Space News & Blog Articles

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Dust Storms on Mars Generate Static Electricity. What Does This Do to Its Surface?

Dust storms are a serious hazard on Mars. While smaller storms and dust devils happen regularly, larger ones happen every year (during summer in the southern hemisphere) and can cover continent-sized areas for weeks. Once every three Martian years (about five and a half Earth years), the storms can become large enough to encompass the entire planet and last up to two months. These storms play a major role in the dynamic processes that shape the surface of Mars and are sometimes visible from Earth (like the 2018 storm that ended the Opportunity rover’s mission).

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Can a Venus Lander Survive Longer Than a Few Minutes?

Sending a lander to Venus presents several huge engineering problems. Granted, we’d get a break from the nail-biting entry, descent and landing, since Venus’ atmosphere is so thick, a lander would settle gently to the surface like a stone settles in water — no sky cranes or retrorockets required.

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NASA rover snaps photos of ancient 'waves' carved into Mars mountainside

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has photographed clear signs of ripples locked into a Martian rock, a sign of an ancient lake on the Red Planet's surface.

SpaceX will attempt 1st Starship orbital flight in March: report

SpaceX says it's ready for its first-ever Starship orbital launch attempt in March, but still lacks a license to launch from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Watch the moon meet up with Jupiter in the night sky tonight

The two-day-old moon meets up with Jupiter tonight (Feb. 22), making a close approach and sharing the same right ascension in an arrangement known as a conjunction.

Kerbal Space Program 2 trailer wants you to 'Fail harder' and 'Add more boosters'

Now you can launch and crash vehicles for Kerbonauts in new and spectacular ways in the sequel releasing to the popular Kerbal Space Program space game Friday (Feb. 24).

Subsurface ocean tides on Saturn's moon Titan are influenced by its icy crust

Scientists examine how Titan's icy shell creates tides in the moon's subsurface ocean.

The James Webb Space Telescope discovers enormous distant galaxies that should not exist

The James Webb Space Telescope found massive, mature galaxies inhabiting the universe so soon after the Big Bang that according to current theories they really shouldn't exist.

Blue Origin makes solar cells out of simulated moon dirt with 'alchemist' project

Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' private spaceflight company, claims it has made major progress in developing a way to make solar panels using materials from the lunar surface.

Have Scientists Found a Rogue Supermassive Black Hole?

An unusual stellar streak emerging from a distant galaxy might be a sign of a runaway supermassive black hole, scientists suggest.

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Hubble Space Telescope peers into a glittering sea of extragalactic stars (photo)

A new Hubble Space Telescope image highlights a region in the dwarf satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud that is rich in stars.

Mars helicopter Ingenuity’s historic 1st flights shed light on Martian dust dynamics

Scientists analyzing videos of Ingenuity’s historic first flights on Mars are learning more about dust behavior on the Red Planet.

In the wake of shadows: the legacy of Babylon 5

As we pass the show's 30th anniversary, we look back at the enduring legacy of Babylon 5, one of sci-fi's most underrated shows.

Watch Russia launch replacement Soyuz to International Space Station on Thursday (Feb. 23)

Crewmembers on the International Space Station are awaiting the fresh spacecraft, which will replace a leaky Soyuz currently docked with the orbiting complex.

See the moon and Venus dance together in Wednesday evening's sky

On Wednesday (Feb. 22), the moon and Venus will make a close approach and also reach conjunction, which happens when they share the same right ascension.

Cosmic Conjunction: Jupiter Meets Venus on March 1st

The two brightest planets pass less than half a degree apart at dusk during a spectacular conjunction on the night of March 1st.

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Farming on the Moon

Image: Farming on the Moon

Meteorites are Contaminated Quickly When They Reach Earth

On Earth, geologists study rocks to help better understand the history of our planet. In contrast, planetary geologists study meteorites to help better understand the history of our solar system. While these space rocks put on quite the spectacle when they enter our atmosphere at high speeds, they also offer insights into both the formation and evolution of the solar system and the planetary bodies that encompass it. But what happens as a meteorite traverses our thick atmosphere and lands on the Earth? Does it stay in its pristine condition for scientists to study? How quickly should we contain the meteorite before the many geological processes that make up our planet contaminate the specimen? How does this contamination affect how the meteorite is studied?

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SpaceX, NASA delay Crew-6 astronaut launch to Feb. 27

SpaceX and NASA have pushed the launch of the Crew-6 astronaut mission by a day to Feb. 27, allowing more time to investigate several minor issues.

Colliding black holes 'ring' across space-time with gravitational wave ripples

A new model suggests how gravitational waves created by the collision between black holes spread and interact within the fabric of space-time.


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