NASA JPL Archives

NASA’s largest planetary mission spacecraft, Europa Clipper, arrives at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 23. Credit: NASA/Isaac Watson

Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Europa, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Europa Clipper Astrobiology Probe Arrives At Kennedy Space Center

by Keith CowingMay 27, 2024May 27, 2024

NASA’s Europa Clipper, a spacecraft designed to investigate Jupiter’s icy moon Europa and its potential to support life, arrived in Florida on Thursday, May 23. The spacecraft, assembled at NASA’s […]

At JPL on May 17, members of the Roman Coronagraph Instrument team use a crane to lift the top portion of the shipping container that the instrument was stored in for its journey to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Planet Hunting Coronagraph Update

by Keith CowingMay 22, 2024May 22, 2024

A technology demo on the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help increase the variety of distant planets scientists can directly image.

Career Opportunities, Citizen Science / Open Science, Courses, Education and Outreach, Europa, Missions & Hardware, People Of Astrobiology, Press Release

NASA Selects Students for Europa Clipper Intern Program

by Keith CowingMay 3, 2024May 27, 2024

NASA has selected 40 undergraduate students for the first year of its Europa ICONS (Inspiring Clipper: Opportunities for Next-generation Scientists) internship program, supporting the agency’s Europa Clipper mission. Europa ICONS […]

Interns working in JPL’s Origins and Habitability Lab grow fingerlike mineral structures like the one shown here to simulate oceans on early Earth — and possibly other planets. By studying how these structures form in the lab, scientists hope to learn more about potential life-creating chemical reactions. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Career Opportunities, Courses, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release

Students At Underserved Institutions Intern In JPL’s Origins And Habitability Lab

by Keith CowingApril 27, 2024

At the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, interns from Cal State LA are learning key skills studying the origins of life.

Artist’s illustration of one of the Voyager spacecraft. Credit: Caltech/NASA-JPL

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Interstellar, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Tricorders & Sensors

Interview With CBC About The Voyager 1 Interstellar Software Repair

by Keith CowingApril 24, 2024April 24, 2024

Editor’s note: I just spoke with CBC News in Ottawa, Canada about the recent software repair conducted from Earth onboard the Voyager 1 interstellar space probe. [Interview Audio]

Venus. Full size: https://flic.kr/p/2pLPdrS Credit: ESA/DLR/VMC/AndreaLuck CC BY

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Fossils & Paleontology, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Magnetic Fields, Electromagnetism, bioelectricity,, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release, Venus

To Find Life In The Universe, Look To Deadly Venus

by Keith CowingApril 23, 2024April 23, 2024

Despite surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead, lava-spewing volcanoes, and puffy clouds of sulfuric acid, uninhabitable Venus offers vital lessons about the potential for life on other planets, a […]

Filled with briny lakes, the Quisquiro salt flat in South America's Altiplano represents the kind of landscape that scientists think may have existed in Gale Crater, which NASA's Curiosity rover is exploring. This salt flat is located in Chile, though the Altiplano sprawls across countries. Streams and rivers flowing from mountain ranges into this arid, high-altitude plateau lead to closed basins similar to Mars' ancient Gale Crater. Lakes on the Altiplano are heavily influenced by climate in the same way as Gale. -- NASA

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Tricorders & Sensors

Why Is Methane Seeping on Mars? NASA Scientists Have New Ideas

by Keith CowingApril 23, 2024April 23, 2024

A recent paper may help explain why a portable chemistry lab on NASA’s Curiosity rover has continually sniffed out traces of the gas near the surface of Gale Crater.

Core components of EELS robot, including perception head, shape actuators that connect each body segment, screws attached to each module, and the tether for data and electrical power transfer. -- NASA

Enceladus, Europa, Icy Worlds, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

EELS: Autonomous Snake-like Robot With Task And Motion Planning Capabilities For Ice World Exploration

by Keith CowingApril 10, 2024April 10, 2024

Ice worlds are at the forefront of astrobiological interest because of the evidence of subsurface oceans. Enceladus in particular is unique among the icy moons because there are known vent […]

Water ice on the surface of Europa is dissociated by radiolysis to form O2 and H2. These gases can migrate both inwards towards the subsurface ocean or escape the surface by thermal desorption or direct sputtering to form its atmosphere. The lighter H2 occupies a more extended region than heavier O2, which remains closer to the surface. A portion of the neutrals in the atmosphere are ionized and picked up by the magnetospheric plasma. Juno observes these PUIs, with the relative abundances driven by the various processes described here. The radiolysis dissociation inset was adapted from ref. 2. Particles shown are O2 (blue), H2 (pink) and H2+ (grey). -- NASA/Nature Astronomy

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Europa, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Jupiter, Press Release

Juno Measures The Rate Of Oxygen Production At Europa

by Keith CowingMarch 4, 2024March 4, 2024

Scientists with NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter have calculated the rate of oxygen being produced at the Jovian moon Europa to be substantially less than most previous studies.