New minerals discovered in massive meteorite may reveal clues to asteroid formation

A team of researchers has discovered at least two new minerals that have never before been seen on Earth in a 15 ton meteorite found in Somalia—the ninth largest meteorite ever found.

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Non-detection of key signal allows astronomers to determine what the first galaxies were, and weren't, like

Researchers have been able to make some key determinations about the first galaxies to exist, in one of the first astrophysical studies of the period in the early universe when the first stars and galaxies formed, known as the cosmic dawn.

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China rocket taking 3 to space station to blast off Tuesday

A rocket carrying three astronauts to finish building China's space station will blast off Tuesday amid intensifying competition with the U.S., the government said Monday,

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James Webb Space Telescope uncovers chemical secrets of distant world—paving the way for studying Earth-like planets

Since the first planet orbiting a star other than the sun was discovered in 1995, we have realized that planets and planetary systems are more diverse than we ever imagined. Such distant worlds—exoplanets—give us the opportunity to study how planets behave in different situations. And learning about their atmospheres is a crucial piece of the puzzle.

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NASA's Orion capsule enters far-flung orbit around moon

NASA's Orion capsule entered an orbit stretching tens of thousands of miles around the moon Friday, as it neared the halfway mark of its test flight.

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Artemis: why it may be the last mission for NASA astronauts

Neil Armstrong took his historic "one small step" on the moon in 1969. And just three years later, the last Apollo astronauts left our celestial neighbour. Since then, hundreds of astronauts have been launched into space but mainly to the Earth-orbiting International Space Station. None has, in fact, ventured more than a few hundred kilometres from Earth.

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An ultra-short-period exoplanet discovered with TESS

Using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has detected a new ultra-short-period exoplanet. The newfound alien world, designated HD 20329 b, orbits its host star in slightly less than one day. The finding was presented November 4 on arXiv.org.

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Cutting-edge experiments ride SpaceX's 26th CRS mission to space station

SpaceX's 26th commercial resupply mission (CRS) is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in late November. The Dragon spacecraft carries scientific experiments and technology demonstrations that explore growing plants in space, creating nutrients on-demand, in-space construction, and more.

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Astronomers observe intra-group light—the elusive glow between distant galaxies

An international team of astronomers have turned a new technique onto a group of galaxies and the faint light between them—known as 'intra-group light'—to characterize the stars that dwell there.

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European Space Agency to vote on record budget, name new astronauts

The European Space Agency will vote on Wednesday on whether to spend billions more euros to keep up with rising competition in space, as well as unveiling its much-anticipated new crop of astronauts.

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France, Germany, Italy agree on next-generation space rockets

France, Germany and Italy, the three biggest contributors to the European Space Agency, said Tuesday they have agreed to guarantee the future of the next-generation Ariane 6 and Vega-C rocket launcher systems.

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Spy satellites, weather radars, and drones used to find new strewn field of meteorites

A field team led by Professor Andy Tomkins from the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment at Monash University has found the largest meteorite strewn field in Australia since the famous Murchison meteorite fall in 1969.

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New eclipsing binary discovered with TESS

Using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have detected a new low-mass, pre-main-sequence binary system. The newfound binary, designated 2M1222−57, contains two stars the size of the sun but less massive than it. The finding is reported in a paper published November 15 on the arXiv pre-print repository.

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Chinese coast guard seizes rocket debris from Filipino navy

The Chinese coast guard forcibly seized floating debris the Philippine navy was towing to its island in another confrontation in the disputed South China Sea, a Philippine military commander said Monday. The debris appeared to be from a Chinese rocket launch.

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NASA Moon mission 'exceeding' expectations

On the third day after lifting off from Florida bound for the Moon, the Orion spacecraft is "exceeding performance expectations," NASA officials said on Friday.

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Massive volcanism may have altered ancient Venus' climate, NASA study finds

Volcanic activity lasting hundreds to thousands of centuries and erupting massive amounts of material may have helped transform Venus from a temperate and wet world to the acidic hothouse it is today, a NASA paper suggests.

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Simulations suggest GW190521 merger was the result of non-spinning black holes randomly finding each other

A team of researchers from Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Università di Torino and INFN sezione di Torino, has found evidence that the black hole collision that led to an odd gravitational wave detection in 2019 was due to a unique set of circumstances. In their paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the group describes modeling and simulating the conditions that could possibly lead to the unique gravitational wave signature.

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Ancient global ocean on Mars may have come from carbon-rich chondrite meteorites from the outer solar system

A team of researchers at the University of Copenhagen's Center for Star and Planet Formation, working with colleagues from Université de Paris, ETH Zürich and the University of Bern, has found evidence suggesting that most of the water that made up an ancient global ocean on Mars came from carbon-rich chondrite meteorites from the outer solar system. The study is published in Science Advances.

