Nearly eight months into the Perseverance rover’s mission on Mars, researchers have confirmed that Jezero crater is (as was believed) an ancient lakebed, but more significantly, that it once experienced powerful flash floods that pushed boulders from tens of miles upstream into the crater basin.
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Watch live: The Royal Astronomical Society will stream live views of Uranus @ 4 am ET
The first of three live webcasts will begin on Friday (Oct. 8) at 4 a.m. EDT (0800 GMT).
Nancy Grace Roman Just Passed a Critical Design Review
By 2027, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope – or Roman Space Telescope (RST), for short – will take to space and build on the legacy of the venerable Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Combing a large primary mirror, a camera as sensitive as its predecessors, and next-generation surveying capabilities, Roman will have the power of “One-Hundred Hubbles.” It’s little wonder then why the telescope is named after Dr. Roman (1925 – 2018), NASA’s first Chief Astronomer and the “Mother of Hubble.”
An Exoplanet Reaches 2400 C in One Hemisphere. Does it Really Rain Iron?
WASP-76b is an ultra-hot Jupiter about 640 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Pisces. A few years ago it gained notoriety for being so hot that iron falls as rain. It’s tidally locked to its star, and the planet’s star-facing hemisphere can reach temperatures as high as 2400 Celsius, well above iron’s 1538 C melting point.
Asteroid probe mounted on Atlas booster originally assigned to astronaut flight
A crane raises the Lucy spacecraft, encapsulated inside its payload fairing, atop an Atlas 5 rocket Thursday. Credit: United Launch Alliance
Teams at Cape Canaveral transferred NASA’s Lucy asteroid explorer to a United Launch Alliance integration building Thursday and mounted the robotic science probe atop an Atlas 5 rocket for liftoff later this month, using a booster originally built to send astronauts into space.
Crew-3 astronauts are ready and excited for 6-month SpaceX mission
Four astronauts are about to spend six months living in Earth orbit, and they cannot wait.
New YouTube short shows kids on space scavenger hunt with VP Kamala Harris
A new YouTube original follows a group of kids who go on a scavenger hunt with clues delivered from the International Space Station, with Vice President Kamala Harris assisting.
Meet 'Endurance': New SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule gets a name
Endurance is scheduled to launch toward the International Space Station on Oct. 30, kicking off SpaceX's Crew-3 mission.
NASA's 1st interactive graphic novel 'First Woman' tells of one girl's dream to walk on the moon
NASA released its first digital graphic novel featuring the first woman to walk on the moon, allowing readers to explore space through interactive experiences.
Are the Burned-Out Remnants of the First Stars all Around us?
The first stars to appear in the universe lived fast and died young. Today, none of them likely remain. But their remnants, the black holes and neutron stars, might still wander around the cosmos. Unfortunately, they’re extremely difficult to detect unless they merge, and according to new research the only way to see them would be to conduct an unprecedented survey of the local volume of the universe.
Moon rocks brought to Earth by Chinese mission fill key gaps in solar system history
China's new moon-rock treasure trove may be a billion years younger than the material the Apollo program brought home decades ago, according to new research.
China's Lunar Samples Confirm Late Volcanism, Pose New Questions
China's Chang'e 5 mission returned pieces of the Moon in a technological feat last year. Now, scientists are publishing the first analyses of those samples.
Perseverance rover confirms existence of ancient Mars lake and river delta
Photos snapped by Perseverance show that Jezero Crater did indeed host a large river-fed lake in the ancient past.
The best Disney Plus movies and shows for space fans: Star Wars, sci-fi and more
As we all search for things to do while stuck in our homes, know that Disney Plus has many, many hours of content for space nerds to enjoy.
New sci-fi anthology 'AI 2041' presents hopeful realities of artificial intelligence
Authors Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan imagine a fantastic tomorrow ruled by AI.
Smartphone astrophotography: How to take pictures of the night sky
In our guide to smartphone astrophotography, we break down how to take photos of the moon, stars, Milky Way and more.
NASA reassigns two astronauts from Boeing missions to SpaceX crew flight
NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada view the rollout of a Boeing Starliner spacecraft before a test flight in December 2019. Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky
NASA has reassigned two rookie astronauts from missions on Boeing’s troubled Starliner crew capsule to a SpaceX crew mission to the International Space Station late next year, a move agency officials said will allow the astronauts to gain spaceflight experience for future lunar expeditions.
The oldest gamma-ray burst ever discovered was just a piece of space junk
A presumed discovery of a gamma-ray burst from the oldest known galaxy in the universe was in fact a reflection of sunlight from a spent rocket stage in Earth's orbit, a new paper found.
Russian Actor and Filmmaker are On the Space Station to Shoot Scenes for a Film
Earlier this week, a Soyuz spacecraft launched to the International Space Station with three people on board. But only one of them was a cosmonaut. The other two crew members were Russian actress Yulia Peresild and film producer Klim Shipenko. They will be on the ISS for 12 days to film scenes for an upcoming movie, called “Challenge.”
Not all Mars spacecraft might need such deep cleaning, scientists find
Mars-bound landers and rovers may not need to undergo quite such stringent cleaning procedures as they previously have before leaving Earth.
Blue Origin's first crewed launch breaks four Guinness World Records
Blue Origin broke multiple Guinness World Records with the first crewed spaceflight in July.
