NASA plans on testing an innovative new way to communicate with deep space probes, and step one depends on the success of the Psyche mission.
Space News & Blog Articles
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Putting a stamp on Huginn
A new stamp for the Huginn mission has been released, taking inspiration from the mission’s Nordic name, Huginn, it presents a colourful design with a deep history.
Surprise! GPS satellites threatened more by mild solar storms than monster sun flares
Mild solar storms can cause more serious problems to GPS satellites than once-in-a-century events, a new study has found.
Watch Ingenuity Mars helicopter fly in amazing video from Perseverance rover
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover captured a stunning video of the Ingenuity helicopter on Aug. 3, during the little chopper's 54th Red Planet flight.
To the Moon, together
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The Artemis II astronauts, set to launch on a trip around the Moon next year, stand in front of the Orion spacecraft’s European Service Module-2 (ESM-2) that will provide everything they need to thrive on their voyage to Earth’s natural satellite.
ESA’s Space Environment Report 2023
An overview of ESA's Space Environment Report 2023
Russia is launching its 1st moon mission since 1976 today: Watch live
Russia plans to launch its first moon mission in nearly half a century today (Aug. 10), and you can watch the historic liftoff live.
Stunning time-lapse video captures 17-year journey of exoplanet around its star
An incredible time-lapse video tracks the 17-year journey of a distant and massive exoplanet, Beta Pictoris b, around its parent star between 2003 and 2020.
Hera’s mini-radar will probe asteroid’s heart
The smallest radar to fly in space has been delivered to ESA for integration aboard the miniature Juventas CubeSat, part of ESA’s Hera mission for planetary defence. The radar will perform the first radar imaging of an asteroid, peering deep beneath the surface of Dimorphos – the Great Pyramid-sized body whose orbit was shifted last year by the impact of NASA’s DART spacecraft.
Interpreting Dune Patterns: Insights from Earth and Mars
A recent study published in the journal Geology attempts to interpret the patterns of dunes, which are sand mounds frequently formed by aeolian (wind) processes and range in size from small ripples observed on beaches to massive structures observed in the desert. Specifically, the researchers focused on patterns of dune crestlines, which are the top of the dunes. Different dune crestline patterns might appear as mundane features, but their formations are often the result of a myriad of influences, including climate change, surface processes, and atmospheric phenomena.
Penn State SETI Symposium Opens with Commemoration of Dr. Frank Drake
Is humanity alone in the Universe? Is anyone out there? Where is everybody? And what happens if and when we make contact with them? These and other questions were the subjects of the 2023 Penn State SETI Symposium hosted by the Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center (PSETI) from June 19th-22nd, 2023. The event featured prominent speakers from various research fields and disciplines discussing the challenges, history, and future of SETI. In the great tradition established by Dr. Frank Drake, they also addressed key issues related to the search for intelligent life and what we might find someday.
Russian cosmonaut becomes first to ride European robotic arm on ISS spacewalk
Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev completed the first test flight at the end of the European robotic arm as part of a successful spacewalk at the International Space Station on Wednesday (Aug. 9).
What time is Virgin Galactic's Galactic-02 space tourist launch on Aug. 10? Here's how to watch live.
Virgin Galactic's reusable spaceplane, VSS Unity, will launch its second commercial spaceflight mission on Thursday (Aug. 10). Here's how to follow the action.
We Could SCATTER CubeSats Around Uranus To Track How It Changes
Exploration missions to the outer solar system are still sorely lacking, even though they were highly prioritized in the Planetary Science Decadal Survey from 2013-2022. In fact, many planets in the outer solar system have never even been orbited by a probe. For one in particular – Uranus – we must rely on data from Voyager 2, with instruments designed over 50 years ago, or Earth-based observations. Neither solution can genuinely understand the weird physics going on with this planet that is essentially lying on its side. And while there have been plenty of proposed mission architectures to go and look at it, it’s always fun to take a look at a new one when it pops up. A team from Stanford came up with a new concept called the Sustained CubeSat Activity Through Transmitter Electromagnetic Radiation (SCATTER). It was given a NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts grant to develop the idea further. They released a paper a little while ago, and it’s worth digging into here.
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse, pronounced "beetle-juice," is one of the most well-known and prominent stars in the night sky. Here are some key facts about Betelgeuse:
Scientists are using NASA satellite data to text Bangladeshi farmers water-saving strategies
A new technology uses satellite data to provide farming advice to Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani farmers.
NASA's Artemis 2 moon mission is on track, but questions remain about Artemis 3
The heat shield for the Orion spacecraft is the only serious concern on NASA's Artemis 2 to-do list right now. But the Artemis 3 moon-landing mission has more open questions.
Could This Supermassive Black Hole Only Have Formed by Direct Collapse?
Nearly every galaxy in the universe contains a supermassive black hole. Even galaxies that are billions of light years away. This means supermassive black holes form early in the development of a galaxy. They are possibly even the gravitational seeds around which a galaxy forms. But astronomers are still unclear about just how these massive gravitational beasts first appeared.
The powerful winds of super magnetic stars could destroy the possibility for life on their exoplanets
Cool stars with powerful magnetic fields could have remarkably fast stellar winds that strip away their planets' atmospheres, making even "habitable zone" worlds less friendly to life.
