When Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins returned from the Moon in the summer of 1969, they spent three weeks isolated in quarantine to make sure that they hadn’t brought back any microbial lifeforms from the Moon, which could prove harmful to Earth life. Later, once the Moon had been unequivocally proved to be a dead world, future Apollo missions were allowed to skip quarantine. Elsewhere in the solar system, however, NASA still has to take planetary biosecurity seriously, because life could be out there. If we bring it back to Earth, it could be a danger to us and our ecosystems. Conversely, microbial Earth life could invade a fragile alien ecosystem, destroying a newly discovered lifeform before we have the chance to study it. Imagine discovering life on Mars, only to realize that it was life we had brought there with us.
Space News & Blog Articles
New trailer for 'Don't Look Up' has us excited about Netflix's comet-impact dark comedy
The first teaser trailer for "Don't Look Up" has Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio as astronomers hoping to warn Earth of a comet impact.
NASA's DART mission to smack an asteroid launches this week. Here's how to watch online.
There are live briefings, virtual launch opportunities and even a planetary defense campaign.
NASA's DART mission will move an asteroid and change our relationship with the solar system
For billions of years, chaos and the laws of physics have governed our solar system; next year, humans will take the reins and purposefully, in a calculated strike, adjust the orbit of an asteroid.
Astronomers discover enormous 'barrier' separating the center of the Milky Way from the cosmic ray sea
Scientists studying cosmic rays near the galaxy's center discovered a strange 'barrier' keeping the fast-moving rays from entering the Milky Way's middle.
Cygnus cargo freighter ends mission at International Space Station
In this view from a camera on the space station’s robotic arm, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo ship departs after a three-month stay at the complex. Credit: NASA TV / Spaceflight Now
A Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship departed the International Space Station Saturday after a three-month stay, heading off on the final phase of its mission to deploy a U.S. military tech demo payload and re-enter the atmosphere to dispose of 7,500 pounds of trash.
Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship departs space station to conduct experiment in orbit
A Northrop Grumman Cygnus NG-16 cargo ship left the International Space Station today (Nov. 20) to carry out a new mission in orbit.
Watch the 1st teaser for the live-action 'Halo' TV series from Paramount Plus
The first teaser trailer for the live-action 'Halo' series on Paramount Plus offers a tantalizing glimpse of Master Chief John-117.
Zap! NASA readies a new laser test to speed up space communications
The mission was delayed two years but is launching during a new era of laser services.
Watch the entire Beaver Moon lunar eclipse in 1 minute time-lapse
It was the longest partial eclipse in 580 years.
Rocket Lab fishes Electron booster out of the sea (photos)
Rocket Lab recovered a first-stage booster during its successful launch on Wednesday (Nov. 17), taking another step toward rocket reuse.
Astra reaches orbit for 1st time on test flight for US military
Astra's 43-foot-tall (13 meters) Launch Vehicle 0007 made it to Earth orbit early Saturday (Nov. 20), notching a huge milestone for the California company.
There’s Enough Oxygen in the Lunar Regolith to Support Billions of People on the Moon
When it comes to the future of space exploration, a handful of practices are essential for mission planners. Foremost among them is the concept of In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU), providing food, water, construction materials, and other vital elements using local resources. And when it comes to missions destined for the Moon and Mars in the coming years, the ability to harvest ice, regolith, and other elements are crucial to mission success.
NASA wants to smash a spacecraft into an asteroid, but don't worry. Earth isn't at risk.
Later this month, NASA will launch a mission to smack an asteroid into a new orbit to prepare for the possibility that an asteroid in the future might threaten Earth. But don't worry.
LightSail 2 solar sail is still soaring above Earth more than two years after launch
An experimental spacecraft testing solar sail space propulsion is still riding the sunbeams in Earth's orbit more than two and a half years after its launch.
NASA's DART mission has a sequel. How Europe's HERA will explore an asteroid impact aftermath.
The Hera mission will follow NASA's DART asteroid-deflecting spacecraft to the binary space rock Didymos and detail the aftermath of DART's collision with the smaller of the two asteroids.
There’s So Much Pressure at the Earth’s Core, it Makes Iron Behave in a Strange Way
It’s one of nature’s topsy-turvy tricks that the deep interior of the Earth is as hot as the Sun’s surface. The sphere of iron that resides there is also under extreme pressure: about 360 million times more pressure than we experience on the Earth’s surface. But how can scientists study what happens to the iron at the center of the Earth when it’s largely unobservable?
Watch Ingenuity Mars helicopter soar in amazing new videos from Perseverance rover
Stunning new videos show NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity soaring through the Red Planet skies like never before.
Save a whopping 40% the Fortnite Rocket Launcher in this early Black Friday deal from Best Buy
Blast away the competition with an epic early Black Friday Nerf deal on the Nerf Fortnite rocket launcher from best buy, now 40% off.
An Absolutely Bonkers Plan to Give Mars an Artificial Magnetosphere
Terraforming Mars is one of the great dreams of humanity. Mars has a lot going for it. Its day is about the same length as Earth’s, it has plenty of frozen water just under its surface, and it likely could be given a reasonably breathable atmosphere in time. But one of the things it lacks is a strong magnetic field. So if we want to make Mars a second Earth, we’ll have to give it an artificial one.
