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Solar System: Things to Know This Week

Our solar system is huge, so let us break it down for you. Here are five things you need to know this week:

1. The Lure of the Rings

Scientists and stargazers alike can’t resist the call of Saturn’s rings, or of its moon Titan. Both have been under close scrutiny by the Cassini spacecraft lately, and there are striking new pictures to prove it. Check out the latest images HERE.

2. A New Moon Rises

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured dramatic landscapes on the moon for more than six years. “A New Moon Rises,” now on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, showcases those images ranging from Apollo landing sites to mountains that rise out of the darkness of the lunar poles. See an online version of the exhibit HERE.  

3. Around the (Giant) World in (Just Under) 88 Days

The Juno mission is closing in on Jupiter. On July 4, the spacecraft enters orbit around the king of planets. Learn more about Juno HERE.

4. Spiders and Volcanoes and Glaciers, Oh My

The more data that New Horizons spacecraft sends down about Pluto and its moons, the more there is to fascinate explorers, from spider-shaped canyons to signs of glacial flow. Take a peek at the new finds on Pluto HERE.

5. World of Wonders

Hexagonal craters, mysterious mountains, eye-catching bright patches — the dwarf planet Ceres is proving to be an intriguing place. The Dawn mission is looking for clues to how it works. See the latest from Ceres HERE.

Want to learn more? Read our full list of the 10 things to know this week about the solar system HERE.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Furbonacci Sequence Proves That Cats Are Purrfect

This is Pumpkin

Our sister galaxy

Andromeda Rising

Yep, dope haha!

(via)

Life on an Icy Moon

Jupiter’s moon Europa is the size of the Earth’s moon, and yet it holds more than twice as much water as all of Earth’s oceans combined. Europa’s salty ocean covers the entire surface, and the crust is completely frozen over because the moon is 780,000,000 km from the sun and has an average temperature of -160 degrees Celsius. The icy moon’s orbit is eccentric, orbiting in an oval instead of a circle, and so Jupiter’s enormous gravitational pull constantly squeezes and stretches the moon, creating constant motion and likely the surface cracks too. This tidal heating generates warmth, which creates a significant chance that this distant ocean is harboring life. Radiation from Jupiter’s magnetosphere could destroy life at shallow depths, but new research suggests that there’s oxygen available in the subsurface ocean that could support oxygen-based metabolic processes. Scientists must now determine how deep such organisms must hide in order to avoid radiation, and therefore how deep we need to go to find them. The icy crust might be hundreds of metres or even kilometres thick, and so sending a probe through the surface would be difficult, but we have to try, because Europa is one of the best potential sources for extraterrestrial life in the solar system.

Read more—could the oceans be too acidic for life?

Hubbles Jupiter and the Amazing Shrinking Great Red Spot

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