LPL Spotlight Stories

Small near-Earth asteroids are important targets of study because not much is known about them. By characterizing the smallest of the bunch, scientists can better understand the population of objects from which they originate: large asteroids, which have a much smaller likelihood of impacting Earth. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

It's a Bird … It's a Plane … It's the Tiniest Asteroid!

By Daniel Stolte, University Communications - November 30, 2016 Astronomers have obtained observations of the smallest asteroid ever characterized in

 In this image of Pluto taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, different colors represent different compositions of surface ices, revealing a surprisingly active body. (Image: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)

Cracked, Frozen and Tipped Over: New Clues From Pluto's Past

By Daniel Stolte, University Communications - November 16, 2016 Sputnik Planitia, a 1,000-kilometer-wide basin within the iconic heart-shaped region observed
An artist’s concept of the Psyche spacecraft, a proposed mission for NASA’s Discovery program that would explore the huge metal Psyche asteroid from orbit (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Psyche: Unexpected Discoveries on a Metal World

By Daniel Stolte, University Communications - October 21, 2016 Astronomers have discovered possible evidence for water on the surface of

 An artist's illustration of Planet Nine, a hypothesized Neptune-size planet orbiting in the distant reaches of our solar system (Illustration: Robert Hurt/Caltech)

More Evidence for 9th Planet on Solar System's Fringes

By Daniel Stolte - University Communications, October 21, 2016 As the search for a hypothetical, unseen planet far beyond Neptune's
Artist's rendition of the Mars Odyssey.

Boynton's Mission to Mars, 30 Years in the Making

By Emily Litvack, October 17, 2016 Before his life's work got to Mars, Bill Boynton toiled, witnessed an explosion, and

 The Moon Tree, an American sycamore, is one of 64 that still survive after being planted in the wake of the Apollo 14 lunar mission.

The Life of the 'Moon Tree' on Campus

By Emily Litvack, University Relations - Communications, October 28, 2015 The year was 1971. Led Zeppelin was on a whirlwind
Picture of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

In a Hubble First, UA Astronomers Take Images of an Exoplanet Changing Over Time

By Emily Litvack - February 18, 2016 Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers at the University of Arizona have taken
The actual mechanism causing asteroids to disrupt is still unknown but some obvious scenarios such as tidal forces caused by the Sun and direct sublimation of silicates have been ruled out. One of the remaining scenarios is that volatiles inside the asteroid sublimate at moderate temperatures and create enough pressure to blow up the body. A similar process on a smaller scale called spalling can also break up surface rocks. Credit: Lauri Voutilainen

Catalina Sky Survey Helps Explain Puzzling Observations

By University Relations - Communications, February 19, 2016 The ultimate fate of most near-Earth objects, or NEOs - asteroids and
Mars as it may have looked like billions of years ago: Vast plumes of ash and water vapor billow into the atmosphere from the Tharsis region (on the right), a massive bulge of volcanic activity that created the tallest mountains in the solar system. Meanwhile, an icy ring of precipitation carves out valleys and canyons around a ring just south of the Martian equator. (Image: Didier Florentz)

The Reason for Mars' Tumultuous Past

By Daniel Stolte, University Relations - Communications, March 4, 2016 Deep below the surface of the withered, dead and barren
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shortly before swinging into orbit around Mars ten years ago. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

HiRISE: 45,000 Mars Orbits and Counting

By University Relations - Communications, March 23, 2016 True to its purpose, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO, the spacecraft