Video: 00:01:20
Europe’s first MetOp Second Generation, MetOp-SG-A1, weather satellite – which hosts the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission – has launched aboard an Ariane 6 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket lifted off on 13 August at 02:37 CEST (12 August 21:37 Kourou time).
Ushering in a new era of weather and climate monitoring from polar orbit, the first in a new series of satellites, MetOp Second Generation, has been lofted into orbit aboard an Ariane 6 rocket from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. As part of this new satellite’s sophisticated instrument package is the new Copernicus Sentinel-5 instrument, which is designed to deliver critical data on air pollutants, ozone and climate-related gases.
United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket roared off the pad at Space Launch Complex 41 to begin the USSF-106 mission for the U.S. Space Force. This was the first national security launch using a Vulcan rocket and the 101st national security mission for ULA. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now
United Launch Alliance fired off it’s first fully operational Vulcan rocket Tuesday, boosting two military satellites into space in the first Space Force-sanctioned flight of a new launcher that eventually will replace the company’s Atlas 5 and already-retired Deltas.
A team of scientists have made a discovery that could help solve one of Earth's greatest mysteries, where did our planet's water come from? Using powerful radio telescopes, the researchers have detected water vapour in a comet located far beyond Neptune's orbit, and the results are changing our understanding of how life sustaining water arrived on our world.
Lava planets are some of Nature's most perplexing objects. Though they're rocky, they're locked in orbits so tight to their stars that they're molten. Scientists think that these planets are almost certainly tidally locked to their stars, meaning that their daysides always face their stars, while their nightsides never do. As a result, a lava planet's dayside may be molten while its nightside may not be.
For decades, astronomers have searched for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence using radio telescopes and optical instruments, scanning the skies for artificial signals. Now, researchers are taking a different approach, this time looking much closer to home for alien artefacts that might already be in our Solar System.
Astronomers at the Pan-STARRS Observatory in Hawaii made history in 2017 when they detected 'Oumuamua, the first interstellar object (ISO) ever observed. Two years later, the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov became the second ISO ever observed. And on July 1st, 2025, the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Rio Hurtado detected a third interstellar object in our Solar System, the comet now known as 3I/ATLAS (or C/2025 N1 ATLAS). Like its predecessors, the arrival of this object has fueled immense scientific interest and led to proposals for missions that could rendezvous with future ISOs.
To celebrate Alien: Earth landing on Hulu, we asked a zoologist if any of the Xenomorph's infamous characteristics occur in the natural world
The company is also looking at using its mothership aircraft that releases spacecraft at high altitude as a carrier platform for other customers.
With just one year until the total solar eclipse of 2026, we take a look at everything you need to know for the ultimate eclipse adventure.
Marine protected areas cover more than 8% of the world's oceans today, but they can get a bad rap as being protected on paper only.
The annual Perseid meteor shower will peak overnight Tuesday (Aug. 12), and you can enjoy the event live online with the Virtual Telescope Project's webcast.
Alien: Earth's two-episode premiere is released today and you can watch it anywhere with our exclusive 79% off NordVPN deal, but you'll have to hurry.
Europe's Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket will launch for the third time ever tonight (Aug. 12), and you can watch the action live.
A conceptual mission known as "Persephone" could explore Pluto and its moons for 50 years — if it ever gets funded and approved.
3I/ATLAS, our third discovered interstellar visitor, has been in the news a lot lately for a whole host of reasons, and rightly so given the amount of unique scientific data different groups and telescopes have been collecting off of it. A new pre-release paper from researchers at the Auburn University Department of Physics recounts yet another interesting aspect of the new visitor - its water content.
Astronomers at the South African MeerKAT observatory have discovered the most distant flash of radio waves to date, most likely stemming from activity around a magnetar.
United Launch Alliance is set to launch an experimental navigation satellite on the first national security mission of its new Vulcan Centaur rocket on Aug. 12. Watch it live here.
Test out your knowledge of these famous firsts in skywatching and astrophotography, from the first photos of Earth and the moon to the invention of telescopes!
The Tarantula nebula was recently captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, where the Scylla program helped create the colored image of this star-forming area.
Nicknamed 'Punctum,' this puzzling phenomenon is highly energetic, but is only seen in millimeter-wavelength light and cannot be explained by any known object.
All Rights Reserved. 2025. SpaceZE.com
