China is ratcheting up its space capabilities at an impressive clip, with an eye toward potentially ending the United States’ long-held space supremacy, U.S. officials say.
Space News & Blog Articles
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Astronauts' photos capture April 8 solar eclipse from Earth orbit
As bucket list items go, seeing a total solar eclipse from space might seem like a tall order. But on Monday (April 8), Michael Barratt saw an eclipse from off the planet.
Thousands of hidden meteorites could be lost forever as they sink in Antarctic ice, taking their cosmic secrets with them
A new study warns that 5,000 meteorites could be sinking beneath Antarctica's icy surface every year as a result of climate change, depriving scientists of vital information about our solar system.
We finally know why NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft stopped communicating — scientists are working on a fix
In November 2023, the first spacecraft to journey to interstellar space, Voyager 1, started spouting gibberish. Now, NASA knows why. The team is working on a fix.
Plan Now for the 2026 Total Solar Eclipse in Europe
On August 12, 2026, a total solar eclipse will be visible across Greenland, Iceland, and Spain, with plenty of inspiring itineraries.
Totality was a total bust for me — but not for the reason you may think
My total solar eclipse 2024 experience could have been better. Though I was clouded out, it wasn't the worst thing to happen that day.
SpaceX launches 23 Starlink satellites in nighttime liftoff (photos)
SpaceX launched another batch of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida early Wednesday morning (April 10).
If Europa has Geysers, They’re Very Faint
In 2013, the Hubble Space Telescope spotted water vapour on Jupiter’s moon Europa. The vapour was evidence of plumes similar to the ones on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. That, and other compelling evidence, showed that the moon has an ocean. That led to speculation that the ocean could harbour life.
SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rocket on Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral
A Falcon 9 rock climbs above Florida’s Space Coast on the Starlink 6-48 mission on April 10, 2024. Image: Spaceflight Now
Update 1:58 a.m. EDT: SpaceX launched the Starlink 6-48 mission.
Satellite views of solar eclipse 2024: See the moon's shadow race across North America (video, photos)
Several satellites caught the April 8 total solar eclipse from space, and scientists have shared the incredible footage.
WISPR Team Images Turbulence within Solar Transients for the First Time
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has been in studying the Sun for the last six years. In 2021 it was hit directly by a coronal mass ejection when it was a mere 10 million kilometres from the solar surface. Luckily it was gathering data and images enabling scientists to piece together an amazing video. The interactions between the solar wind and the coronal mass ejection were measured giving an unprecedented view of the solar corona.
What Happens to Solar Systems When Stars Become White Dwarfs?
In a couple billion years, our Sun will be unrecognizable. It will swell up and become a red giant, then shrink again and become a white dwarf. The inner planets aren’t expected to survive all the mayhem these transitions unleash, but what will happen to them? What will happen to the outer planets?
A Neutron Star Merged with a Surprisingly Light Black Hole
Galactic collisions, meteor impacts and even stellar mergers are not uncommon events. neutron stars colliding with black holes however are a little more rare, in fact, until now, we have never observed one. The fourth LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing detected gravitational waves from a collision between a black hole and neutron star 650 million light years away. The black hole was tiny though with a mass between 2.5 to 4.5 times that of the Sun.
The Seven Most Intriguing Worlds to Search for Advanced Civilizations (So Far)
Sometimes, the easy calculations are the most interesting. A recent paper from Balázs Bradák of Kobe University in Japan is a case in point. In it, he takes an admittedly simplistic approach but comes up with seven known exoplanets that could hold the key to the biggest question of them all – are we alone?
These solar eclipse 2024 photos from our readers are absolutely amazing (images, video)
The total solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, is over, meaning we can now marvel at the incredible videos and images taken during the event.
I proposed to my fiancée under the diamond ring of the 2024 total solar eclipse. (She said 'Yes!')
After a year planning the perfect proposal for the April 8 solar eclipse, it couldn't have gone better.
'Heavy' history: ULA launches final Delta rocket after 64 years (video, photos)
The liftoff of the last-ever Delta rocket today (April 9) brought with it a change in the way the U.S. sends satellites, interplanetary probes and spacecraft into Earth orbit.
What a Swarm of Probes Can Teach Us About Proxima Centauri B
You’ve likely heard of the Breakthrough Starshot (BTS) initiative. BTS aims to send tiny gram-scale, light sail picospacecraft to our neighbour, Proxima Centauri B. In BTS’s scheme, lasers would propel a whole fleet of tiny probes to the potentially water-rich exoplanet.
Astrobotic to launch mini rover along with NASA's ice-hunting VIPER on next moon mission
Astrobotic's next moon mission will send not one but two rovers to Earth's nearest neighbor.
Experiencing Totality: S&T's Eclipse Stories
With Sky & Telescope's editors and writers scattered across the eclipse path, we have dozens of stories to share. Here are a few.
Future quantum computers will be no match for 'space encryption' that uses light to beam data around — with the 1st satellite launching in 2025
Quantum computers will break encryption one day. But converting data into light particles and beaming them around using thousands of satellites might be one way around this problem.
