• Curiosity's first three bites into martian ground

    Mars Soil Sample Delivered for Analysis Inside Rover

    10.18.12 - NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has ingested its first solid sample into an analytical instrument inside the rover, a capability at the core of the two-year mission.

  • Left: The sun on Feb. 24, 2011 as observed by SDO.

    Heliophysics Nugget: Gradient Sun

    10.18.12 - Science and art techniques are often quite similar, indeed each area often helps improve techniques in the other. One such case is a technique known as a 'gradient filter' used to examine fine structures on the sun.

  • Images in the visible-light and infrared parts of the spectrum highlight the massive changes roiling the atmosphere of Jupiter

    Turmoil From Below, Battering From Above

    10.17.12 - NASA scientists are observing Jupiter's appearance – its clouds, belts, hotspots, fireballs – change in unprecedented ways.

  • Titan's Hot Cross Bun

    What's Baking on Titan?

    10.16.12 - NASA's Cassini spacecraft spots curious surface features on Saturn's largest moon, including a "hot-cross bun" and outlines of vast southern seas.

  • Artist's concept of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover

    NASA to Host Mars Curiosity Rover Teleconference Oct. 18

    10.16.12 - NASA will host a media teleconference at noon PDT (3 p.m. EDT) on Thursday, Oct. 18, about the latest status of the Curiosity rover's mission to Mars.

  • This image contributed to an interpretation by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity science team that some of the bright particles on the ground near the rover are native Martian material.

    Rover's Second Scoop Discarded, Third Scoop Commanded

    10.15.12 - Commands will be sent to Curiosity today instructing the rover to collect a third scoop of soil from the "Rocknest" site of windblown Martian sand and dust.

  • Artist concept of Cassini at Saturn. Image credit: NASA/JPL

    A Long and Winding Road: Cassini Celebrates 15 Years

    10.15.12 - It's been 3.8 billion miles and a trunk full of memories for NASA's Cassini spacecraft, launched 15 years ago today.

  • Trojan Colors Revealed (Artist's Concept)

    NASA's WISE Colors in Unknowns on Jupiter Asteroids

    10.15.12 - Observations from NASA's WISE all-sky survey reveal new clues about Jovian Trojans, mysterious asteroids that orbit in front of and behind Jupiter in its path around the sun.

  • JPL's Battle Mountain meteorite hunters. Pictured from left to right: Peter Willis, Amanda Stockton, Josh Schoolcraft, Fernanda Mora, Morgan Cable, J.P. Kirby.

    How to Hunt a Space Rock

    10.12.12 - A team of scientists from JPL needed some space. When a large fireball turned night into day over Battle Mountain, Nev. they knew they had their chance.

  • This 360-degree scene shows the surroundings of the location where NASA Mars rover Curiosity arrived on the 59th Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Oct. 5, 2012).

    Curiosity Preparing for Second Scoop

    10.12.12 - On Sol 65 (Oct. 11, 2012) of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity completed several activities in preparation for collecting its second scoop of soil.