Space is becoming ever more important to life on Earth – from managing climate change to responding to emergencies to digitalising the economy. To help policymakers and businesses take informed decisions about investing in space, ESA has today published plans to create robust and reliable data on the space economy, in collaboration with international partners.
Space News & Blog Articles
Tune into the SpaceZE News Network to stay updated on industry news from around the world.
This Week's Sky at a Glance, December 15 – 24
The waxing Moon passes Saturn, jumps over Jupiter, then jumps the Pleiades. Sirius and Procyon rise earlier, but the Summer Triangle still hangs on.
Earth from Space: Icy landscape
Image: As the holiday season swiftly approaches, frosty landscapes tend to be associated with the magical idea of a white Christmas. But this Copernicus Sentinel-3 image over the Antarctica Peninsula sheds light on a different perspective.
Trying to Communicate with Whales is Like Talking to Extraterrestrials
Communicating between species isn’t something that only has to take place between space-faring civilizations. There are plenty of species here on our home planet that communicate using a variety of sights, sounds, and smells. We’re only starting to unlock the secrets of how to understand and respond to these types of foreign languages. Researchers at the SETI Institute think that doing so might be a good test for whether we’ll be able to communicate with extraterrestrials if we ever get the chance to.
A Tiny Telescope is Revealing “Hot Jupiter” Secrets
A recent study presented this week at the 2023 meeting of the American Geophysical Union discusses observations of “hot Jupiters” from the NASA-funded CubeSat mission known as the Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE). Unlike most exoplanet-hunting telescopes, whose sizes are comparable to a small school bus, CUTE measures 36 centimeters (14 inches) in length, equivalent to the size of a cereal box. These findings come after members of the team, which consists of undergraduate and graduate students, published an overview paper about CUTE in The Astronomical Journal in January 2023 and results from CUTE observing WASP-189b in The Astrophysical Journal Letters in August 2023.
SpaceX to launch 1st batch of 'direct to cell' Starlink satellites early Dec. 15
SpaceX plans to launch 21 more of its Starlink internet satellites, including the first six 'direct to cell' craft, early Friday morning (Dec. 15), and you can watch the action live.
Live coverage: SpaceX to launch first Starlink satellites with direct-to-cell capability
A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to support the Starlink 7-9 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. The mission also includes the first six satellites that will be used for the company’s direct-to-cell service. Image: SpaceX
Update 1:13 a.m. EST: SpaceX delayed the launch until Friday night at 9:19 p.m. PST (12:19 a.m. EST, 0519 UTC).
Rocket Lab successfully completes return-to-flight Electron launch
Update 12:05 a.m. EST: Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket successfully deployed the Tsukuyomi-1 satellite.
Voyager 1 Has Another Problem With its Computer System
For more than 46 years, the Voyager 1 probe has been traveling through space. On August 25th, 2012, it became the first spacecraft to cross the heliopause and enter interstellar space. Since then, mission controllers have maintained contact with the probe as part of an extended mission, which will last until the probe’s radioisotopic thermoelectric generators (RTGs) finally run out. Unfortunately, the Voyager 1 probe has been showing its age and signs of wear and tear, which is unavoidable when you’re the farthest spacecraft from Earth.
See the Geminid meteor shower 2023 light up the sky in these amazing photos
The Geminid meteor shower, one of the best of the year, put on a brilliant show Dec. 13 amid a near-moonless sky. More shooting stars are expected tonight.
Sun unleashes monster X-class solar flare, most powerful since 2017 (video)
The sun unleashed an X2.8 solar flare today (Dec. 14), its most powerful such eruption since September 2017.
Aurora-like 'Steve' phenomenon and glowing 'picket fences' point to unknown exotic physics
A recent study suggests the aurora-like STEVE and "picket fence" phenomena are generated by low-altitude electric fields parallel to Earth's magnetic field.
Tiny 14-inch satellite studies 'hot Jupiter' exoplanets evaporating into space
Hot Jupiters are gas giants so close to their star that the star's heat and radiation can blow the planets' atmosphere away.
FAA's launch mishap investigations need a rethink, government report finds
The Federal Aviation Administration should evaluate and improve the way it investigates space launch mishaps, according to a new report.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket set for return to flight mission
Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket on the launch pad ahead of the NS-23 mission. Credit: Blue Origin
After more than a year of being sidelined, Blue Origin is preparing for a resurgence of its New Shepard rocket suborbital flights.
China launches secret space plane on 3rd-ever mission
China launched its secretive reusable space plane into orbit for its third mission on Dec. 14, just one day after the U.S. Space Force took its own X-37B space plane off the launch pad.
Breakthrough Listen Scans Entire Galaxies for Signals From Extremely Advanced Civilizations
In 1960, Dr. Frank Drake led the first Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) experiment at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia. In the more than sixty years that have since passed, astronomers have conducted multiple surveys in search of technological activity (aka. technosignatures). To date, Breakthrough Listen is the most ambitious SETI experiment, combining data from the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, the Parkes Murriyang Telescope, the Automated Planet Finder, and the MeerKAT Radio Telescope and advanced analytics.
SETI's 1st 'conversation' with a humpback whale offers insight on how to talk to E.T.
Humpback whale "conversations" provide valuable insight on how humans may one day communicate with life beyond Earth.
Humans could use black holes as batteries, physics paper claims. Here's how.
Black holes are some of the most powerful objects in the universe — and humans could devise ways to harness that power as an energy source, a new theoretical study claims.
Betelgeuse Versus the Asteroid… What Happened?
A rare occultation of the bright star Betelgeuse by asteroid 319 Leona turned up mixed results.
The mission to discover the mystery origin of Mars’ moons
The two small moons of Mars, Phobos (about 22km in diameter) and Deimos (about 13km in diameter), have been puzzling scientists for decades, with their origin remaining a matter of debate.