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Type II supernova SN 2020jfo investigated in detail

An international team of researchers have performed high-cadence photometric and spectroscopic observations of a Type II supernova known as SN 2020jfo. Results of the observational campaign, presented November 5 on arXiv.org, deliver important insights into the nature and properties of this supernova.

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Powerful impact provides insight into deep structure of Mars

NASA's InSight lander (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) launched in 2018 with the goal of peering deep into Mars's interior for the first time to gain important information about the planet's structure and formation. To help with this task, the lander is equipped with a sensitive seismometer that allows it to detect subtle marsquake vibrations.

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Safety in space: Synthetic hibernation could provide protection from cosmic radiation

It is still a glimpse into the future: Astronauts could be put into artificial hibernation and in this state be better protected from cosmic radiation. At present, there are already promising approaches to follow up such considerations.

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Phobos surface striations tell a story of its rupturing interior

Phobos, the 22-km diameter innermost moon of Mars, is a groovy body. Unlike its little brother Deimos, Phobos has developed a striking pattern of parallel linear features running across its surface. These grooves are a distinctive global feature of Phobos, not present on Deimos. How they formed has perplexed planetary geologists for over forty years, since they were first imaged in geologic detail by NASA's Viking missions.

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'Like the Moon': Astronauts flock to Spanish isle to train

Kneeling on the edge of a deep crater, astronaut Alexander Gerst uses a chisel to collect a sample of volcanic rock which he carefully puts inside a white plastic bag.

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Hurricane causes only minor damage to Artemis rocket

After initial visual inspections, NASA said on Thursday that its new mega moon rocket apparently suffered no major damage after Hurricane Nicole hit Florida.

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NASA's MAVEN observes Mars light show caused by major solar storm

For the first time in its eight years orbiting Mars, NASA's MAVEN mission witnessed two different types of ultraviolet aurorae simultaneously, the result of solar storms that began on Aug. 27.

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US weather satellite, test payload launched into space

A satellite intended to improve weather forecasting and an experimental inflatable heat shield to protect spacecraft entering atmospheres were launched into space from California on Thursday.

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Research investigates the effects of stellar rotation in star cluster NGC 1850

An international team of astronomers has conducted spectroscopic and photometric observations of the young massive cluster NGC 1850 with the aim of investigating the effects of stellar rotation across its stellar population. The findings, presented November 1 on arXiv.org, could help us advance our knowledge about young massive clusters.

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NASA Moon rocket launch delayed again, this time by storm

NASA again rescheduled its long-delayed uncrewed mission to the Moon on Tuesday as Tropical Storm Nicole churned toward the east coast of Florida, officials said.

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GHRSS survey finds four new pulsars

Astronomers report the detection of four new pulsars using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) as part of the GMRT High Resolution Southern Sky (GHRSS) survey. The finding was detailed in a research paper published October 29 on the arXiv pre-print repository.

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Hubble inspects two galaxies connected by a luminous bridge

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows two of the galaxies in the galactic triplet Arp 248—also known as Wild's Triplet—which lies around 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.

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Atmosphere of excitement as Europe's JWST astronomers study climate on other planets

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), launched on Christmas Day 2021, is already transforming our understanding of planets in our solar system and far beyond. A versatile satellite observatory, JWST has a clear-eyed view from its orbital position, 1.5 million km away from Earth in space. This gives it a major advantage over ground-based telescopes that must peer out to space through Earth's hazy atmosphere.

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Last total lunar eclipse for three years arrives Tuesday

Better catch the moon's disappearing act Tuesday—there won't be another like it for three years.

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First manned flight of Boeing Starliner delayed until April

The first manned flight of Boeing's Starliner space capsule has been postponed again, and is now scheduled for April, NASA announced Thursday.

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Two low-mass stars and one brown dwarf discovered around aged stars

Using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has detected three companions to aged stars—two low-mass stars and one brown dwarf. The newfound objects are the size of Jupiter but at least 70 times more massive than the solar system's biggest planet. The finding is reported in a paper published October 25 on the arXiv pre-print server.

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Researchers reveal a galaxy sparkling with the universe's oldest star clusters

A team of Canadian astronomers, including experts from the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics in the University of Toronto's Faculty of Arts & Science, have used the James Webb Telescope (JWST) to identify the most distant globular clusters ever discovered—dense groups of millions of stars that may be relics containing the first and oldest stars in the universe.

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New potentially hazardous asteroid discovered

An international team of astronomers on Monday announced the discovery of a large asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Earth, creating a small chance far in the future of a catastrophic collision.

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A close encounter with a mysterious moon

In 1877, American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered two small moons circling the planet Mars, later named Phobos and Deimos after the Greek for "fear" and "panic."

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