Humans have long dreamed of setting foot on Mars or beyond, and the advances by companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin means perhaps the dream could be closer than ever to becoming reality. But as it stands now, sending astronauts on long-duration missions to other worlds would be impossible because of the hazardous radiation levels in space, outside of Earth’s protective magnetic field.
In the coming decade, NASA plans to conduct the first crewed missions to Mars. Whereas robotic missions have provided images of the Martian surface for decades, this will be the first time human beings experience the Red Planet directly. In anticipation of these missions, NASA and its commercial partners (Epic Games and Buendea) have come together with HeroX – the leading platform for crowdsourced solutions – to launch the NASA MarsXR Challenge.
Want to take a look at some black hole binary systems? Well then NASA’s got your back with this stunning visual showing 22 confirmed systems.
Lunar exploration has advanced considerably in the last two decades, with more countries sending robotic orbiters, landers, and rovers to the surface than ever before. These missions have taught us much about the Moon’s geological evolution, composition, environment, and resources. In a few years, this information will prove vital as NASA sends the first astronauts to the Moon since the Apollo Era (as part of the Artemis Program). They will be followed by many more crewed missions, which will eventually lead to the creation of lunar bases.
Spin Google Earth around until you’re looking down at the nation of Oman. Ancient rock in that country is the backdrop for a new study with consequences for our search for life. Water reacts with this rock to produce hydrogen, which could be an energy source for bacteria. Could this happen on other worlds?
The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter is providing scientists a look at what is on the road ahead for the Perseverance rover. And acting as a scout, Ingenuity can tell the team what places to avoid, too.
Despite decades of study, black holes remain one of the most powerful and mysterious celestial objects ever studied. Because of the extreme gravitational forces involved, nothing can escape the surface of a black hole (including light). As a result, the study of these objects has traditionally been confined to observing their influence on objects and spacetime in their vicinity. It was not until 2019 that the first image of a black hole was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).
A gamma-ray view of the sky centered on the core of the Milky Way Galaxy. Could strange spinning neutron stars explain a mysterious excess of gamma radiation emanating from the core region? That’s one possibility astronomers are discussing. Courtesy NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration
A black hole in an x-ray binary system pulls material away from its neighbor star and into its accretion disk. Credit: Aurore Simonnet and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Rocket Lab has just joined SpaceX in the club of space companies that can launch an orbital-class rocket booster and bring it back alive.
In April of 2019, the international astronomical consortium known as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) made headlines worldwide when it announced the first-ever image of a black hole. Specifically, the image showed the glowing disk surrounding the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of the M87 galaxy. In 2021, they followed up on this by acquiring an image of the core region of the Centaurus A galaxy and the radio jet emanating from it.
The images released by the James Webb Space Telescope team last week aren’t officially ‘first light’ images from the new telescope, but in a way, it feels like they are. These stunning views provide the initial indications of just how powerful JWST will be, and just how much infrared astronomy is about to improve.
If there are so many galaxies, stars, and planets, where are all the aliens, and why haven’t we heard from them? Those are the simple questions at the heart of the Fermi Paradox. In a new paper, a pair of researchers ask the next obvious question: how long will we have to survive to hear from another alien civilization?
This is reminiscent of going down slide on the playground – and then immediately getting back in line to go down again. Except in space.
In the coming decade, NASA and China plan to send the first crewed missions to Mars. This will consist of both agencies sending spacecraft in 2033, 2035, 2037, and every 26 months after that to coincide with Mars being in “Opposition” (i.e., when Earth and Mars are closest in their orbits). The long-term aim of these programs is to establish a base on Mars that will serve as a hub that accommodates future missions, though the Chinese have stated that they intend for their base to be a permanent one.
All kinds of challenges will face the first humans to travel to Mars. One that has been much discussed, with no potential solution yet, is the potential for a significant amount of bone density loss on the three-year mission. Astronauts lose about 1% of their bone density per month in the microgravity of the ISS. That’s not too big of a deal if they are only on the station for six months, but the two 10-month space trips of a mission to the red planet could be a concern. Now a team of researchers think they have a solution – have the astronauts eat more salad.
There’s an old joke that the dinosaurs are only extinct because they didn’t develop a space agency. The implication, of course, is that unlike our reptilian ancestors, we humans might be able to save ourselves from an impending asteroid strike on Earth, given our six-and-a-half decades of spaceflight experience. But the fact is that while we have achieved amazing things since Sputnik kicked off the space age in 1957, very little effort thus far has gone into developing asteroid deflection technologies. We are woefully inexperienced in this arena, and aside from our Hollywood dramatizations of it, we’ve never yet put our capabilities to the test. But that’s about to change.
Name someone who at some point in their life didn’t want to be an astronaut. The answer is no one. Ask any kid what they want to be when they grow up and they all say an astronaut. Being an astronaut is the ultimate dream job for everyone of all ages. Why? Because you get to go to space, and there’s nothing cooler than going into space. For context, even if you’re not a sports fan you have watched the Super Bowl at least once in your life. It is one of the most watched and most lauded sports championship games in the entire world, and yet despite all its media attention and halftime shows and all-time great finishes, the Super Bowl still holds a candle to being able to go to space. Eat your heart out, Tom Brady. Going into space is just awesome, and there’s nothing like it.
Collapsing ice shelves on the eastern coast of Antarctica has revealed something never seen before: a landform that might be an island. But this is not the first newly revealed island off the Antarctic coast. A series of islands have appeared as the ice shelves along the continent’s coastline has disintegrated over the past few years.
Sometime in the next couple of decades, humans will head to Mars for long-term missions of more than 400 days. Such lengthy stays mean building Martian cities, complete with safe habitats, labs, and other infrastructure. Future Martians will have to do a lot to survive. They’ll build their cities, make their own food, distill water, create fuel, manufacture medicines, and create other supplies. To do that, they’ll use manufacturing facilities that they bring along. That all requires power. Lots of it. As we all know, Mars is noticeably lacking in obvious ways to make electricity. So, what will our intrepid explorers do to generate power for their new lives on the Red Planet?
Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is a fascinating and mysterious world, a world literally shrouded in mystery due to thick clouds that cameras imaging in the visible spectrum cannot penetrate. This was made apparent when NASA’s Pioneer 11 became the first spacecraft to fly past Titan in 1979, and then NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 in 1980 and 1981, respectively. All three spacecraft were equipped with cameras that were unable to penetrate Titan’s atmosphere of thick clouds, although atmospheric data from Voyager 1 suggested Titan might be the first body, aside from Earth, where liquid might exist on its surface.
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