Just outside the Milky Way Galaxy, roughly 210,000 light-years from Earth, there is the dwarf galaxy known as the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Measuring about 18,900 light-years in diameter and containing roughly 3 billion stars, the SMC and its counterpart – the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) – orbit the Milky Way as satellite galaxies. Scientists are particularly interested in these satellites because of what they can teach us about star formation and the process where galaxies evolve through mergers, which is something the Milky Way will do with these two galaxies someday.
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'Star Wars Outlaws' enters our galaxy this week! Watch the new launch trailer (video)
A new launch trailer has arrived at Gamescom 2024 for Ubisoft's "Star Wars Outlaws," which will be available on Aug. 30.
Event Horizon Telescope Pushes Toward Sharper Images
The worldwide network of radio dishes has achieved the highest resolution ever obtained from Earth’s surface.
Is There a Low-Radiation Path To Europa?
Any mission to Jupiter and its moons must contend with the gas giant’s overwhelming radiation. Only a judicious orbital pattern and onboard protective measures can keep a spacecraft safe. Even then, the powerful radiation dictates a mission’s lifespan.
NASA's DART asteroid crash really messed up its space rock target
DART appears to have derailed its asteroid target from its normal evolution progress. The impact also made a crater.
Salsa's last dance: This European satellite will fall from space soon in a spicy reentry
On Sept. 8, 2024, a satellite named Salsa will re-enter the atmosphere and burn up safely over a hand-picked region of the South Pacific — if all goes to plan.
Why the 1st private lunar lander failed
Astrobotic says the Peregrine lunar lander, aka the first private moon mission, failed because of a faulty valve.
James Webb Space Telescope finds 6 wandering 'rogue' planets that formed just like stars
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has discovered half a dozen rogue planets, one of which apparently hosts a newly forming moon system.
How Can Astronauts Avoid Vision Loss from Spaceflight?
Human bodies are sacks of fluids supported by skeletons. The entire human organism has evolved over billions of years on Earth in harmony with the planet’s specific gravity. But when astronauts spend too much time on the ISS in a microgravity environment, the organism responds, the fluids shift, and problems can occur.
The Local Bubble: How our solar system got caught up in a cosmic crime scene
The Local Bubble is a region of surprisingly low-density gas that surrounds our solar system and other nearby regions of our galaxy — and it has a violent history.
How 2 fatal shuttle disasters weighed on NASA's decision to bring Boeing Starliner astronauts home on SpaceX Dragon
The Challenger and Columbia space shuttle tragedies influenced NASA's thinking on how the Boeing Starliner astronauts should return home, agency officials said.
Juice’s lunar-Earth flyby: the movie
Video: 00:01:23
On 19–20 August 2024, Juice successfully completed a world-first lunar-Earth flyby, with flight controllers guiding the spacecraft first past the Moon, then past Earth. The gravity of the two changed Juice’s speed and direction, sending it on a shortcut to Jupiter via Venus.
How did Wesley Crusher turn into a time-traveling space god on 'Star Trek?'
Dr. Crusher's eldest son on "Star Trek" has come a long way since hanging out on the Enterprise.
'Terminator Zero' embraces the horror of time-traveling killer robots in new Netflix series
When it comes to dreaming up a new take on the "Terminator" sci-fi action franchise, Netflix has put the horror of killer robots from the future front and center.
Sentinel-2C in the Vega launch tower
Image: Sentinel-2C in the Vega launch tower
The Hardest Bias in Astronomy
A nasty sort of bias called Malmquist bias affects almost every astronomical survey, and the only solution is to…keep doing surveys.
New Hubble Telescope image captures peculiar ring-shaped galaxy
A galaxy's outstretched arms form a nearly perfect circle around its central disk in a striking new photo from the Hubble Space Telescope.
India to launch Gaganyaan crew capsule test flight by end of 2024
India plans to launch a key test of its Gaganyaan crew vehicle before the end of the year as the country gears up for human spaceflight missions.
Webb peeks into Perseus
Image: Webb peeks into Perseus
SpaceX delays Polaris Dawn astronaut launch to Aug. 28 due to helium leak
SpaceX has pushed the launch of the historic Polaris Dawn astronaut mission back 24 hours, to Wednesday morning (Aug. 28), due to a helium leak.
NASA Announces the 2025 Human Lander Challenge
One of NASA’s core mission objectives, though not explicitly stated in its charter, is to educate Americans about space exploration, especially students. As part of that mission, NASA hosts a number of challenges every year where teams of students compete to come up with innovative ideas to solve problems. The agency recently announced the next round of one of its standard yearly challenges—the Human Lander Challenge.
