A Long March 2F rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert today (Oct. 25), carrying the Shenzhou 17 spacecraft and its crew into orbit.
Space News & Blog Articles
Tune into the SpaceZE News Network to stay updated on industry news from around the world.
Cosmonauts on ISS spacewalk encounter toxic coolant 'blob' while inspecting leaky radiator
Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub got an up-close view of a coolant leak flowing from an external radiator while conducting a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station.
What’s Inside the Carina Pillars? Massive Protostars and Newly-Forming Planets!
Star-forming nebulae are busy places. Unfortunately, clouds of gas and dust usually hide the action. To cut through the dust in one such region, a team of astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). They peered inside the Pillars of the Carina Nebula and studied molecular outflows (or jets) emanating from objects in this famous star-birth nursery.
Io has 266 Active Volcanic Hotspots Linked by a Global Magma Ocean
Jupiter’s Io stands apart from the Solar System’s other moons, with its numerous volcanoes and its surface dominated by lava flows. Io’s surface volcanism was confirmed in 1979 when the Voyager spacecraft imaged it, but its volcanic nature isn’t duplicated anywhere else in our system. Tidal heating is behind the moon’s eruptive nature, driven by Jupiter’s powerful gravity, and by resonance with other moons. But is there a magma ocean inside Io?
Climate change has pushed Earth into 'uncharted territory': report
A new climate report finds humanity is pushing Earth's systems into "dangerous instability."
After DART Smashed Into Dimorphous, What Happened to the Larger Asteroid Didymos?
NASA’s DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) slammed into asteroid Dimorphos in September 2022, changing its orbital period. Ground and space-based telescopes turned to watch the event unfold, not only to study what happened to the asteroid, but also to help inform planetary defense efforts that might one day be needed to mitigate potential collisions with our planet.
Russian spacewalkers to inspect leaking radiator
Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub work outside the International Space Station on Oct. 25, 2023. Image: NASA TV
Two Russian cosmonauts ventured outside the International Space Station Wednesday to look for the source of a leak at or near a newly installed radiator on the Nauka lab module and to isolate it from coolant lines.
A Windy and Wonderful Icelandic Aurora Adventure
Sky & Telescope’s recent tour to Iceland explored all the island’s sights — and kept S&T’s record at a solid nine for nine for seeing auroras!
Watch the partial lunar eclipse of the Full Hunter's Moon on Oct. 28 in these free livestreams
Watch the partial lunar eclipse on Oct. 28 live here on Space.com. We've also rounded up some of the best livestreams for watching the moon enter Earth's shadow.
This Photonic Crystal Bends Light Like a Black Hole
One of the first observational tests of general relativity was that the path of light bends in the presence of mass. Not only refracts the way light changes direction as it enters glass or other transparent materials, but bends along a curved bath. This effect is central to a range of physical phenomena, from black holes to gravitational lensing to observations of dark matter. But because the effect is so tiny on human scales, we can’t study it easily in the lab. That could change in the future thanks to a new discovery using distorted photonic crystals.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is melting, and it's too late to stop it
A best-case projection that meets ambitious Paris Accord targets suggests the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will melt three times faster in the 21st century than it did in the 20th.
The mysterious dimming of supergiant star Betelgeuse may finally be explained (photo)
Images released by the European Southern Observatory may reveal why Betelgeuse dimmed in 2019.
Civilizations are Probably Spreading Quickly Through the Universe
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has always been plagued by uncertainty. With only one habitable planet (Earth) and one technologically advanced civilization (humanity) as examples, scientists are still confined to theorizing where other intelligent life forms could be (and what they might be up to). Sixty years later, the answer to Fermi’s famous question (“Where is Everybody?”) remains unanswered. On the plus side, this presents us with many opportunities to hypothesize possible locations, activities, and technosignatures that future observations can test.
Astronomers Want JWST to Study the Milky Way Core for Hundreds of Hours
To understand the Universe, we need to understand the extreme processes that shape it and drive its evolution. Things like supermassive black holes (SMBHs,) supernovae, massive reservoirs of dense gas, and crowds of stars both on and off the main sequence. Fortunately there’s a place where these objects dwell in close proximity to one another: the Milky Way’s Galactic Center (GC.)
1st-ever radio images of an annular solar eclipse showcase the sun's extended corona
Scientists used the new Owens Valley Radio Observatory Long Wavelength Array (OVRO-LWA) in California to capture radio images of October's annular eclipse.
China continues remote-sensing buildup with new launch of Yaogan satellites (video)
A Long March 2D rocket launched into the night sky above the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China on Oct. 23, carrying three more Yaogan 39 satellites to orbit.
China unveils Shenzhou 17 astronauts launching to Tiangong space station tonight (video)
China has revealed its latest crew of astronauts set for a six-month-long mission to the Tiangong space station today.
SpaceX to launch final piece of NASA's 1st two-way laser communications relay
NASA's ILLUMA-T demonstration terminal is set to launch to the International Space Station to complete the space agency's first two-way laser communication relay system.
SpaceX counters FAA claims that its reentering Starlink satellites could hurt or kill people
SpaceX has asked the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to correct a report warning that components from reentering Starlink constellation satellites could injure or even kill people on the ground.
Thanks to a layer of molten rock, Mars' core appears bigger than it is
Scientists have wondered why Mars' core can be so big and light at the same time. Two new studies might have an explanation.
Webb's first detection of heavy element from star merger
Under what conditions many chemical elements are created in the Universe has long been shrouded in mystery. This includes elements that are highly valuable, or even vital to life as we know it. Astronomers are now one step closer to an answer thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope and a high-energy event: the second-brightest gamma-ray burst ever detected, most likely caused by the merging of two neutron stars – which resulted in an explosion known as a kilonova.
