Latest Discovery program Stories

WASHINGTON, April 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Findings from NASA's Dawn spacecraft reveal new details about the giant asteroid Vesta, including its varied surface composition, sharp temperature changes and clues to its internal structure. The findings were presented today at the European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna, Austria and will help scientists better understand the early solar system and processes that dominated its formation. (Logo:...

NASA's Dawn mission has received official confirmation that 40 extra days have been added to its exploration of the giant asteroid Vesta, the second most massive object in the main asteroid belt. The mission extension allows Dawn to continue its scientific observations at Vesta until Aug. 26, while still arriving at the dwarf planet Ceres at the same originally scheduled target date in February 2015. "We are leveraging our smooth and successful operations at Vesta to provide for even more...

The MESSENGER mission successfully completed the first of two maneuvers designed to reduce the spacecraft's orbital period about Mercury. This new trajectory will pave the way for more detailed measurements and targeted observations of the Sun's closest neighbor. The spacecraft was 124 million kilometers (77 million miles) from Earth when the 188-second maneuver began at 3:13 p.m. EDT. Mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md.,...

NASA is extending three missions affiliated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. -- Kepler, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the U.S. portion of the European Space Agency's Planck mission -- as a result of the 2012 Senior Review of Astrophysics Missions. The 2012 NASA Senior Review report, which includes these three missions and six others also being extended, is available at: http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/2012-senior-review/ . "This means scientists can continue...

BOULDER, Colo., April 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Kepler Mission for NASA will continue its mission following a program extension through 2016. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120405/LA83355) Ball Aerospace is the mission prime contractor for Kepler, designed to search for Earth-size planets around other stars. Ball Aerospace built the photometer and spacecraft, and managed system integration and test for the NASA Ames Research...

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, halfway to Mars, adjusted its flight path today for delivery of the one-ton rover Curiosity to the surface of Mars in August. Tests completed aboard Curiosity last week confirmed the health of science instruments the mission will use to learn whether an area holding an extensive record of Martian environmental history has ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life. In the second of six planned trajectory correction maneuvers during...

The traditional picture of comets as cold, icy, unchanging bodies throughout their history is being reappraised in the light of analyses of dust grains from Comet Wild2. A team led by the University of Leicester has detected the presence of iron in a dust grain, evidence of space weathering that could explain the rusty reddish colour of Wild2’s outer surface. The results will be presented by Dr John Bridges at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester on Tuesday 27th March. The Wild2...

NASA said on Thursday that one of its twin Grail spacecrafts has returned the first student-requested picture of the moon. Fourth grade students from the Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Montana received the honor of making the first image selections by winning a competition to rename the two spacecraft to Ebb and Flow. The first image was taken by the MoonKAM, or Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students. Over 60 student-requested images to be taken by the Ebb spacecraft...

WASHINGTON, March 22, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- One of two NASA spacecraft orbiting the moon has beamed back the first student-requested pictures of the lunar surface from its onboard camera. Fourth grade students from the Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Bozeman, Mont., received the honor of making the first image selections by winning a nationwide competition to rename the two spacecraft. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The image was taken...

WASHINGTON, March 21, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Dawn spacecraft has revealed unexpected details on the surface of the giant asteroid Vesta. New images and data highlight the diversity of Vesta's surface and reveal unusual geologic features, some of which were never previously seen on asteroids. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Vesta is one of the brightest objects in the solar system and the only asteroid in the so-called main belt between...