Comets are famous for their expansive, colorful, and stunning tails of gas, ice, rock, and various other material. These tails occur as a comet’s icy nucleus is heated as it nears the Sun, releasing ice gases during a process called “outgassing.”
Outgassing is not limited to comets, though. Some moons, such as Jupiter’s Ganymede, and other icy bodies in our solar system can be heated enough to release gases.
An international planetary defense mission involving NASA and ESA will now include two CubeSats. APEX (Asteroid Prospection…
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has began a seven-year round trip to the asteroid Bennu on Thursday,…
NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) standing committee has presented the NASA Advisory Council with…
When NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) launches next decade, the flight will not only be…
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has completed assembly operations at its Lockheed Martin construction site in Denver,…
An international effort to work on the challenges associated with deep space communications is continuing…
In the face of political uncertainty and public apathy, NASA is beginning to push the…
Two robotic missions, aimed at gaining further understanding into the threat of asteroids, passed major…
NASA experts are evaluating the use of a modified version of the famous Space Shuttle…
The proposed mission to send two astronauts to a captured asteroid near the Moon won’t occur until…
Two new missions under the NEEMO (NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) program have been announced,…
NASA has begun to define the approach towards capturing a space rock that will be…
Space Launch System (SLS) managers are conducting a feasibility study into the use of a…
Concerns have again been raised about NASA’s shaky exploration roadmap, with the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel…
Europe’s galactic survey spacecraft, Gaia, recently arrived at its deep space location, ahead of conducting its…
On track for their respective debuts, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion feature front…
NASA teams are exploring the possibility of launching Orion into a High Elliptical Orbit (HEO),…
Just months after changing Exploration Mission -2 (EM-2) into an asteroid rendezvous mission, NASA managers…
The House Science space subcommittee’s 2013 Authorization Act intends to refocus NASA’s exploration path towards…