NASA personnel at the agency's manufacturing facility in Louisiana are continuing to evaluate damage caused by Hurricane Ida, which made landfall on Sunday (Aug. 29).
Space News & Blog Articles
Dusty Snow on Mars Could be Melting Just Below the Surface
Dust on Mars gets everywhere – including on top of ice deposited during one of Mars’ previous ice ages. Just how that dust affects the ice is still up for some debate. Adding to that debate, a recent paper by researchers at Arizona State University and the University of Washington has laid out a map between the dust content of a glacier and the brightness of its ice.
ESA and UN offer worldwide access to hypergravity testing
ESA and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs are opening the second round of their HyperGES fellowship, part of the Access to Space For All Initiative, offering student teams around the globe the chance to perform hypergravity experiments using the Large Diameter Centrifuge at ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands, with a particular focus on developing nations.
This Week's Sky at a Glance, September 10 – 18
Research results in astronomy, solar physics, and planetary science are about to become more widely accessible to scientists and the public alike. The American Astronomical Society (AAS) today announced the switch of the Society’s prestigious journals to fully open access as of 1 January 2022.
Lunchables will launch kids to space camp with limited 'Lunchabuilds' kits
A rocket-shaped stack of cheese and crackers could now launch your kid on a real-life space adventure.
Brown Dwarfs are Probably Much More Common in the Milky Way Than Previously Believed
Brown dwarfs are strange things. They are in the middle ground between planets and stars. A star is defined as an object massive enough for helium to fuse into hydrogen into its core, while a planet is too small for core fusion to occur. It seems a simple distinction until you learn about fusion. Anything with a mass below about 13 Jupiters is too small for fusion to occur, and is thus a planet. If your mass is about about 80 Jupiters, then you can fuse helium and are therefore a star. But if your mass is between 13 and 80 Jupiters, things get interesting. You can’t fuse hydrogen to shine brightly, but you can fuse lithium into other elements. This is known as lithium burning. It doesn’t provide lots of energy, but it is technically nuclear fusion.
A quarter of sunlike stars eat their own planets, according to new research
How rare is our solar system? In the 30 years or so since planets were first discovered orbiting stars other than our sun, we have found that planetary systems are common in the galaxy.
Inspiration4 astronauts to conduct health research on private SpaceX mission
The private astronauts of Inspiration4 will be helping to expand our understanding of how space affects the human body on their mission around Earth.
NASA's 'quiet' X-59 supersonic plane is coming together as space agency chases faster flight
NASA engineers are building a next-generation supersonic plane that will produce a barely audible thump instead of the infamous boom that can rattle furniture and break glass.
Summer Triangle Overhead
The calendar might say “September,” but now is the perfect time to explore the Summer Triangle. Find your way with this month's Sky Tour podcast.
China Wants to Build a Spaceship That’s Kilometers Long
It’s no secret that China has become a major contender when it comes to spaceflight. In the past twenty years, the China National Space Agency (CNSA) has accomplished some historic firsts. This includes sending astronauts to space, deploying three space stations (as part of the Tiangong program), developing heavy launch vehicles (like the Long March 5), and sending robotic explorers to the far side of the Moon and Mars.
3D-printed lunar floor
Image: 3D-printed lunar floor
Three galaxies are tearing each other apart in stunning new Hubble telescope image
We're getting a bird's-eye view of some of the damage Ida has wrought, thanks to before-and-after photos snapped by Maxar Technologies' WorldView-2 satellite.
Satellites track huge Tropical Storm Ida at night from space (photos)
Powerful eyes in the sky watched the menacing maelstrom Ida churn through the southern United States, even at night.
The US Space Force's secretive X-37B space plane: 10 surprising facts
Learn all about the U.S. Space Force's robotic X-37B space plane, which has flown six mystery missions to date.
The launch of NASA's new Landsat 9 satellite has been delayed by a liquid nitrogen shortage
The launch of NASA's Earth-observing Landsat 9 satellite will be delayed a week due to a shortage of liquid nitrogen.
NASA’s hopes waning for SLS test flight this year
In this July 28 photo, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson views the Space Launch System for the Artemis 1 mission inside the Vehicle Assembly Building. Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
The earliest NASA’s first Space Launch System moon rocket could roll out from the Vehicle Assembly Building to its seaside launch complex in Florida is in late November, officials told Spaceflight Now, leaving little time to conduct a critical fueling test, roll the rocket back into the VAB for final closeouts, then return to the pad for liftoff before the end of the year.
Archivist's vintage 'Images of Apollo' photo prints land on auction
By entangling the motion and quantum properties of a beryllium crystal, scientists have achieved unprecedented precision for measuring electromagnetic waves.
Webb’s Ariane 5 gains upper stage
Fans may have had limited access to U.S. Open tennis tournaments over the last year and a half, but at least they can view it from space.
China wants its new rocket for astronaut launches to be reusable
NASA is looking for student teams to enter its TechRise Student Challenge, which tasks students in grades six through 12 with designing experiments to launch on a suborbital spaceflight.
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Humanity is feeling the effects of climate change around the world, but could climate change make humans go extinct?