Astronomers have discovered an intense binary star system located about 1,400 light years away. It contains a brown dwarf with 80 times the mass of Jupiter which is bound closely with an incredibly hot white dwarf star. Observations have shown the brown dwarf is tidally locked to the white dwarf, allowing the daytime surface temperatures on the brown dwarf to reach 8,000 Kelvin (7,700 Celsius, 14,000 Fahrenheit) — which is much hotter than the surface of the Sun, which is about 5,700 K (5,427 C, 9,800 F). The brown dwarf’s nightside, on the other hand, is about 6,000 degrees K cooler.
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How did supermassive black holes get so big so fast just after the Big Bang?
Finding supermassive black holes with masses billions of times greater than the sun under a billion years after the Big Bang has scientists confused how these cosmic titans got so big so quickly.
Rare iron meteorite could help reveal secrets of early solar system
Scientists have discovered the origin of a rare iron meteorite that fell to Earth in 2020. It's the first iron meteorite from a parent body with a known orbit.
SpaceX's Crew-7 mission will launch international crew to ISS next week
The astronauts on SpaceX's Crew-7 mission emphasized how well the International Space Station partnership is thriving, as new space alliances begin to take shape.
Deadly wildfires in Hawaii seen from International Space Station (photo)
Not only is the devastation being thoroughly documented around the world, but it's also being recorded from space.
Asteroid Day
Asteroid Day is an annual event observed on June 30th to raise awareness about asteroids, their potential impact hazards, and the importance of asteroid detection and mitigation efforts. The date of June 30th was chosen to commemorate the anniversary of the Tunguska event, a powerful explosion caused by the airburst of a large asteroid or comet over Siberia, Russia, in 1908.
SpaceX to launch Starlink missions from both coasts tonight
File photo of SpaceX’s Starlink V2 Mini satellites inside a payload processing facility at Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX will launch Starlink missions from launch pads on the east and west coast in the overnight hours from Wednesday into Thursday. The back-to-back Falcon 9 launches will be the 99th and 100th dedicated Starlink missions.
The US Air Force challenged teams to hack into a satellite in space. Here are the winners
The U.S. Air Force has announced the winners of its first-of-its-kind satellite hacking competition, which saw teams attempt to take control of a cubesat in orbit.
NASA’s moon program mobile launcher rolls back to the launch pad for testing
NASA’s Mobile Launcher begins its journey from the park site near the Vehicle Assembly Building to launch pad 39B. Image: NASA.
The launch tower supporting the first three Artemis moon missions was back on the move for the first time Wednesday after more than half a year of repairs and upgrades.
NASA's New Horizons will investigate Uranus from the rear (Neptune, too). Here's how you can help
An observing campaign involving New Horizons, the Hubble Space Telescope and perhaps even you is designed to better understand how heat flows through the atmospheres of two ice giants.
SpaceX submits Starship mishap report to the FAA
SpaceX has submitted to the FAA its final report about the debut launch of its Starship vehicle, which ended with a bang four minutes after liftoff.
How NASA's Curiosity rover overcame its steepest Mars climb yet (video)
The Curiosity Mars rover recently aced its toughest Red Planet climb yet: a sharp 23-degree slope covered slippery sand and wheel-size rocks.
The Sun Gets Meteor Showers Too, But They’re Very Different
The Sun dominates the Solar System in almost every way imaginable, yet much of its inner workings have been hidden from humanity. Over the centuries, and especially in the last few decades, technological advancements allowed us to ignore our mothers’ exhortations and stare at the Sun for as long as we want. We’ve learned a lot from all those observations.
New Horizons is So Far Away, it Can Measure the True Darkness of the Universe
Just how dark is the night sky?
Artemis 4 astronauts will be 1st crew to use NASA's moon-orbiting Gateway in 2028
The first Artemis mission to make use of NASA's moon-orbiting Gateway will be Artemis 4 in 2028, agency officials confirmed this month.
You’re Looking at the Farthest Confirmed Galaxies Found by JWST
One of the main objectives of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is to use its powerful optics and advanced instruments to observe the earliest galaxies in the Universe. These galaxies formed about 1 billion years after the Big Bang, coinciding with the end of what is known as the “Cosmic Dark Ages.” This epoch is inaccessible for conventional optical telescopes because the only sources of photons were largely associated with the relic radiation of the Big Bang – visible today as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) – or were the result of the reionization of neutral hydrogen (visible today the 21 cm line).
India prepping to launch 1st sun-studying spacecraft next month
India is gearing up for its first-ever mission to study the sun, Aditya-L1, which is expected to launch in early September.
US Space Force creates 1st unit dedicated to targeting adversary satellites
The United States Space Force has activated its first and only unit dedicated to targeting other nations' satellites and the ground stations that support them.
Russia's Luna-25 moon lander reaches lunar orbit
Luna-25, Russia's first moon mission in nearly half a century, has reached lunar orbit, the nation's space agency Roscosmos reported today (Aug. 16).
The sun rages with solar flares in epic time-lapse footage (video)
Astrophotographer Miguel Claro captured a stunning time-lapse video of solar flares dancing across the sun from the Dark Sky Alqueva site in Portugal.
Satellites show Mount Etna volcano erupt after weeks of puffing out smoke rings (photos)
Europe's most active volcano, Italy's Mount Etna, erupted on Sunday (Aug. 13) after weeks of puffing out odd smoke rings. Here is how it looked from space.
