Space News & Blog Articles

Satellite megaconstellations are quickly becoming the backbone of a number of industries. Cellular communication, GPS, weather monitoring and more are now, at least in part, reliant on the networks of thousands of satellites cruising by in low Earth orbit. But, as these constellations grow into the tens of thousands of individual members, the strain they are putting on the communications and controls systems of their ground stations is becoming untenable. A new paper from Yuhe Mao of the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and their co-authors hopes to alleviate some of that pressure by offloading much of the control scheme and network decision-making logic to satellites themselves.

Let’s start out with something that we can say for certain: we live in an expanding universe. Every single day, the universe gets a little bit bigger than it was the day before. But right away, when we say something like “we live in an expanding universe” certain questions start to pop up, and they’re far and away the most common kinds of questions that I get asked. If the universe is expanding, then what is it expanding into? And what is it expanding from? Where’s the edge of the universe, and where is it’s center?

Human beings are pretty familiar with the concept of "ice ages." Not only is their ample physical evidence to suggest that glacial periods occurred during the Pleistocene epoch - which lasted from ca. 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago, there are even Indigenous oral traditions that speak of lake formation and dramatic climate shifts in the distant past. Far from being mere myths, these traditions are considered preserved accounts that are corroborated by scientific findings. However, the cycles of glacial and interglacial periods that characterize the Pleistocene were merely the latest in a long line of historical shifts in Earth's climate.

I have to confess, despite spending years gazing at the night sky, telescope at the ready, tracking planets and hunting for deep sky objects, I only actually saw the Man in the Moon about five years ago. There I was, exploring lunar maria and highland regions, and I'd somehow never noticed what humans have been seeing for millennia.

Interstellar objects are really rather rare. Since astronomers first spotted 'Oumuamua racing through our Solar System in 2017, we've detected only two more visitors from beyond; comet Borisov in 2019, and now 3I/ATLAS, discovered on 1 July 2025. These objects offer tantalising glimpses into other stellar systems, carrying material formed around distant stars. But they don't linger. They sweep through on hyperbolic trajectories, never to return, which makes every observation precious.