Ingenuity's handlers are preparing the little chopper for operation in the bitter cold of Martian winter, as nighttime temperatures have begun to drop below its design parameters.
Space News & Blog Articles
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An Unusual Source Deepens Fast Radio Burst Mysteries
A new source of fast radio bursts raises questions about how much we really know about these mysterious flares.
Discovery of second repeating fast radio burst raises new questions
An international team of astronomers have discovered a second persistently active fast radio burst, posing questions about the nature of the mysterious phenomena.
Why does the moon look close some nights and far away on other nights?
One summer evening when I was a child, I remember being mystified and then startled at a huge round shape slowly creeping up behind my friend Nancy’s house, which sat on a hill on the other side of our village.
Airbus sending 3D printer to space station next year to pave way for off-Earth factories
European aerospace company Airbus will send a 3D printer to the International Space Station next year as a first step in its plans to set up an orbital satellite factory.
Russia wants to restart Germany's black-hole searching space telescope
Russia wants to restart a German black-hole searching telescope aboard a Russian satellite; the telescope was mothballed on German orders in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Tau Herculid Meteors Surprise and Delight
We touch on the highlights of the memorable Tau Herculid meteor shower and also report on the recent outburst of the recurrent nova U Scorpii.
Live coverage: SpaceX counting down to Egyptian satellite launch
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Egyptian Nilesat 301 communications satellite. Follow us on Twitter.
Charting sea level from space
Video: 00:12:21
Satellite images of our planet have become essential to our survival, offering a new outlook of our world. With rising seas being one of the biggest threats to society, satellite altimeter missions such as Copernicus Sentinel-6 are essential in monitoring global and regional changes in sea level.
Comet Interceptor approved for construction
ESA’s Comet Interceptor mission to visit a pristine comet or other interstellar object just starting its journey into the inner Solar System has been ‘adopted’ this week; the study phase is complete and, following selection of the spacecraft prime contractor, work will soon begin to build the mission.
The Matrix movies, ranked worst to best
He is the one, two, three, four and five as we look at the the Matrix movies, ranked worst to best.
The Matrix movies in order
Watch The Matrix movies in order, and see just how far the rabbit hole goes.
Watch SpaceX launch a communications satellite, land rocket on ship at sea today
SpaceX will launch a communications satellite and land the returning rocket on a ship at sea on Wednesday (June 8), and you can watch the action live.
Ukrainian startup conducts new tests for engine of 'self-devouring' rocket
Ukrainian rocket company Promin Aerospace, which is currently developing an ultralight, autophagic launch vehicle, has conducted a new series of studies on its unique engine.
Hubble Space Telescope's largest-ever infrared image peers back 10 billion years
The largest near-infrared image of galaxies ever taken by the Hubble Space Telescope has revealed potential targets for the James Webb Space Telescope.
Mars sleeps with one eye open
This scarred and colourful (by martian standards!) landscape shows part of Aonia Terra, an upland region in the southern highlands of Mars. The image was taken by ESA’s Mars Express on 25 April 2022.
Space-enabled 5G links Japan and Europe
Engineers have connected Japan and Europe via space-enabled next-generation 5G telecommunication links. It is the first time that such an intercontinental connection has been established between Europe and Japan.
Cosmic Dawn Ended 1.1 Billion Years After the Big Bang
We’re all familiar with the famous opening of the TV show “The Big Bang Theory”. It’s a song that begins with the verse: “The whole Universe was in a hot dense state…” performed by the BareNakedLadies band. Turns out it’s not just a cute line. The Ladies are right—it describes exactly what was going on with the Universe a long time ago. After the Big Bang, the cosmos was an intensely hot, dense, rapidly expanding soup of plasma. It was also in a cosmic “dark age” because there were no sources of light. It was just… well… dark. And hot.
These Galaxies are Definitely Living in a Simulation
Studying the universe is hard. Really hard. Like insanely, ridiculously hard. Think of the hardest thing you’ve ever done in your life, because studying the universe is quite literally exponentially way harder than whatever you came up with. Studying the universe is hard for two reasons: space and time. When we look at an object in the night sky, we’re looking back in time, as it has taken a finite amount of time for the light from that object to reach your eyes. The star Sirius is one of the brightest objects in the night sky and is located approximately 8.6 light-years from Earth. This means that when you look at it, you’re seeing what it looked like 8.6 years ago, as the speed of light is finite at 186,000 miles per second and a light year is the time it takes for light to travel in one year. Now think of something way farther away than Sirius, like the Big Bang, which supposedly took place 13.8 billion years ago. This means when scientists study the Big Bang, they’re attempting to look back in time 13.8 billion years. Even with all our advanced scientific instruments, it’s extremely hard to look back that far in time. It’s so hard that the Hubble Space Telescope has been in space since 1990 and just recently spotted the most distant single star ever detected in outer space at 12.9 billion light-years away. That’s 30 years of scanning the heavens, which is a testament to the vastness of the universe, and hence why studying the universe is hard. Because studying the universe is so hard, scientists often turn to computer simulations, or models, to help speed up the science aspect and ultimately give us a better understanding of how the universe works without waiting 30 years for the next big discovery.
Curiosity Sees Bizarre Spikes on Mars
In August 2012, the Curiosity rover landed in the Gale Crater on Mars and began exploring the surface for indications of past life. The rover made some profound discoveries during that time, including evidence that the crater was once a huge lakebed and detecting multiple methane spikes. The rover has also taken images of several interesting terrain features, many of which went viral after the photos were shared with the public. Time and again, these photos have proven that the tradition of seeing faces or patterns in random objects (aka. pareidolia) is alive and well when it comes to Mars!
Ingenuity has Lost its Sense of Direction, but It’ll Keep on Flying
Things are getting challenging for the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars. The latest news from Håvard Grip, its chief pilot, is that the “Little Chopper that Could” has lost its sense of direction thanks to a failed instrument. Never mind that it was designed to make only a few flights, mostly in Mars spring. Or that it’s having a hard time staying warm now that winter is coming. Now, one of its navigation sensors, called an inclinometer, has stopped working. It’s not the end of the world, though. “A nonworking navigation sensor sounds like a big deal – and it is – but it’s not necessarily an end to our flying at Mars,” Grip wrote on the Mars Helicopter blog on June 6. It turns out that the controllers have options.
