The Ancient Romans constructed hundreds of forts near their eastern borders in modern-day Syria and Iraq. Declassified spy satellite imagery spotted the forts and may shed light on the battlements' purpose.
Space News & Blog Articles
Tune into the SpaceZE News Network to stay updated on industry news from around the world.
Nailing down exoplanet orbits could be key to finding ET. Here's why
A better understanding of exoplanet orbits is helping SETI astronomers reduce their computational costs and conduct their search for intelligent aliens faster.
Six trends to watch in commercial Earth observation
With a multitude of opportunities for start-ups, established companies and investors, commercial Earth observation is a vibrant sector with fast-moving innovations in technology, datasets and downstream applications. ESA is a key driving force for the development of European Earth observation and provides impetus through its many programmes and initiatives.
Mission Spatiale arrives at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie in Paris
The permanent exhibition Mission Spatiale just opened its doors at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie in Paris. Produced in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), this immersive exhibition is dedicated to space exploration and invites visitors to embark on an interactive journey structured into five steps: Explore, Travel, Transit, Stay and Questions.
Introducing roster recruitment at ESA
We are pleased to announce the introduction of roster recruitment at ESA as a new way to launch your career with us. If you work in a field for which ESA consistently recruits in high numbers, such as system engineering, corporate controlling and product assurance, placement on a roster will open up your access to job opportunities with us. The first ESA roster recruitment position has just been published, so here is a short explainer to bring you up to speed on this new system.
China launches new 3-astronaut crew to Tiangong space station
A Long March 2F rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert today (Oct. 25), carrying the Shenzhou 17 spacecraft and its crew into orbit.
Cosmonauts on ISS spacewalk encounter toxic coolant 'blob' while inspecting leaky radiator
Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub got an up-close view of a coolant leak flowing from an external radiator while conducting a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station.
What’s Inside the Carina Pillars? Massive Protostars and Newly-Forming Planets!
Star-forming nebulae are busy places. Unfortunately, clouds of gas and dust usually hide the action. To cut through the dust in one such region, a team of astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). They peered inside the Pillars of the Carina Nebula and studied molecular outflows (or jets) emanating from objects in this famous star-birth nursery.
Io has 266 Active Volcanic Hotspots Linked by a Global Magma Ocean
Jupiter’s Io stands apart from the Solar System’s other moons, with its numerous volcanoes and its surface dominated by lava flows. Io’s surface volcanism was confirmed in 1979 when the Voyager spacecraft imaged it, but its volcanic nature isn’t duplicated anywhere else in our system. Tidal heating is behind the moon’s eruptive nature, driven by Jupiter’s powerful gravity, and by resonance with other moons. But is there a magma ocean inside Io?
Climate change has pushed Earth into 'uncharted territory': report
A new climate report finds humanity is pushing Earth's systems into "dangerous instability."
After DART Smashed Into Dimorphous, What Happened to the Larger Asteroid Didymos?
NASA’s DART mission (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) slammed into asteroid Dimorphos in September 2022, changing its orbital period. Ground and space-based telescopes turned to watch the event unfold, not only to study what happened to the asteroid, but also to help inform planetary defense efforts that might one day be needed to mitigate potential collisions with our planet.
Russian spacewalkers to inspect leaking radiator
Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub work outside the International Space Station on Oct. 25, 2023. Image: NASA TV
Two Russian cosmonauts ventured outside the International Space Station Wednesday to look for the source of a leak at or near a newly installed radiator on the Nauka lab module and to isolate it from coolant lines.
A Windy and Wonderful Icelandic Aurora Adventure
Sky & Telescope’s recent tour to Iceland explored all the island’s sights — and kept S&T’s record at a solid nine for nine for seeing auroras!
Watch the partial lunar eclipse of the Full Hunter's Moon on Oct. 28 in these free livestreams
Watch the partial lunar eclipse on Oct. 28 live here on Space.com. We've also rounded up some of the best livestreams for watching the moon enter Earth's shadow.
This Photonic Crystal Bends Light Like a Black Hole
One of the first observational tests of general relativity was that the path of light bends in the presence of mass. Not only refracts the way light changes direction as it enters glass or other transparent materials, but bends along a curved bath. This effect is central to a range of physical phenomena, from black holes to gravitational lensing to observations of dark matter. But because the effect is so tiny on human scales, we can’t study it easily in the lab. That could change in the future thanks to a new discovery using distorted photonic crystals.
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is melting, and it's too late to stop it
A best-case projection that meets ambitious Paris Accord targets suggests the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will melt three times faster in the 21st century than it did in the 20th.
The mysterious dimming of supergiant star Betelgeuse may finally be explained (photo)
Images released by the European Southern Observatory may reveal why Betelgeuse dimmed in 2019.
Civilizations are Probably Spreading Quickly Through the Universe
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has always been plagued by uncertainty. With only one habitable planet (Earth) and one technologically advanced civilization (humanity) as examples, scientists are still confined to theorizing where other intelligent life forms could be (and what they might be up to). Sixty years later, the answer to Fermi’s famous question (“Where is Everybody?”) remains unanswered. On the plus side, this presents us with many opportunities to hypothesize possible locations, activities, and technosignatures that future observations can test.
Astronomers Want JWST to Study the Milky Way Core for Hundreds of Hours
To understand the Universe, we need to understand the extreme processes that shape it and drive its evolution. Things like supermassive black holes (SMBHs,) supernovae, massive reservoirs of dense gas, and crowds of stars both on and off the main sequence. Fortunately there’s a place where these objects dwell in close proximity to one another: the Milky Way’s Galactic Center (GC.)
1st-ever radio images of an annular solar eclipse showcase the sun's extended corona
Scientists used the new Owens Valley Radio Observatory Long Wavelength Array (OVRO-LWA) in California to capture radio images of October's annular eclipse.
China continues remote-sensing buildup with new launch of Yaogan satellites (video)
A Long March 2D rocket launched into the night sky above the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China on Oct. 23, carrying three more Yaogan 39 satellites to orbit.
