To understand how galaxies evolve, astronomers want to use JWST to peer into the Milky Way's core.
Space News & Blog Articles
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The Most Powerful Ion Engine Ever Built Passes the Test
NASA and aerospace company, Aerojet Rocketdyne, have successfully completed qualification testing of the Advanced Electric Propulsion System (AEPS), which is a 12-kilowatt, solar electric propulsion (SEP) engine being built for use for long-term space missions to the Moon and beyond, and AEPS is being touted as the most powerful electric propulsion—also called ion propulsion—thruster currently being manufactured. For context, 12 kilowatts are enough to power more than 1,330 LED light bulbs, and the success of these qualification tests come after NASA announced the beginning of qualification testing in July.
SpaceX poised for ‘mid-November’ launch of second Starship test flight
Aerial view of the fully stacked Starship vehicle at Starbase, Texas, on Sept. 6, 2023. Image: SpaceX.
More than half a year after its first flight, SpaceX believes it’s on the cusp of getting to launch its Starship rocket for a second time.
Exo-Jupiters’ Commonality and Exclusivity Highlighted in Two New Studies
A pair of recent studies conduct in-depth analyses of Jupiter-sized exoplanets, also known as Exo-Jupiters, and were published in Nature Communications and The Astronomical Journal, respectively. The study published in Nature Communications was conducted by an international team of researchers and examines how Exo-Jupiters could be more common than previously thought, while the study published in The Astronomical Journal was conducted by one researcher and examines exoplanetary system, HD 141399, and how it is comprised entirely of Exo-Jupiters with no additional planets.
Meet 'Tenacity:' Sierra Space unveils 1st Dream Chaser space plane (photos)
Sierra Space marked a historic achievement with the completion of its first Dream Chaser space plane, which could launch as soon as April 2024.
SETI Works Best When Telescopes Double-Check Each Other
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has evolved considerably in the past sixty years since the first experiment was conducted. This was Project Ozma, which was conducted in 1960 by Dr. Frank Drake and his colleagues using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia. While the experiment did not reveal any radio signals from space, it established the foundation upon which all future SETI is based. Like Ozma, the vast majority of these experiments have searched for possible technosignatures in the radio spectrum.
Smithsonian debuts 1st display of asteroid Bennu sample brought back by OSIRIS-REx
A sizable crowd turned out to see a small rock as the Smithsonian debuted the first display of a piece of the asteroid Bennu from the sample recently brought back by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission.
These high-tech buzzers may help astronauts avoid getting lost in space (video)
Researchers at Brandeis University in Massachusetts are developing wearable devices which vibrate to help astronauts fight against getting lost in space.
7 scorching-hot exoplanets discovered circling the same star
NASA's Kepler Space Telescope spotted a seven exoplanet system with worlds being battered by radiation from their parent sun-like star just before its retirement in 2018.
Happy birthday Andreas Mogensen! International Space Station astronaut celebrates in space
Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen marked his birthday on the International Space Station Nov. 2 by flying his country's flag and enjoying sunny weather.
Solar storm causes 'impossible,' pumpkin-colored auroras to fill the sky
A striking new image shows bright orange auroras dancing in the night sky above Canada. But auroras should never be this color, so what's going on?
Lucy Mission Flies By Asteroid Dinkinesh, Finds a Little Surprise
The Lucy mission's flyby of the main-belt asteroid Dinkinesh resulted in a surprise — yet another asteroid moon!
Earth is Hiding Another Planet Deep Inside
Earth’s early history is marked by massive collisions with other objects, including planetesimals. One of the defining events in our planet’s history, the formation of the Moon, likely resulted from one of these catastrophic collisions when a Mars-sized protoplanet crashed into Earth. That’s the Giant Impact Hypothesis, and it explains how the collision produced a torus of debris rotating around the Earth that eventually coalesced into our only natural satellite.
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches on record-breaking 18th mission
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 23 Starlink internet satellites on Friday evening (Nov. 3). It was the record-setting 18th mission for the rocket's first stage.
SpaceX launches Falcon 9 booster from Cape Canaveral on recording-breaking 18th flight
A Falcon 9 rocket streaks across the sky, sending 23 Starlink V2 Mini satellites on their way to low Earth orbit. This was the 18th launch and landing of this booster, tail number 1058. Image: Michael Cain
SpaceX broke another re-flight record on Friday evening with the launch of 23 more Starlink satellites on a Falcon 9 booster making its 18th flight.
Lucy Completes its First Flyby… and Discovers a Bonus Asteroid
NASA’s Lucy mission hits the jackpot on its very first asteroid flyby earlier this week.
Week in images: 30 October - 03 November 2023
Week in images: 30 October - 03 November 2023
Preparing for Euclid’s first images: from puzzling data to dazzling views
Video: 00:02:59
Never before has a telescope been able to create such razor-sharp astronomical images across such a large patch of the sky.
Earth from Space: Lake Maracaibo
Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo, the largest natural body of water in South America.
This Week's Sky at a Glance, November 3 – 12
The Great Square, now upright, guides your way down to Fomalhaut and Diphda and, farther down, Alpha Phoenicis – a chance to add a new constellation to your life list.
And plan to catch the Moon-Venus pairing in early dawn on the 9th.
ESA’s Hera Mission is Bringing Two Cubesats Along. They’ll Be Landing on Dimorphos
In about one year from now, the European Space Agency will launch its Hera mission. Its destination is the asteroid Didymos, and it’ll be the second human spacecraft to visit the 390-meter chunk of rock. NASA’s DART mission crashed a kinetic impactor into Didymos’ tiny moonlet Dimorphos as a test of planetary defence.
