A Chinese Long March 3B rocket lifts off Dec. 13 with Tianlian 2-02 data relay satellite. Credit: CASC
China succeeded in its 50th orbital launch attempt of the year Dec. 13, when a Long March 3B rocket delivered a Tianlian data relay satellite to orbit on a mission to link ground control with the Chinese space station and other spacecraft.
In this series we are exploring the weird and wonderful world of astronomy jargon! You’ll have to be careful around today’s topic: cosmic rays!
How did supermassive black holes form? What is dark matter? In an alternative model for how the Universe came to be, as compared to the ‘textbook’ history of the Universe, a team of astronomers propose that both of these cosmic mysteries could be explained by so-called ‘primordial black holes’.
Long focal length scopes are usually discouraged for beginner deep sky astrophotography, but solar system imagers need that extra focal length reach.
For literally being black in the truest sense of the word, black holes are surprisingly easy to spot. Astronomers have spent decades at this point purposely searching for them and have found thousands already, with potentially 100 billion existing in our part of the universe. We are still finding new types and configurations of black holes consistently. Now, new research led by Dr. Karina Voggel of the Strasbourg Observatory found a pair of black holes that hold the new records of being both the closest supermassive black hole pair to Earth and the closest together pair ever seen.
Perseverance has identified carbon-containing organic chemicals in some of the rocks it's examined on the floor of Mars' Jezero Crater.
The helicopter finished its 17th flight on Dec. 5, and is getting ready for an 18th as soon as Wednesday (Dec. 15).
Image: Lunar robot wars
By creating ice from tiny droplets only a few hundred molecules in size, researchers have pushed water's freezing point lower than ever before and changed what we know about how ice forms.
Less than a year after nailing its first interplanetary mission with a flawless Mars orbit insertion, the United Arab Emirates has selected its next destination: the asteroid belt.
In an astonishing feat of endurance, explorers Justin Packshaw and Jamie Facer Childs are a quarter of the way through a 3600-km kitesurf trek that takes them across the desolate heart of Antarctica. They are not pushing their physical and mental limits to the brink, facing howling gales and temperatures of –55°C just for the sake of adventure. They are gathering information to help scientists better understand how the body responds to extremes and taking unique measurements of their ice environment that will help complement ESA’s CryoSat mission to better understand how this giant ice sheet is evolving in response to climate change.
ESA’s Vega-C launch vehicle will fly in the second quarter of 2022 offering more performance to all orbits and extended mission flexibility at a similar cost to the current Vega. A new contract aims to widen these mission capabilities to capture new opportunities and satisfy emerging market needs to 2027.
China's 50th orbital launch of 2021 sent a new data relay satellite into orbit on Monday (Dec. 13) to support the country's space station and crewed missions.
In the search for “potentially-habitable” extrasolar planets, one of the main things scientists look at is stellar activity. Whereas stars like our own, a G-type (G2V) yellow dwarf, are considered stable over time, other classes are variable and prone to flare-ups – particularly M-type red dwarf stars. Even if a star has multiple planets orbiting within its habitable zone (HZ), the tendency to periodically flare could render these planets completely uninhabitable.
The next launch of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft is slated for May 2022, company officials announced on Monday (Dec. 13).
A Falcon 9 rocket streaks off its launch pad in Florida in this long exposure photo. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX is set to close out the year with three Falcon 9 rocket flights in just four days from launch pads in Florida and California, carrying another batch of Starlink internet satellites, a Turkish data relay spacecraft, and a resupply mission to the International Space Station.
The messy quantum soup of spin states allows for quantum entanglement across an entire material.
A Kuaizhou-1A solid rocket by Chinese commercial company Expace failed to make it to orbit Tuesday (Dec. 14), taking two commercial satellites with it during its demise.
Water ice may be lurking just a few feet below the Martian surface at one of the Red Planet's most dramatic sites.
Strap in for a full-throttle ride to hunt down a legendary cosmic treasure.
In this series we are exploring the weird and wonderful world of astronomy jargon! You’ll get a good look at today’s topic: chromosphere!
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