Astronomers have discovered two gas giant planets orbiting stars in the Beehive cluster, a collection of about 1,000 tightly packed stars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA-funded astronomers have, for the first time, spotted planets orbiting sun-like stars ... More »
David Hsieh, an assistant professor of physics, is one of Caltech’s newest faculty members. Hsieh grew up in Hong Kong before hopping the Pacific to earn his BS in physics and mathematics in 2003 from Stanford. Hsieh then received his PhD from Princeton in... More »
Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover, was prepped for pre-launch survival testing under Martian conditions in JPL’s space simulator on March 8, 2011. The sealed chamber was pumped down to the near-vacuum of Mar’s atmosphere, and chilled to –130°C by... More »
On September 11, 1997, the Mars Global Surveyor slipped into orbit around the Red Planet. Like JPL’s Mariner and Viking missions before it, MGS (as it was affectionately known) fundamentally changed our view of Mars. First came the flybys, each of which return... More »
Say ‘Ahh’ on Mars This set of images from NASA’s Curiosity rover shows the inlet covers for the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument opening and closing, as the rover continues to check out its instruments in the first phase after landing. Image credit: NASA/JPL... More »
Ancient Mars, like Earth today, was a diverse planet shaped by many different geologic processes. So when scientists, using rovers or orbiting spacecraft, detect a particular mineral there, they must often consider several possible ways it could have been ma... More »
This artist concept features NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, a mobile robot for investigating Mars’ past or present ability to sustain microbial life. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA will host a media teleconference at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. E... More »
Observations by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have detected carbon-dioxide snow clouds on Mars and evidence of carbon-dioxide snow falling to the surface. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter data have given scientists the cle... More »
A hypothetical planet is depicted here moving through the habitable zone and then further out into a long, cold winter. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Astronomers have discovered a veritable rogues’ gallery of odd exoplanets — from scorching hot worlds with m... More »
As JPL’s Dawn spacecraft takes off for its next destination, this mosaic synthesizes some of the best views the spacecraft had of the giant asteroid Vesta. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCAL/MPS/DLR/IDA JPL’s Dawn mission is releasing two parting views of the... More »
NASA’s free “Earth-Now” app, now available for Android as well as iPhone, immerses cyber explorers in dazzling visualizations of near-real-time global climate data from NASA’s fleet of Earth science satellites, bringing a world of ever-changing climate data to... More »
This view of the lower front and underbelly areas of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity combines nine images taken by the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the 34th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s work on Mars (Sept. 9, 2012). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Ca... More »
