This site is maintained by the Planetary Science Communications team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Goddard Space Flight Center for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

The Perseid meteor shower, which peaks in mid-August, is considered the best meteor shower of the year. With swift and bright meteors, Perseids frequently leave long "wakes" of light and color behind them as they streak through Earth's atmosphere.

NASA Mars lander felt the ground shake during the impact while cameras aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted the yawning new crater from space. Stunning New Meteoroid Impact on Mars

Jan 9, 2025 · The ongoing identification of several meteorite candidates on Mars is ushering in a new discipline in the planetary sciences. We feel that cultivating an appreciation for the potential science return represented by meteoritic specimens on Mars and the Moon may be important for the 2013-2022 decade.

Jul 16, 2018 · Dawn’s data confirmed previous telescopic measurements that showed HED meteorites, like those pictured here, came from Vesta. Above are polarized light micrographs of two eucrite meteorites (left and center) and one diogenite meteorite (right). Credit: NASA/University of Tennessee.

Jan 9, 2025 · NASA’s real-time science encyclopedia of deep space exploration. Our scientists and far-ranging robots explore the wild frontiers of our solar system.

Feb 13, 2018 · A piece of a meteorite called Sayh al Uhaymir 008 (SaU008) will be carried on board NASA's Mars 2020 rover mission, now being built at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. This chunk will serve as target practice for …

Aug 16, 2018 · Dawn’s gravity data confirm this hypothesis. Dawn also confirmed another hypothesis -- that howardite-eucrite-diogenite meteorites (HED), a class of meteorites that makes up a whopping 6 percent of those found on Earth -- originated at Vesta.

Panel Selection: Primitive Bodies: Asteroids, comets, Phobos, Deimos, Pluto/Charon and other Kuiper belt objects, meteorites, and interplanetary dust. Institution: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Jun 9, 2021 · Source: Image Credit: USGS (left) NASA/ASU (right) Published: June 9, 2021 Space objects have battered planetary surfaces in our solar system since its formation.