Space News & Blog Articles

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NASA crew announced for simulated Mars mission next month

NASA picked a crew of four volunteers to undergo a simulation of life on Mars. The project will begin on May 10.

NASA's Viper moon rover gets its 'neck' and 'head' installed for mission later this year

With its "mighty mast," NASA's Polar Exploration Rover dubbed VIPER continues to be prepped for its mission to the moon slated for late 2024.

China releases world's most detailed moon atlas (video)

The atlas, which is available in Chinese and English, depicts the surface of the moon with a scale of 1:2.5 million. It highlights many intriguing geological features, such as impact craters.

How Knot Theory Can Help Spacecraft Can Change Orbits Without Using Fuel

When a spacecraft arrives at its destination, it settles into an orbit for science operations. But after the primary mission is complete, there might be other interesting orbits where scientists would like to explore. Maneuvering to a different orbit requires fuel, limiting a spacecraft’s number of maneuvers.

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Another New Molecule Discovered Forming in Space

The list of chemicals found in space is growing longer and longer. Astronomers have found amino acids and other building blocks of life on comets, asteroids, and even floating freely in space. Now, researchers have found another complex chemical to add to the list.

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What would happen if the moon disappeared?

What would happen if our closest neighbor, the moon, disappeared? Here we explore the possible effects it could have on the environment and life on Earth.

Horsehead Nebula rears its head in gorgeous new James Webb Space Telescope images (video)

The James Webb Telescope has zoomed in on the Horsehead Nebula, capturing slices of this stunning star-forming region close to Earth in an entirely new light.

China to launch sample-return mission to the moon's far side on May 3

China reportedly plans to launch its Chang'e 6 sample-return mission toward the moon's mysterious far side on Friday (May 3).

Boeing Starliner astronauts conduct dress rehearsal ahead of May 6 launch (photos, video)

Boeing Starliner's 1st astronaut crew continues their training, even in quarantine. After finishing a big dress rehearsal on April 26, practice continues ahead of the scheduled May 6 launch to the ISS.

A Cosmic Arrow Pierced Pluto's Heart — Is It Still There Beneath the Surface?

A giant impact likely formed Pluto's heart-shaped basin, Sputnik Planitia. A big chunk of the impactor’s core might still be buried under the ice.

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Meet the crew launching on Boeing's 1st Starliner astronaut flight

NASA astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Suni Williams are slated to launch on Boeing’s first crewed test flight of its Starliner capsule, flying to the International Space Station on May 6.

JWST Uses “Interferometry Mode” to Reveal Two Protoplanets Around a Young Star

The JWST is flexing its muscles with its interferometry mode. Researchers used it to study a well-known extrasolar system called PDS 70. The goal? To test the interferometry mode and see how it performs when observing a complex target.

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'Flash Gordon' returns to escape from a prison planet in new comic series

A preview of Mad Cave Studios' new "Flash Gordon" comic book series coming in July.

'Tiger stripes' on Saturn's moon Enceladus could reveal if its oceans are habitable

A new model of Enceladus "tiger stripe" fractures and their connection with the moon of Saturn's ice geysers and subsurface oceans could have implications for its ability to support life.

Astronomers finally know why stars born from the same cloud aren't identical twins

Astronomers finally know why giant binary stars born from the same collapsing cloud of gas and dust can be "non-identical twins" with different characteristics and planetary systems.

A Cold Brown Dwarf is Belching Methane Into Space

Brown dwarfs span the line between planets and stars. By definition, a star must be massive enough for hydrogen fusion to occur within its core. This puts the minimum mass of a star around 80 Jupiters. Planets, even large gas giants like Jupiter, only produce heat through gravitational collapse or radioactive decay, which is true for worlds up to about 13 Jovian masses. Above that, deuterium can undergo fusion. Brown dwarfs lay between these two extremes. The smallest brown dwarfs resemble gas planets with surface temperatures similar to Jupiter. The largest brown dwarfs have surface temperatures around 3,000 K and look essentially like stars.

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Measuring Exoplanetary Magnetospheres with the Square Kilometer Array

Life on Earth would not be possible without food, water, light, a breathable atmosphere and surprisingly, a magnetic field. Without it, Earth, and its inhabitants would be subjected to the harmful radiation from space making life here, impossible. If we find exoplanets with similar magnetospheres then those worlds may well be habitable. The Square Kilometer Array (SKA) which is still under construction should be able to detect such magnetospheres from radio emissions giving us real insight into our exoplanet cousins. 

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Two new satellites join the Galileo constellation

The European Galileo navigation system has two more satellites in orbit following their launch in the early morning of Sunday, 28 April, at 01:34 BST/02:34 CEST. With 30 satellites now in orbit, Galileo is expanding its constellation, increasing the reliability, robustness and, ultimately, the precision, benefiting billions of users worldwide.

Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail

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The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. The observations show a part of the iconic nebula in a whole new light, capturing its complexity with unprecedented spatial resolution.

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Psyche is Still Sending Data Home at Broadband Speeds

When I heard about this I felt an amused twinge of envy. Over the last year I have been using an unimpressive 4G broadband service and at best get 20 Mbps, NASA’s Psyche mission has STILL been getting 23 Mbps at 225 million km away! It’s all thanks to the prototype optical transmission system employed on the probe. It means it can get up to 100 times more data transmission rate than usual radio. 

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Live coverage: SpaceX to launch 23 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 flight from Cape Canaveral

A Falcon 9 stands ready for a Starlink mission at Cape Canaveral’s pad 40. File photo: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now.

Following the historic launch of a pair of the European Commission’s Galileo satellites, SpaceX is preparing to launch another batch of its own Starlink high-speed internet satellites. The Sunday evening Falcon 9 launch will mark the 29th dedicated launch of Starlink satellites in 2024.

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