Space News & Blog Articles

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Watch Chinese company launch 4 satellites to orbit from ship at sea (video)

The Chinese company Galactic Energy sent four satellites into orbit on Wednesday (May 29) with the second sea launch of the Ceres-1 solid rocket.

A Mini-Neptune in the Habitable Zone in a Binary Star System

Sometimes, it seems like habitable worlds can pop up almost anywhere in the universe. A recent paper from a team of citizen scientists led by researchers at the Flatiron Institute might have found an excellent candidate to look for one – on a moon orbiting a mini-Neptune orbiting a star that is also orbited by another star.

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'Star Trek #500' cover showcases a commanding collection of cosmic captains

A preview of IDW Publishing's "Star Trek #500" special issue that pays homage to the series' many unforgettable starship captains arriving this year on Star Trek Day.

Watch 1st 'Star Wars: Hunters' gameplay trailer ahead of June 4 launch (video)

We’ll soon be playing 'Star Wars: Hunters' on Nintendo Switch and mobile phones, and the latest gameplay trailer has a fun look at game modes and more.

Massive sunspot responsible for May's epic auroras unleashes major X-class solar flare (video)

Sunspot region AR3697 has returned — unleashing yet another X-class solar flare. Watch it erupt from the sun's eastern limb here.

Boeing Starliner astronauts arrive at launch site for 1st flight test on June 1 (photos)

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are back near their launch site in Florida ahead of their Crew Flight Test launch on June 1. A key flight readiness review today will confirm if Boeing Starliner is ready to go, after a helium leak.

Astronomy Generates Mountains of Data. That’s Perfect for AI

Consumer-grade AI is finding its way into people’s daily lives with its ability to generate text and images and automate tasks. But astronomers need much more powerful, specialized AI. The vast amounts of observational data generated by modern telescopes and observatories defies astronomers’ efforts to extract all of its meaning.

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Real-life 'Star Trek' planet was actually just an illusion caused by a 'jittery' star

Just like the fictional planet of Vulcan was wiped out in Star Trek, new research has destroyed the real-life version of Spock's homeworld, albeit in a less violent fashion.

Asteroid 'Dinky,' visited by NASA's Lucy spacecraft, birthed its own moon

Dinkinesh, the asteroid visited by NSA’s Lucy mission in 2023, has a small moon that is made from two objects touching each other.

That giant sunspot that supercharged auroras on Earth? It's back and may amp up the northern lights with June solar storms.

Old sunspot region AR 13664, now renamed AR 13697, is back. With its re-arrival, can we expect a resurgence of solar activity?

Doctor Who '73 Yards': Who exactly is that old woman following Ruby Sunday?

The TARDIS lands in Wales, where the Doctor disappears and Ruby finds herself at the heart of a creepy folk horror tale in episode 4 of Doctor Who, "73 Yards."

Fly across Nili Fossae with ESA’s Mars Express

Video: 00:03:29

Mars’s surface is covered in all manner of scratches and scars. Its many marks include the fingernail scratches of Tantalus Fossae, the colossal canyon system of Valles Marineris, the oddly orderly ridges of Angustus Labyrinthus, and the fascinating features captured in today’s video release from Mars Express: the cat scratches of Nili Fossae.

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Virtual flying lessons for Hera asteroid mission

As ESA’s Hera spacecraft for planetary defence goes through pre-flight testing, the system that will steer it around its target binary asteroid system is also undergoing its final checks for space.

Taking EarthCARE into orbit

Video: 00:02:36

ESA’s EarthCARE satellite lifted off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US, on 29 May at 00:20 CEST (28 May, 15:20 local time).

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Replay: EarthCARE launch coverage

Video: 02:15:00

Watch the replay of the EarthCARE launch coverage. The video includes streaming of the event at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Germany and footage of liftoff from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US.
EarthCARE was lofted into orbit on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on 29 May at 00:20 CEST (28 May, 15:20 local time).

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The Sun’s Magnetic Field Might Only Be Skin Deep

It’s coming back! Sunspot AR3664 gave us an amazing display of northern lights in mid-May and it’s now rotating back into view. That means another great display if this sunspot continues to flare out. It’s all part of solar maximum—the peak of an 11-year cycle of solar active and quiet times. This cycle is the result of something inside the Sun—the solar dynamo. A team of scientists suggests that this big generator lies not far beneath the solar surface. It creates a magnetic field and spurs flares and sunspots.

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Volcanoes Were Erupting on Venus in the 1990s

Start talking about Venus and immediately my mind goes to those images from the Venera space probes that visited Venus in the 1970’s. They revealed a world that had been scarred by millennia of volcanic activity yet as far as we could tell those volcanoes were dormant. That is, until just now.  Magellan has been mapping the surface of Venus and between 1990 and 1992 had mapped 98% of the surface. Researchers compared two scans of the same area and discovered that there were fresh outflows of molten rock filling a vent crater! There was active volcanism on Venus. 

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EarthCARE launched to study role of clouds and aerosols in Earth's climate

ESA’s EarthCARE satellite, poised to revolutionise our understanding of how clouds and aerosols affect our climate, has been launched. This extraordinary satellite embarked on its journey into space on 29 May at 00:20 CEST (28 May, 15:20 local time) aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US.

Robotic Russian cargo ship leaves the ISS, burns up in Earth's atmosphere (photo)

Russia's uncrewed Progress 86 cargo craft departed the International Space Station early Tuesday morning (May 28), ending a six-month orbital stay.

How scientists shipped astronomy's largest camera from California to Chile

The largest camera ever built for astronomy arrived in Chile, where it will be installed atop Rubin Observatory's Simonyi Survey Telescope.

Volcanoes on Venus might be erupting right now

Venus may be as geologically active as Earth, with volcanoes possibly spewing on its surface in the present day.


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