Japan's DESTINY+ mission to 3200 Phaethon, the parent body of the famous Geminid meteor shower, will have to wait a bit longer to get off the ground.
Space News & Blog Articles
Perseverance pastry: Celebrity chef Duff Goldman makes Mars rover cake
As it turns out, it takes a good deal of planning, patience and, well, Perseverance, to create a cake in the shape of a NASA Mars rover. Just ask Duff Goldman.
ESA and EC to unite on climate action from space
ESA and the European Commission are joining forces to accelerate the use of Earth-observing satellites and the information they provide to address the pressing challenge of climate change.
New dossier showcases how space is driving a greener future on Earth
The role that space can play in a greener future for us all is high on the agenda at today's ESA Space Summit. A new ‘green dossier’ to be released alongside the event in Seville on 6-7 November showcases how ESA’s flagship business-to-business programme is fuelling an unprecedented growth in green and sustainable space-enabled commercial activities to address the challenges of climate change.
Watch NASA build Artemis 2 astronaut moon rocket boosters ahead of 2024 launch (video)
A new video shows the Artemis 2 moon mission's boosters under assembly. The solid rocket boosters are being made at NASA's Kennedy Space Center ahead of the 2024 launch with four astronauts.
NASA's SWOT satellite maps nearly of all Earth's water (video)
Data from the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite was used to map surface heights of the planet's oceans and freshwater lakes and rivers.
Sci-fi inspired tractor beams are real, and could solve a major space junk problem
Researchers are developing a real-life tractor beam, with the goal of pulling defunct satellites out of geostationary orbit to alleviate the space junk problem.
SpaceX Artist-in-Residence on painting spacecraft and Starlink satellites: 'The machine is my patron' (exclusive)
An exclusive interview with SpaceX Artist-in-Residence Agnieszka Pilat
Netherlands, Iceland sign Artemis Accords for moon exploration
The Netherlands and Iceland have signed the Artemis Accords, bringing the number of nations in the moon-exploration pact to 31.
Searching for the Supernova Neutrino Background to the Universe
It’s a sobering statement that stars like the Sun, more accurately ALL stars will die eventually, yes even the Sun! Don’t panic though, we still have a good few billion years to go so you will get to the end of this article. The more massive stars die as the dramatic supernovae explosions and when they do, they send a burst of neutrinos across the Universe. Astronomers now think it’s likely there is a background of neutrinos across the cosmos and that one day we will be able to map the historical distribution of supernova explosions, may be even by 2035.
Civilizations Could Use Gravitational Lenses to Transmit Power From Star to Star
In 1916, famed theoretical physicist Albert Einstein put the finishing touches on his Theory of General Relativity, a geometric theory for how gravity alters the curvature of spacetime. The revolutionary theory remains foundational to our models of how the Universe formed and evolved. One of the many things GR predicted was what is known as gravitational lenses, where objects with massive gravitational fields will distort and magnify light coming from more distant objects. Astronomers have used lenses to conduct deep-field observations and see farther into space.
Dimorphos is Probably a Piece of Didymos
Last September, NASA purposefully smashed a spacecraft into Dimorphos, a 160m-wide space rock orbiting a larger asteroid named Didymos. The goal of the mission, called DART (the Double Asteroid Redirection Test), was to demonstrate humanity’s ability to redirect hazardous asteroids away from Earth. That part of the mission was a success above and beyond all expectations. But now scientists are also learning more about the origins of the two asteroids. A study conducted in the wake of the DART impact found that Dimorphos is made from the same material as Didymos, and that the pair of asteroids likely originated from a single body.
TESS Finds Eight More Super-Earths
NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has discovered most of the confirmed exoplanets that we know of. But its successor, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), is catching up. New research announces the validation of eight more TESS candidates, and they’re all Super-Earths.
The 'safe' threshold for global warming will be passed in just 6 years, scientists say
New research suggests we have just six years left to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and two decades to keep temperatures below the 2 C threshold in the Paris Agreement.
Track the ISS with NASA's new 'Spot the Station' mobile app
NASA just rolled out its new 'Spot the Station' free mobile app for iOS and Android.
James Webb Space Telescope could soon solve mysteries of the Milky Way's heart
To understand how galaxies evolve, astronomers want to use JWST to peer into the Milky Way's core.
The Most Powerful Ion Engine Ever Built Passes the Test
NASA and aerospace company, Aerojet Rocketdyne, have successfully completed qualification testing of the Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS), which is a 12-kilowatt, solar electric propulsion (SEP) engine being built for use for long-term space missions to the Moon and beyond, and AEPS is being touted as the most powerful electric propulsion—also called ion propulsion—thruster currently being manufactured. For context, 12 kilowatts are enough to power more than 1,330 LED light bulbs, and the success of these qualification tests come after NASA announced the beginning of qualification testing in July.
SpaceX poised for ‘mid-November’ launch of second Starship test flight
Aerial view of the fully stacked Starship vehicle at Starbase, Texas, on Sept. 6, 2023. Image: SpaceX.
More than half a year after its first flight, SpaceX believes it’s on the cusp of getting to launch its Starship rocket for a second time.
Exo-Jupiters’ Commonality and Exclusivity Highlighted in Two New Studies
A pair of recent studies conduct in-depth analyses of Jupiter-sized exoplanets, also known as Exo-Jupiters, and were published in Nature Communications and The Astronomical Journal, respectively. The study published in Nature Communications was conducted by an international team of researchers and examines how Exo-Jupiters could be more common than previously thought, while the study published in The Astronomical Journal was conducted by one researcher and examines exoplanetary system, HD 141399, and how it is comprised entirely of Exo-Jupiters with no additional planets.
Meet 'Tenacity:' Sierra Space unveils 1st Dream Chaser space plane (photos)
Sierra Space marked a historic achievement with the completion of its first Dream Chaser space plane, which could launch as soon as April 2024.
SETI Works Best When Telescopes Double-Check Each Other
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has evolved considerably in the past sixty years since the first experiment was conducted. This was Project Ozma, which was conducted in 1960 by Dr. Frank Drake and his colleagues using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia. While the experiment did not reveal any radio signals from space, it established the foundation upon which all future SETI is based. Like Ozma, the vast majority of these experiments have searched for possible technosignatures in the radio spectrum.