Space News & Blog Articles

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Seeing Through the Smoke

The near-term haze of climate disasters obscures our possible futures. But long-term trends leave room for optimism.

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Could Puncturing A Satellite’s Battery Help It Deorbit Faster?

A few years ago, there was a panic about lithium-ion batteries that exploded and could do things like take down a jetliner. On a recent trip, an airline asked passengers to turn in any devices with batteries that had been banned because of safety concerns. These are indicators of a widely understood downside of lithium-ion batteries, ubiquitous in cell phones, laptops, and other electronic hardware – they can easily catch fire very spectacularly. However, a team at the Aerospace Company is working on an idea to turn this potentially catastrophic event into an asset – by using it to deorbit defunct satellites.

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What Mud Cracks Mean for Life on Mars

Mud cracks are evidence for sustained wet-dry cycles on ancient Mars, which might have provided conditions amenable to life (with caveats).

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Ugreen 25000mAh power bank review

A professional-looking, quick-to-charge power bank that's also carry-on compliant. Quickly charge three devices at once.

Greenland and Faroe Islands issue stamp for Danish astronaut's ISS mission

Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen's upcoming 'Huginn' mission to the International Space Station has gotten the stamp of approval from the Faroe Islands and Greenland.

Putting the S in the first Meteosat Third Generation Sounder

Following on from the launch of the first Meteosat Third Generation weather satellite, MTG-I1, last December, the focus is now on getting its partner satellite, MTG-S1, ready for liftoff next year – and a significant milestone has been reached. The satellite has been equipped with its main instrument, the Infrared Sounder, hence the satellite’s name, and also the Copernicus Sentinel-4 instrument, an ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light spectrometer, or UVN for short.

How to read and understand a solar eclipse map

A solar eclipse map is a helpful tool for anyone wanting to get the most out of their solar eclipse viewing experience. We explore how to read and understand them here.

Perseid meteor shower 2023 thrills stargazers around the world. See their amazing photos.

Explore some of the best Perseid meteor shower 2023 photos from around the world. The prolific shower did not disappoint.

Meet the SpaceX Crew-7 astronauts launching to the ISS on Aug. 25

Four astronauts are flying to the International Space Station on Aug. 25 from NASA, Japan, Europe and Russia. Here's some info about this new crew.

Gravitational waves show black holes prefer certain masses before they collide

Knowing that black holes tend to have these masses could help provide a new way of measuring the expansion rate of the universe.

China makes Chang'e 5 moon samples open to international researchers

China is making lunar material collected by its Chang'e 5 moon mission available to research proposals by international scientists for the first time.

An Improved Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator Could Dramatically Reduce The Weight Of Interplanetary Missions

Radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) are the power plants of the interplanetary spacecraft. Or at least they have been for going on 50 years now. But they have significant drawbacks, the primary one being that they’re heavy. Even modern-day RTG designs run into the hundreds of kilograms, making them useful for large-scale missions like Perseverance but prohibitively large for any small-scale mission that wants to get to the outer planets. Solar sails aren’t much better, with a combined solar sail and battery system, like the one on Juno, coming in at more than twice the weight of a similarly powered RTG. To solve this problem, a group of engineers from the Aerospace Corporation and the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Lab came up with a way to take the underlying idea of an RTG and shrink it dramatically to the point where it could not potentially be used for much smaller missions.

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Vera Rubin Will Find Many More Interstellar Objects

Most of the comets we see in the sky were born in our solar system. They may have formed deep within the Oort cloud, and for some, it is their first visit to the inner solar system, but they are distinctly children of the Sun. We know of only two objects that came from beyond our solar system, Omuamua and Borisov. There are likely other interstellar objects visiting our solar system, we just haven’t found them. But that’s likely to change when Rubin Observatory comes online.

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'Quantum superchemistry' observed for the 1st time ever

A new type of chemistry performed at very cold temperatures on very small particles enables quick, precise reactions.

Meteorite that crashed to Earth 3,500 years ago carved into arrowhead by Bronze Age hunters

A Bronze Age arrowhead found in Switzerland was made using meteoric iron.

Could white holes actually exist?

Black holes seem to get all the attention. But what about their mirror twins, white holes? Do they exist? And, if so, where are they?

You'll travel nearly a trillion miles in your lifetime, even if you never leave home. Here's how.

Whether you're a frequent jet-setter or a couch potato, you travel much more than you think, thanks the motion of the Earth, sun, Milky Way galaxy and more.

Spacecraft Could Shuttle Astronauts and Supplies to and From the Moon on a Regular Basis

Multiple space agencies plan to send astronauts, cosmonauts, and taikonauts to the Moon in the coming years, with the long-term goal of establishing a permanent human presence there. This includes the NASA-led Artemis Program, which aims to create a “sustained program of lunar exploration and development” by the decade’s end. There’s also the competing Russo-Chinese International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) effort to create a series of facilities “on the surface and/or in orbit of the Moon” that will enable lucrative research.

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Cylindrical Autonomous Drilling Bot Could Reach Buried Martian Water

The south pole of Mars is a likely candidate for future exploration efforts there. It is also an area of interest for astrobiologists, as there is a decent chance that there might be signs of ancient water there and, therefore, signs of ancient life – if there was any on the Red Planet anyway. But to access that ancient life, explorers would have to get to it, which means digging much further than has ever been dug on Mars before. Typical deep-bore drilling equipment is bulky, heavy, and difficult to set up on remote terrain like the Martian South Pole. So a group of engineers from Planet Enterprises, a Space Technology Incubator based in Washington, developed a new deep bore drilling concept they call Borebots.

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Giant Tidal Waves are Crashing Onto the Surface of an Enormous Star

Binary star systems often appear as variable stars. When we can’t see the individual stars because they are either too close together or too far away, we can see the gradual brightening and dimming of a single point of light as the stars orbit each other. Sometimes if the stars are particularly close when they pass each other they can brighten in unusual ways. One example of this is known as a heartbeat star.

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The largest known asteroid impact structure on Earth is buried in southeast Australia, new evidence suggests

In a new study, scientists reveal new evidence for the largest asteroid impact structure on Earth buried Australia in southern New South Wales.


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