Constellations are patterns formed by groups of stars that resemble figures, animals, or objects. While the stars in a constellation may be light-years apart, from Earth they appear close together and form recognizable shapes. Across history, people used constellations for storytelling, navigation, and marking seasons. The International Astronomical Union officially recognizes 88 constellations.
A Russian cargo ship docked to the International Space Station fired its thrusters Wednesday (April 30) to distance itself from passing piece of orbital space debris.
Before Saturn and Neptune team up to leave Venus in the dust later in the month.
We tend to think of Extraterrestrial Intelligences (ETIs)—if they exist—as civilizations that have overcome the problems that still plague us. They're advanced, peaceful, disease-free technological societies that enjoy absolute political stability as they accomplish feats of impeccable engineering. Can that really be true in a Universe where entropy sets the stage upon which events unfold?
From 'Space: 1999' and 'Battlestar Galactica' to 'UFO' and 'Mork & Mindy,' the 1970s might be the best decade of sci-fi TV yet!
File: A Falcon 9 stands ready to launch the Starlink 12-5 mission from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Image: Spaceflight Now.
SpaceX is kicking off of the month of May with the first of likely several Falcon 9 mission launching more of its Starlink V2 Mini satellites.
Stacking wheat snack bread, beef steak, cheese spread, potatoes au gratin and gochujang red pepper paste, NASA astronaut Jonny Kim creates his take on a "ranger" burger on the space station.
An object seen to have moved in the time between when it was imaged by the IRAS and AKARI surveys in 1983 and 2006 respectively could be Planet Nine.
Vesta won't reach opposition with Earth again until Oct. 13, 2026.
A stunning new image from the James Webb Space Telescope offers a "visual feast of galaxies," including objects billions of light years away and the most massive known galactic group.
The annual Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower is due to peak on the morning of May 6. thanks to debris left by the famous Halley's Comet.
An independent analysis of recent data from K2-18b casts doubt on claims of detecting alien life on the distant exoplanet.
What methods can be employed to send a spacecraft to Uranus despite the former’s immense distance from Earth? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated ways to cut the travel time to the second most distant planet from the Sun. This study has the potential to help scientists, engineers, and mission planners develop low-cost and novel techniques for deep space travel while conducting cutting-edge science.
NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain will head outside the ISS at around 8 a.m. ET today (May 1) on history's fifth all-female spacewalk, and you can watch it live.
How can nanosatellites help advance lunar exploration and settlement? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as a team of researchers from Grahaa Space in India investigated the pros, cons, and applications for using nanosatellites on the Moon. This study has the potential to help scientists, engineers, mission planners, and future lunar astronauts develop and test new technologies for advancing lunar exploration, and possibly beyond the Moon.
What are the best methods to explore Valles Marineris on Mars, which is the largest canyon in the solar system? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how helicopters could be used to explore Valles Marineris, which could offer insights into Mars’ chaotic past. This study has the potential to help scientists and engineers develop new methods for studying Mars’s history and whether the Red Planet once had life as we know it.
For decades, astronomers considered the Perseus cluster to be a stable grouping of galaxies, but more recent observations have shown signs that it experienced a merger in the past. Thanks to an international team of astronomers using the Subaru Telescope at Maunakea, Hawaii, a "Dark Matter bridge" connecting Perseus to a subcluster of galaxies has been discovered.
Space exploration not only allows us to look out into the universe but it also allows us to look back at Earth. ESA’s Biomass satellite will measure the amount of carbon in the world's forests, tracking how the carbon cycle absorbs and releases carbon over the seasonal cycles. It launched this week from the Kourou Spaceport in French Guiana atop a Vega-C rocket and safely reached its intended orbit. It has a synthetic aperture radar that can penetrate forest canopies like an infrared telescope can peer through dark dust clouds.
The James Webb Space Telescope has a number of science goals. One of them is to help understand the evolution of galaxies and their formation within the first billion years after the Big Bang. Astronomers have completed an initial Webb telescope survey that discovered 1,700 galaxy groups. Many of these groups date back to when the Universe was less than 1 billion years old. The survey spans 12 billion years of cosmic history, from these ancient formations to the present day.
Understanding how life started on Earth means understanding the evolution of chemistry in the Solar System. It began in the protoplanetary disk of debris around the Sun and reached a critical point when life appeared on Earth billions of years ago. Close to the Sun, the chain of chemical evidence is broken by the Sun's radiation. But further out in the Solar System, billions of kilometres away, some of that ancient chemistry is preserved.
Space-based solar power (SBSP) has long been the dream of many space enthusiasts and energy economists. However, the reality of economic constraints has long left any practice projects on the ground. There has been plenty of discussion about how to lower the cost of entry to build the kind of space-based solar power satellite described by John Mankins in his books and articles. However, even with the advent of lower costs to orbit thanks to reusable rockets, the economic case for SBSP is still not great simply due to the sheer amount of mass required to get into orbit. Unless we get that mass from somewhere else, with a smaller gravity well. Astrostrom, which means something like "Star current" in German, is an organization based in Switzerland that hopes to make space-based solar power a reality.
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