti-Like Collection of Stars ]]> NASA / JPL science Taken Under the 'Wing' of the Small Magellanic Cloud

Stars sparkle in this lively new view of the Small Magellanic Cloud from NASA's Great Observatories.



]]> <![CDATA[ Used Parachute on Mars Flaps in the Wind ]]> NASA / JPL science MSL's Parachute Flapping in the Wind

Photos from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show how the parachute that helped NASA's Curiosity rover land on Mars last summer has changed its shape on the ground.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Team Investigates Complex Chemistry at Titan ]]> NASA / JPL science Titan Up Front

A laboratory experiment at JPL simulating the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan suggests another region in the atmosphere that could brew up prebiotic materials.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Sends Unmanned Aircraft to Study Volcanic Plume ]]> NASA / JPL science NASA researchers modified three repurposed Aerovironment RQ-14 Dragon Eye

Like bees buzzing around a hive, three unmanned aircraft were sent by NASA into a Costa Rican volcano's plume last month to study its chemical environment.



]]> <![CDATA[ Hunting Massive Stars with Herschel ]]> NASA / JPL science Churning Out Stars

In a new view of a vast star-forming cloud called W3, the Herschel space observatory tells the story of how massive stars are born.



]]> <![CDATA[ Herschel Completes Its 'Cool' Journey in Space ]]> NASA / JPL science Cool Andromeda

The Herschel observatory, which NASA helped build instruments and process data, has stopped making observations after running out of liquid coolant as expected.



]]> <![CDATA[ Saturn is Like an Antiques Shop, Cassini Suggests ]]> NASA / JPL science Bright Moons

NASA's Cassini spacecraft analyzes the water ice and color distribution in the Saturn system, revealing gently worn, vintage goods.



]]> <![CDATA[ Local High Schools Win in Robotic Smackdown ]]> NASA / JPL science FIRST Robotics Winners

High schools from Los Angeles, Atascadero, Goleta and Beverly Hills are top winners in the Los Angeles regional FIRST Robotics competition.



]]> <![CDATA[ Curiosity Resumes Science Investigations ]]> NASA / JPL science View From Camera Not Used During Curiosity's First Six Months on Mars

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has resumed science investigations after recovery from a computer glitch that prompted a switch to a redundant main computer on Feb. 28.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Scientists Find Moon, Asteroids Share History ]]> NASA / JPL science A Shared Bombardment History

NASA and international researchers have discovered that Earth's moon has more in common than previously thought with large asteroids roaming our solar system.



]]> <![CDATA[ JPL Scientists Reflect on World Water Day ]]> NASA / JPL science World Water Day

On World Water Day (March 22), JPL scientists involved in water-related research reflect on the importance of freshwater.



]]> <![CDATA[ Supercomputer Helps Planck Mission Expose Ancient Light ]]> NASA / JPL science Planck's Super-Duper Computer

How do scientists extract ancient light from the sky? Like archeologists digging for fossils, they carefully sift through foreground material to reveal their prize.



]]> <![CDATA[ Planck Mission Brings Universe Into Sharp Focus ]]> NASA / JPL science Best Map Ever of the Universe

The Planck space mission has released the most accurate and detailed map ever made of the oldest light in the universe, revealing new information about its age, contents and origins.



]]> <![CDATA[ Sun in the Way Will Affect Mars Missions in April ]]> NASA / JPL science Geometry of Mars Solar Conjunction

The positions of the planets next month will mean diminished communications between Earth and NASA's spacecraft at Mars.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Voyager Status Update on Voyager 1 Location ]]> NASA / JPL science Artist's concept of NASA's Voyager spacecraft.

The consensus of the Voyager science team is that Voyager 1 has not yet reached interstellar space.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA News Telecon: Planck Cosmology Findings (Update) ]]> NASA / JPL science An artist's concept of the Planck spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA will host a news teleconference at 8 a.m. PDT (11 a.m. EDT), Thursday, March 21, to discuss the first cosmology results from Planck.



]]> <![CDATA[ Curiosity Rover Exits 'Safe Mode' ]]> NASA / JPL science This self-portrait of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines 66 exposures

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has returned to active status and is on track to resume science investigations, following two days in a precautionary standby status, "safe mode."



