Solar System Exploration: Solar System 101: Homework Helper

HOMEWORK HELPER

Our Home Planet
Earth is an ocean planet. Our home world's abundance of water -- and life -- makes it unique in our solar system. Other planets, plus a few moons, have ice, atmospheres, seasons and even weather, but only on Earth does the whole complicated mix come together in a way that encourages life -- and lots of it.

News

Features

People

Extreme Facts

Dictionary

1 2

Show All

Bright Explosion on the Moon
NASA researchers who monitor the Moon for meteoroid impacts have detected an explosion ten times brighter than anything they've seen before.

Regenerative Fuel Cells, Energy Storage Systems for Space Applications
This talk provides an introduction to fuel cells and regenerative fuel cell systems. It also highlights the features of this technology for enabling future NASA missions to the moon, near-Earth asteroids and Mars.

There and Back Again: The Migration of Robotic Arm Technology from Mars to Earth
This talk provides an overview of the challenges of the design and use of Curiosity's robotic arm and is followed by a description of those same challenges faced by JPL's RoboSimian robot, which will compete in the Robotic Challenge.

Geoengineering and Climate Intervention: What We Need to Know
This talk covers the motivations and risks of geoengineering and what can be done to support informed decision-making.

Prime Time for PANSTARRS
This week is prime time for observing this comet. (Next opportunity, the year 108,013 +/- a few hundred or thousand years.)

Record Setting Asteroid Flyby
On Feb. 15th an asteroid about half the size of a football field will fly past Earth closer than many man-made satellites. Since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s, astronomers have never seen an object so big come so close to our planet.

Comet of the Century?
Later this year, "Comet ISON" could blossom into a striking naked eye object visible even in broad daylight.

Earth at Perihelion
In January, our planet made its annual closest approach to the sun. But don't expect things to warm up.

ISS Transit of Venus
High above Earth, astronaut Don Pettit is preparing to photograph the June 5th Transit of Venus from space itself. The Expedition 31 crew will be the first people in history to see a Venus transit from space.

A New Count of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids
Observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have led to the best assessment yet of our solar system's population of potentially hazardous asteroids.

Impacts Could be Boon for Subterranean Life

Research... at a Glance

Impacts Could be Boon for Subterranean Life
A drilling project into the Chesapeake Bay impact structure has found evidence that the subsurface may become more habitable after a large impact

Rubber Chicken Flies into Solar Radiation Storm
Launching a rubber chicken into a solar storm might sound strange, but the students had good reason: They're doing an astrobiology project.

Raindrops in Rock
A new study published in Nature from NASA's Exobiology and Evoluationary Biology program investigators and their colleagues looks at fossilized raindrops and what they indicate about conditions on the early Earth.

Solar Eclipse over the USA
Mark your calendar. On Sunday, May 20th, the sun is going to turn into a ring of fire. It's an annular solar eclipse--the first one in the USA in almost 18 years.

50 Years of Robotic Planetary Exploration: Fran Bagenal (Professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder and Co-Investigator for the New Horizons Mission)
We asked them and here is what the experts had to say about the last 50 years of planetary robotic exploration.

Kepler Discovers Earth-size Exoplanets
NASA's Kepler spacecraft has found two Earth-sized planets orbiting a distant sun-like star.

Super-sized Lunar Eclipse
On Saturday morning, Dec. 10th, sky watchers in the western United States and Canada will witness a total lunar eclipse swollen to super-sized proportions by the Moon illusion.

Stories of Missions Past: Early Explorers
On September 29, 2011, NASA announced the short list for five potential new "Explorer class" spacecraft. These missions are by definition small and relatively inexpensive, designed to be led by a small team.

1 2

Show All

1 2

Show All

Bright Explosion on the Moon
NASA researchers who monitor the Moon for meteoroid impacts have detected an explosion ten times brighter than anything they've seen before.

Geoengineering and Climate Intervention: What We Need to Know
This talk covers the motivations and risks of geoengineering and what can be done to support informed decision-making.

Prime Time for PANSTARRS
This week is prime time for observing this comet. (Next opportunity, the year 108,013 +/- a few hundred or thousand years.)

Comet of the Century?
Later this year, "Comet ISON" could blossom into a striking naked eye object visible even in broad daylight.

Earth at Perihelion
In January, our planet made its annual closest approach to the sun. But don't expect things to warm up.

Research... at a Glance

Impacts Could be Boon for Subterranean Life
A drilling project into the Chesapeake Bay impact structure has found evidence that the subsurface may become more habitable after a large impact

Rubber Chicken Flies into Solar Radiation Storm
Launching a rubber chicken into a solar storm might sound strange, but the students had good reason: They're doing an astrobiology project.

Solar Eclipse over the USA
Mark your calendar. On Sunday, May 20th, the sun is going to turn into a ring of fire. It's an annular solar eclipse--the first one in the USA in almost 18 years.

Kepler Discovers Earth-size Exoplanets
NASA's Kepler spacecraft has found two Earth-sized planets orbiting a distant sun-like star.

1 2

Show All