Conditions for the emergence of more complex forms of life as we know it on Earth on exoplanets orbiting stars in the Milky Way seem to be rare, a new study has found.
Space News & Blog Articles
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'Star Trek: Prodigy' premieres tonight and it's really rather good
Much more liquid water may lie beneath Mars' south pole than scientists had thought — or there may be something going on down there that they don't fully understand.
Unique use of ESA spacecraft ‘housekeeping’ data reveals cosmic ray behaviour
Using data originally gathered for spacecraft ‘housekeeping’ aboard ESA’s Rosetta and Mars Express missions, scientists have revealed how intense bursts of high-energy radiation, known as cosmic rays, behave at Mars and throughout the inner Solar System.
Declining power supply could end NASA’s InSight Mars mission next year
One of InSight’s solar arrays, on the left, is covered in dust in this picture taken in May. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Without a fortuitous whirlwind to clear dust off its solar panels, NASA’s InSight lander could end its mission on Mars within a year due to dropping power levels, the project’s chief scientist said last week.
ESA’s Space Environment Report 2022
To date, astronomers have confirmed the existence of 4,422 extrasolar planets in 3,280 star systems, with an additional 7,445 candidates awaiting confirmation. Of these, only a small fraction (165) have been terrestrial (aka. rocky) in nature and comparable in size to Earth – i.e., not “Super-Earths.” And even less have been found that are orbiting within their parent star’s circumsolar habitable zone (HZ).
Space calendar 2022: Rocket launches, sky events, missions & more!
The Planetary Society’s crowdfunded solar-sailing CubeSat, LightSail 2, launched on June 25th 2019, and two years later the mission is still going strong. A pioneering technology demonstration of solar sail capability, LightSail 2 uses the gentle push of photons from the Sun to maneuver and adjust its orbital trajectory. Within months of its launch, LightSail 2 had already been declared a success, breaking new ground and expanding the possibilities for future spacecraft propulsion systems. Since then, it’s gone on to test the limits of solar sailing in an ongoing extended mission.
Hear the 1st sounds from China's Mars rover Zhurong and watch it drive in new video
China's first Mars rover has captured its first sounds of the Red Planet and beamed back stunning views of a drive on the dusty world.
Lego unveils epic Imperial Light Cruiser and more new Star Wars Mandalorian sets coming in August
Three new Lego Star Wars spaceships were released Saturday (June 26) at the first-ever Lego Con.
'Observation' video game shows how an AI solves problems in space
After we dug into the game, we spoke with the creative director to learn more about its inspiration and development.
Gravitational-Wave Detector Could Sense Merging Primordial Black Holes With the Mass of a Planet, Millions of Light-Years Away
Gravitational-wave detectors have been a part of astronomy for several years now, and they’ve given us a wealth of information about black holes and what happens when they merge. Gravitational-wave astronomy is still in its infancy, and we are still very limited in the type of gravitational waves we can observe. But that could change soon.
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Panda: Adorable cartoon shows astronaut life on Chinese space station
A new Chinese animated cartoon shows a sample of what the country's astronauts will experience in space on the new Tiangong space station.
This 'charming' particle could have saved the universe
Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider obtained the result by analyzing over 30.6 million particle decays, and are aiming to look with more precise detectors when the atom smasher powers up again in September.
Dramatic images capture rapid slide of Antarctic glacier
Scientists studied the acceleration using high-res radar images, captured by satellites.
The First Chinese Crew is Busy on their New Space Station
On Thursday, June 17th, China took another major step in its ongoing drive to become a superpower in space. Just two months after the core module of the Tiangong space station (literally, “Heavenly Palace”) was sent to orbit, the three astronauts that will be the station’s first crew launched to space. The mission, Shenzhou 12, lifted off atop a Long March-2F rocket at 09:22 p.m. on Wednesday evening local time (09:22 a.m. EDT; 06:22 a.m. PDT) from the Jiuquan launch center in the Gobi desert.
Watch Day 3 of National Space Society's ISDC 2021 conference live today
The National Space Society (NSS) will hold its flagship annual event virtually this year, starting on Thursday (June 24) — and you can watch most of it live, for free.
Space photos: The most amazing images this week!
See the best photos on Space.com this week.
The top space stories of the week!
These are the top space stories this week from Space.com.
Virgin Galactic Wins FAA’s OK to Fly Space Passengers: Which Billionaire Will Go First?
Virgin Galactic says it’s received the Federal Aviation Administration’s go-ahead to fly customers on its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, marking a significant step in a commercial rollout that could also feature dueling space billionaires.
Chilly, damp Mars may have hosted an ancient ocean
After months of anticipation, U.S. intelligence experts have released a report citing 18 incidents since 2004 in which unidentified flying objects — or unidentified aerial phenomena, to use the Pentagon’s term — appeared to demonstrate breakthrough technologies.
Virgin Galactic announces crew for next launch to suborbital space
For centuries, human beings have speculated about the existence of planetary systems (much like our own) orbiting other stars. However, it has only been in the past few decades that scientists have been able to detect and study these distant worlds. To date, astronomers have used various methods to confirm the existence of 4,422 extrasolar planets in 3,280 star systems, with an additional 7,445 candidates awaiting confirmation.
