A detailed analysis of the Winchcombe meteorite has found evidence that its parent asteroid was altered by water before being smashed apart multiple times.
Space News & Blog Articles
How Did Pluto Get Its Heart? Scientists Suggest an Answer
The most recognizable feature on Pluto is its “heart,” a relatively bright valentine-shaped area known as Tombaugh Regio. How that heart got started is one of the dwarf planet’s deepest mysteries — but now researchers say they’ve come up with the most likely scenario, involving a primordial collision with a planetary body that was a little more than 400 miles wide.
The Milky Way’s Role in Ancient Egyptian Mythology
Look through the names and origins of the constellations and you will soon realise that many cultures had a hand in their conceptualisation. Among them are the Egyptians who were fantastic astronomers. The movement of the sky played a vital role in ancient Egypt including the development of the 365 day year and the 24 hour day. Like many other cultures they say the Sun, Moon and planets as gods. Surprisingly though, the bright Milky Way seems not to have played a vital role. Some new research suggests that this may not be the case and it may have been a manifestation of the sky goddess Nut!
Object that slammed into Florida home was indeed space junk from ISS, NASA confirms
The small object that crashed through the roof of a Florida home last month was indeed part of a pallet jettisoned from the ISS three years ago, NASA has confirmed.
Venus is leaking carbon and oxygen, a fleeting visit by BepiColombo reveals
BepiColombo spotted an outpour of carbon and oxygen atoms in Venus' fragile magnetic environment
I flew Boeing's Starliner spacecraft in 4 different simulators. Here's what I learned (video, photos)
Boeing Starliner astronauts spent hundreds of hours in simulators preparing for Crew Test Flight, which lifts off May 6. I got a brief taste of what they experienced.
NASA's Mars sample return plan is getting a revamp: 'The bottom line is that $11 billion is too expensive'
NASA is asking its various research centers as well as private industry for new ideas about how to get Mars samples back to Earth relatively quickly and cost-effectively.
NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara missed the total solar eclipse, but saw Earth 'moving' below her during spacewalk (photos)
NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara missed watching an eclipse from the ISS by days. But she did participate in the 4th all-woman spacewalk, and has a unique story about a baby octopus.
NASA Struggles to Find Way Forward for Mars Sample Return
NASA's Perseverance mission has been collecting samples for later retrieval and return to Earth. Now, it's unclear how we'll get those samples home.
You Can't Know the True Size of an Exoplanet Without Knowing its Star's Magnetic Field
In 2011, astronomers with the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) consortium detected a gas giant orbiting very close to a Sun-like (G-type) star about 700 light-years away. This planet is known as WASP-39b (aka. “Bocaprins”), one of many “hot Jupiters” discovered in recent decades that orbits its star at a distance of less than 5% the distance between the Earth and the Sun (0.05 AU). In 2022, shortly after the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) it became the first exoplanet to have carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide detected in its atmosphere.
These 3 stars are losing weight fast — thanks to stellar winds way stronger than the sun's
Astronomers have measured the stellar winds of three sun-like stars for the first time, finding that the objects are losing mass at a rate as great as 67 times the speed at which our star sheds matter.
Do black holes hide the secrets of their ancestors?
Some black holes are so massive they were likely created as smaller black holes that merged. Maybe we can use such black hole "children" to learn about the black hole "ancestors."
See What Happens When Stars Collide
A star in the constellation Norma appears to have been created when two stars merged.
Planetary defenders assemble!
Image: Planetary defenders assemble!
ESA accelerates the race towards clean energy from space
ESA accelerates the race towards clean energy from space
The Incredible Adventures of the Hera mission – The Missing Puzzle Piece
Video: 00:02:35
Meet Hera, our very own asteroid detective. Together with two CubeSats – Milani the rock decoder and Juventas the radar visionary – Hera is off on an adventure to explore Didymos, a double asteroid system that is typical of the thousands that pose an impact risk to planet Earth.
Nuclear fusion reactor in South Korea runs at 100 million degrees C for a record-breaking 48 seconds
The experimental fusion reactor sustained temperatures of 180 million degrees Fahrenheit for a record-breaking 48 seconds.
1st female ISS program manager looks ahead to new spaceships, space stations (exclusive)
NASA's Dana Weigel has held leadership positions at the agency for 20 years. Now leading the ISS program, she highlighted the outpost's increasingly commercial focus.
This little robot can hop in zero-gravity to explore asteroids
A three-legged robot named SpaceHopper could help combat challenges of exploring low-gravity environments, such as asteroids or moons.
Stellar Winds Coming From Other Stars Measured for the First Time
An international research team led by the University of Vienna has made a major breakthrough. In a study recently published in Nature Astronomy, they describe how they conducted the first direct measurements of stellar wind in three Sun-like star systems. Using X-ray emission data obtained by the ESA’s X-ray Multi-Mirror-Newton (XMM-Newton) of these stars’ “astrospheres,” they measured the mass loss rate of these stars via stellar winds. The study of how stars and planets co-evolve could assist in the search for life while also helping astronomers predict the future evolution of our Solar System.
Neutron Stars Could be Heating Up From Dark Matter Annihilation
One of the big mysteries about dark matter particles is whether they interact with each other. We still don’t know the exact nature of what dark matter is. Some models argue that dark matter only interacts gravitationally, but many more posit that dark matter particles can collide with each other, clump together, and even decay into particles we can see. If that’s the case, then objects with particularly strong gravitational fields such as black holes, neutron stars, and white dwarfs might capture and concentrate dark matter. This could in turn affect how these objects appear. As a case in point, a recent study looks at the interplay between dark matter and neutron stars.