The European Space Agency's weather monitoring spacecraft Aeolus came to a fiery end on Friday, July 28, when it entered Earth's atmosphere and burned up.
Space News & Blog Articles
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Computer Algorithm Finds a “Potentially Hazardous” Asteroid
Humanity has been on an asteroid-finding spree as of late. Those close to Earth, known as Near Earth Objects (NEOs), have been particularly interesting for two reasons. One is they offer potentially lucrative economic opportunities with asteroid mining. The other is they are potentially devastating if they hit the Earth, so we’d like to find them with some advance warning. Those that fall into the latter category are known as potentially hazardous asteroids, or PHAs. Now, thanks to some ingenious programmers from the University of Washington, we have a new algorithm to detect them.
Oops. NASA Accidentally Points Voyager 2’s Antenna Away from Earth, Temporarily Losing Contact
It’s every space mission’s nightmare: losing contact with the spacecraft. In the best case, you recover it right away. Worst case, you never hear from your hardware again. On July 21, controllers lost contact with Voyager 2, out in the depths of space. Now they’re waiting for a reset to catch Voyager 2’s next message when it “phones home”.
'Strange New Worlds' season 2 episode 7 features a wild crossover with 'Lower Decks'
How is this bizarre live action/animation crossover possible you ask? By the power of a portal, of course.
Argentina signs NASA's Artemis Accords for peaceful moon exploration
Argentina became the 28th country to sign the Artemis Accords on July 27, as NASA administrator Bill Nelson was in South America on a goodwill tour.
The Mariner 4
Objective: Mariner 4's primary objective was to conduct a flyby of Mars and transmit close-up images of the planet's surface back to Earth. The mission aimed to provide valuable data about Mars' atmosphere, surface features, and environmental conditions.
Watch Lance Armstrong and Andy Richter take out the astronaut trash in 'Stars on Mars' (video)
Watch Lance Armstrong and Andy Richter take out the trash in this exclusive clip for the new episode of Fox's sci-fi reality TV series, "Stars on Mars."
Stars with superpowered magnetic fields could narrow the search for alien life
With unusually powerful magnetic fields, these stars seem to get a boost when their cores start to drift apart. Thus, they may not be the ideal hosts for habitable exoplanets.
Queen legend Brian May helped NASA ace its asteroid-sampling mission, new book reveals
Queen guitarist Brian May and the chief scientist of NASA's asteroid-sampling OSIRIS-REx mission have collaborated on a book about the asteroid Bennu — and it's not a PR stunt.
Greenland ice sheets are weaker to climate change than we thought
Scientists found Greenland's precious thick ice sheet melted rapidly in the ancient past. The study raises new worries about modern-day sea rise, induced by human global warming.
See Artemis 2 moon astronauts train with US Navy for Orion splashdown (photos, video)
The Artemis 2 astronauts are practicing for their big splashdown day after returning from a round-the-moon mission in 2024.
Xenomorph queen preys on a dark world in Marvel's 'Alien Annual #1'
Marvel Comics releasing new double-sized "Alien Annual #1" on October 4, 2023
Elements: FIRE
Video: 00:33:08
The summer fire season is well under way in Europe – countries all around the Mediterranean are experiencing record temperatures coupled with huge wildfires that have led to mass evacuations. In this enthralling new ESA documentary, explore how people on the frontline are using space to better monitor and fight the flames.
City-size comet headed toward Earth 'grows horns' after massive volcanic eruption
The exploding comet, known as 12P/Pons–Brooks, is currently approaching its closest point to Earth during its 71-year orbit through the solar system.
August's Full Sturgeon Moon rises tomorrow, 1st of 2 supermoons this month
The Sturgeon full moon rises on Tuesday, Aug. 1, marking the first of two supermoons in August 2023 and the second supermoon in a series of four across summer.
China has sent more than 100 types of seeds to its Tiangong space station
China has sent 136 kinds of plant seeds to its Tiangong space station for space breeding experiments.
Euclid test images tease of riches to come
Euclid’s two instruments have captured their first test images. The mesmerising results indicate that the space telescope will achieve the scientific goals that it has been designed for – and possibly much more.
The life and times of dust
Image:
This image shows the irregular galaxy NGC 6822, which was observed by the Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) mounted on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. As their names suggest, NIRCam and MIRI probe different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. This allows the instruments to observe different components of the same galaxy, with MIRI especially sensitive to its gas-rich regions (the yellow swirls in this image) and NIRCam suitable for observing its densely packed field of stars.
NASA is Working on Technology to 3D Print Circuits in Space
A collaboration of engineers from NASA and academia recently tested hybrid printed electronic circuits near the edge of space, also known as the Kármán line. The space-readiness test was demonstrated on the Suborbital Technology Experiment Carrier-9, or (SubTEC-9), sounding rocket mission, which was launched from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on April 25 and reached an altitude of approximately 174 kilometers (108 miles), which lasted only a few minutes before the rocket descended to the ground via parachute.
The PLATO Mission Could be the Most Successful Planet Hunter Ever
In 2026, the European Space Agency (ESA) will launch its next-generation exoplanet-hunting mission, the PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO). This mission will scan over 245,000 main-sequence F, G, and K-type (yellow-white, yellow, and orange) stars using the Transit Method to look for possible Earth-like planets orbiting Solar analogs. In keeping with the “low-hanging fruit” approach (aka. follow the water), these planets are considered strong candidates for habitability since they are most likely to have all the conditions that gave rise to life here on Earth.
New Simulation Reveals the Churning Interiors of Giant Stars
On a basic level, a star is pretty simple. Gravity squeezes the star trying to collapse it, which causes the inner core to get extremely hot and dense. This triggers nuclear fusion, and the heat and pressure from that pushes back against gravity. The two forces balance each other while a star is in its main sequence state. Easy peasy. But the details of how that works are extremely complex. Modeling the interior of a star accurately requires sophisticated computer models, and even then it can be difficult to match a model to what we see on the surface of a star. Now a new computer simulation is helping to change that.
