NASA
NASA Science
Solar System Exploration
Skip Navigation
Solar System
Our Solar System
Sun
Kuiper Belt
Oort Cloud
Beyond Our Solar System
Our Solar System
Sun
Kuiper Belt
Oort Cloud
Beyond Our Solar System
Planets
About Planets
PLANETS
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
DWARF PLANETS
Pluto
Ceres
Makemake
Haumea
Eris
HYPOTHETICAL
Planet X
About Planets
PLANETS
Mercury
Venus
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Neptune
DWARF PLANETS
Pluto
Ceres
Makemake
Haumea
Eris
HYPOTHETICAL
Planet X
Moons
About Moons
BY DESTINATION
Earth (1)
Mars (2)
Jupiter (79)
Saturn (62)
Uranus (27)
Neptune (14)
Pluto (5)
About Moons
BY DESTINATION
Earth (1)
Mars (2)
Jupiter (79)
Saturn (62)
Uranus (27)
Neptune (14)
Pluto (5)
Asteroids, Comets & Meteors
About Asteroids, Comets & Meteors
BY TYPE
Meteors & Meteorites
Asteroids
Comets
About Asteroids, Comets & Meteors
BY TYPE
Meteors & Meteorites
Asteroids
Comets
More
News
Resources
Raw Images
People
Missions
Science Goals
Technology Reports
Kids
Interactives
Basics of Space Flight
Solar System Ambassadors
Scientist for a Day
News
Resources
Raw Images
People
Missions
Science Goals
Technology Reports
Kids
Interactives
Basics of Space Flight
Solar System Ambassadors
Scientist for a Day
Orrery
Resources
High-Altitude Clouds
Published:
September 17, 2004
High-Altitude Clouds
ENLARGE
Related
We know what the Red Planet looks like from the outside – but what's going on under the surface of Mars?
Mars in a Minute: What's Inside Mars?
This colorful spectrogram represents data collected by Cassini's Radio and Plasma Wave Science instrument as it crossed through Saturn's D ring on May 28, 2017.
Cassini's First D-Ring Crossing
Ring World Highlights
Ring World Highlights
Trouble pronouncing Rosetta and Philae's target comet? We called in some expert help.
They called it CG
This short animation created by Cassini's mission planning team shows the spacecraft's final orbits - starting with the Ring-Grazing orbits in November 2016 and transitioning to the Grand Finale or...
Cassini's Ring-Grazing and Grand Finale Orbits
Unedited version of the stellar occultation video.
Stellar Occultation Video
NASA's Cassini spacecraft, in orbit around Saturn for nearly 13 years, is beginning its Grand Finale — and it's thanks to some Crazy Engineering! A team of engineers called astrodynamicists use ma...
Crazy Engineering: Astrodynamics
This video takes viewers on a virtual tour of Vesta's south polar basin, the 'snowman' set of craters and a crater called Oppia.
Touring Vesta's Craters
Rotating asteroids have a tough time sticking to their orbits. Their surfaces heat up during the day and cool down at night, giving off radiation that can act as a sort of mini-thruster.
How Sunlight Pushes Asteroids
Animation of Cassini's final orbit, leading to a pass by the moon Titan which sends the spacecraft plunging into Saturn on Sept. 15, 2017.
Cassini's Final Orbit
After decades of exploration, Voyager 1 reaches a historic milestone for mankind, interstellar space.
Voyager Reaches Interstellar Space
The Dawn spacecraft visited the asteroid 4 Vesta for the time period May 3, 2011 to Sept. 5, 2012.
Dawn's Approach to Vesta
Go, Atlas. Go, Centaur. Go, InSight! NASA's InSight mission launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base for Mars on May 5, 2018—the first interplanetary launch from the West Coast.
InSight Mission to Mars Launch
Eleven years in the life of the Sun, spanning most of solar cycle 23.
Solar Cycle
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Mapping Bennu
This animation, from Cassini's navigation team, shows the spacecraft's final orbits in 2016 and 2017.
Final Orbits: Cassini Grand Finale (Animation)
Spacecraft at JPL
Spacecraft at JPL
This time-lapse video captures a portion of the path that tiny Phobos takes around Mars.
Hubble Sees Phobos Orbiting Mars
This movie created from images obtained by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows a propeller-shaped structure created by a hidden, embedded moon moving through one of Saturn's rings.
Propeller Churns the A Ring
A large sunspot was the source of a powerful solar flare and a coronal mass ejection (Sept. 6, 2017). The flare was the largest solar flare of the last decade. For one thing, it created a strong sh...
Major Solar Flare
Glowing like a neon lasso, Saturn’s aurora is seen spinning above Saturn’s north pole over the course of most of a Saturn day in this movie made from multiple images taken by the ultraviolet imagin...
Ultraviolet Aurora Movie
This computer-generated view shows the view from the perspective of the Cassini spacecraft as it dives between the rings and Saturn's cloud tops.
Cassini Dive Ride Along
What can you see in the April sky? The Moon visits Mars in the evening, and later joins Saturn and Jupiter for a spot of tea. Also, how to find Polaris, the North Star.
What's Up: April 2019 Skywatching from NASA
This animation shows the geocentric phase, libration, position angle of the axis, and apparent diameter of the Moon throughout the year 2019, at hourly intervals. The imagery is based on actual dat...
Moon Phase and Libration, 2019
A mission concept to explore Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus.
Titan Saturn System Mission
You Might Also Like
NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter made the first definitive detection of a planetary magnetic that changes over time, a phenomenon called secular variation.
NASA's Juno Finds Changes in Jupiter's Magnetic Field
NASA’s New Horizons mission team has published the first profile of the farthest world ever explored, a planetary building block and Kuiper Belt object called 2014 MU69.
NASA's New Horizons Team Publishes First Kuiper Belt Flyby Science Results
The Next Full Moon is a Blue Moon, the Flower Moon, the Corn Planting Moon, the Milk Moon and Buddha Purnima.
May 2019: The Next Full Moon is a Blue Moon
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) completed 60,000 orbits around the Red Planet at 10:39 a.m. PDT (1:39 p.m. EDT) on May 15, 2019.
60,000 Orbits for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
A photo from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the landing site of the Israeli Beresheet spacecraft on a region of the Moon called Sea of Serenity.
Beresheet Impact Site Spotted
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine sent a video message to agency employees Monday about the president’s fiscal year 2020 budget amendment, which will support accelerated plans to land astronauts on the Moon by 2024.
NASA Highlights Moon 2024 Mission with FY 2020 Budget Amendment
