IRON AND ICE - RADAR DAILY

Little Lander That Could: The Legacy of Philae

Apr 19, 2016 (SPX)

Philae, the little lander that was declared lost by the European Space Agency (ESA), has achieved pretty much despite of its relatively short operational life o...

UCF gets grant to plan for space mining on NASA mission

Apr 18, 2016 (SPX)

UCF physics professor Dan Britt has been named to the New Horizons mission team as the spacecraft heads to the Kuiper Belt. He's also just landed a grant to hel...

Glass beads, meteorite fragments hold secret to working on asteroids

Apr 12, 2016 (SPX)

The secret to planetary formation and working on asteroids lies in a handful of glass beads and meteorite fragments. These materials are the main component for ...

SwRI-led team identifies clathrate ices in comet 67P

Apr 12, 2016 (SPX)

For decades, scientists have agreed that comets are mostly water ice, but what kind of ice - amorphous or crystalline - is still up for debate. Looking at data ...

The colour-changing comet

Apr 11, 2016 (ESA)

Rosetta's comet has been seen changing colour and brightness in front of the ESA orbiter's eyes, as the Sun's heat strips away the older surface to reveal fresh...

Asteroid-Hunting Spacecraft Delivers a Second Year of Data

Apr 06, 2016 (JPL)

NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission has released its second year of survey data. The spacecraft has now characterized a total ...

One year on station at Ceres

Apr 05, 2016 (JPL)

One year after taking up its new residence in the solar system, Dawn is continuing to witness extraordinary sights on dwarf planet Ceres. The indefatigable expl...

Comet Flying by Earth Observed with Radar and Infrared

Mar 25, 2016 (JPL)

Astronomers were watching when comet P/2016 BA14 flew past Earth on March 22. At the time of its closest approach, the comet was about 2.2 million miles (3.5 mi...

Comet 252P LINEAR Soars Into Predawn View This Week

Mar 25, 2016 (SPX)

Astronomers who scan the skies for returning comets are often disappointed. Sometimes these icy visitors from the fringes of our planetary system end up being m...

Bright spots and color differences revealed on Ceres

Mar 23, 2016 (JPL)

Scientists from NASA's Dawn mission unveiled new images from the spacecraft's lowest orbit at Ceres, including highly-anticipated views of Occator Crater, at th...

GRaND Seeks Subsurface Water Ice on Ceres

Mar 23, 2016 (SPX)

The Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector (GRaND) aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft is mapping the elemental composition of Ceres in a low altitude orbit, about 240 miles ...

Rosetta finds magnetic field-free bubble at comet

Mar 21, 2016 (ESA)

ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has revealed a surprisingly large region around its host comet devoid of any magnetic field. When ESA's Giotto flew past Comet Halley t...

A 'Tail' of Two Comets

Mar 21, 2016 (JPL)

Two comets that will safely fly past Earth later this month may have more in common than their intriguingly similar orbits. They may be twins of a sort. Comet P...

Unexpected changes of bright spots on Ceres discovered

Mar 18, 2016 (JPL)

Ceres is the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and the only such object classed as a dwarf planet. NASA's Dawn spacecraft has been in o...

As Cold as Ice and as Old as the Sun: Cool Findings on Comet Churi

Mar 15, 2016 (Sputnik)

Temperatures are warming up in the world of astronomy after a team of researchers discovered ice crystals on a comet, suggesting it could be as old as the solar...

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in thermal vacuum testing

Mar 10, 2016 (SPX)

The first U.S. mission to collect a sample of an asteroid and return it to Earth for study is undergoing a major milestone in its environmental testing. NASA's ...

Comet's age revealed by the type of ice it carries

Mar 09, 2016 (UPI)

New research suggests 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is roughly the same age as the solar system, which is approximately 4.568 billion years old. According to scient...

Dawn's First Year at Ceres: A Mountain Emerges

Mar 08, 2016 (JPL)

One year ago, on March 6, 2015, NASA's Dawn spacecraft slid gently into orbit around Ceres, the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Sinc...

Don't Panic: asteroid won't hit Earth but will get close

Mar 02, 2016 (SPX)

The asteroid 2013 TX68 will come fairly close to Earth in early March, but the exact time and distance of its closest approach will not be known until after the...

Small Asteroid to Pass Close to Earth March 8

Feb 28, 2016 (JPL)

Additional observations of asteroid 2013 TX68 have been obtained, refining its orbital path and moving the date of the asteroid's Earth flyby from March 5 to Ma...