Moons

Over the past few days, NASA has released stunning photos of nebulae, groups of galaxies and even the "deepest" view of the universe taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. Now, the agency has released images of something much closer to home that everyone's new favorite telescope — sorry, Hubble! — has captured. When the James Webb team was calibrating the instrument, members took photos of Jupiter to see if it can be used to observe nearby celestial objects like moons and asteroids, as well other elements like planet…

Astronomers frequently produce images and make discoveries that take us by surprise and leave us wondering what else the universe could be hiding. Black holes are an example of an object with a lot of promise for astronomical discoveries. Scientists have now created the most detailed image of radio emission from the closest supermassive black hole to the Earth. This near-light-speed eruption spreads eight degrees across the sky when observed from the Earth. This suggests that the eruption could span the length of 16 full…

Aerospace engineers are always looking for newer ways to support their experiments on extra-terrestrial bodies like the Moon and asteroids. One of the main impediments to their work is the lack of energy sources to continue using an equipment for a longer duration. So, MIT researchers are trying a new concept to harness the Moon's natural charge to keep hovering rovers in the air. In the absence of an atmosphere, the Moon and asteroids build an electric field through direct exposure to the Sun. On the Moon, this strong…

On the eve of this new era of moon landings, a slew of fresh studies of PSRs have revealed that these shadowed regions are even stranger than scientists imagined. What will we find lurking in the shadows?“I don’t know what we’re going to see,” said Robinson, the lead scientist for next year’s robotic mission. “That’s the coolest thing.”Water, Water, EverywhereSpeculation about PSRs dates back to 1952, when the American chemist Harold Urey first hypothesized their existence on the moon. “Near its poles there may be…

Io, a volcanically active moon orbiting Jupiter.Image: NASA/Newsmaker (Getty Images)There are just eight planets in our Solar System (sorry Pluto), so the neighborhood can feel pretty empty. But there are over 200 moons orbiting objects in the solar system,including planets and large asteroids.Many of these moons have atmospheres, complex topography, and even weather systems. They are dynamic, volcanic, and exquisite objects for space agencies trying to learn more about the diversity of planetary bodies and their…

NASA's Juno mission made its 39th close flyby of Jupiter recently and captured an incredible image of the planet's southern hemisphere. However, a closer look at the image also revealed two more heavenly bodies nearby — Jupiter's moons Io and Europa. Juno made the close fly in mid-January this year but NASA released the image last week. At the time this image was taken, Juno spacecraft was about 61,000km from Jupiter's cloud tops, at a latitude of about 52 degrees south. It sent the raw data to the ground-based control…