]]> <![CDATA[ Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Sees GRAIL's Explosive Farewell ]]> NASA / JPL science Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera image shows the impact site of GRAIL A

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft has imaged the final resting places on the moon of both of NASA's GRAIL spacecraft.



]]> <![CDATA[ Herschel Discovers Some of the Youngest Stars Ever Seen ]]> NASA / JPL science Infant Stars Peek Out from Dusty Cradles

Astronomers have found some of the youngest stars ever seen, thanks to the Herschel space observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA contributions.



]]> <![CDATA[ New Curiosity 'Safe Mode' Status Expected to be Brief ]]> NASA / JPL science This self-portrait of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines 66 exposures taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager

Engineers have quickly diagnosed a software issue that prompted NASA's Mars rover Curiosity to put itself into a precautionary standby status over the weekend.



]]> <![CDATA[ Moon, Mars Science Conference Events to be Streamed ]]> NASA / JPL science Montage of our solar system.

Science conference briefings to be held next week in Houston will be streamed live online.



]]> <![CDATA[ Panorama From NASA Mars Rover Shows Mount Sharp ]]> NASA / JPL science A white-balanced mosaic of Mars' Mt. Sharp from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity

Rising above the present location of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, higher than any mountain in the 48 contiguous states of the United States, Mount Sharp is featured in new imagery from the rover.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA TV News Conference to Discuss Planck Cosmology Findings ]]> NASA / JPL science artist's concept of the Planck spacecraft.

NASA will host a news conference at 8 a.m. PDT (11 a.m. EDT) Thursday, March 21, to discuss the first cosmology results from Planck, a European Space Agency mission with significant NASA participation.



]]> <![CDATA[ Curiosity Mars Rover Sees Trend in Water Presence ]]> NASA / JPL science Hydration Map, Based on Mastcam Spectra, for 'Knorr' Rock Target

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has seen evidence of water-bearing minerals in rocks near where it had already found clay minerals inside a drilled rock.



]]> <![CDATA[ Goldstone Radar Snags Images of Asteroid 2013 ET ]]> NASA / JPL science Radar Images of Asteroid 2013 ET

Scientists capture radar images of asteroid 2013 ET.



]]> <![CDATA[ 'Hot Spots' Ride a Merry-Go-Round on Jupiter ]]> NASA / JPL science Peering Deep into Jupiter's Atmosphere

NASA's Cassini spacecraft tracks the shifting shape of holes in Jupiter's atmosphere over time.



]]> <![CDATA[ Mars Curiosity Lands South by Southwest Interactive Award ]]> NASA / JPL science Veronica McGregor, Stephanie Smith and Courtney O'Connor of JPL accepted the SXSW Interactive Social Media Award.

The down-to-Earth persona of NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has captured the 2013 South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Award for best social media campaign.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Mars Rover Mission Picked for Smithsonian Honor ]]> NASA / JPL science Curiosity Rover's Self Portrait at 'John Klein' Drilling Site

The team in charge of successfully landing NASA's Mars rover Curiosity will receive the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's 2013 Trophy for Current Achievement.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Rover Finds Conditions Once Suited for Ancient Life on Mars ]]> NASA / JPL science Two Different Aqueous Environments

An analysis of a rock sample collected by NASA's Curiosity rover shows ancient Mars could have supported living microbes.



]]> <![CDATA[ Curiosity Rover's Recovery Moving Forward ]]> NASA / JPL science This artist concept features NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity continues to move forward with assessment and recovery from a memory glitch that affected the rover's A-side computer.



]]> <![CDATA[ Closest Star System Found in a Century ]]> NASA / JPL science Two Brown Dwarfs in Our Backyard

NASA's WISE mission has found the closest star system discovered since 1916 -- a pair of brown dwarfs right in our celestial backyard.



]]> <![CDATA[ Cassini Returns Images of Battered Saturn Moon ]]> NASA / JPL science Portrait of a Lady

Craters and a curious feature are visible in images of Rhea returned by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.



]]> <![CDATA[ Cassini Makes Last Close Flyby of Saturnian Moon Rhea ]]> NASA / JPL science NASA's Cassini spacecraft will be flying close to Saturn's moon Rhea on Saturday

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will use its instruments to probe the internal structure of the icy Saturnian moon Rhea.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Briefing on Curiosity's Analysis of Mars Rock ]]> NASA / JPL science This artist's concept features NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover

NASA will hold a news conference at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT), Tuesday, March 12, on the Curiosity rover's analysis of the first sample of rock powder ever collected on Mars.



