Solar System Exploration

• 16 Aug 2010 - Move Over Caravaggio: Cassini’s Light and Dark Moons

  16 Aug 2010 - Move Over Caravaggio: Cassini’s Light and Dark Moons
  NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has returned Saturnian moon images from its flyby late last week, revealing light and dark contrasts worthy of chiaroscuro painters like Caravaggio.
  

• 5 Aug 2010 - Planets Align for the Perseid Meteor Shower

  5 Aug 2010 - Planets Align for the Perseid Meteor Shower
  You know it’s a good night when a beautiful alignment of planets is the second best thing that’s going to happen.
  

• 31 Jul 2010 - Waiting for Spirit

  31 Jul 2010 - Waiting for Spirit
  "It will be the miracle from Mars if our beloved rover phones home," said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program in Washington. "It’s never faced this type of severe condition before - this is unknown territory."
  

• 29 Jul 2010 - James Webb Space Telescope Completes Cryogenic Mirror Test

  29 Jul 2010 - James Webb Space Telescope Completes Cryogenic Mirror Test
  Recently, six James Webb Space Telescope beryllium mirror segments completed a series of cryogenic tests at the X-ray & Cryogenic Facility at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
  

• 27 Jul 2010 - New Horizons Looks Back

  27 Jul 2010 - New Horizons Looks Back
  New Horizons has given us another glimpse of old friend Jupiter, this time from a vantage point more than 16 times the distance between Earth and the Sun, and almost 1000 times as far away as when New Horizons reconnoitered Jupiter.
  

• 26 Jul 2010 - Dawn Journal

  26 Jul 2010 - Dawn Journal
  Dawn is flying smoothly through the asteroid belt, now less than a year from entering orbit around Vesta, the first of its two cosmic destinations.
  

• 23 Jul 2010 - Growing Curiosity

  23 Jul 2010 - Growing Curiosity
  Talk about a growth-spurt. In one week, Curiosity grew by approximately 1 meter (3.5 feet) when spacecraft technicians and engineers attached the rover’s neck and head (called the Remote Sensing Mast) to its body.
  

• 23 Jul 2010 - NASA Spacecraft Camera Yields Most Accurate Mars Map Ever

  23 Jul 2010 - NASA Spacecraft Camera Yields Most Accurate Mars Map Ever
  Mars Odyssey spacecraft has helped develop the most accurate global Martian map ever. Explore and survey the entire surface of the Red Planet.
  

• 22 Jul 2010 - Juno Armored for Jupiter

  22 Jul 2010 - Juno Armored for Jupiter
  Juno is basically an armored tank going to Jupiter. Without its protective shield, or radiation vault, Juno’s brain would get fried on the very first pass near Jupiter.
  

• 20 Jul 2010 - Video Camera Will Show Mars Rover’s Touchdown

  20 Jul 2010 - Video Camera Will Show Mars Rover’s Touchdown
  A downward-pointing camera on the front-left side of NASA’s Curiosity rover will give adventure fans worldwide an unprecedented sense of riding a spacecraft to a landing on Mars.