A study suggests the ice giants Uranus and Neptune aren't quite as watery as previously thought. They may also contain huge amounts of frozen methane, potentially solving the puzzle of how they formed.
Space News & Blog Articles
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Exotic 'Einstein ring' suggests that mysterious dark matter interacts with itself
The unexplained mass of a remarkably massive galaxy suggests that dark matter interacts with itself, according to new observations by the James Webb Space Telescope.
The Milky Way’s History is Written in Streams of Stars
The Milky Way is ancient and massive, a collection of hundreds of billions of stars, some dating back to the Universe’s early days. During its long life, it’s grown to these epic proportions through mergers with other, smaller galaxies. These mergers punctuate our galaxy’s history, and its story is written in the streams of stars left behind as evidence after a merger.
Boeing Starliner spacecraft rolls out to Atlas V rocket ahead of 1st astronaut launch (photos)
Boeing's Starliner spacecraft moved between buildings at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to get ready for launch. Its first astronaut mission is expected on May 6.
'Star Trek: Lower Decks' Season 4 blasts onto Blu-ray and DVD on April 16
A preview of the "Star Trek: Lower Decks" Season 4 Blu-ray and DVD, which was released today (April 16).
Monster black hole seen feeding on nearby matter just 1 billion years after Big Bang (photos)
The robotic telescopes of the Virtual Telescope Project have observed a quasar powered by a supermassive black hole 3 billion times as massive as the sun at the very edge of the universe
Will the constellations ever change?
BepiColombo spotted an outpour of carbon and oxygen atoms in Venus' fragile magnetic environment
Boeing, ULA roll Starliner spacecraft out to pad 41 ahead of Crew Flight Test launch in May
The CST-100 Starliner spacecraft pauses in front of Boeing’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF) before it embarks to Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now
Update 10:41 a.m. EDT: Added additional timing information regarding work at the VIF and a statement from Boeing regarding the Starliner-1 crew makeup.
Switzerland signs Artemis Accords to join NASA in moon exploration
Switzerland became the 37th country to sign the Artemis Accords for peaceful moon exploration with NASA on April 15, following the inclusion of Greece and Uruguay in February.
The Current Mars Sample Return Mission isn’t Going to Work. NASA is Going Back to the Drawing Board
Hmmm spaceflight is not the easiest of enterprises. NASA have let us know that their plans for the Mars Sample Return Mission have changed. The original plan was to work with ESA to collect samples from Perseverance and return them to Earth by 2031. Alas like many things, costs were increasing and timescales were slipping and with the budget challenges, NASA has had to rework their plan. Administrator Bill Nelson has now shared a simpler, less expensive and less risk alternative.
James Webb Space Telescope full-size model to be displayed by Space Foundation
To see the premier astronomical observatory in its full-size glory, you need to go to Lagrange Point 2, a location farther away than anyone has traveled. Or, soon, you can visit Colorado.
Dark energy could be getting weaker, suggesting the universe will end in a 'Big Crunch'
The first year of Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) data seems to show that dark energy is weakening over time, possibly the biggest cosmological discovery for 25 years.
Peter Higgs Dies at 94
Just like Isaac Newton, Galileo and Albert Einstein, I’m not sure exactly when I became aware of Peter Higgs. He has been one of those names that anyone who has even the slightest interest in science, especially physics, has become aware of at some point. Professor Higgs was catapulted to fame by the concept of the Higgs Boson – or God Particle as it became known. Sadly, this shy yet key player in the world of physics passed away earlier this month.
Record breaker! Milky Way's most monstrous stellar-mass black hole is sleeping giant lurking close to Earth
Astronomers have discovered the most massive stellar-born black hole ever seen in the Milky Way, and it lies relatively close to Earth.
EarthCARE out of the box
After being packed up in Germany, a long voyage to the US and then a month in storage, ESA’s EarthCARE satellite has been carefully lifted out of its transport container so that the team at the launch site can start getting it ready for its big day in May.
Sleeping giant surprises Gaia scientists
Wading through the wealth of data from ESA’s Gaia mission, scientists have uncovered a ‘sleeping giant’. A large black hole, with a mass of nearly 33 times the mass of the Sun, was hiding in the constellation Aquila, less than 2000 light-years from Earth. This is the first time a black hole of stellar origin this big has been spotted within the Milky Way. So far, black holes of this type have only been observed in very distant galaxies. The discovery challenges our understanding of how massive stars develop and evolve.
More Views of the 2024 Eclipse, from the Moon and Earth Orbit
It’s been just over a week since millions of people flocked to places across North America for a glimpse of moonshadow. The total solar eclipse of April 8th, 2024 was a spectacular sight for many on the ground. From space, however, it was even more impressive as Earth-observing satellites such as GOES-16 captured the sight of the shadow sweeping over Earth.
NASA requests proposals to reduce cost, timeline of Mars Sample Return mission
This illustration shows a concept for multiple robots that would team up to ferry to Earth samples of rocks and soil being collected from the Martian surface by NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover.
Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech
NASA is going back to square one when it comes to many aspects of its Mars Sample Return mission in response to independent reviews that showed ballooning costs and significant schedule delays.
Baby Stars Discharge “Sneezes” of Gas and Dust
I’m really not sure what to call it but a ‘dusty sneeze’ is probably as good as anything. We have known for some years that stars surround themselves with a disk of gas and dust known as the protostellar disk. The star interacts with it, occasionally discharging gas and dust regularly. Studying the magnetic fields revealed that they are weaker than expected. A new proposal suggests that the discharge mechanism ‘sneezes’ some of the magnetic flux out into space. Using ALMA, the team are hoping to understand the discharges and how they influence stellar formation.
The 2024 solar eclipse was a teachable moment in more ways than one
The total solar eclipse of 2024 was an epic experience to share with my daughter. It was one part celestial event, one part college prep.
