NASA's plan to build a train track on the moon is part of the agency's Innovative Advanced Concepts program, which aims to develop "science fiction-like" projects for future space exploration.
Space News & Blog Articles
Tune into the SpaceZE News Network to stay updated on industry news from around the world.
SOHO’s view of the 11 May 2024 solar storm
Video: 00:00:29
Over the weekend of 10–12 May 2024, Earth was struck by the largest solar storm in more than a decade. While many of us enjoyed colourful auroras lighting up Earth’s protective atmosphere, spacecraft had to endure being buffeted by incredibly strong solar winds and electromagnetic radiation.
White Dwarfs are Often Polluted With Heavier Elements. Now We Know Why
When stars exhaust their hydrogen fuel at the end of their main sequence phase, they undergo core collapse and shed their outer layers in a supernova. Whereas particularly massive stars will collapse and become black holes, stars comparable to our Sun become stellar remnants known as “white dwarfs.” These “dead stars” are extremely compact and dense, having mass comparable to a star but concentrated in a volume about the size of a planet. Despite being prevalent in our galaxy, the chemical makeup of these stellar remnants has puzzled astronomers for years.
Saturn-Sized Exoplanet Isn’t Losing Mass Quickly Enough
We have discovered over 5,000 planets around other star systems. Amongst the veritable cosmic menagerie of exoplanets, it seems there is a real shortage of Neptune-sized planets close to their star. A new paper just published discusses a Saturn-sized planet close to its host star which should be experiencing mass loss, but isn’t. Studying this world offers a new insight into exoplanet formation across the Universe.
Satellite images of Rafah illustrate Palestinians fleeing the city
Satellite imagery of Rafah, Gaza, provided by commercial company Planet Labs, offers a spaceborne view of the Israel-Hamas war.
Big decision! Curiosity rover keeps following possible Mars river remnant
After much debate, the Curiosity Mars rover team decided to continue following an intriguing channel rather than send the robot on an off-road detour.
Gravitational Lenses Could Pin Down Black Hole Mergers with Unprecedented Accuracy
Gravitational wave astronomy has been one of the hottest new types of astronomy ever since the LIGO consortium officially detected the first gravitational wave (GW) back in 2016. Astronomers were excited about the number of new questions that could be answered using this sensing technique that had never been considered before. But a lot of the nuance of the GWs that LIGO and other detectors have found in the 90 gravitational wave candidates they have found since 2016 is lost.
Blue Origin targeting May 19 for 1st crewed spaceflight since 2022
Blue Origin is targeting Sunday (May 19) for the six-person NS-25, the company's first crewed spaceflight since August 2022.
TRAPPIST-1 Outer Planets Likely Have Water
The TRAPPIST-1 solar system generated a swell of interest when it was observed several years ago. In 2016, astronomers using the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) at La Silla Observatory in Chile detected two rocky planets orbiting the red dwarf star, which took the name TRAPPIST-1. Then, in 2017, a deeper analysis found another five rocky planets.
Car-size asteroid gives Earth a close shave in near-miss flyby (video, photo)
A car-sized asteroid flew very close to Earth on Tuesday morning (May 14), just two days after being discovered.
Explore the Star Clusters of Centaurus
This large constellation abounds in deep-sky delights, including many fine open star clusters.
Boeing Starliner launch slips to May 21 to verify helium leak fix
Artist’s illustration of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft in orbit. Credit: Boeing
Launch of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket carrying Boeing’s Starliner capsule is slipping another four days, from Friday to next Tuesday, to give engineers time to make sure a helium leak in the crew ship’s propulsion system has been resolved, officials said Tuesday.
Sun unleashes massive X8.7 solar flare, biggest of current cycle, from super-active monster sunspot (video)
A monster sunspot on the sun's surface just won't quit, erupting yet again this week with a whopping X8.7-class solar flare on Tuesday (May 14).
Jupiter's mysterious moon Amalthea spied crossing the Great Red Spot (photo)
NASA's Juno spacecraft has spotted the elusive fifth moon of Jupiter transiting the giant planet's Great Red Spot, giving astronomers a rare view of this small but intriguing natural satellite.
New York Times best-selling author revisits 1986 space shuttle tragedy in 'Challenger' (interview)
Adam Higginbotham was out with his first book when he got the idea. "People often asked me whether I remembered where I was when I heard the news about Chernobyl." He didn't, but recalled Challenger.
Helium leak delays Boeing's 1st Starliner astronaut launch to May 21
The first crewed mission of Boeing's Starliner capsule has been pushed back by four days to May 21, due to a helium leak in its service module.
Giant 'rogue waves' of invisible matter might be disrupting the orbits of stars, new study hints
New research shows how disruptions to binary star systems could be the key to detecting space's most confounding substance — dark matter.
The summer of 2023 was Earth's hottest in 2,000 years, scientists find
Using tree ring data, scientists have confirmed that summer 2023 was the hottest summer on Earth in the last 2,000 years.
SpaceX launches 20 Starlink satellites on 50th mission of the year (video)
SpaceX launched 20 of its Starlink internet satellites today (May 14), on the company's 50th orbital mission of 2024.
A cosmic chronicle
Are you ready for the greatest story ever told? Launched in France on 25 April 2024, Space Odyssey is the first complete history of space in graphic novel form. Drawing on the latest scientific and historical sources, it tells the story of the men and women who pioneered humankind's journey into space.