]]> <![CDATA[ Comet PANSTARRS Rises to the Occasion Mid-March ]]> NASA / JPL science For those in search of comet L4 PANSTARRS, look to the west after sunset in early and mid-March.

A beautiful comet with a bulky name is making an appearance this month for lucky sky-watchers in some parts of the world.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Helps See Buried Mars Flood Channels in 3-D ]]> NASA / JPL science Visualization of Buried Marte Vallis Channels

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has provided images allowing scientists for the first time to create a 3-D reconstruction of ancient water channels below the Martian surface.



]]> <![CDATA[ Herschel to Complete Its Mission Soon ]]> NASA / JPL science Herschel's Cool Universe

The Herschel space observatory is expected to exhaust its supply of liquid helium coolant in the coming weeks, after spending more than three years studying the cool universe.



]]> <![CDATA[ A Window into Europa's Ocean Right at the Surface ]]> NASA / JPL science Taste of the Ocean on Europa's Surface

A study partially funded by NASA finds evidence of ocean salt on Europa's surface.



]]> <![CDATA[ Comet to Make Close Flyby of Red Planet in October 2014 ]]> NASA / JPL science This computer graphic depicts the orbit of comet 2013 A1 (Siding Spring) through the inner solar system.

New observations of comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) have allowed NASA's Near-Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. to further refine the comet's orbit.



]]> <![CDATA[ Curiosity Rover's Recovery on Track ]]> NASA / JPL science Curiosity Rover's Self Portrait at 'John Klein' Drilling Site

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has transitioned from precautionary "safe mode" to active status on the path of recovery from a memory glitch last week.



]]> <![CDATA[ Cassini Spies Bright Venus From Saturn Orbit ]]> NASA / JPL science Earth's Twin Seen From Saturn

A distant world gleaming in sunlight, Earth's twin planet, Venus, shines like a bright beacon in images taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn.



]]> <![CDATA[ Computer Swap on Curiosity Rover ]]> NASA / JPL science This artist concept features NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover

The ground team for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has switched the rover to a redundant onboard computer in response to a memory issue on the computer that had been active.



]]> <![CDATA[ What Lies Beneath: NASA Antarctic Sub Goes Subglacial ]]> NASA / JPL science A video camera on a NASA-designed-and-funded mini-submarine captured this view as it descended a 2,600-foot-deep

A mini-submarine designed and funded by NASA played a key role in a recent international expedition to explore a remote subglacial lake beneath the frozen Antarctic ice sheet.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA's NuSTAR Helps Solve Riddle of Black Hole Spin ]]> NASA / JPL science Black Holes: Monsters in Space

Two X-ray space observatories have measured definitively, for the first time, the spin rate of a black hole with a mass 2 million times that of our sun.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA's Aquarius Sees Salty Shifts ]]> NASA / JPL science NASA has released the first full year of validated ocean surface salinity data from the agency's Aquarius

The seasonal stirrings of our salty world are revealed by the first full year of ocean surface salinity data captured by NASA's Aquarius instrument.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Announces New CubeSat Space Mission Candidates ]]> NASA / JPL science Artist's concept of the Interplanetary NanoSpacecraft Pathfinder In Relevant Environment (INSPIRE) CubeSat project.

NASA has selected 24 small satellites, including three from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to fly as payloads aboard rockets planned to launch in 2014, 2015 and 2016.



]]> <![CDATA[ Lab Instruments Inside Curiosity Eat Mars Rock Powder ]]> NASA / JPL science The left Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity took this image of Curiosity's sample-processing

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has delivered sample portions of rock powder collected from the interior of a rock on Mars into laboratory instruments inside the rover.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA Hosts Media Teleconference About Black Hole Studies ]]> NASA / JPL science Artist's concept of NuSTAR in orbit.

NASA will host a Feb. 27 news telecon about black hole observations by its NuSTAR telescope and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray telescope.



]]> <![CDATA[ NASA and JPL Contribute to European Jupiter Mission ]]> NASA / JPL science The JUpiter ICy moons Explorer mission, JUICE

NASA has selected key contributions to a 2022 European Space Agency mission to study Jupiter and three of its largest moons.



]]>